Forum Discussion

JSMomof2's avatar
JSMomof2
Freshman
11 months ago

Data Usage With Jupiter 3

Hi. I was so excited to get realigned to the Jupiter 3. Not only do I have faster speeds but the Elite plan is substantially cheaper than the 200GB plan on the old satellite. Yes, there was an initial installation fee for the realignment but with the decrease in cost, the fee will be offset in 3 months. I have not had any interruption in service since the switch January 8th. My issue is data usage. I am burning through my 200GB at an unsustainable rate, although nothing has changed as far as devices and daily use. I have reached out to support and they have been stellar in their response. I have a technician scheduled to realign things for the third time next week as support keeps saying its an alignment issue. Like all new technology, I realize the kinks need to be ironed out. 

 

My question now after researching this forum, is anyone else experiencing this issue with data usage with the Jupiter 3? I have received conflicting information concerning faster speeds requiring more data and just want to make sure I am taking advantage of all resources to resolve this problem and possibly help anyone else experiencing the same issues. 

Data Management
  • JSMomof2's avatar
    JSMomof2
    10 months ago

    An update to my Jupiter 3 experience.

     

    My last post was 2 weeks ago. I was frustrated and had resigned myself to either spending money on tokens or not streaming TV for the 2 weeks after I used my priority data. I ran out (250GB - I had purchased tokens) 2 days later with 11 days to go until the data rollover. To my surprise, nothing changed. Standard data speed was more than adequate for my home and daily use. In fact, I returned to my habit of having the TV on all day and turned the data optimizer off. No more blurry TV! It was nothing less than liberating. I routinely checked speeds with Ookla and am consistently within 10 Mbps - 20 Mbps range, speeds slowing in the evenings. All internet providers boast speeds and I was convinced that I needed hundreds of Mbps to do anything. This is simply not true. I changed my service plan to the 100 GB to recoup some money. I realize that the standard data speeds may decrease in the future with the inevitable increase of accounts signing on to the Jupiter 3, but I am hoping that will take some time and that the big guy up there can keep up the pace. 

     

    Also, here's an interesting nugget. When I switched service plans yesterday, the100 GB priority data was immediately applied. I just checked my speed...15.4 Mbps at 8:20am LOL. We burned through 37 GB watching the game yesterday in HD but I can comfortably say I don't care, it was worth it. Even if my strategy falls apart this cycle, which given HughesNet's inconsistent service is a very plausible possibility, I am no longer going to stress out over speed and data. All of the back and forth, both here and exhaustive calls with tech support, has done nothing but cause more stress and frustration. At no time (official HughesNet tech support has yet to respond here) did anyone suggest that standard data speeds might be adequate for my purposes but then why would they? Its the same reason why there is no plan less than 100 GB (unlike the old satellite that offered 25 GB) or just a standard data plan. I'm sure the hardware up there is a bit pricey. 

     

    I'm sure the "Professors" are firing up their keyboards and will "educate" me further but meh...I'm good. 

     

    N/C

     

     

  • GabeU's avatar
    GabeU
    Distinguished Professor IV
    11 months ago

    Faster speeds don't require more data, but faster speeds means your devices can use more data, depending on what they're doing. As maratsade intimated, this is especially the case with streaming. If the streaming was limited to a lower resolution because of speed, it may not be now, which means more data use. Even simple things like ads on webpages can cause more data usage when you have higher speeds.

     

    If there is an alignment issue, causing degraded service, this can cause higher data usage because of dropped data packets, needing to resend those packets multiple times for them to get through completely. Keep your fingers crossed that this is the reason for the majority of it. However, if you do stream, I'd check the resolution settings, perhaps locking them down to something that uses less data.

     

    One last thing is satellite TV receivers, especially from DirecTV. If you have one and it's connected to HughesNet, this could also be a source of higher data usage. These receivers can use your data to download things to the receiver that would normally be done via their satellite. IOW, they'd rather use your bandwidth than their own to update the receiver. System updates, guide updates, etc. 

    • JSMomof2's avatar
      JSMomof2
      Freshman
      11 months ago

      Thanks for the reply but I am confused.

       

      "Faster speeds don't require more data but faster speeds means your devices can use more data, depending on what they're doing......Even simple things like ads on webpages can cause more data usage when you have higher speeds."

