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Bad to worse download speeds........

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LeeH74
New Poster

Bad to worse download speeds........

I've had very slow download speeds for two days and now starting day three. Nowhere close to the advertised (and previously obtained) speeds I should be getting. Typically in the early morning hours (during bonus bytes time) I achieve 30-40 mbps download speeds, for the last few days that has not been the case. I've spent at least an hour on the phone with support, and at least that long again with online chat (and due to the problems with the speeds even got disconnected and had to get a call back). I was finally turned over to the engineers(?) and am awaiting call back, but thought I would go ahead and post these screen shots of this mornings results. My case reference number from the last call I had is 117533693. Please note the time of day (obviously not peak hours). These are from this morning (12/26/2018). I also included a shot of the page showing data remaining as this has come up with the tech support calls (a frustrating amount of times... Screenshot 2018-12-26 at 5.39.21 AM.pngThanks!Screenshot 2018-12-26 at 5.18.49 AM.pngScreenshot 2018-12-26 at 5.15.23 AM.pngScreenshot 2018-12-26 at 5.13.37 AM.pngScreenshot 2018-12-26 at 5.11.57 AM.pngScreenshot 2018-12-26 at 5.09.47 AM.png0.png

24 REPLIES 24
maratsade
Distinguished Professor IV

You're out of regular data but using token data, so the slow speeds, given the timing, may be due to the holidays, when more people are at home and using the system so the system slows down under the weight of the congestion.  Your speed may go back to normal (or at least faster than it has been during the holiday) today or tomorrow.  

 

*I am not a Hughesnet employee or representative. This is a customer-to-customer tech support community, and I am a customer.

 

@LeeH74 wrote:

I've had very slow download speeds for two days and now starting day three. Nowhere close to the advertised (and previously obtained) speeds I should be getting. Typically in the early morning hours (during bonus bytes time) I achieve 30-40 mbps download speeds, for the last few days that has not been the case. 

Maratsade, thanks for your response. I wondered that in regards to peak hours, but if you note the time at the bottom right hand of the screenshots you'll see those are far from peak times (5 AM) and I've been online as early as 2:30/3:00 AM (I'm on US central time) and still have the same issues. Also, you'll see from the first screenshot that I still have plenty of Bonus Bytes time.

Sorry Maratsade, I just saw that the time at the bottom of the screenshots doesn't specify AM/PM... Oh well, it was AM. 

maratsade
Distinguished Professor IV

Yes, I know what you mean, but during the holidays it's not peak hours so much as congestion at all times, because people are home and everyone wants to use the service, so the speed gets slower due to increased traffic.  So basically, it's a kind of peak during the whole day.   Satellite internet doesn't have a lot of capacity and it gets choked easily if a lot of people use it (and you can assume a lot of these people who are home for the holidays are trying to stream something, and that causes more traffic jams). 

 

This is not to say there isn't anything else going on, of course, but it's likely that increased traffic is what's killing your access.  

 

*I am not a Hughesnet employee or representative. This is a customer-to-customer tech support community, and I am a customer.

 

@LeeH74 wrote:

Maratsade, thanks for your response. I wondered that in regards to peak hours, but if you note the time at the bottom right hand of the screenshots you'll see those are far from peak times (5 AM) and I've been online as early as 2:30/3:00 AM (I'm on US central time) and still have the same issues. Also, you'll see from the first screenshot that I still have plenty of Bonus Bytes time.


 

WADDIE
New Member

I'm in the same boat! Had Hughes Net installed in October 2018 - worked pretty good for first month - slightly better than dial-up. Then slowed way down. After numerous calls and complaints finally got a service technician to come out. He said "nothing can be done" your location isn't very good and you have marginal connection to sattelite"  - THEN he dropped the bomb: He told me that in rural locations HughesNet starts you out at a higher speed, then after 30 days they turn the service WAY DOWN. And you have to call them (nearly impossible) and pay double or TRIPLE your current fee to get them to turn service up to a point that it's useable!  That is NOT what installation guy told me - he said I had a great connection and was receiving at max capability. I've called and emailed Hughes Net at least a dozen times in the last 2 months - never received a single reply.  I don't have high usage, occasionaly wish to stream a movie at night, but that is not possible. Otherwise just normal internet type useage.

Now, I'm stuck in a contract - nobody from HughesNet will even speak to me - Service disconnects constantly, during normal usage (e.g., email) and everything I've done is lost. Turns back on in a few minutes, have to re-connect to whereever I was because loss of service causes sites to "forget" who I am, so have to sign back in, from scratch - about that time it disconnects again!

