Declining speeds and latencey

[Richard3]

Thought I would share the declining download speeds we have been experiencing. Since February speeds have declined. Assuming it is the increase in traffic due to Covid. At first the time of day played a part about 10:00 A.M. EST the connectivity was terrible, and latency is off the chart. Now just reading emails with Outlook or using the webmail has become impossible. Outlook appears to be timing out and at times Hughes web email sign-in fails. The results below are from Test My Net. Granted many downloads are not 25mb as required but the point is speeds and connectivity are terrible. Have connected directly to the Hughes modem and through a router with basically the same results. Run the Hughes system control center tests- all returns good with the modem HT 2000W (Gen 5). Have restarted Hughes modem with no improvement.
Have run M/S diagnostics and repair on Outlook with no improvement.
Are other users experiencing the same issues?
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Have been a Hughes user for many years and understand the basic ins and outs of using Hughes.

https://testmy.net/quickstats/rjob01

[Richard3]

Liz,

Thanks for the information. WIll try suggestions once repairs/install to office/outlook are completed. Started repair process - it timeout but unfortunately it also has either removed or restricted access to all the office programs and outlook. Attempting to redo the install but download is slow - most likely with fail again. Very frustrating.

[Liz]

Thanks, please keep me updated.

-Liz

[Richard3]

Liz,

Short answer tried all suggestions nothing fully resolved the issue.

One positive issue this A.M. Test my net returns 16Mbps with a 25mb test- the first time we have seen this type of speed in months.

Speed is now down to 4.16Mbps

At the higher download speeds email was synnchronizing without error 0x800ccc0f even the email address that has been unable to sync. Now at slower speeds sync takes longer but no error message yet. 

 

Longer reply:

Server settings Outlook would not recognize http://  addresses

Primary SMTP info - no place in Outlook to include or check IP's that I could find.

Error message :

Do have connectivity but is slow.

Enabled SMTP for mail clients - was completed previously

R/R for Outlook painfully completed - Used the Microsoft Support and Recovery Assistant - took over 24 hours to complete - slow connectivity. Appears to do a good job.

Use Norton for AV -disabled all add-ins in Outlook no change. Did a reboot after disabling add in's.

Server settings - Outlook forces inbound to imap.hughes.net.  Manually can change to mail.hughes.net. Appears that either setting works - receive no error message regarding settings after updating.  

Outbound smtp.hughes.net 

Yikes what is this error message at top of page in a red banner?

Authentication Failed.
Authentication Ticket Mismatched, failed authentication.

[Liz]

Good morning Richard,

Thank you for the update; so that I can better focus our efforts to address all your concerns, I need more details.

Regarding e-mail, you said you were no longer getting the error 0x800ccc0f, so is it safe to say you are getting your HughesNet e-mail in Outlook now, albeit slowly?

Is this the current concern about speeds, that mail is syncing too slowly for you?

Considering your previous speed test results, would you say that slow e-mail syncing happens when speeds are less than 10 Mbps?

How long does it take for your Outlook to complete syncing? 

How many e-mail accounts is it trying to sync? Are they all HughesNet accounts?

Regarding that red banner you described, that sounds like a community error. You can try logging out of the community and logging back in; your session may have timed out.

Thanks,

Liz

[Richard3]

Liz,

Information requested is below.

Regarding e-mail, you said you were no longer getting the error 0x800ccc0f, so is it safe to say you are getting your HughesNet e-mail in Outlook now, albeit slowly?

When download speed was above 16Mbps all three emails sync'ed without issue. No error message. When speed dropped sync time increased (3-8 minutes) in time required. But no error message.

This P.M. all three accounts had the error message.

Is this the current concern about speeds, that mail is syncing too slowly for you?

Would say the issue is two fold-one have received message stating snyc will take up to 45 minutes, second issue would be continuous slow download speeds. Some place there must be an acceptable syncing standard. And yes 45 minutes is too slow for me. Do understand and accept the download speeds will vary depending on traffic. But this is continuous. Not saying it is Hughes but would appreciate statement on where the issue resides.

Considering your previous speed test results, would you say that slow e-mail syncing happens when speeds are less than 10 Mbps?

Can not say that 10Mbps is the threshold , but @ 16Mbps life was good @ 4+/- Mbps life was not good. Fast speeds appear to help/resolve the issue. Have not been able to maintain higher speeds to provide a qualified answer.

How long does it take for your Outlook to complete syncing? 

Have seen upwards of 45 minutes to a few seconds.

How many e-mail accounts is it trying to sync? Are they all HughesNet accounts?

Three accounts and all are Hughes accounts. Daily emails are very low in volume.

Regarding that red banner you described, that sounds like a community error. You can try logging out of the community and logging back in; your session may have timed out.

Timing out is interesting, since I was typing a reply to this thread at the time of the message.

[MarkJFine]

I'm thinking there are a combination of things:

1. All email access is using SSL protocols for security purposes. SSL does not use web/tcp acceleration techniques, so transfers are going to be a lot slower than non-SSL. Can't really get around that, it's just a fact of life on satellite.

2. You're using IMAP which is a system that requires a lot of pings back and forth between the email client and the email server to read the list of available emails, see which have been read, and display the currently selected email. Each ping, depending upon latency, could take a minimum of 600ms. Those pings add up. In IMAP, each email is retained on the server, not locally, although some clients may cache them - I don't think Outlook does from what I've seen. So each time you display an email, you're actually re-downloading it each time. Over satellite, this uses a lot of pings (as stated) and a lot of repetative and unnecessary bandwidth. This is why I recommend people switch to using POP instead of IMAP - it's a lot quicker, and you can easily retain everything locally instead of letting the server handle it.

3. Additional to the other slowness, at one time there was a problem with pictures and some attachments coming down reeeeeal sloooooow and sometimes even timing out. Even when using POP, picture attachments even as small as 10MB could take about 30 minutes to download, even in the middle of the day. That seems to have gotten better as they have refined how things are prioritized during the pandemic, but this too may be an issue.

4. I use IMAP access only for a little app that pings the server every so often to check for new email headers. It is very slow and occasionally gets SSL errors when authenticating to the HugesNet email server, resulting in the connection getting rejected. Not sure why this is (dropped packets, broken connection, DNS errors, server overload.. could be anything) but it happens. This too may be contributing to problems occurring on your end.

[Richard3]

Mark,

Thanks for the insights. Kinda thought IMAP consumed more time/bandwidth but wasn't sure. Imap has been beneficial at times when remote and needing to view emails. Will have to reconsider POP in light of current issues. Another possible help would be deleting and archiving in a timely manner.

Have experienced the slow downloads in the past with picture heavy emails.

Did look at the Hughes mail setting section on line and found a couple of interesting things: Appears that one can select POP and offline saving of emails.

Have not tried either yet. 

[MarkJFine]

I assumed you were using a stand-alone Office/365 application. Are you using the online (webmail-ish) version of Outlook or the application?

Those pictures almost look like an online version, which could complicate things even further with slowness. The stand-alone application only uses the internet for interfacing with the email server, but the online version might also interface with Microsoft whenever the display changes. That would slow things down significantly as well. I'm also curious how it would save things offline since there are some security restrictions about how browsers interface with your local disk.

[Richard3]

Use MS365 installed on desktop. Outlook is also installed not web based.
Pictures are from Hughes webmail settings. Sign on look for gear symbol in upper right of page. Not from Outlook.

[MarkJFine]

Ok... I confused myself. lol