Gen 5 beam ID54 almost unusable at night

[Tom Hughey]

Hello Tech Support,

The performance of my Gen5 HT2000W system seems to be time of day dependent. Early mornings, (5-7am pacific time), I get amazing download speeds as measured by the official HughesNet testing center. The average speed at that time is around 50 Mbps. However, in the evening when I want to use the system the most the speeds drop dramatically. The average of 5 tests on the Hughes speed test was .24 Mbps at around 10:30 PM 10-16-2017. Yes, that is Point24! For all intents and purposes, the net was not functioning during that time. This drop in performance at night is not an outlier; its consistent.

My system is on beam 54. The Outroute ID is 6. The signal strength is 118. The test were performed using the WiFi connection from the HT2000W. I will perform future tests using the recommendations of Corrosive.

Can Tech Support access my speed test history? If so, please check it out.

I can see on this forum that I am not the only one with this problem. What can be done to improve this performance issue? 

The really good news is that the HughesNet Phone is working much better. Sound quality is as good as it was when I had GEN4. It does drop calls during certain times of the day. I wonder if there is a correlation?

Thank you for your help.

[williamfay777]

Just another user here Tom.  I have the same issue every night around 6:30PM - 7:00PM lasting the rest of the evening.  I am almost dead in the water for speed every evening.  Dial-up speed is faster. How do you know which beam you are on?  I am in Eastern Nebraska.  I find it hard to believe it is all about net congestion.  However, things did get a lot worse once the school year started.  I assume that there are no kids on-line during the day time but once dinner and homework is done they all pile on.  That would makes some sense but it seems strange that I would go from decent download speeds to near zero just becuase a lot of kids were allowed to surf the internet in the evening.  I have called twice about this problem and so far they just tell me they will look into it.  I suspect they know the problem and are just giving us the delay tactic routine.  What say you Hughes.net and Hughes net community?  Has anyone had this commonly reported problem fixed or is it a matter of letting people grumble intil they give up and go away?  I do notice that they have not been quick to respond to your post.

[Tom Hughey]

Hello,

Thank you for adding your voice to what I think is a wide spread problem. You can find your beam ID along with other valuable information by acessing your satellite modem. Put 192.168.0.1 in your brower search window. (At least, that is how I access mine.) If all is well this will take you to the satellite modem main page. At the top of the page you should see three headings: System Status; System Information; English. Click on System Information. This should bring up another window. The dialog box at the lower right with the heading "Satellite" will give you the information you seek.

I am very far from being an expert in these matters. I would seek guidance on this forum from people like Corrosive. Look through similar posts dealing with slow internet performance and read what he has to say.

I must also add that I have been a Hughes.Net subscriber since 2002. I live off grid and the Hughes.Net service and, more recently, the Hughes.Net telephone are my lifelines to the outside world. For most of the last 15 years the system has been trouble free. It may take some time, but I think they will correct the problems.

[williamfay777]

Wow.  It is just like someone flipped a switch.  I just entered the evening slowdown period and my speed has gone from good to a horrible (1.7 MBps) in a matter of minutes.  This is why I suspect that it is not a bandwidth congestion issue,   It makes no sense to go from good service to unuseable sevice in just mere minutes unless there is a technical issue.  If it was bandwidth congestion there would be a ramp-up and a ramp down curve.   Last night I had recorded a test speed of about 0.08 MBps which is a flat loss of useable service.  I am betting that if I check in a few minutes ot will be below 1 MBps.  What in the world is going on to cause our speed to be throttled back every night for hours?  Would a Moderator/Technician care to reply or have you been told to keep quiet about the problem and just continue to offer empty promises to look into the matter?  I discovered I am on Beam 46 if that helps anyone.

