Gen4 Slowing Down - Is This Intentional To Push Us To Gen5?

[mk2]

Hello everyone. We have been Hughes customers since it was Direcway. Overall we have been very satisfied with service and support. We are on Gen4, the old Ultra Plan which gives us 50 GB of everyday data and 50 GB of extra data plus some tokens per month. It's a great plan and we have never been FAP slowed down. We figured that when Gen5 launched, Gen4 would be less crowded. Our download speeds on the "Testmy" site sometimes got up to 29 MBs, but usually stayed around 15 to 20 MBs down. Upload was slow, sometimes not even  getting to 1 MB, but this did not interfer with our streaming and system use. We watched movies and streamed many of the latest shows and sports with no issues.

Over the past couple months, download speeds have decreased, and the speed is erratic. Starts out on the test site as very fast, then comes to a stop, then starts again, etc. When the results get averaged out, speed is sometimes less than 1 MB. This does stop our streaming, ordering online, etc. 

When I look at plans available in my area, the plans are much smaller, albeit cheaper as well. Since the Gen5 satellite is in a different location than our Gen4, we would need to move the dish and pole farther from the house and lay new cable underground. This would be the third Hughes/Direcway pole we would cement into our yard. We live in a wooded area, which causes this issue.

Bottom line question; Is Gen4 being slowed down and is it going away? We were very satisfied with it, with no need to move to Gen5. However, if it keeps going downhill, we will need to do something. BTW, I believe we have an HT 1100 modem. Maybe that is the issue? Is Gen6 coming?

Thank you for your patience and support.

[tmiller1958]

IMO, at some point they will disable the Gen4 satellite and force everyone to "upgrade". I wish I had waited til then... 
Get ready to be forced to buy tokens because you'll exceed your data in short order...  You'll get all sorts of explanations as to why the new Gen5 system is different, i.e. data loss etc...  Seems to me the new modem intentionally cycles through your data on its own to force the purchase of tokens.

[GabeU]

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@tmiller1958 wrote:

IMO, at some point they will disable the Gen4 satellite and force everyone to "upgrade". I wish I had waited til then... 
Get ready to be forced to buy tokens because you'll exceed your data in short order...  You'll get all sorts of explanations as to why the new Gen5 system is different, i.e. data loss etc...  Seems to me the new modem intentionally cycles through your data on its own to force the purchase of tokens.

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And you'd be wrong on all points.  And please keep in mind that this is a Support Community, as in a community for those seeking help and those wanting to provide it.  This isn't social media, so please don't treat it as such.

[mk2]

Thank you for the replies. I believe I may have created an account on the "testmy" site. However, it was a while ago and I did not see a need to be running the tests as required since we did not have any real issues. I will need to do this to get the information to the company support reps. I was also interested if anybody else was experiencing what we have seen on Gen4. The old Ultra plan is not cheap, but the amount of data available cannot be beat. We never ran out!

Thanks again.

[GabeU]

@mk2 

If you've forgotten what your account was, they've got a "forgot your password?" thing on the sign in page that uses the email address you signed up with. It should send your password, or a password reset link.  

The main reason they ask for the tests to be run under an account is that it holds all of the results on a single page, which makes it much easier for the reps to see patterns, as well as being able to quickly click on individual results to see their particular aspects.  It's just easier for them than clicking on a bunch of individual result links and having to compile the results from them in order to see a pattern.  

And no, if you were lucky enough to get the Ultra Plan I would definitely stick with it.  By the time I signed up for Gen4 that plan wasn't available, if it ever even was in my area.  The 50/50 plan may have been, but maybe not for the Ultra Plan price.  The Ultra Plan was only available in select areas.

Edit.  I had to retype the middle sentences.  I have no clue why the system blanked out much of that part and added a bleep.  I've seen glitches over the years on this site, but that's a new one.  Very odd.  So, if you see that in a reply notification in your email, just disregard it.  

[mk2]

Good evening, So I ran tests, both download and upload throughout the day. I ran upload just to see the results. They are fairly consistent except for the final 5 run about 8:30 PM, EDT. The download times vary a lot. None of them, regardless of time of day, are as fast as we used to sustain a couple months ago.

Here is the URL for my results. https://testmy.net/quickstats/northfriend

I go by the name northfriend. 