I think it's time for a class-action law suit!  I've never sued anybody, ever, in my whole life! But in reading all the (negative) comments on the internet about HughesNet, from HughesNet users I think this is our only recourse!  I'll spearhead this if enough people want to join in!  Otherwise, I'll proceed with litigation with my own lawyer!  The type of crap HughesNet is pulling is criminal and we're protected against these scams by the Federal Communications law - can't use the widely recognized acronym, not permitted here!  Can you imagine what would have happened if the Federal Communications would have allowed Hughes Net and Direct TV to merge?  There would be no service available for rural users anywhere and everybody would be stuck in contracts for service that doesn't exist - or at least service that they won't give you without tripling your rates!

 

Not quite the same boat Waddie. I've been with HN for about a year and a half now. Service has been pretty good actually. Consistently good download speeds even during peak as long as I've still got anytime data. As far as technial support, I've not had trouble connecting with them. Whether through phone or chat. In fact, the one time chat got dropped the young lady immediately called me on my phone and proceeded to try and help. Granted, they do the whole scripted thing, but all tech support folks I've dealt with do that, they are required to by their employers. This slow download issue has truly been an anomaly for my service. I've heard negatives about HN, but personally haven't really experienced them myself and have reason to feel like they will take care of this. 

 

All that to say, I'm very sorry to hear your experience has been so bad. Maybe you've connected with the wrong folks, perhaps your repair technician had an ax to grind, I don't know. I do hope your issues get straightened out sooner than later though and you're able to enjoy your service. Good luck.

My problem is opposite, I can chat with support, but they keep telling me that I can do anythin with 3 or 4 down.  Not.  My gig dissappear twice as fast when I get slow speeds for some reason and when it is faster it jerks and stop throughout the d/l or what ever and forget about streaming.  Day before yesterday I got on chat 3 times as servive was so bad kept getting bumped off.  Then the last rep said that I had no further options and that they cannot add a couple of tokens.  Then she said she would escalete to her supervisor and hung up.  Before this started about 2 months ago It was perfect and no problems for about 6 months when it cratered.  I just don't know what to do anymore. 

Bobn

BTW if we didn't live in the boonies we wouldn't need Hughes If someone on the staff would please look into it I would be greatly appreciative. 

maratsade
Distinguished Professor IV

The HN staff prefer to provide individualised attention to users (as each user's situation varies from others'), so they usually ask users to create their own individual threads instead of piggybacking on other users' threads.  Perhaps you could create a new topic for yourself and cut and paste what you have posted here?

 

*I am not a Hughesnet employee or representative. This is a customer-to-customer tech support community, and I am a customer.

 

@bcnowlin wrote:

BTW if we didn't live in the boonies we wouldn't need Hughes If someone on the staff would please look into it I would be greatly appreciative. 


  

maratsade
Distinguished Professor IV

"THEN he dropped the bomb: He told me that in rural locations HughesNet starts you out at a higher speed, then after 30 days they turn the service WAY DOWN. And you have to call them (nearly impossible) and pay double or TRIPLE your current fee to get them to turn service up to a point that it's useable! "

 

That's absurd, and if anyone told you this they were lying. 

GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV


@WADDIE wrote:

THEN he dropped the bomb: He told me that in rural locations HughesNet starts you out at a higher speed, then after 30 days they turn the service WAY DOWN. And you have to call them (nearly impossible) and pay double or TRIPLE your current fee to get them to turn service up to a point that it's useable!  


The tech that told you this doesn't know what he's talking about.  At no time are you deliberately throttled, save for when you have run out of data and are subject to FAP.  And there is no paying "double or triple your current fee to get them to turn the service up".  That option does not exist.  

 

Not only is it nonsense, but what would be the point?  There's no 30 day trial, or 30 day test period.  

 

Lastly, please read the Community Terms of Service in the "About the Community" section.  Specifically the line regarding your threat of a CAL.  And regarding the threat of contacting your own lawyer, you may want to read the HughesNet Subscriber Agreement and the section regarding binding arbitration, which you agreed to by signing up for the service.

GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV

@LeeH74

 

As alluded to by maratsade, your current lower speeds may very well be due to so many new devices being added to the service over the holidays.  I'm one that normally gets fantastic speeds, but mine are very low right now, and almost assuredly due to the stress on the system being caused by those extra devices.  

