Forum Discussion
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 initia...
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
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.
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.
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.
"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."
They seem to have changed the available information. I can no longer see usage by connected device. My previous instructions don't work anymore.
EDIT: To see the average daily download, go here: https://my.hughesnet.com/en/usage/history
Ok. I can expect to use anywhere from ~8GB - ~9.5GB of data for six hours of streaming at 3Mbps to 3.5Mbps. That contradicts the stats in the "How Much Data Do I Need" charts posted on the app as well as the website. According to the chart under "What Can I Do With 10GB?", it lists 15 hours of DVD quality streaming. Using that figure, 200GB would get me 300 hours of streaming and at 6 hours a day would be 50 days. Of course, I understand that there are other factors such as additional devices but given the 30 day data cycle, I figured the pad would be sufficient. It was. My service started in September. My data usage was more than adequate. I did have to use a token backup for the last days of the cycle over the holidays but that was understandable given a house full of additional family and their devices. Even then, It was just the last 2-3 days. I'm looking at weeks of token use this cycle after switching satellites. Again, I realize this is a new system but the disparity makes the data plans no longer applicable. What do the families that work from home or have kids that game do? I'm a 56 year old that just wants to watch TV.
One thing to remember is DVD quality is standard definition (480p). Standard definition streaming uses, on average, between 600MB - 800MB, which for 10GB means between 12.5 and 16.6 hours, so the "15 hours of DVD quality streaming" is fairy accurate, give or take. HOWEVER, depending on the streaming service, the data usage could be more, especially as time goes on.
N/c
Is that No Comment? Understandable after your revelation that you yourself are no longer a HughesNet customer. One wonders why then are you a "Distinguished Professor IV" on their forum? I'm just trying to get some straight answers. Contradictions abound.
Jumping into the fray...
There are a couple of factors that haven't been raised:
1. The chart you're describing is using average numbers to give most people an idea. I, for one, agree that the numbers stated appear to make it look as if streaming has less of an impact than it does.
2. Video Optimization doesn't appear to work perfectly on all services, so you'll see some variance due to that.
3. All streaming services do things differently. Some have a way to set the speed to a lower SD level (which also varies), and some test the connection to see what 'their' optimum resolution would be best. Netflix and Disney+ fall into the first category, but know that Disney+ can use a lot more data per hour than Netflix - up to twice as much. Max and Paramount+ use the latter category and they will always use much more data. As an aside, you can see the test happen in real time - that's the little buffer pause after it starts in HD. followed by a few second rewind that continues in SD.
4. One other factor that causes an increase in data usage: handshaking. Data usage includes upload as well as download. So if the handshaking back to the streaming server happens more often you'll see an uptick in data usage.
Edit: Just to put some qualitative data on this: About 3 hours of streaming (1 hr ep each of Halo and Star Trek Discovery on Paramount+, 1 hr ep of The Witcher on Netflix) plus other things like 2 adults checking social media (incl. small vids), email, etc. will use upwards of 4GB a day. Some apps like Amazon (just the shopping, not Amazon Prime) seem to use a lot of data now, just because of the embedded hi-res images and video ads. It all adds up.
