Forum Discussion

Landon_Robinson's avatar
Landon_Robinson
Freshman
4 years ago

Extremely slow Internet.

Hi, I am having a problem with extremely slow Internet, your website says that emails will be replied to within 24 hours but I have not received a single reply to any email that I have sent the compa...
Performance
  • Landon_Robinson's avatar
    Landon_Robinson
    3 years ago

    Hi again,

    It has been six months and I have just learned to put up with this and upgraded my service to account for constantly having to reload pages that freeze and videos that get stuck, recently my phone line has had a hum on it and people say that they are having a hard time hearing me, the grounding rod that the telephone demarcation box is attached to is very old and in a very bad place so its always been my plan to replace it...

    I also have a new computer and a newer operating system but I'm still having the same problems.

    When my satellite dish was installed the installer hooked up the ground wire for the incoming signal cable to an old propane line that just disappears into the foundation, this house was built in 1940 and I have no idea how old that propane line is but due to corrosion issues and the fact that it could have a plastic coupler or some kind of rubber seal in it somewhere (which would not make it a good grounding point) I've always suspected it as being a possible problem to the Internet being slow here.

    So... to get to the point... to solve both problems I drove an eight foot long galvanized 5/8" thick grounding rod into the ground behind the satellite dish and ran a new ground wire for the signal cable and hooked it up to the new grounding rod, the service is working amazingly well now videos are streaming like they should and I only have to reload things every once in a while, I'm going to see how things go but I may downgrade my service back down if I end up not needing the bandwidth.

    It is hard to quantify how much money and time this has cost me all over an installation error, if I really wanted to pursue this it would probably end up costing HughesNet a lot of money, but that is more time and effort than I'm willing to put into a billing issue so I'm just going to let this go as a learning experience.

    My advice to everyone that is having slow Internet problems though is that if you can't get any kind of resolution within a month or two get a technician to come out and take a look at things if you don't know how to fix them yourself, don't put up with it as long as I did.

Landon_Robinson's avatar
Landon_Robinson
Freshman

OK, I have run numerous speed tests at the "25 Meg" size, my WiFi has been turned off this entire time (both bands), I am not going through any other routers or switches and am using a Cat-6 cable plugged directly into the modem, and I have tried other ports on the modem.

The link for that is here: https://testmy.net/quickstats/lrobinson0615

And at least on the surface things look fine but... when I used to tech support for what is now Century Link any pings that were higher than 300ms were considered bad and someone needed to take a look at things, with that being said... I can ping my modem which is 0.xxx ms, I can ping my gateway which is also 0.xxx ms, but as soon as I get past the gateway I am getting roughly 600-1200ms returns that are coming from within the HughesNet network.

"traceroute to www.hughesnet.com (34.197.164.140), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
1 _gateway (192.168.42.1) 0.221 ms 0.232 ms 0.256 ms
2 host-67-45-0-1.hnremote.net (67.45.0.1) 655.225 ms 655.202 ms 655.240 ms
3 host-67-45-5-5.hnremote.net (67.45.5.5) 655.217 ms 1284.667 ms 1284.642 ms
4 host-67-45-5-33.hnremote.net (67.45.5.33) 1284.688 ms host-67-45-5-4.hnremote.net (67.45.5.4) 1284.716 ms 1284.693 ms
5 4.16.168.17 (4.16.168.17) 1358.411 ms 1358.388 ms 1358.420 ms
6 ae-2-3615.edge1.Dallas2.Level3.net (4.69.209.110) 1402.262 ms 823.377 ms 823.346 ms
7 99.82.183.120 (99.82.183.120) 823.398 ms 643.962 ms 1040.475 ms
8 * * *
9 * * *
10 * * *
"
I have some online classes coming up soon that I need to take that will require a working video streaming capable Internet connection and I need this fixed as soon as possible, I do not have the option of going to a friends or neighbors house to do this.