[GabeU]

@Tom Hughey

Yes, tech support does have access to your Hughes speed tests.  The testmy.net speed tests, as laid out by Corrosive, will give additional information, and it's important to run the tests with a single device connected with a LAN cable and with the HT2000W's WiFi disabled.  The instructions for disabling the WiFi are here, on the upper right of the second page.  Make sure to click Save Settings after disabling each of the four individual radios (if you disable all four radios at the same time and click Save Settings the settings won't be saved).  The testmy.net test results can be viewed by the reps and engineers from your Results URL.  

I can't remember if beam 54 is one of the beams with known issues, but if it is the engineers are most definitely working on it.   

[Liz]

Hi Tom,

Thank you for posting and providing details, I'm escalating your case to the engineers. We'll post back once we have any updates to share.

Your cooperation, patience, and understanding are much appreciated.

[Tom Hughey]

Liz,

Thank you for your reply. Strangly enough, the last few nights, (11-18-17 and 11-19-17), the internet service has greatly improved for me. The last couple of tests were in the 8 Mbps range; fast enough to alow watching youtube videos without to many pauses. I even watched a movie on Amazon without buffering. I know many subscribers would not be satisfied with those speeds especially since they were sold on a faster system, but if the performance of my particular Beam remains at this level consistantly, I would be satisfied.

Tom

[Liz]

Hi Tom,

Thanks for the reply, we definitely want to get better speeds than that for you. I've just gotten an update about beam 5, there are scheduled adjustments in the coming weeks to address speed concerns. We'll post back once we have any other details to share.

Your patience and understanding are much appreciated.

[TomD]

I'm on beam 5, and it's brutal in the evenings. Looking forward to some resolution. It can be very slow at any time of day though so hopefully it can be improved.

[Liz]

Good morning folks,

Beam 5 has completed adjustments midweek last week to provide some relief for speed concerns.

Thank you for your patience and understanding.

[Tom Hughey]

Thank you for your reply. I understand that you, GabeU, are a Senior Instructor and are generous to give the community your time. Please forward my rant to those that might be able to help. The Internet, (specifically YouTube), remains unusable in the evening and at night. I've just completed speed tests as perscibed by Corrosive on 11/7/17 and 11/8/17. Riddle me this: Speed tests using the hughesnet test site last night and early this morning showed an average of .830 Mbps. Yet the testmy.net site shows an average over approximately the same period of about 12 Mbps. But regardless of the descrepancy of these tests, the real world of internet usage for me is that during the evening hours the internet is almost usless. Buffering of YouTube even at the lowest resolution makes that site unusable. Of course, at 4:30 AM PST I am able to watch as many video with little or no buffering on my laptop or my Iphone as I care to.

This poor service is not what I am paying for. Can you please help me with this problem for me and the other loyal customers that have the same issue. (But don't mess up my hughesnet phone.)

Tom

Conditions: 54% of my anytime data available; 94% of my Bonus Byts available

                   GEN5; Echo Star 19: beam ID54; using built-in router of HT2000W; only 1 of 4 SSID's enabled.

[Liz]

Hi Tom,

No new positive updates from engineering regarding speed concerns. 

We are sending over all your complaints and speed test results so that more engineers and upper management are aware that this is still an issue. We also amplify your voices at meetings with upper management whenever we get the chance, so please keep posting.

Your cooperation, patience, and understanding are much appreciated.

[needhelp]

Liz,

Need your help!! We have been with Huges for years but several months ago moved up to Gen5 based on your salespeoples recomendation. It worked fine for the first week or so but then in late Sept. it started having problems and has continued ever since. I know you are aware of these problems  because i have been following this problem here on different threads.

Sometimes, it is getting to be most of the time, our speeds are in the low Kbps, like 10 or 18 or 200. This varies from time to time between both upload/download speeds. In fact the upload speed has been so slow that i cannot sign on because of time outs, etc.

