First, you'll need a repairman to come to your home or business and do the actual installation of the satellite dish and the modem (both of these are covered in our previous installments). Once the physical components are in place, the HN7000S modem must be attached to a Mac via an Ethernet cable, which will "talk" to the HughesNet satellite to get your connection up and going for the first time. This takes about 30 minutes. After this, you're good to go. Unless you want to set up a network. Which I did.

And that's where I ran into problems. After unplugging the modem from my desktop Mac, I connected it (again, via Ethernet) to my AirPort Extreme Base Station (though you can use other routers). I tried accessing the Internet and my desktop Mac connected just fine. However, while I could download email, I couldn't send email. Nor could I get any other Macs on the AirPort network online except my desktop system.

Finally, after much hair pulling, weeping, gnashing of teeth and unfruitful calls to the (very friendly) HughesNet support number, I finally discovered (with the help of my friend and fellow HughesNet user, Steve Foster) the solution to my problems. It's a simple one, but I would never have figured it out on my own.

Here's the solution -- and what you must do if you're setting up a network that uses satellite Internet (see the graphic below):

1) Open up the AirPort Administration Utility.

2) Click on the Network option.

3) Disable the "Distribution IP addresses" option.

That's it. Once I did that, things have worked perfectly (you will also need to set smtp.hughes.net as your outgoing mail server). The Internet access has worked fine through rain, though we haven't had any bad storms since I've had this set-up. I'll keep you updated on the situation as things, such as the weather, change.

My recommendation? If you have other Internet options, be sure to check 'em out. But if, like me, DSL and cable are out of the question and if you can bear the upfront expenses and rather steep monthly charge, I'd certainly recommend HughesNet. The satellite Internet connection has been MUCH faster than I had expected -- and it's made my daily work (and play) much more enjoyable.

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