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  • Axxe55

    Retiretgtshit stirrer
    Rating - 0%
    0   0   0
    Dec 15, 2019
    47,022
    96
    Lost in East Texas Elhart Texas
    Day 1 update on the HomeFi internet device:

    So far, so good. I have been running the TV while posting and reading on the forum, and doing internet searches and such, and so far, there is little to no buffering on the TV. Which is a huge difference from the HughesNet satellite internet. Even at the first of the month, during the day it would still buffer quite a bit. I binge watched quite a lot of documentaries on YouTube late last night and early morning, with no buffering at all. So far I'm impressed with the HomeFi device.

    The unit is small, and can be taken just about anywhere.It has about a six hour battery life before needing to be recharged. It seems to be fully recharged in about an hour. One thing about the USB cable, is it uses the Type "C" USB end into the device and the charging cord is very short. I plan on getting a longer cord for mine, because the Type "C" is also the type of USB end my new phone uses for charging.
    Target Sports
     

    Axxe55

    Retiretgtshit stirrer
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    0   0   0
    Dec 15, 2019
    47,022
    96
    Lost in East Texas Elhart Texas
    I said I'd give as best as possible a review of the HomeFi device as possible, good or bad.

    One minor detail that is bothersome somewhat. We ordered the lowest gb package, 200 gb for $80 a month. If I want to find out what the balance of my gb's are, I have to send them an email which they will provide the balance of what is remaining. But, they say they are working on a way for the users to have a direct link to their gb balance. So in a few days, I'm going to email them and get a balance to see just how much of the 200 gb we have have remaining and will update that information as well.
     

    Axxe55

    Retiretgtshit stirrer
    Rating - 0%
    0   0   0
    Dec 15, 2019
    47,022
    96
    Lost in East Texas Elhart Texas
    Let us know for sure. I’m following closely to see if this is something we could switch to.
    How many bars of coverage do you normally have? Notice any slow downs early morning early evening? Etc etc.
    It doesn't have bars for coverage like a cell phone. It simply has one light that signifies that it's getting a signal. This better explains what the LED's are and do.


    So far, I'm not seeing any difference in how it streams regardless of the time of day. I will pay a little closer to that for you to see if there is though. What I have noticed is that whatever device you are on, (eg: laptop, Roku, ect. ) has it's own measure of signal quality. The closer it it to the device, the stronger the signal. But the device is not relegated to one static location. You move it anywhere you need or want a signal. The closer and stronger the signal, the better your device will work.
     

    Darqhelmet

    You had one job, one.
    Rating - 100%
    8   0   0
    Jul 5, 2018
    1,386
    96
    Kaufman County
    Please continue w the updates! I’ve almost given up on starlink and this sounds like a good alternative. I’d probably go with the 450gb for $100
    Double and triple check for interference or blocked Line of Sight. I was on the waiting list for starlink from the first week they opened it up. But after an app update I went to verify that it would have good LOS to their satellite network and found it just how crap their coverage is going to be. It was so low on the northern horizon for me I would have to cut most of my oaks down or build an 60ish foot tall tower for the dish. Starlink is crap as far as actually having the sats up high in the air.
     

    Axxe55

    Retiretgtshit stirrer
    Rating - 0%
    0   0   0
    Dec 15, 2019
    47,022
    96
    Lost in East Texas Elhart Texas
    Double and triple check for interference or blocked Line of Sight. I was on the waiting list for starlink from the first week they opened it up. But after an app update I went to verify that it would have good LOS to their satellite network and found it just how crap their coverage is going to be. It was so low on the northern horizon for me I would have to cut most of my oaks down or build an 60ish foot tall tower for the dish. Starlink is crap as far as actually having the sats up high in the air.
    From my understanding, the StarLink satellites were going to be low-orbit satellites. I can see where that could be a problem for some people in heavily wooded areas. It could be a problem for me as well.
     

    Axxe55

    Retiretgtshit stirrer
    Rating - 0%
    0   0   0
    Dec 15, 2019
    47,022
    96
    Lost in East Texas Elhart Texas
    Another very minor issue, but not something of real concern.

    The closer the HomeFi device is to my laptop, and the stronger the signal to the laptop, I'm getting a little feedback static in my amplified external speakers. I get the same feedback from my cell phone when it's on the same room as the laptop.

    Again, not a big concern, but just wanted to mention it.
     

    Axxe55

    Retiretgtshit stirrer
    Rating - 0%
    0   0   0
    Dec 15, 2019
    47,022
    96
    Lost in East Texas Elhart Texas
    Have you run speed test on it?
    No I haven't. But just from my initial use, it is way faster than the HughesNet. Even when we had the full 20 gb at the beginning of the month, if I was on the computer and the wife was watching TV, it was very slow loading pages on this forum. Not having that issue now.

    Somewhere I have a speed test saved. I'll see if I can find it and run one to see how much faster it is.
     

    VNK971

    Member
    Rating - 100%
    2   0   0
    Apr 26, 2021
    111
    26
    Mico, TX
    I just ran both speedtest and speedof.me on a fiber to Ethernet connection. Speedtest gave 209 down and 315 up, and speedof.me gave 59 down and 54 up. The speedof.me reading is typical of what I see with wifi not hardwired.
     

    Darqhelmet

    You had one job, one.
    Rating - 100%
    8   0   0
    Jul 5, 2018
    1,386
    96
    Kaufman County
    I just ran both speedtest and speedof.me on a fiber to Ethernet connection. Speedtest gave 209 down and 315 up, and speedof.me gave 59 down and 54 up. The speedof.me reading is typical of what I see with wifi not hardwired.
    Speed of me is a much more realistic reading of your internet connection.
     

