While I’ve publicly speculated before, I now have official confirmation from Hughes that HughesNet customers cannot use OpenDNS — or any other alternate DNS service — at this time.

In HughesNet’s terms:

Every remote [computer] uses the HughesNet turbo page servers, which only use HughesNet DNS.

The “turbo page servers” are the proxy which HughesNet uses to limit the latency imposed by satellite connnections.

There is one workaround, but it doesn’t sound like an improvement, and no one (not Hughes, not me) recommends it. Still…for curious technical folks, you may choose to not use the HughesNet turbo page servers. If you do that, then you may use an alternate DNS provider, including OpenDNS. However, given the latency of satellite broadband, I can’t imagine that faster DNS will counteract slower download speeds, as much as I might hope it would.

I don’t have official answers/confirmation from other satellite ISPs, but I expect the story is similar.

We have a few confirmed reports of ISPs which do not allow their customers to use external DNS services, such as OpenDNS. These reports are from customers, not the companies. You can change your settings all you like on your end (computer, router, etc.), but they will be ignored/overridden.

We are trying to confirm these reports with the companies so our information is accurate and up-to-date. Inquiries via their websites and support lines have gotten no response, so I am making a more public request, both to the companies themselves and to their customers. I’d rather tell potential OpenDNS customers to avoid frustration than try and help them to no avail after they’ve wasted time trying to choose their own DNS.

NTL customers have been the most persistent in their attempts, to no avail. If you work for NTL (very large ISP in the UK), please get in touch.

If you work for a satellite broadband ISP, such as HughesNet (previously known as DirecWay), StarBand, or SkyWay USA, I’d love to hear from you. Satellite providers: if I didn’t mention your name, I’m still curious and interested…just haven’t heard from your customers yet. I know there are some peculiarities regarding latency for satellite access which probably are the reasons for the policy. Would love to brainstorm about technical solutions all the same.

If you are a customer of any of these companies, and you have better information, I’m listening.

My goal? Provide accurate information and instructions to potential OpenDNS customers on the Get Started page. As our FAQ notes, OpenDNS does not host websites, register domains, or act as an ISP.

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