Just like with a phone, a TV, a router, etc., a reboot can often solve problems and make a device run more smoothly, but no, it's not something that needs to be done on a regular basis.
Thanks for the response. Yes, the latency due to distance is about a half second - thanks for the correction. I did the math wrong and had calculated the inverse of the latency - oops.
Perhaps my 0.1 sec web response time test was the result of my misunderstanding the test. I ran test from outside the HughesNet system (at a different location on a cable internet system). I thought the test would ping the modem on my account, but after thinking about it, the way the test is described, it is looking at the time to load a fixed page size so it needs a browser and that should have told me that I can only run that test from a browser behind the modem. Do I need to be behind the HughesNet modem to get a valid result? The speed test does not seem to require that.
I did re-test the web response test when last using the HughesNet system (on Friday morning) and the response for that test reported results varied in the range of a few seconds. Some web pages that I separately tried to open never opened. The performance seemed appallingly slow to me. Some phone apps would not even start. I ran various speed tests (speedtest.net, testmy.net, HughesNet) and got results around tens of kilobytes per second. I called tech support - the agent re-booted the modem and ran diagnostics. That seemed to correct the issue. It will be very difficult for me to use the system as I need if frequent re-boots are needed as I am usually not at the location of the HughesNet service and I need it to stay online and be responsive enough to operate several internet devices that I have there.
Should I expect frequent (i.e. more than monthly) re-boots?
Just like with a phone, a TV, a router, etc., a reboot can often solve problems and make a device run more smoothly, but no, it's not something that needs to be done on a regular basis.
