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Gen5 same fate as Gen4

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skybox
Sophomore

Gen5 same fate as Gen4

I'm glad to read that Gen5's speed is currently working as advertised. One of the reasons I'm not going to do the upgrade is because of the fear that it will only be a matter of time before Hugesnet over books the Gen5 satellite and I'll be back to where I'm at now with Gen4 - throttling the bandwidth to accommodate customer saturation. As most of us are well aware we can't even stream in standard definition with Gen4 because there isn't enough bandwidth to go around. Yet we all pay for data plans that have the capability of doing so if it weren't for the fact that we get throttled everytime we attempt to stream. Keep in mind, I pay for a 15 Mbps speed but can't even get 17 percent of that speed to stream a program that only requires 2 Mbps. Again, reason being is Hugesnet oversells the capacity of its satellites. So for you folks that are jumping on board the Gen5 bandwagon it will be interesting to hear back what kind of speed you're getting one year from now after they load the satellite down with more customers than it's designed to accommodate. Just like we now experience with Gen4 you'll be hearing the same excuses and sales pitch to purchase a larger plan. As mentioned it only takes 2 Mpbs to adequately download a SD program and only 5 to get HD. So if you have a data plan that should give you up to 15 Mbps ask yourself why you can't even get 17 percent of your paid plan to stream a SD program without frequent buffering or resolution even lower than SD? The answer one more time is overbooking which forces throttling. I ask any of the moderators to chime in here I would welcome a debate on this issue.

9 REPLIES 9
donsjgm
Junior

Hi skybox,

 

I haven't switched to Gen5 and like you am waiting to see how it performs in the future.

So far, users are reporting a significant improvement.

I, personally, have little complaint about Gen4.

While there are vast fluctuations in speed from peak to off-peak periods, Gen4 has served me well and the speeds have been acceptable.

IMHO, When someone, such as yourself, is having speeds SO far below the threshold of the system's capabilities, I believe there is a problem within either your installation or within your computer or home network.

Gwalk, is a champion in troubleshooting things regarding these areas.

I'm not as active in the community anymore but will also assist in any way that I can.

 

Best wishes,

 

Don  🙂

 

 

Gwalk900
Honorary Alumnus

I can only say that there are many reasons not to be able to stream besides "overbooking", "lack of bandwidth" or "greed".

While it is true that Spaceway-3 is saturated and ES17 is heavily loaded not all beams on ES17 are in that condition. My Beam (13) and Gateway (FLG/Flagstaff AZ) continue to provide service beyond plan limits.

Moving forward we can expect Spaceway-3 (HN9000 service) to be mostly...evacuated. We can expect to see Hughes continue to upgrade the 17 known Gateways and the (at least) 2 newly added "Gen5" Gateways to "Gen5 standards.

Over time the load on ES17 will drop overall. The actual Beams that are overloaded will have their load reduced. We also have to remember that we really don't know  ... across the board..... just where the ES17/Gen4 chokepoint is. The Sat Beam can have ample capacity but have Gateway and/or individual  plan server issues.

These are complex systems and the issues will get worked out, it just won't get done in the next 20 minutes.

Even though ES19 will take over most SP-3 duties and load balancing of ES17 it will be several years before Echostar19 reaches saturation.

The excuse of not upgrading due to ES19 will at some point be overloaded is just ridiculous.

Offers to troubleshoot the OP's issue were rebuffed. The OP doesn't seem to accept or understand that there are many levels of "support", some are scripted, some may be at the "Geek Squad" level.

Mostly though .... the OP is now primarily just Sour Grapes.

 

Make whine out of that while watching videos.

 

I guess now I'll go run a couple of movies on my "overloaded" Gen4 system.

 

 

 

Thanks Don,

 

All the equipment checks have been accomplished on three seperate occassions. I also did speed tests for the tec folks. In each instance the tecs acknowledged that everything is woking fine.  I took your advice and sent Liz a PM but have not yet heard back from her.

 

Best

Re my experience with Netflix. I only had a base plan w/Gen 4 and didn't try to do much streaming, mainly because my wife was getting upset with all the stops and starts when trying to watch after dinner.

Went to our winter place in Florida with Comcast 15 Mb/s plan and switched back to streaming from the DVD plan we had moved to watch movies. UhOh, same problem with Comcast cable as on the HNS Gen 4. Apparenly its not a satellite issue, just overloaded systems.