I am probably a little older (maybe a lot older - like 79 LOL) than most  on here so my skills on zipping around checking different things out are not first class. I have talked to tech support and done all the things they have asked including using LAN (?) direct to our laptop. NOTHING changed the speed.. So it would seem that it is a tech issue. That said it is most interesting that if i get up at 3AM or so then most times my speeds are in the 25 Mbps down and 2.5 Mbps down. So it makes me think that perhaps there is an element of an overload problem. The product that you said you would provide would be a fanastic product, if it worked and can see why many people would move to Gen5 like ourselves. Again it is starting to be a problem all most any hour of the day.

Additionally, FYI, my wife is(was) deaf. Thank God and modern medicine she has had a Cochlear implant and now hears probaly better than I do in many situations with the exception of phone calls. We moved to Gen5 partially because of the faster speeds which would allow her to use a captioning phone. We understand all the problems with using phone on the net but even so it still would be a tremendous advantage for both her andiI, especially when people leave a voice message. Well with these speeds it is not working out.

I have read your reply many times about forwarding our (the slow speed) problem and please wait we will get it fixed. With all respedt your answer is begining  to loose credibility because nothing ever happens even after several months. I was a business owner for many years and i can tell you ( I would suggest to your VP of Sales) that your company is layiing the ground work for a very massive - ( I was told  i had to remove the rest of the sentence before i could send this.)  Just some friendly advice. 

Liz, when i write  'you'  I do not mean YOU but rather Hughes. I am sure you  are doing all that you can and that is appreciated very much.

In a nut shell we are located in Northern California Jackson, Suttrer Creek, Plymouth area. i believe we are on beam 54 (?).  We have and do run speed tests using your recommend sites.Our speeds are at times (middle of the night) what they are supposed to be based on Hughes salespeopl. However, in actual fact they are as slow as or slower than the phone line and/or much much slower than  what we bought. (Side note i noticed on a similar thread that someone who appeared to repesent your company made a snarky comment to a custormer that " well read the contract you are not guaranteed the speeds" as advertized.  Bad Bad custofmer service.

I apologize for the long winded comment. I am simply crying out (along with a lot others) for not only some help with this problem but also a fix.  It is time that this gets dealt with by Senior Managment!!

Thanks Liz.  Please prove that you are not a 'bot' (you  youngins term) - LOL   Lets hope I have to write you and say job well done . Thanks!!

Tom

[Liz]

Hi Tom,

I'm glad you found the community, thank you for taking the time to share your experiences and thoughts. As you would expect, I will send your post over to engineering and upper management, just like I have with all the other recent updates and complaints from customers like yourself.

Your diagnostics are fine, so we already know the equipment is not at fault. It would be great if you can start your own topic to share your testmy.net results so we can send those to engineering as well.

Please create a testmy.net account and run 3-5 tests during different parts of the day. Post your test results link in your own thread.

Please keep in mind that Hughesnet will only accept testmy.net and the official Hughesnet speed test results. Tests from other sites like speedtest.net are not accepted due to the compression technologies and latency that satellite deploys.

Most important points to remember during this test:
-do the tests while directly connected to the HughesNet modem with a LAN cable (NO third party Router or Wireless devices can be used)
-use the 25MB size download test file ONLY if on Gen5 Service Plan
-space each test at least 5 minutes apart
-post your results URL, it may look something like http://testmy.net/quickstats/C0RR0SIVE

For a more in depth guide on running the tests, please visit: http://customer.kb.hughesnet.com/Pages/7001.aspx

Your cooperation, patience, and understanding are much appreciated.

[needhelp]

Liz,

Thanks for the reply. I will work on doing the things that you recommended.

Tom

[356]

I am in Santa Cruz County and am served by Beam 54.  I've been a Hughes Net customer since March, 2016 and generally have had connectivity that's in line with target speeds.  Starting a few months ago, we began to notice very slow internet access, but didn't pay much attention to it.  About 6 weeks ago I performed some speed checks using the Hughes Net speed test program and found between .09 - 1mpbs down, and 1 - 3mbps up. 

