Forum Discussion
Gen5 Upgrade..
I have decided to upgrade to Gen5. I have some questions that I want to be addressed before the install. I currently have an HN9000 model which uses 2 cables from the dish to modem. I had my in...
wildcats198308 wrote:My upgrade was done today, I am faily happy with the Gen5 system and speeds. It is better than the HN9000 Spaceway system I had. I was unable to load alot of flash embedded pages correctly. With Gen5 these pages load with out a problem.
There is a slight delay in loading pages at times though, is anyone else having this issue? I see someone did post about sluggish pages but I dont know if everyone is having the problem.
Question on the dish install... All my previous systems had a ground wire attached to the feed horn on the arm of the dish. The installer did not attach the ground wire this time. Does anyone else have a ground wire attached to theirs? (The installer chopped the one cable and ground wire off back behind the dish)
I have been seeing signal strength of 100 for my system, My HN9000 had signal strength in the mid 100's with max around 160. I hope 100 will hold up good in heavy rain and snow with Gen5.
I'm glad that your install went well and that you are able to do things now that you were not able to do with your HN9000S system.
The delay seems to be happening to at least some people, though apparently not in the same way, or even perhaps for the same reasons. For me, it is a delay before a page opens, like when you open the browser for the first time or when going to another web address. I use Chrome, though I don't know that the browser matters when it comes to this. What I've found is that, when this is happening, on the lower left there is a "resolving host" message, and this is what is causing the delay. Again, this is with Chrome, so I don't know where, if anywhere, it would give that message with another browser. I've tried various things to solve this. Some have worked temporarily, some have not. It doesn't always happen, but when it does it can certainly be a bit annoying. Once the page is found and it starts to load, though, it's very fast for me.
As for the ground wire, I'd have to look. It's pouring outside right now, so I can't at this time, but I don't believe mine has a ground wire going up the feed arm either, though I think there is a ground wire connected to the mount itself, behind the dish. I know for sure the system is grounded, I just can't remember exactly where. I do remember the ground wire going up the feed arm on my legacy dish. It's probably just that they are very different pieces of equipment and are grounded in different ways.
My signal strength reaches up to about 104, but usually hovers in the mid-high 90s. It's been very good with rain. I've only had it lose its signal twice. Once with wet snow on the dish, and the other time during a heavy snowfall and VERY thick cloud cover. My DirecTV lost its signal both times, and one additional time during heavy rain when the Gen5 didn't.
I've found Gen5, overall, to be fantastic. I didn't think I would like, nor use, the built in WiFi, but I changed my mind on that quickly. It has better range than my Netgear router, and it's easier to use, as it's right there, meaning I don't have an additonal piece of equipment cluttering things up.
That is how mine is as well. When first opening Browser and going to a site it is takes a little while for it to load, or loading a new site on an additional tab.
Thats good to know that the lower signal is better with the Gen5 system.
With just having Gen5 for about 6 hours and the little that I have been doing and testing everything I find it to be fantastic as well. :smileyhappy: I am not a fan of the WiFi though. I dont know how the distance is with it, but I do not think I will be using it unless they add some much needed features. I have Gargoyle-Router firmware installed on a Western Digital MyNet N750 dual ban router. There is a Quota usage feature in Gargoyle, so I can set all my devices to a certain Download limit and then Throttle or Shut Down all Internet Access for the device once the limit is reached. I have found it to work great with the 375 daily limit I had with my Spaceway System. With 2 children under 16 in the house the Quota Limits are much needed! I have my WD Router hanging on wall so its pretty much out of the way. I was just thinking about putting a small shelf on the wall to sit the HT2000 on it to get it up off the desk and out of the way. Plus I dont like all the holes that are on the top. The holes are pretty BIG!
Bringing up the Modem, what I researched I was thinking it would be MUCH larger than it is. I was thinking it would be a few inches taller and wider. But it is a decent size, but weird with all the big openings and how its shaped.
wildcats198308 wrote:With 2 children under 16 in the house the Quota Limits are much needed!
No doubt! :)
The Wi-Fi is pretty basic, no doubt. No frills. I think, though, for a lot of people basic is good. Many don't know much about computers (after fifteen years my folks still wouldn't know how to get to a web site if you gave them the URL), and more options means more confusion for them. I only use one computer at a time, and it's only me, so the built in Wi-Fi is great.
But, of course, one can still use their own router, so that's good, too. My Netgear router works perfectly with the modem, but it doesn't really do anything more than the built in Wi-Fi, and having one less component sitting there is nice for me.
How are your speeds?
Yeah, Basic is best for most people. If it wasnt for my niece and nephew I would possibly give the built in WiFi a try. But then again I have multiple devices and tablets and the Kindle Fire tablets I have like to do random system updates with out warning and you cant turn off auto update for the system updates.
Some of the speed tests that I ran were quite slow. I was tested and ran tests on different connections. Started with my WD Router and it was extremely slow. Did tests with the built in WiFi and direct. I have to say I did get a bit speed test happy LOL.... Some of the tests I ran on testmy.net kept going up to higher data usage. I didnt really do much except speed tests and test a few websites and played a game for about 20 mins and my usage meter showed I used 500 MB in about 2 hours... I was glad to see my usage was reset.
With Gen5, it's best to use the 25MB file for downloads and the 4MB file for uploads. The 25MB file has forwarding disabled, so it won't resize to anything larger.
I see a couple of nice speeds, including one that was in the high 50s. Very nice.
Maybe someone will have some ideas for you on how to get the speeds up when using Wi-Fi. Maybe you could try the different bands (2.4Mhz and 5Mhz) to see if one gives a better result than the other.
Being that you came from a legacy plan you are probably gettiing the daily data resets. Lucky bugger! But, just to be safe, I wouldn't go hog wild today. Wait until tomorrow, when you know for sure it's resetting, then go hog wild. :)
GabeU Your Gen5 was on the 20 day reset correct? After the 20 days did your month restart or did you have the remainder of the month to use your plan data? My account shows Allowance Resets in 29 days.
On the HN9000 system there was a Troubleshooting option in the System Control Center. I dont see a Troubleshooting for Gen5. Is there anyway to test if there is a problem and then reset the connection. I also do not see anywhere to Restart the modem. Is the only way to restart by unplugging the power?
No. I didn't have the resets. Those coming from Gen4 (not sure about the faux Gen4) don't get the daily resets when upgrading to Gen5.
If I remember correctly, when I upgraded from my legacy plan to Gen4 and got the 20 days of daily resets, my account showed the proper allowance reset date, but I was still getting the daily resets. Once I was through with the initial 20 days of daily resets the data I had was for the remainder of the cycle (ten days), and then reset like a normal month after those ten days.
If yours is resetting more often than daily, it may continue to do so, but it will most likely only be for the first twenty days. That's pretty cool. Heck, that truly is like being unlimited for those 20 days. Even luckier bugger!!!! :)
Edit: The 12MB file size is for download speed testing with Gen4, but being that Gen5's speed can be twice what Gen4's are, the recommended download file size is 25MB.
Edit: Being that the speed was very good when directly connected, hopefully you can fiddle around and figure out how to get the wireless speeds near that, too. Perhaps someone on here may have some additional things to try.