 

This often happens around Christmastime.  It tends to start easing up a bit after a few days, but we may see at least somewhat of slide with speeds for a while, again due to those extra devices, unfortunately.  The cost of living in the boonies.  😞 

 

One other thing:  Regarding the speed testing, the HughesNet test is okay, but it can be a little "moody" and give somewhat inaccurate results.  HughesNet recommends using testmy.net, and using the manual 25MB size for download tests and the manual 4MB size for upload tests.   

Thanks for the input GabeU. I'll try the other speed test site you mentioned. In regards to the download speeds, I'm still getting very significantly slower speeds during the bonus bytes time (2-8 AM). Which I still have 13GB data left for and am getting 1 to 5 mbps downloads vs Anytime which I am now using data tokens of about 1.5GB left and am consistently getting 20+ mbps during peak (6-8 PM) time. I still feel like somethings up with the speeds during bonus bytes time. Do that many people get online that early??

 

Thanks!

Many people get up early to do updates, etc. during the Bonus time. It just makes sense to do it then.

 

As for the speed at that time, it's always worse during that time for several reasons, the biggest being that there's lots of new things that are acting indiscriminate of time:
1. People visiting that don't have their devices 'tuned' for limited bandwidth and/or time periods, but have access to the hosts' wifi.

2. New devices given as gifts (IoT or otherwise) that automatically connect to the host's wifi that periodically phone home to do updates (or other mischief).

 

In most cases it's temporary, usually followed by an annual stream of people complaining "hey... where'd all my data go!!!!" (usually for the same reasons).


* Disclaimer: I am a HughesNet customer and not a HughesNet employee. All of my comments are my own and do not necessarily represent HughesNet in any way.

Bonus speed was very slow this morning but seems to be OK again now.   Our speeds are normally OK during bonus hours and only fast early in the daytime.  Rest of the time it sucks!
2018-12-27.png2018-12-27 (4).png

GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV


@LeeH74 wrote:

I still feel like somethings up with the speeds during bonus bytes time. Do that many people get online that early??


Much of it is scheduled updates for a slew of new devices coming online.  I don't know if you saw my post in the General Discussion section from late last night, but you can see the difference between the two time periods. Just prior to 2:00AM not that many people were online, so my speed was great, but once 2:00AM hit...BAM!!!  I often see slower speeds in the 2AM hour, but during the holidays it's very pronounced.  It should ease up a little over the next few days, and will most likely be better after the new year, when people go back to work and school. 

 

This is the thread I'm referring to....

 

https://community.hughesnet.com/t5/General-Discussion/A-few-new-toys-being-updated/m-p/107810#M3880

Anyone know why I can't post in rich text format? I wanted to include screenshots from this mornings' download speeds. For some reason I can't type text in rich text.
GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV


@LeeH74 wrote:
Anyone know why I can't post in rich text format? I wanted to include screenshots from this mornings' download speeds. For some reason I can't type text in rich text.

What device are you using to post?  I don't know for sure that this matters, but it might.  

 

If your speed tests were run at testmy.net, you can post the results link, or the individual test link(s), instead.  Testmy.net is the recommended speed test to use for HughesNet.  You should test with a single device that is connected to the HughesNet modem via LAN cable, and use the manual 25MB size for download tests and the manual 4MB size for upload tests.  It's also recommended that you run the tests while signed into a testmy.net account that you have created, as this will save the tests in a single location which can easily be viewed by the reps and techs if necessary, rather than having to view each test individually (which they can still choose to do from that page).  

 

Also, when testing speed for troubleshooting purposes, you should disable the WiFi in the HT2000W modem in order to ensure that no other device is sapping bandwidth while running the speed tests.  If you are not aware of how to do so, please see 5.c. in the section titled "How do I manage my built in WiFi modem?" in this PDF.  

 

 

Thanks GabeU. That's exactly what I was needing.

It's just like someone hit a switch! So I stayed up WAYYYYY past my bedtime tonight just to do an experiment. First some back story; This morning I did download tests a minute or two before 8 AM (just before the end of bonus bytes which I still have an abundance of) and was getting 216 kbps download speeds. I did another and got 212 kbps. At 8:01 15.03 Mbps download, after that it climbed quickly into the 30+ mbps download speeds. Fast forward to 1:59 AM today, 45 mbps download, then at 2:02 1 mbps, then 654 Kbps, then 213 kbps. Something is up with the bonus bytes time period. I have a difficult time believing it's traffic from new devices. I should be getting a call from the engineers from HN sometime today. Hoping all this monitoring is going to pay off. I'll repost when I know more. BTW, I'm using the same to device to post in this forum that I used for the OP. I was able to use rich text and upload the screenshots for that. I can't even type in rich text now. Thoughts? Going to bed! Too old for these hours!