Download speeds and Youtube

[dwilliestyle]

I just got Gen5 service less than a week ago. My video and streaming is severely choppy and has a lot of buffering, even at low resolution. But when I do a speed test, it has shown up to 20 mps download speeds. Is there anything I need to do or any settings I need to change?

[GabeU · Accepted solution]

@dwilliestyle

You can try turning off, or pausing, the Video Data Saver to see if that makes any difference.  

While watching videos and such is a common thing for people to do with HughesNet, it can be choppy sometimes due to congestion, especially in the evening.  

[dwilliestyle]

So far this seems to be working. Thanks for the help. 

[GabeU]

@dwilliestyle

You're very welcome.  I'm glad it's helping.  🙂

One thing go keep in mind.  While the Video Data Saver is off (or paused), the resolution may kick up on some videos, which will cause you to use more data while viewing them.  

Additionally, you mentioned that you started Gen5 less than a week ago.  If it's an upgrade from Gen4 the following probably doesn't apply, but if you're new to HughesNet, or you upgraded to Gen5 from one of the old legacy plans, your service is in what's known as a "relaxed bandwidth" state.  This means that your monthly data allotment is being reset on a regular basis.  This happens during the first 20 days of service.  HughesNet does this as a courtesy.  It's to allow you to update/upgrade your devices to current without it affecting what would be your normal monthly data allotment, as doing those things can often use a LOT of data, especially if they haven't been connected in a while.  After those initial 20 days the service will revert to a normal monthly reset, meaning your data will need to last the remaining eleven days in your current monthly data cycle, and then the full month when your new data cycle starts.  When I says "need to last", I just mean so that you don't run out and get throttled to the lower speed for the rest of the month.