    Shady

    The One And Only
    Rating - 0%
    0   0   0
    Aug 24, 2013
    4,656
    96
    it depends what you are doing but a ping of 98 would cause big delays in viewing web pages and would not let you play first person shooters for sure and I doubt it would let you play any multi player online games.
     

    Axxe55

    Retiretgtshit stirrer
    Rating - 0%
    0   0   0
    Dec 15, 2019
    47,022
    96
    Lost in East Texas Elhart Texas
    Well, I promised a longer use review of the HomeFi device once we had had it for a couple of weeks to give an idea of our thoughts, pro's and con's and whether it was suited for our needs or not and whether we were going to keep it, or send it back for a refund.

    Well, going to dive right in. We received the device on the 14th of Dec. 2021 as was expected. First off, the device that arrived, was very small. 3.5" x 3.5" x .5" and came with the USB power cord. Only one very short page of instructions, and if you had any problems, where to email them for support.

    It was actually pretty easy to set up and start using right out of the box. First day and half, the device seemed to work as said, and seemed much faster. Into the second day of use, I noticed that the device would pretty much shut down, and the case seemed hot. Sent an email to support. They advised me the unit would feel warm when being used, and this was normal. (I knew that! But the device was hot, not warm.) I was advised that it needed to be charged, and that the internal battery was low. (Duh! It was plugged in.)

    The third and fourth days, it was still acting the same. Device was getting hot and shutting down. Now what I noticed was this seemed to happen when more than one device was using the HomeFi device at one time. As long as only one thing was using it at a time, it seemed to work as it was suppose to. Now the HomeFi device is advertised as being able to support up to 5 devices being used at a time. I explained this to Support. I then get a canned reply, that they are "putting forth my request for review as to the nature of the problem" I then sent another email to Support stating I thought the device was defective, or not able to operate as advertised, and that I either wanted a functioning device, or to send me a mailing label so it could be returned for a refund. Nothing. Crickets. I sent another email to Support, stating pretty much the same a few days later. Nothing. Crickets. A few days later, again, another email stating at this time I just wanted a mailing label so we could send it back for a refund. (Now part of my decision to try the device, was the 14 day full refund policy.) Again, nothing, and more crickets. I attempted a couple more times after that, and still the same, nothing.

    But lets jump ahead to Jan. 3rd, 2022. I get a bill for payment for payment for next month's service!

    In all honesty, I can't in good faith suggest, or recommend the HomeFi device for internet. Advertising of the device as being able to support up to five, (5) devices was either misleading or deceptive. The device getting hot and shutting down was not normal as I was told by Support. I do know the difference between normal operation and getting warm, and something getting hot. When I expressed wanting to get a refund, first reply was a canned reply, and not follow-up. And again, and again, and again! So I pretty much feel we got scammed out of our $80! Also one thing that concerned me and I also asked about was after about six or seven days of using the device, what was the balance of the Gb it had used so I could make a comparison between our usage of the HughesNet satellite internet, and against the HomeFi device. Nothing. (If you want to know how much Gb you have used, you send them an email. That was covered in the website when I was researching the HomeFi device.) I wasn't really happy about that, but since we were purchasing 20 Gb a month for about $87. We purchased the HomeFi with supposedly 200 GB per month for $80. That seemed like a good deal. But still since starting to use the device on the 14th of Dec. 2021, I still have no idea of what our balance of Gb is right now. Getting a bill was pretty much the final straw.

    IMO, HomeFi is a scam operation and nope, I cannot recommend them on good conscience to anyone. Customer support is a joke, and/or non-existent if you have a problem. The "return it within 14 days full refund" another scam. When I mentioned wanting avail myself of using the return for a refund, that's when the crickets started chirping.

    I'll just chalk it up to an $80 learning experience! We decided to just stick with the HugheNet satellite internet and I'm going to do some more research into ViaSat internet, and possibly other options as well.

    I hope this answers any questions, but if not, fire away.
     

    Psssniper

    Broke down south of Dallas
    Rating - 0%
    0   0   0
    Aug 12, 2020
    71
    26
    Corsicana
    Axxe55 I can agree with your review 100% !!!

    I jumped the gun before your review was posted and ordered one of the homefi devices and we opted for the 450gb data @ $100 per mo. First problem arose when I was immediately charged but never received a receipt of any kind, nor any tracking info. I waited a couple days and then contacted their customer service via the only method available, email. Also of note there was no record of my purchase anywhere on their website!

    CS replied quickly and said yes you have an order number and golly we’re sorry it hasn’t shipped yet but we’ll let you know ASAP when it does. I finally did get an email with tracking but it seriously looked like a fishing type email so I never clicked on it. Package finally arrives.

    So I hooked it all up and ran some speed tests and the dismal results were averaging approx 10mb down and 4mb up. It stayed on and worked though so we had that going on for us but had to live with buffering and slow response. It showed that it was using ATT network.

    Sent CS an email detailing my results with screenshots of speed tests of their device and also included one of my cell phone doing 135mb down. CS replied and thanked me for the photos and said we’ve pushed some updates to your device switching it to Verizon network seeing as your phone is doing well with that. Okay seemed like a reasonable response so back to the tests!

    I ran a couple tests and they were averaging approx 50mb down and 10 mb up so that was an improvement. Worked for an hour or so then started buffering, dropping connection, freezing. No bueno! Reset it a bunch of times with the same result. Sent CS an email detailing what’s happening and have not received any reply as of yet.

    Communication with their CS was confusing and vague, whether this is intentional or just the product of our current education systems I could only guess. I think this device isn’t going to work for me so I will be cancelling the service within their 14 day period. I wonder how that’s going to go as I have no receipt or any proof of purchase except $110 showing on my CC.
     
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