       

      So then, yes. Faster speeds use more data. It may not be additionally required data but if my devices are using more to stream, its measurable data, none the less. And I have a 60" 4K HD TV that I have to watch blurry movies on to restrict my data that is now being used faster because the Mbps is faster? I am utilizing the data optimizer. I don't have any receivers. My device count and streaming habits have not changed. The only mitigating factor is the new dish alignment. A technician came out today and re-aligned the dish and also replaced the modem. We have ruled out any hardware issues. I am willing to work with HughesNet to work out these bugs but there has to be a compromise concerning the data usage in the interim. It is not cost effective for me to throw money at tokens to get through a month. I have 43GB left of 200GB. I have 17 days remaining. That's an average of 12GB/day. We watch approximately 6 hours of TV daily and answer emails. I may spend an hour on my laptop. I don't have any social media accounts. Something is amiss. 

       

       

      • GabeU's avatar
        GabeU
        Distinguished Professor IV
        11 months ago

        Six hours of TV per day is a lot of data. With your prior service it's entirely possible that streaming used less because of a variety of factors, including overall speed, congestion, and latency. The new service has higher speed, and likely a lot less congestion due to being new and there not being a lot of subscribers on it yet. Even with the Video Data Saver on, the new service could still be using more data to stream the same things you did before, as before the speed for streaming may have been a good bit below what the VDS allows due to those aforementioned factors, whereas now it may be hitting its limit, which is normally between 3Mbps and 3.5Mbps. Six hours at 3Mbps to 3.5Mbps is anywhere from ~8GB - ~9.5GB of data usage. And, of course, that's just the streaming. Anything else done will use more data as well, and again, higher speed can mean higher data usage with webpages. If your laptop is a Windows laptop and you don't already have one installed, I'd recommend installing an ad blocker like Adblock Plus. If you do use that one, make sure to go into the options to uncheck "show acceptable ads". Ads can chew through data, and blocking them can save data that adds up... no pun intended. Also, again if your laptop is Windows, you may want to try Glasswire. It'll show exactly how much data your laptop is using, and just what on the laptop is using it. There's a Premium version, but the free version is good enough. There's also a version for Android.  

         

        With streaming, your best bet is to set the resolution at the source to conserve data, if you can. I know some streaming services don't give that option, but many do. Low def will look terrible on a big TV like that, but standard def may look okay. Some may allow you to set it to 720p, which will use about 0.9GB to 1GB per hour, depending on the service.

         

        I'd check to make sure that any other devices you have connected aren't auto updating or connecting to the cloud.

         

        There's a way you can see data usage by device connection in the modem pages, I believe, or online, but I don't have HughesNet anymore, so I'm not quite sure how to see it. Hopefully one of the reps or other subscribers, including maratsade , can tell you how to see it.

  • JSMomof2's avatar
    JSMomof2
    Freshman
    10 months ago

    An update to my Jupiter 3 experience.

     

    My last post was 2 weeks ago. I was frustrated and had resigned myself to either spending money on tokens or not streaming TV for the 2 weeks after I used my priority data. I ran out (250GB - I had purchased tokens) 2 days later with 11 days to go until the data rollover. To my surprise, nothing changed. Standard data speed was more than adequate for my home and daily use. In fact, I returned to my habit of having the TV on all day and turned the data optimizer off. No more blurry TV! It was nothing less than liberating. I routinely checked speeds with Ookla and am consistently within 10 Mbps - 20 Mbps range, speeds slowing in the evenings. All internet providers boast speeds and I was convinced that I needed hundreds of Mbps to do anything. This is simply not true. I changed my service plan to the 100 GB to recoup some money. I realize that the standard data speeds may decrease in the future with the inevitable increase of accounts signing on to the Jupiter 3, but I am hoping that will take some time and that the big guy up there can keep up the pace. 

     

    Also, here's an interesting nugget. When I switched service plans yesterday, the100 GB priority data was immediately applied. I just checked my speed...15.4 Mbps at 8:20am LOL. We burned through 37 GB watching the game yesterday in HD but I can comfortably say I don't care, it was worth it. Even if my strategy falls apart this cycle, which given HughesNet's inconsistent service is a very plausible possibility, I am no longer going to stress out over speed and data. All of the back and forth, both here and exhaustive calls with tech support, has done nothing but cause more stress and frustration. At no time (official HughesNet tech support has yet to respond here) did anyone suggest that standard data speeds might be adequate for my purposes but then why would they? Its the same reason why there is no plan less than 100 GB (unlike the old satellite that offered 25 GB) or just a standard data plan. I'm sure the hardware up there is a bit pricey. 