GabeU's avatar
GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV
4 years ago

Landon_Robinson 

 

Latency of 600ms - 700ms is typical with geostationary satellite internet like HughesNet, both because of the round trip distance and infrastructure, though upwards of 1000ms or more on anything more than occasion is high.  

 

Hopefully they'll be able to determine why it's hitting as high as it is.

  • Landon_Robinson's avatar
    Landon_Robinson
    Freshman
    4 years ago

    I just received an email today from Hughesnet asking if the reply to my question had solved my problem?

    I'm going to say with a resounding NO IT DID NOT!!! Good lord, real the previous reply and tell me if you think if solved my problem.

    Speaking of, when is someone to look into this as I would really like it fixed?

    What I have figured out so far is that the "Gateway" is actually at the Hughesnet ground station and since I can ping both my modem and gateway from my PC with 0.xxx ms returns that my connection to the modem, through the satellite, and all the way to the gateway are fine, the slowness problems are being caused by something beyond the gateway.

    And if I had to guess I would say that Hughesnet has oversold their service and there are way too many customers going through inadequate bandwidth and it is bogging everything down, and I am not alone if you dig through all of the issues that were posted here for the last month or so you find the following...

    VERY slow email access
    Extremely slow internet
    Slow Speed HELP
    Extremely slow Internet.
    ...slow to no connection
    Erratic speeds and poor connectivity
    No Internet Connection
    ...Delay Problem Continues
    No Internet Connection
    Slow speeds with...
    I have low speeds
    Crippled internet...
    Unable to get a reliable connection
    Horribly slow speed with...
    Extremely slow download speeds...
    Internet and Phone Randomly Dropping Every...
    Buffering issues
    almost unusable internet speed...

    18 other people all having issues with their Internet being way too slow, please get on this soon.

    • maratsade's avatar
      maratsade
      Distinguished Professor IV
      4 years ago

      Your speeds looks to be way above  the advertised 25 Mbps, so not sure what kind of "speed help" you're looking for, as your speeds are not "almost unusable internet speed."  Satellite internet is sensitive to congestion, and congestion is easy to reach, especially during prime time, and also (not saying this is your case) if you have many devices connected to the wifi.

       

      The issues you have listed seem to be just the speed issue relisted using different words. Given that your speeds are not slow for the service, and in fact are faster than advertised, there doesn't seem to be a problem other than you may be expecting cable internet when you have satellite internet. 

      • Damian's avatar
        Damian
        Moderator
        4 years ago

        Landon_Robinson,

         

        Thank you for posting. After running diagnostics on the equipment, it appears there was inclement weather at the gateway location around the time you ran your tests. This will most definitely cause bigger spikes than normal. I know this is true due to the fact that the current speed test that I just ran showed results well above average and the latency you are receiving is within the normal range now. When checking your current gateway location, the weather is normal and the skies are clear. I also see no network or current equipment issues. In regard to the load on the system, it is no secret that congestion has always been present in some capacity. We have continuously made efforts and tangible strides towards improving this. Of course, a pandemic of this magnitude was not foreseen and the load on the system was an extreme challenge. Over the last few months alone, we have made great efforts to combat the extreme load, which is why you are able to receive the speeds you do now.  

         

        I would also have to agree with maratsade in regard to the expectations you place on satellite service. If you are accustomed to cable internet or DSL speeds higher than 25 Mbps, the speed for HughesNet will feel much slower. This is due to latency. With this satellite service, data must travel up to the satellite and back (about 45,000 miles). This does create a greater delay that is not present with common terrestrial-based providers. When it comes to the services you are used to, the signal is ground-based which makes these types of services feel faster, and in most ways they are.

         

        With all that being said, I will continue to monitor you service over time and if these type of spikes return without reason, we will investigate the issue and resolve it. If you would like some tips to improve your streaming experience and other daily activities with the service, you have come to the right place. Please don't hesitate to ask for this, as there is a plethora of information to be gained on this community. 

         

        -Damian