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Huge Issues with Speed at HughesNet... switched from Exede

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dirtred9
Sophomore

Huge Issues with Speed at HughesNet... switched from Exede

I am extremely frustrated with the speeds at HughesNet. I was originally with Exede and broke contract with them to come over here. At the time I was getting 18mbps download and 18gb data with Exede but needed something closer to 25mbs speed for work. I am a field-based employee and have to have fast internet to function for work. I currently have 25mbps and 50gb data with HughesNet, or am supposed to.

 

I switched to HughesNet and it has been a disaster. I refuse to talk to anyone on the phone because they aren't helpful and are rarely knowledgable enough to help fix the issue. Plus they are impossible to understand.

 

I cannot send large files and cannot be sent large files... latency issues and things time out. Also, streaming any content online is impossible. It plays for a few seconds, buffers for multiple minutes, then plays for a few seconds, and then buffers for a few minutes. The other night I tried to allow my daughter to watch a Disney Junior show on our AppleTV... it took 70 minutes to watch an entire 22 minute episode.

 

To add insult to injury, I did a test last night. I got on my AppleTV and tried to stream a basketball game and was unsuccessful. It stopped and buffered every couple of seconds and the image quality was so poor I couldn't even make out the different teams. But here's the bad part... I simultaneously streamed the same game on my phone while using the cellular signal and not the wifi, and had ZERO problems. Watched the entire game. At halftime, I ran speed tests. Wifi (HughesNet) was showing speeds upwards of 20mbps... my cellular signal was showing speeds around 4mbps. Yet I watched the entire game on my phone and never had an uninterrupted stream with wifi for longer than 10 seconds.

 

This is it. I need this fixed immediately. Forget the streaming issues, I cannot function at work and that is a real problem. There are quite a few employees at my company that are field-based and I have steered them away from HughesNet because of all the issues. I will be directing them to Exede.

28 REPLIES 28
C0RR0SIVE
Associate Professor

What beam and which satellite are you on?  You can find this information at http://192.168.0.1/#!/home/information

 

Right now, there is a known performance issue that impacts beams 068, 055, and I think 039 might have some issues as well.

When streaming, you should try to stream at 480P or lower, if you wish to stream at resolutions higher than that, you must disable the Video Data Saver feature on your account, you can find more about that here.

As far as speeds, they are advertised as upto and are not guaranteed.

Echostar 19 NAD and beam 104.

 

I appreciate your reply, but that is the worst customer service response anyone in your position could provide. "The speeds are "upto and not guaranteed..." really? Is that the legal way you get around charging people and providing a service below what is advertised? If that truly is the company's response to dissastisfied customers who have real issues, switching over was really the wrong choice.

 

As stated in my initial post, the speed readings are pointless. HughesNet was showing speeds of 20+mbps and my cellular signal was showing speeds of 4 mbps. HughesNet I can't stream anything yet on my phone I can stream whatever I want with the cellular signal. Would you care to explain to me how that is possible?

 

Also, since there are "known" issues with beams and what not, what is HughesNet doing to remedy the customers who are having issues? I didn't see my beam on the list provided, but I bet that is the issue. When I run a test on multiple different sites, it takes at least 30 seconds before the ping even starts.

 

Please let me know if this situation can be remedied or if I need to look for internet from another provider.

C0RR0SIVE
Associate Professor

@dirtred9,

Not a Hughesnet employee, if you read the Hughesnet Community Terms of Service & Guidelines, you will see that you will typically get a reply from other customers, and that the only employees are marked as Moderators, Employees, Reps, and Admins.

As far as streaming, if you had read what I stated, you would see that could very well be the cause of your streaming issue, did you disable VDS, or lower your resolution?

 

Aside from that, if you are concerned about speeds, you should create a testmy.net account and perform 3-5 tests during different parts of the day. Then share the account results link with us here.

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 (other sized tests will be rejected)

-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.

Corrosive,

 

I'm sorry, I thought you were part of the customer service team. Nevertheless, why are you responding? Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the replies, but if you don't work for HughesNet why do you care?

 

I'm still confused what a speed test will do to help solve my issues. According to multiple different tests on mulitple different sites, including the HughesNet speed test itself, my speeds have always been "adequate." Despite the reading, I still can't stream. Hence why I don't understand what's going on.

