Extremely slow speeds at night

[richknox]

I was asked by Chris (Company Rep) to open a post with details after I replied to another thread with the same problem. I have been experiencing extremely slow speeds at night since around the first of November which was also my 1 year anniversary with HughesNet. I do not believe it is a hardware problem because I get fast to acceptable speeds at other times. You will see from my data below that the speed drops to an extremely low level at times. I captured this data using Speedtest. I don't have much data for the month of November because I assumed that it was related to additional activity during the election cycle. Here are my results:
Date - Time - Download (Mbps) - Upload (Mbps)
9/30 7:35 PM 11.09 2.20
10/30 8:00 PM 6.94 1.29
10/31 8:02 PM 0.14 0.56
10/31 8:15 PM 5.04 1.61
11/7 8:46 AM 6.72 0.79
11/7 8:09 PM 0.39 0.94
11/9 9:18 AM 6.69 0.80
11/9 8:33 PM 1.88 1.32
11/30 6:24 PM 7.98 0.95
11/30 8:37 PM 0.76 0.59
12/1 8:49 PM 0.97 3.31
12/2 9:03 AM 5.22 0.70
12/2 8:01 PM 1.47 8.89
12/3 7:39 PM 0.17 0.40
12/3 8:23 PM 0.40 1.14
12/3 8:25 PM 0.35 0.38
12/3 9:11 PM 0.58 0.56
12/4 6:09 AM 19.68 2.87
12/4 12:21 PM 17.99 1.63
12/4 1:45 PM 12.94 1.77
12/4 1:53 PM 3.84 1.12
12/4 2:26 PM 1.18 1.13
12/4 7:59 PM 0.25 1.06
12/5 5:48 AM 5.25 3.69
12/5 9:05 PM 0.32 7.69
12/6 5:54 AM 22.82 2.22
All times are Central Standard Time in Mississippi

[Chris11]

Hello Richknox,

Sorry for the delay. I just realized I never heard back from my escalation on this. I will make sure to have some new information for you soon.

- Chris

[richknox]

I have no internet at all tonight. I can't even do a speed test! I had to get on to my phone hotspot just to post this. I was a believer in HughesNet until the last 3 months but this is ridiculous. I thought all those people who complained about how bad the service was just expected unrealistic speed but now I just want at least dial up speed especially when I have used only 46% of my monthly allowance of data. This has just gotten awful after the first year of ok service. I might as well pay AT&T for the slow dialup. At least I know it is reliable. This is terrible!

[richknox]

. As you can tell by this picture of the speed test on my Hughes.net I have nothing tonight. You can't do anything at these speeds but maybe some Facebook and emails. No streaming of anything!

[GabeU]

That's about the speed I'm getting right now.  It's low, but it's hardly nothing, and the only thing I can't do is stream, but can do everything else. 

[C0RR0SIVE]

Curious, what does your testmy.net results show with the 12MB manual download test?

[richknox]

My tests at testmy.net were virtually the same. There is nothing wrong with the equipment because I can run the same test in the morning and I get big speeds. I don't know about GabeU but mine has been like that for three months - fast in the morning and almost non-existent at night.
Here is this morning and you can see last night's result in a previous post. This is from the speed test on the HughesNet page so it has to have some validity or it should not be on there.

[Chris11]

Hello Richknow,

I'm working on getting something back to you hopefully before the weekend. Stay tuned.

- Chris

[Chris11]

Hi Richknox,

I got back word from our engineering team and they think a dispatch will be able to resolve what your experiencing. Seems there is a marginal alignment issue at your site. What is a good day for us to send someone out, that way I'll try my best to accommodate you. Hope to hear from you soon.

Thanks,
Chris

[richknox]

Hi Chris,

Sorry I am so long in replying but Year-end and the first of the new year at my workplace is rather hectic. I can meet the Dispatch most anytime but it would be a huge help to have a little tighter scheduled time than say from 12 - 5 PM. I work about 30 minutes from my home and I need to be the one to be there instead of my wife who works closer to home. I am tied up this Monday, January 9 but can work out other times. Afternoon would be best for me because that allows me to go in and get work done before I have to leave. Thank you for looking into my problem. I hope we can resolve this problem.

Rich Knox

[Chris11]

Hi Richknox,

Your Dispatch is currently scheduled for Friday, Jan 13, 2017 between 02:00 PM-05:00 PM. Unfortunately the only way to get a more specific time frame for when the tech will most likely be around, would be to contact them directly. You should receive info soon on the specific dealer in your area. You can contact them and get more specifics. Or reschedule if needed. Keep us posted.

Thanks,
Chris

[richknox]

Chris,
The guy came out today and I was not able to get home to meet him. I did talk to him on the phone and he got my WiFi password so he could work on it from outside. I told him I would meet him at 3:30 and I got home at 3:34 and he had left. I did a speed test at that time and it registered a 27.64 download speed. I checked again at 5:09 and it was 19.75 download. I checked again at 6:50 and it was 0.41 download. That is no misprint - it was 0.41! When I talked on the phone to the service guy, who was really nice, he said that the signal strength was 114 when he started and he got it up to 118 by adjusting the dish. He gave me the same gobbledygook about the number of people on and the slowdown when the system is taxed. If this is normal that is pathetic and I did not have these problems the first year I was on the service. This just started last November 1. I have to believe even HughesNet does not expect a drop of that type. I could understand a drop of say 50% to maybe 10 download but from almost 28 to 0.4 is totally unbelievable. I would be better off with my old DSL lite with AT&T that was running 0.75.

