The main two providers in North America are Viasat and HughesNet.

Keep in mind that some customers will undoubtedly leave negative reviews due to inconsistent service, outages during certain conditions (e. g. , weather), or the high price point when compared to cable Internet. All three of these problems are inherent Satellite Internet issues, so take such reviews with a grain of salt.

You can usually do this online, though you can usually also call the service provider instead.

Your Satellite Internet subscription should include a dish.

If you have to install the dish in variable locations (e. g. , a boat or an RV), you may have to take care of the installation yourself.

Have your satellite dish installed in an open area away from trees and similar obstructions. For example, if you live in North America, place the dish on the southern-most tip of your roof or south of any tall trees, so it can point toward the equator.

Make sure the connections are tight, and don’t install your dish in a loose or unstable section of roof. If you have a balcony or similarly proportioned part of your house that has a clear view of the sky over the equator, you can use it to mount your dish instead.

When attaching the coaxial cables to the dish, you should see an “IN” port and an “OUT” port on the dish. Consider marking the other ends of your coaxial cables to correspond with these ports—you’ll need to know which is which when connecting them to your modem.

Depending on your home, you may need to drill a hole through which you can thread the coaxial cables before you can use the cables in your home.

Installed satellite dish Satellite Internet-capable modem Ethernet cable Power source

Most dish coaxial cables are under 125 feet in length, so you might have to position your modem accordingly.

One cable — Plug the cable into the modem’s coaxial port. Two cables — Plug the “IN” cable into the “SAT IN” coaxial port, then plug the “OUT” cable into the “SAT OUT” port.

If you’re using a Mac which doesn’t have an Ethernet slot, you can buy an Ethernet to Thunderbolt adapter for this step.

Using a wireless router isn’t recommended unless absolutely necessary; since Satellite Internet is already patchy under normal circumstances, using a wireless router may further dilute your signal.