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Cannot receive mail via Outlook (Office 365) or connect to outlook.live.com

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steveandkris
Sophomore

Cannot receive mail via Outlook (Office 365) or connect to outlook.live.com

Since last night I am unable to to receive mail through the Outlook (Office 365) desktop app or connect to outlook.live.com via browser on any of the three PCs in my home.

 

I just checked my laptop using a cellular connection and it works fine.  And yes, I have already changed the DNS settings on my Gen 5 modem/router to point to Google (8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4).  Rebooting router and PCs has no effect.

44 REPLIES 44
John McCarthy
New Member

I had the same issue. I went to Tools/AccountSettings/Highlighted my e-mail address/clicked repair in Outlook. I'm not sure what was changed but it automatically fixed my issue. Good Luck 

Thanks for the suggestion!  Unfortunately, I tried that as well as the Office 365 repair tool early on, all to no avail. 

 

The fact this problem is consistent across all of the PCs on our network points to a Hughesnet (dis)service issue.

steveandkris
Sophomore

I can now connect to outlook.com.  Additionally, my Office 365 desktop app is now connecting OK to my outlook.com account, BUT it is still unable to connect to my work MS exchange account.

 

Maybe the engineers are aware of a problem and working on a solution?  Who knows...

Hello steveandkris,

 

 

Thank you for reaching out. I'm glad you were able to connect your Outlook. There aren't any reports of Outlook issues currently. When it comes to your MS exchange account, I recommend to remove and re-add your email account to Outlook. Let me know if this helps.

 

-Damian

 

Damian,

Thanks for your suggestion.  Unfortunately, the problem persists. 

 

For the past week, my connection to outlook and MS onedrive both become intermittent during what I assume are the high-use periods for the echostar satellite each morning from 6:30-8:00AM MST and after 5:00PM MST each evening.  During these times, outlook keeps reporting that it is either "trying to connect" or is completely "disconnected," and only manages to update the folders occasionally.  Trying to upload files to OneDrive generally results in a "upload pending" error message and opening files takes forever and sometimes fails.

 

The result is that I am dead in the water every morning and evening.

 

The router doesn't show any error codes and the diagnostics are all green.  Download speeds are OK at 40Mb/s, but upload speeds are very low at only 0.18 Mb/s and ping is a ridiculous 690+ms.  Normally (during mid-day), upload speed is in the 5-6Mb/s range and pings are around 500ms.  Frankly, it seems like a handshaking issue

 

Very frustrating!

GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV

@steveandkris 

 

An upload speed of 0.18Mbps is terrible, even during peak hours.  A latency of 690ms is actually normal.  Latency is normally somewhere between 600ms and 700ms, and I would actually question the validity of a latency result of 500ms, as it's practically impossible for it to be that low with satellite internet.   The distance alone accounts for at least 500ms.  With that said, though, 500ms, 600ms, or 700ms... it really shouldn't matter, as it's really not that much of a difference when it's that high, anyway.  

 

With regard to your problem, Microsoft's servers seem to often be overly sensitive to something with satellite internet.  Most likely it's the high latency, but I don't know for sure.  It could also be the congestion it doesn't like.   A couple of years ago I had a 600+ Windows update take over 24 hours, while with the speed I was getting at the time the download should have taken no more than five minutes. 

 

This isn't an excuse, but only a possible reason as to why it's giving you such a problem.  Still, though, again, your upload speed is awful, especially if you're seeing that speed at the time you're getting the 40Mbps download speed.  It simply shouldn't be that low, and it's more than likely that this is the biggest problem.  Couple that with whatever it is that MS doesn't like about HughesNet, and it's less than surprising.  😞    

Thanks to everyone for weighing in!

 

Gabe is correct that less than 1Mb/s upload speed is unusual - mine are normally in the 5Mb/s range.  I use the Speedtest.net desktop app (I know, it's not the official tool) and it reports the slowest speeds encountered during the test.  That said, both upload and download speeds will vary quite a bit between and even during a test; and the same thing goes for ping-times.  Case in point is the test below where the upload speed was higher than the normal 40 Mb/s download speed!

 

speedtest.JPG

 

Unfortunately, my microsoft exchange accounts still won't connect during busy times which now seems to include most of the day on both Saturday and Sunday.  I suspect this has something to do with the high-latency of the satellite connection and the encryption policy enforced between the local Outlook app and the MS exchange servers.  Regardless of the cause, this puts me in a real bind as I need to stay connected to my work email at all times.  Fortunately, I can recieve a cell signal in my home (thanks to a Weboost system) so my cellphone can stay connected to exchange as long as I disable WiFi on the phone.

 

I guess the bottom line is that I am paying $2K/year for a home internet connection that doesn't work with one of the most popular mail applications in the world.  It's the 21st century and it seems like there should be a solution.

BirdDog
Assistant Professor

Latency they can't do much of anything, the satellite is where it is, no matter the century we're in. Congestion and beam loading is also something they can't do much about other than maybe tweaking your particular site when it comes to the modem and gateway. Only other possibility is switching to the other satellite.

 

Things only a mod can reply to as to whether any of it can be done.

 

PS: Tests from that site are totally unreliable and way off. It does not read correctly with satellite, no way you are ever really getting 5 Mbps upload speed.

Thanks for weighing in.

