Hugesnet (formerly Direcway) implemented a 'Fair Access policy' (FAP) which does not allow for the daily download bandwidth paid for by the service plains. This is because there is a 24hour penalty after the threshold for a day is reached.

If at 11:59pm I go 1 byte over the 200MB in my contract they will limit speed to below dialup speed for 24 hours after (not the 1 minute for the rest of the day or until the usage is back on track). This makes the 2 day average of broadband access 201MB or 100.5MB/day, not the 200MB/day that I pay for.

This is NOT indicated on the page with the list of plains and allowed daily usage. You need to click to another page to read about the 24hour restricted usage.

Hughes net advertises:
"With HughesNet®, your super-fast, always-on, satellite Internet access is ready when you are—no dialing in, no waiting and no tied-up phone lines. You can download files in seconds, check email instantly and surf faster than you ever imagined." What they don't say is that you only have a fraction of an hour at their advertized download speeds a day. The 'always-on' is 'always-on' unless you want to use more than an hour a day of boradband such as video.

The FAP page then goes on to say you CANNOT do the following broadband applications without being unfair!?!

I just tried to read the fair access policy on the page with the descriptions of the residential plains an found I need to log in! That is, there is no way for a person who is not a subscriber to know about the 24 hour restriction AFTER they daily limit is reached even if it is at the end of the day. Below is a list from this document of what is NOT considered to be fair use:

from:
http://www.nationwidesatellite.com/HughesNet/service/HughesNet_fair_access_policy.asp

1. Full-length movie downloads
2. Peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing programs such as Napster, Kazaa or LimeWire
3. Continuous downloading or viewing streaming media content such as audio or video programming
4. Hosting of server devices such as email, FTP or Web servers
5. Hosting computer applications such as Web camera feeds
6. Automated computer to computer connections used for archiving of local computer content
7. Extensive downloading of Usenet Newsgroups (NNTP)
8. Use of BitTorrent applications
9. Simultaneous file downloads
10. Downloading large files (i.e., file sizes that are close in size to the download threshold of your service plan)

Note that all of the services above are considered boradband. I don't believe Hughes net can advertise always on broadband, have a system that will work at advertised speed for under an hour and then indicate that the above broadband activities are not allowed. After all that, they violate the terms of their advertised plains by limiting service the day AFTER a violation occurs to not be boradband either.