Forum Discussion

yoajon's avatar
yoajon
Freshman
7 years ago

GEN 5 Upgrade Problems

I am in Zip 93522 and upgraded to Gen 5 on June 10th. Immediatly after the installation the signal strength showed 50 and today it has been in the low 70s. The installer used my old small dish. My do...
Performance
  • yoajon's avatar
    yoajon
    7 years ago

    Thanks for your help Amanda. I have been monitoring my receiver signal strengh and it has been ranging from 68 to 73. My speed tests show a large variation and exceed 25Mbps in some situations. This is definitly a beneficial upgrade. I look forward to your help in the future.

C0RR0SIVE's avatar
C0RR0SIVE
Associate Professor

Signal strength depends a lot on location... I seem to remember a few regions where 50 to 70 is acceptable.  The larger dish doesn't do much for a better signal...  I have a .98m Prodelin dish here (one of the largest they provide...) and I only get about 10SQF higher than a typical .74m, which has been the standard dish for a long time and is acceptible for Gen5 service.

The .98m dish is usually reserved for the enterprise and business customers...  There is a .90m dish around, but if a .98m dish doesn't give much of a bump compared to a .74, then a .90 would be even less useful.

Just an FYI, when the installer goes to sign-off on the modem, unless he meets the target SQF for your area, the installer can not pass OVT (which means the terminal can't be used), nor get paid.

yoajon's avatar
yoajon
Freshman
7 years ago

Thanks for your comments and technical analysis. I understand that download speeds of > 25 Mbps are of course possible wth the small dish and a signal strength of 70. However, I have not been able to perfom some tasks with my upgraded system that I regularly performed on my previous system. I measured some higher speeds and had good performance in the bonus period last night.

  • Amanda's avatar
    Amanda
    Moderator
    7 years ago

    Hello yaojon,

     

    Currently you are receiving at target or better-than-target signal strength. The average for your area sits at SQF 68 as of yesterday and currently I show you are at SQF 71. I do see you are within Beam 55, which is currently in the process of having performance improvements implemented. As of 6/08/18, the plan is to see improvements in your area in about a month, so we're looking at early July. Please check your private messages as I am going to send you some more information.

     

    Thank you,

    Amanda

    • yoajon's avatar
      yoajon
      Freshman
      7 years ago

      I thank everyone for their comments.

      I can definitly get > 25 Mbps during the bonus period when I shut down the WiFi and run my Windows 10 PC using the Ethernet cable. I have been away from home much of the time since my Gen 5 upgrade and have had limited time to fully check performance especially during the day.

      Here are a couple issues: To avoid Windows Update I need to run my PC as a metered connection and this option is only available with a WiFi connection. Windows can easliy burn up half my allottment with one cumlative update. I ran some tests this morning and it looks like my down speed drops to 5-10 Mbps when using a WiFi connection. It will take me about a week to fully check the day time performance and I might as well wait for the upcomming improvements.

      In my previose set up I disabled Turbopage on the advise of a HugesNet tech in order to make streaming possible.

      Overall it looks like I will be very happy with my upgrade.

      • MarkJFine's avatar
        MarkJFine
        Professor
        7 years ago

        I run an ethernet connection and can still get metered.

    • gaines_wright's avatar
      gaines_wright
      Tutor
      7 years ago
      @@Amanda ................. I do see you are within Beam 55, which is currently in the process of having performance improvements

        Are they going to fly up and fix it?    Or are you talking about the beam up?   I'm confused ,  Are people on different Beam IDs in different parts of the country?  I've been googling around to see if iI could find out, without much success though.

        I'd be grateful if you could post a link to some information on this subject?
      • maratsade's avatar
        maratsade
        Distinguished Professor IV
        7 years ago

        "Are they going to fly up and fix it?    Or are you talking about the beam up?   I'm confused ,  Are people on different Beam IDs in different parts of the country?  I've been googling around to see if iI could find out, without much success though."

         

        People are on different "beams." I'm on Beam 68, for example. I'm not sure if there's a reliable map anywhere.

         

        What they're going to do is probably deploy a fix to the system that handles your "beam."