[richknox]

Chris,
It has been almost a week since my last post and I have heard nothing. Obviously tweeting the dish has not helped my situation. There is nothing wrong with my equipment because I have good speed early in the morning. The problem is at night and if this is a situation where I am being throttled because of the number of people using the system, well, that is absurd. I want to know why did this just become a problem on Nov. 1, 2016. This is just crazy that the speed drops from 22.0 to 0.21 tonight. You can't do anything with that sort of speed and I am not at home, generally, when the speed is good so I have used only about 11% of my data this month because it is not usable. I am already about 60% through my cycle. If Hughes cannot fix the problem then I should be able to terminate the contract for non-performance. If I had never had decent night speeds then I might understand but something happened in November that changed everything. Hughes needs to get their act together and fix this problem.

[Chris11]

Hi Richknox,

Sorry for the delay in response. I am going to consult again with our engineers. I am not too sure at the moment what could be the problem. Especially after the tech visit. I thought this would fix it.

- Chris

[richknox]

Chris,
It has been almost 2 months since I opened a case. I still have only about 30% of DSL Lite speeds which basically is nothing. Is there any chance at all that this is going to get better or do I just moan for another 10 months until my contract runs out. I would be better off using my phone for a hot spot at night since I now have unlimited data up to twenty five GB for half of what I pay every month to Hughes. The worst thing is that I did not have any trouble like this until the first of November. I guess Hughes has done something and just likes to lie to their customers. Maybe you can also tell me what the early out penalty with ten months left would be. Seriously I am totally fed up with dealing with this and with HughesNet!

[dhorwath]

I'm having the exact same issue you are.  Great speed in the morning, horrible at night.  I was also told they need to re-point my dish.  I'd be curious to see if they solve this issue for you

[richknox]

The dish pointing changed nothing. I have gone from a speed of 6.94 Mbps to a 0.39 Mbps from October 30 to Nov. 7. For a full year I had good service and just like that the service went from really good to garbage and no one at Hughes can or will give me an explanation. My problem is that I live in a rural setting and I have no other real option for any speed higher than 0.768 Mbps which actually runs a lot slower. I just want an answer as to why this all of a sudden began to happen but I don't believe I will ever get one. They will tell you to check the speed without a router (makes marginal difference in the speed), tell you that it is an equipment problem (how can that be when you get a speed of 22 Mbps and then a speed of 0.38 Mbps using the same equipment) and other nonsense. I used to think those people that were complaining were overreacting but now I see that they just don't get any help from Hughes who continues to take my $100 per month with no recourse for me..

[dhorwath]

The tech checked on my dish and got 125 signal out of it.  It's still the same, 20mg during day, but .5 during prime time.  He said that he thinks Hughesnet oversold and can't deliver better during primetime.  Judging by a few other posts on here, with no response from Hughesnet, I'm beginning to think he is right.  I'm still waiting to hear back on my post, but it's not several months old yet and I'm not holding my breath.  

[richknox]

Same thing when the guy came to my house. He said that I had 115 signal and adjusted a little to get it to 118. Of course, he got good speed at 3:30 in the afternoon when no one is at home to use it. My problem now is why this just began happening to me near the end of October/first of November last year. I had been on HughesNet for just over a year and had only had very limited problems. Then all of a sudden BAM no service at night. I checked the other day just as I got home and ithe speed was 8+ Mbps and them 2 hours later it was back down to below 0.5 Mbps. Hughes is definitely not delivering the service I am paying for and frankly I think I deserve a credit for the dollars I have paid for Nov - Jan because the service is so bad. Our family had been consistently using about 35 GB of data a month and I bet we have used between 15 - 18 in the previous 3 months because the service is just not there. I really can't believe that a company the size of Hughes is can't come up with a solution. Their parent company is EchoStar and I found on the net today that they launched a new satellite, EchoStar XIX on December 18,2016 to provide high-speed internet services for HughesNet in North America. It is at 97.1 degrees West. You would think things would get better now that they have 2 satellites at least with the other being the Gen 4 EchoStar XVII launched in 2012. Wikipedia states that the FCC rated HughesNet as the #1 Internet provider for delivering the speeds they advertised. I guess that will be impossible to attain for 2017! Chris, any response to any of this? Do you have any rebuttals or do we just expect this crappy service for the rest of our contracts. I might as well back my plan down to the lowest because getting throttled on speed can't be any worse than what I am expecting now unless Hughes just cuts me off completely!

[BirdDog]

Rich, the new satellite is not in service yet. It takes time to test and optimize its performance. Plus there is equipment on the ground that needs upgrading and newly installed.

Hopefully there will be relief for everyone when it comes to peak time slowdowns once the new satellite is in service.

PS: My speed for 3-4 hours during nightly peak time hasn't been very good lately either. Sometimes as low as you report.

[Liz]

Good morning richknox,

After reviewing your account, I've credited your account for three months of service. If you're still experiencing slow speeds since this last site visit, I'd like to continue troubleshooting if you're willing, just let me know. For your reference, you have six months left on your contract.

Thanks,
Liz

[richknox]

Liz, thank you for the reply. The tech visited my home on January 12. In the afternoon. My night problems did not get any better. I have not done any speed tests (I do them on my iPad through the router but when I tested hooked directly to my laptop the difference is speed was very minimal) in the last couple of days. The latest tests I have for the night are - 1/25 0.46 download / 2.21 upload at 8:31 PM, 1/26 0.46/4.05 at 7:08 PM, 1/27 0.93/1.71 at 9:04 PM and 1/28 0.60/3.65 at 8:51 PM. On 1/31 when I first got home at 5:55 PM I did a test and got 8.74/2.78. So you can see I am still having the same trouble. I appreciate you responding. I was very pleased with my HughesNet service up until the end of October or the first of November when this slowdown occurred. I would love to keep the service so that is why I am trying so hard to get it back to a usable speed. Thank you again for your assistance. I would welcome additional troubleshooting.