BirdDog,
That kinda makes me wish I would have stuck with what I had. SMH.
My folks, who live right across the street, still have Gen4, though I don't know what their speeds are. Probably pretty good.
With that said, it's going back up now. Sub 1Mbps speeds for me are VERY rare. I've only ever had four sub 1Mbps speed since upgrading to Gen5 at the end of March. That one was 3rd from the bottom.
And though I don't know about doing so while having the speed I just did, even when it's in the lower, single digit Mbps range I can still normally watch Youtube vids in 480p without issue.
Gabe, problem is posters here complain about 1-1.5 speed and say they can't stream anything. Maybe true for them but I can. I dunno what the problem is honestly. Even during very low speed times I can stream at low def Netflix. My guess is they are trying to stream in HD or even UHD.
Maybe Netflix uses some magic sauce with their video compression but if so it sure works.
Or, let's start a conspiracy and say HughesNet is giving low defintion Netflix streamers priority. Oh no I didn't.............lol.
Maybe a gateway thing, who knows. We're all out here just guessing in the end.
BirdDog,
Well, I do remember times when I had Gen4 where my speeds were in the in mid, single digit Mbps range, like 5 or 6Mbps, and watching a Youtube video was a challenge. My Gen4 service was MUCH more temperamental when it came to Youtube vids. I can't speak for streaming, as I don't do any, at least at this point, but I imagine it's similar.
I think it may be that, when someone is on a beam that isn't very full, they can stream or watch youtube vids even when the speeds are quite low, like the 1-1.5Mbps range, while those on fuller beams may have a difficult time streaming or watching Youtube vids when their overall speed is two or three times that.
One thing I've definitely come to see is that, even if I have around the same speed as someone else at a given time, we may not have the same experience with Youtube vids.
Buffering youtube vids when I had sufficient overall speed, and the issue with the Windows updates taking forever, were two of the reasons for my decision to upgrade to Gen5.
Granted, this is just my experience, and the thought about the beams is just a theory, but it seems plausible.
Edit: Or, like you suggest, maybe it has to do with the gateways. Only the gremlins know for sure. LOL.