Back to my rural WNC home and upgrade to GEN5 with 25 Mb and 50 Gb plan, tech measured 102 sig strngth.. Speeds during nonprime are great  >15 Mb/s and no buffering on Netflix. BUT when my wife and I try at 8PM...buffering again. This is so frustrating. Certainly Gen 5 isn't already overloaded? While watching, I frequently check the speed using Networx, which gives a 5 sec avg speed whenever I mouse over. Usually only at 80 KB/s or less. Thats about 800 Kb/s. 

I hope improvements to the Gateways will help before "Frank & Gracie" restarts.

BirdDog
Assistant Professor


@skybox wrote:

As mentioned it only takes 2 Mpbs to adequately download a SD program and only 5 to get HD. So if you have a data plan that should give you up to 15 Mbps ask yourself why you can't even get 17 percent of your paid plan to stream a SD program without frequent buffering or resolution even lower than SD? The answer one more time is overbooking which forces throttling. I ask any of the moderators to chime in here I would welcome a debate on this issue.


You haven't provided a link to a real test history from what I've seen. Even when my speed is in the trash I can stream from Netflix at low definitition. I choose not to do SD simply for data savings.

 

You also haven't said what site you're trying to stream SD from. The server load capability does make a difference also.

 

As you can see here my speed is really up and down. Even at the very low speed results I can do NetFlix on low definition with no buffering. Does take about 60-90 seconds to load.

 

http://testmy.net/quickstats/BirdDog2017

 

Oh, I'm Gen4 BTW.

BirdDog
Assistant Professor

My speed result and watching Penny Dreadful:

 

speed.JPGPenny.JPG

 

Yes, a bit slow to start but absolutely no buffering once it does.

 

Again, can you provide some real test history and where you are trying to stream SD from? My speed really isn't an issue as I can do whatever I want even at low speed. Yeah, large file downloads I wait till I get the higher speed.

 

Are you saying you get 700 Kbps speed all the time?

maratsade
Distinguished Professor IV

"I'm glad to read that Gen5's speed is currently working as advertised. One of the reasons I'm not going to do the upgrade is because of the fear that it will only be a matter of time before Hugesnet over books the Gen5 satellite and I'll be back to where I'm at now with Gen4 - throttling the bandwidth to accommodate customer saturation. As most of us are well aware we can't even stream in standard definition with Gen4 because there isn't enough bandwidth to go around."

 

I never had this problem with Gen 4 and I'm not having it with Gen 5 either. I wonder if this is related to where you live.  I haven't been throttled in over a decade, and I stream frequently (streamed with Gen 4, stream with Gen 5).  Again, maybe this is a regional thing. Here's hoping things will improve for you.

Racer74
New Member

I just "upgraded" to Gen 5 2 weeks ago anticipating using Roku and other TV apps for viewing, to eliminate Directv satellite at $140 a month. Surprise, surprise, surprise. Gen 5 sucks big time just like Gen 4. I started out barely getting 2 or 3 gb download speed, been complaining constantly to tech support. In the last few days, a.m. speed came up to an average of  19.7, short of the 25 promised. Upload speeds generally are okay, at the 3 or so advertised. However, p.m. and evening speeds have average 7.8 the last 4 days. Hardly close to the 25 I'm supposed to get. Many streaming TV shows are interrupted, continually buffer, etc. Gen 5 is a lie just like Gen 4. Unfortunately, where I live this is the only game in town. I'm stuck with a system that sucks big time.

GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV


@Racer74 wrote:

I just "upgraded" to Gen 5 2 weeks ago anticipating using Roku and other TV apps for viewing, to eliminate Directv satellite at $140 a month. Surprise, surprise, surprise. Gen 5 sucks big time just like Gen 4. I started out barely getting 2 or 3 gb download speed, been complaining constantly to tech support. In the last few days, a.m. speed came up to an average of  19.7, short of the 25 promised. Upload speeds generally are okay, at the 3 or so advertised. However, p.m. and evening speeds have average 7.8 the last 4 days. Hardly close to the 25 I'm supposed to get. Many streaming TV shows are interrupted, continually buffer, etc. Gen 5 is a lie just like Gen 4. Unfortunately, where I live this is the only game in town. I'm stuck with a system that sucks big time.


The 25Mpbs is an "Up To" speed.  There is no guarantee, nor promise, of any speed.  ISPs generally try to make sure one has at least 60% of the advertised up to speed, but mitigating factors, like congestion, can affect it, as well as a litany of other things, including your equipment and network setup.  But, there may be things that can be done to improve the speed.   

 

With that said, HughesNet isn't made for general cord cutting.  You may find that relying on it for your regular TV viewing, if that is your intention, doesn't work very well as you may run out of data VERY quickly, especially if streaming in HD.  

 

And, with THAT said, if you'd like to address your speed issues you should start your own thread to do so.