 

I am assuming congestion is at the root of the problem given that the connection issues occur during what I assume are busier times of the day(s) (mornings/evenings/weekends).  Also, I have been on the same satellite since Gen5 was first rolled out over a year ago and have been using MS Outlook/exchange the entire time without any consistent issues until a few weeks ago.

 

Seems like I have heard this story before:  develop a better service and then oversubscribe it until it starts to break.  Unfortunately, they continue to charge top-dollar even after the service becomes marginal.

OK, this is now bordering on ridiculous. 

 

My MS exchange connectivity during peak hours has now gone from intermittent to none at all.  I am also unable to save to MS OneDrive during these times.  This cannot be just me!

 

Notice in the below screenshot that Outlook had been trying to contact the exchange server for 4 hours!  You can also see that the OneDrive icon is trying (unsuccesfully) to sync.  During this time, the same thing was occuring on my laptop over my Hughesnet connection; but I had no problems connecting using a cellphone hotspot.

 

What is going on with the Gen5 service?

Ridiculous2.JPG

Not gonna lie, I've been noticing periodic problems routing to Microsoft for anything for quite a while and wouldn't rule out a problem with the upstream provider (especially if it's Level 3).


* 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.

Not sure what you mean by "level 3?"

 

I would buy that if it weren't for the fact that I can connect just fine at the same time using a different ISP (AT&T cellular).

 

SJ

BirdDog
Assistant Professor


@steveandkris wrote:

Not sure what you mean by "level 3?"

 

I would buy that if it weren't for the fact that I can connect just fine at the same time using a differentISPP (AT&T cellular).

 

SJ


He is referring to the level 3 Internet backbone server providers which is mostly CenturyLink now. There used to be an actual provider called Level 3 but CenturyLink bought them out a couple years ago. The AT&T path is probably working because it takes a different route.

Three weeks later and the problem not only continues but has actually gotten worse.  Absolutely no MS exchange connectivity during evenings and most of the day on weekends as the below screenshot shows.

Ridiculous3.JPG

Ridiculously poor service at a premium price..

steveandkris, I have having precisely the same issue. Same times and experiences. I have no issues with ping rate times even to the Office 365 site, no other sites have issues, and my bandwidth is unchanged. Given that it appears to happen pretty much at 5pm on the dot tells me that this is an issue with the Microsoft side not responding fast enough to the slower satellite connection and thus timing out. but, because it happens so consistently at 5pm, I don't believe it is overload, I believe it is a setting-like issue on their end. The bottom line though is that this is HughesNet's problem and if they cannot get it resolved, I will have no choice but to test out a repeater-based satellite in my area. My wife and I can no longer work from home with this issue.

 

Brett

maratsade
Distinguished Professor IV

Doesn't a repeater just amplify extend the range of the signal? Will not do much if anything for congestion or latency.  

The repeater in question is a series of towers on the mountains around us that ultimately land on an internet backbone with latency equivalent to a wired connection. I am not referring to a repeater in the house.

GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV

@BrettL 

 

Do you know if any local businesses (yeah, local, I know), or even residential customers who work from home, have a business plan with HughesNet.  I ask this in case contacting them might give you an idea if they're having the same issues with Office 365.  This is only as a possible alternative to something that may cost you a lot of money, though I'm not familiar with repeater based satellite internet, nor how costly it would be to enable you to utilize it.

@GabeU& @BrettL

 

For what it's worth, based on the below reply from customer support, Hughesnet seems to acknowledge this is an issue:

 

=========================================

...

I understand that you are having difficulties with your Internet Service regarding your Microsoft applications . Thank you for bringing this to our attention, your time and efforts are highly appreciated. Your account has been given a Service adjustment because of the inconvenience ($30.00)X6 months due to unchangeable peak hours, that are slowing your service down. Our engineers are working hard to alleviate this issue for all customers.

---

==========================================

 

While it was great of them to provide a discount on my bill, the reality is I really don't want a discount, I want and NEED a service that works!  My connection issues also extend to MS OneDrive through which I share connection with my coworkers to important files.  At this point I am basically disconnected from my work after 5pm and on weekends.  YIKES!

 

Like @BrettL, we have two microwave-based ISPs that are setting up operations in our mountainous area.  This technology requires line-of-site to the microwave tower (or a repeater), but offers, reasonable cost, high-speeds (up to 100Mb/s), massive data allowances (>300GB), latencies in the 30-50ms range and no equipment-rental costs.  Both have indicated they can get us connected, one through a repeater on a neighbor's house, and the other through a new tower (with a direct view to our home) that is now nearing completion.  Currently, the service plan through the company with the new tower is better, so I am just (im)patiently biding my time...

 

It will be interesting to see how quickly this microwave technology progresses and how rapidly it will expand into currently unserved areas.  Just as WiFi is now almost as fast and reliable as legacy (CAT-5) wired connections for SOHO use, I suspect this technology will supplant satellite and even challenge wired (DSL & cable) internet connectivity in fairly short order.  The good news is that there is real hope on the horizon for all of us who have chosen to live outside of urban areas!

GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV

@steveandkris 

 

That's unfortunate, especially with you needing it to be able to connect to your work.  I certainly hope they can fix the issue.  And it's interesting that it hits right at 5PM.  

 

And I'm glad that there is at least some light at the end of the tunnel with the microwave based ISP.  It's a ways off, but at least it's coming and will be an option if the problem hasn't been alleviated by then.   

 

I certainly hope that what it keeps you from doing with regard to your work isn't so impactful that it causes major problems.  😞