Anyway, what do you all think? IMO, I know I am paying a little more than $100/month so my speeds should be better than I am getting. Lowest was 1.65 MBs down, with most around 2 or so. 

Again, thanks for your input. 

[GabeU]

@mk2 

Those tests should provide the reps with some good information to go by.  I can only speak for myself, but those speeds definitely do look low.  Hopefully they can do something fairly easy, like some sort of remote adjustment. 

Hopefully they'll reply tomorrow.  🙂  

[Liz]

Hi mk2,

I see it's your first post here, so welcome to the community! I pulled up your account to run diagnostics, and it looks like the dish alignment went out of whack. I'm sending a complimentary tech to fix that for you, and to update your modem. Your dispatch is currently scheduled for our earliest available slot: Wednesday, Jul 3, 2019 between 08:00 AM-11:00 AM. The tech will reach out to confirm the visit, so you can use that opportunity to reschedule if needed. Please let us know how the site visit goes.

[mk2]

Hello Liz,

Thank you for your post and follow up. Yes, the Hughesnet tech did come today to our place, on time as promised. He was courteous, and very helpful. He indicated that some new tree growth was probably interfering with the signal. It was hot and buggy out, as we live in the woods. But he worked hard, and we got the tree branches trimmed off. In fact, he did most of the difficult stuff. He then realigned the dish and installed a new HT2000 modem. I have since run some tests on the "testmy" site. The results started slow, but they seem to be speeding up. In fact, I know this sounds crazy, but I had two download results at 35 MBs and 54 MBs. Most have been in the 18 to 20 range. I will conduct the tests using the proper techniques and post the results within the next couple days. Thanks to our tech support gentleman, you and the community. 

Have a nice holiday everybody! (those that are celebrating)

[Liz · Accepted solution]

Hi mk2,

Thanks for your update, that sounds great! Glad the tech was able to confirm that the tree growth was also a factor. I had an inkling that could be it too since you mentioned this issue started a few months ago. When it gets warmer out, we tend fo get more cases like this, all because the leaves are growing back. I'll leave this thread open for a bit to let you post any further findings.

[mk2]

Thank you Liz. Everything seems to be running better. Most download tests are running in the upper teens or low twenties MBs. We were able to stream a show Saturday evening. It only stopped to buffer once, right at the end. It may have been the site (Direct TV) and it may have nothing to do with Hughesnet. Not sure which.  As far as I am concerned, this thread can be closed. 

Peace to all.

northfriend

[Liz]

Hi mk2,

Thanks for this update! You're very welcome, I'm just glad we were able to help. Don't hesitate to drop by again if you need any assistance.

[GabeU]

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@mk2 wrote: 

Bottom line question; Is Gen4 being slowed down and is it going away? We were very satisfied with it, with no need to move to Gen5. However, if it keeps going downhill, we will need to do something. BTW, I believe we have an HT 1100 modem. Maybe that is the issue? Is Gen6 coming? 

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No.  Gen4 is not being slowed down and it's not going away any time soon.  They aren't doing anything untoward in order to get people to upgrade to Gen5, which might actually be on the very same satellite, as in the Echostar 17, which is the satellite you're on, as it provides service to some Gen5 users, as well.  As well, the HT1100 modem is fine, and they still provide them to people who need to swap out their older HT1000, or to those having issues with their HT1100, so they aren't going anywhere.  

The reason the Gen5 plans available to you are smaller is because HughesNet is limiting the plans available when a beam and/or gateway starts to fill up with subscribers.  It's likely that when Gen5 first came out there was a 50GB plan available to you, but as time went on that plan disappeared because of your beam and/or gateway getting more filled up with said subscribers. 

But, back to your issue, if you'd like the reps to take a look at what's going on with your speed, they'll need a few speed test results.  The instructions for the speed testing are below.

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To help the HughesNet Customer Service Reps get a head start on your speed concerns, please create a testmy.net account (if you do not already have one) and, while signed into that account, perform a batch of 3-5 tests during different parts of the day, then share the account results link with us here.

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 manual 12MB size download test file  
-If testing upload instead of download, use the manual 4MB size upload test file
-space each test at least 5 minutes apart
-post your testmy results URL here, it may look something like http://testmy.net/quickstats/yourusername

For a more in depth guide on running the tests, please see this site.

The Reps are on M-F from approximately 9AM to 5PM Eastern. They will be the ones to address your speed issues, but they will need these tests to do so.