     

    I'm sure the "Professors" are firing up their keyboards and will "educate" me further but meh...I'm good. 

     

    N/C

     

     

    • maratsade's avatar
      maratsade
      Distinguished Professor IV
      10 months ago

      That's excellent news, JSMomof2 !  

       

      "I am no longer going to stress out over speed and data."

       

      This is the way! Stressing won't fix things, anyway.  Enjoy your TV watching. 🙂

       

  • maratsade's avatar
    maratsade
    Distinguished Professor IV
    11 months ago

    I hope someone will answer your query today. 

     

    "faster speeds requiring more data"

     

    My understanding is that this is not so.  What can happen with faster speeds though is that you may be, for example, streaming at a higher resolution, and that and not the speed will use more data. There might be other issues, and I hope GabeU and/or MarkJFine will chime in to give you more information. 

     

    When you're using more data than you feel is normal, you need to do some detective work on your network; the reps can't tell you what's eating data, only what's connected to your network, how much data you've used, etc. You may want to monitor your data usage by installing the free Glasswire app (https://www.glasswire.com) on all your Windows and/or Android devices. That may show you who/what the data hog is.  

  • JSMomof2's avatar
    JSMomof2
    Freshman
    11 months ago

    Maratsade, I apologize for the mix up and I appreciate all of the technical explanations of how this all works but in all honesty, I just want to be able to access the internet without stressing out over data packets. Since Al Gore invented the internet, I have had multiple homes with multiple internet service providers and never had to worry about data. And another satellite internet provider does not cap data but I am on the wrong side of the mountain for Mr. Musk. This is sooooo frustrating. 

     

    I requested to have my dish realigned to the old satellite. That doesn't seem to be an option. Until 5G becomes available, I will accept my fate and buy tokens. Again, thank you for sharing your knowledge and educating an old lady.

    • maratsade's avatar
      maratsade
      Distinguished Professor IV
      11 months ago

      JSMomof2,

       

      I totally sympathise with your frustration. 

       

      I personally try to stay on the positive side, though, to avoid stress. I think about it in terms of what I have and not in terms of what I don't have.  I can't control the reality of terrestrial internet providers not wanting to bother with rural areas (except by contacting my representatives at the local, state, and federal level and asking them to bring fast internet to my area), and while I could move to a city and have all kinds of fast internet,  I moved to this area on purpose, to get away from the stress of the big city.   Having a "lesser" internet is part of the price I pay for being where I am, as is having a lot of power outages during bad weather, and sometimes cows blocking my driveway or the road (true story). 

       

      It helps, I think, that no one in my household is a streamer; that probably makes a big difference. I use PlayOn Cloud to download content I want to watch (this uses no data), and then watch that on a laptop connected via HDMI to a big TV. That works just fine for me.

       

      I do use the internet often for work-related tasks, but if need be I also have access to a friend's office in a nearby small town, with fast internet. I know many people don't, so I sympathise with those who don't have any other options.

       

      "Since Al Gore invented the internet"

       

      🤣🤣🤣

       

      I'm sorry to hear you can't go back to the old satellite.  I wonder why that is.

       

      I thought the musky guy's internet worked everywhere? Other non-terrestrial ISPs offer "unlimited" internet (often it does have caps, though, hence the quotation marks); have you checked to see if there are offerings in your area?

       

      Best of luck to you! If you have the time and the interest, I suggest you get active in your area and contact local, state, and federal authorities about bringing terrestrial internet to your area.

      • eco's avatar
        eco
        Junior
        11 months ago

        I was surprised that JSMomof2 stated the new Gen 6 install was just a re aim of the dish. The tech that came to install Gen 6 tried that after I said that Jay wrote the dish was a re aim , a new radio and modem . He was unsuccessful with a re aim, and radio , modem change. He called support, they said change the dish also, when he did he had a good signal. The Gen 6 dish is round, the Gen 5 is more oval. My Gen 6 speed is much improved, usually 12 mps and better. No where near the advertised speed, but it is consistent, no more wifi problems, or congestion which slowed Gen 5 to below 600 mps .

        The question is- with more subscribers to Gen 6 , will congestion problems arise again ?

        I'm hoping the new bird has much greater capacity.