I also found that in the early morning hours (1:00AM - 5:30AM) I would almost always exceed the target speeds for down and uploads, and get the "blazing fast" internet connection that the Hughes Net TV ads mention.  Then, around 6:30AM connectivity would quickly return to dial-up speeds and remain that way until around 1:00AM again.

I spent more than 1.5 hours on 3 separate calls to tech support, tried all of the recommendations, including connecting directly to the Hughes Net Gen 5 router with an ethernet cable.  Nothing made any impact.  My call was then escalated to "Advanced Tech Support" as a Level 4 escalation.  I was told that I would receive a call back within 48 - 72 hours, and finally received a call back 10 days later.  I was hoping that there would be some advanced troubleshooting, but was told that there was nothing that could be done and that the problem was the result of signing up so many new customers and not having enough server capacity.  I was also told that they were working to add server capacity, and it may be a "few weeks" but there was no commitment or other detail.  Basically I was told that they knew what the problem and were "working on it."

I complained about the dial-up speeds and was offered a 30% reduction in my bill for 6 months.  I commented that a discount on a service that is unusable means nothing, and was then offered the same discount for 1 year. 

I'm very disappointed in Hughes Net.  They had to know that poor service for everyone would be the result of adding new customers without having the infrastructure on-line to serve all their customers, but they did it anyway.  And, they continue to advertise "blazing fast" speeds and sign up new customers.  I suppose they have a business model that tells them that the number of existing customers they lose will be less than the number of new customers they sign up, so overall it's more positive for the bottom line.

So, for those of us on Beam 54, we can expect the dial-up modem speeds of 20 years ago with no end in sight.  But if you can get to a Level 4 escalation to Advanced Tech Support and complain reasonably and firmly, you can get a discount on a service that is pretty much unusable.

I'd really like to hear from the moderator on this thread if I've missed something.

[C0RR0SIVE]

@356

If you signed up in 2016, then it sounds like you are on the older satellite, thus on a different beam than OP is.

[356]

No, I upgraded to Gen 5 in early 2017, and I’ve confirmed that I’m on satellite 19, beam 54. Just did a speed check at 4:00AM and have 45 mbps download.

I was on-line most of yesterday and was seeing between 200kbps and 1mbps download and less than 1mbps upload throughout the day. This is the standard performance these days.

[C0RR0SIVE]

From my understanding Hughesnet is working on expanding gateway capacity right now for several beams, there is no ETA for when the work will be completed.  However, if you wish to continue troubleshooting, then please create a new topic, and in the topic include any troubleshooting you have done, as well as a link to your testmy.net results.

Create a testmy.net account and perform 3-5 tests during different parts of the day.

Please keep in mind that Hughesnet will only accept testmy.net (community) and the official Hughesnet speed test (phone) results. Tests from other sites like speedtest.net are not accepted due to the compression technologies and latency that satellite deploys.

Most important points to remember during this test:
-do the tests while directly connected to the HughesNet modem with a LAN cable (NO third party Router or Wireless devices can be used)
-use the 25MB size download test file ONLY if on Gen5 Service Plan
-If testing upload instead of download, you must use a 4MB size upload test file
-space each test at least 5 minutes apart
-post your results URL here, it may look something like http://testmy.net/quickstats/C0RR0SIVE

For a more in depth guide on running the tests, please visit: http://customer.kb.hughesnet.com/Pages/7001.aspx

The Reps are on M-F from approximately 8AM to 5PM Eastern. They will be the ones to address your speed issues, but they will need these tests to do so.

[356]

Thanks for the response, but I won't be doing any additional troubleshooting.  The Hughes Net Advanced Tech Support representative acknowledged that this is a capacity issue on their side, and also said that there's nothing that more troubleshooting will accomplish. 

[TYGRHobbes]

Is it a coincidence that beam 54 is having the exact same problems that beam 55 is having and that they serve adjacent geographical areas? Or are they completely unrelated to each other?