 

But I will try and do as you say and provide the results.

Right now there are 2 regular admins here. Clearly not enough to deal with the volume of users on the site. They opened the site for volunteers, and we each bring own unique technical expertise in various areas to assist where and when we can. More importantly, we've all been where the other customers have been at one point or another. So it's very unique in that regard.

 

As far as doing speed tests, there are various reasons for doing them:
1. First and foremost it validates that there is a baseline speed problem.

2. It quantifies the nature of problem by time of day (is it the same all day, does it decrease over time, etc.) and over the course of a single download (does it start fast and die out, does it spurt and sputter, is there execessive latency, etc.); as well as the severity.

3. It allows engineers to look at the big picture - not only one user, but one in many on a single gateway, IPGW, outroute, etc.; as well as the path to different servers (if testmy is used).

 

I'm sure there are other reasons, but these are the important ones that come to mind.

 

Streaming brings a more complex problem, because if the baseline speed is fine and there is no latency, then there could be a problem with the way the streaming protocol is handled, it could be a problem with the path to the stream provider upstream, and it could just be server overload at the stream provider - not an easy thing to isolate, but speed tests eliminate one factor.

 

Hope this helps.


* Disclaimer: I am a HughesNet customer and not a HughesNet employee. All of my comments are my own and do not necessarily represent HughesNet in any way.

http://testmy.net/quickstats/dirtred9

 

Here is my testmy page. I am still having the same issue. I tried again tonight to stream something and ZERO success. I turned off the video data saver again like I had done before, but that didn't help.

 

To further add insult to injury, I turned on my work hotspot (Sprint) and normally get horrible service where I live. When I turned on the hotspot, I had 1 bar of coverage. Nonetheless, I connected the device to the hotspot, went to Netflix, and was able to stream a Christmas movie for my girls in 720P with absolutely no issue. Again, could not even stream with HughesNet service in 480 at all... kept timing out.

 

I will continue to do speed tests, but outside of the crazy 40mbps at 11:20 the other night, most have been an average of 3-5mbps. This is unacceptable. I should not have to be paying for the quality of this service.

Speeds have been pretty good throughout the day today. I just turned on Netflix and was able to stream a movie in 720P.

 

I will continue to test and see if I can isolate the issues to the evening times...

I am not with HughesNet, just a customer like you.

I just had HughesNet installed, and after 1 day, I had internet outage and called tech support.  They said the problem was with the install.  They wanted like $150 to come out and then $125/hour to fix it.  The problem was on my end.  Then, I explained it was just installed, and that they would fix for free.  Then all of a sudden, everything was fine, no reason for someone to come out.

OK, same problem 1 week and 2 weeks later.(Bis Acct) needinternet that is as fast as possible.  My business has lost $3000 over the last 2 weeks due to poor internet.  I called tech support, and again, problem was on my end, pay the fees to fix.etc.  I said, I have had this for less than 30 days, and then, we will fix for free.  Then, again, oh...no problems on your end, everything is working fine....no reason to have someone come out and fix (when it was free, but when my problem...pay up).

I am just about to cancel this service.  I love it at times, but lossing $3000 in business is going to kill me.  I can not totally blame this on HughesNet, as my verizon tether service crapped out as well with the outage I had yesterday, but when tech support says there is a problem on my install, and have to pay for service, but all of a sudden everythign is fine and I don't need a repair...let's just say I don't think I can trust their tech support.  Do I have a problem or not??? Just tell me the truth.

Gregg

 

GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV

@Gregg

 

I don't know if you'll be able to find help here as you have a business account and this community is for residential customers.  But, with that said, you may still want to create your own topic to separate you issue from the OPs.  The reps may steer you in the right direction.  

What is also now interesting, is this community is for residential customers?  Then why is my business account at this site?

It seems to me, if I wanted to separate business from residential service, then why would you put my account here with all the residential customers?

TY, Gregg

GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV


@Gregg wrote:

What is also now interesting, is this community is for residential customers?  Then why is my business account at this site?

It seems to me, if I wanted to separate business from residential service, then why would you put my account here with all the residential customers?

TY, Gregg


This community is for any HughesNet customer, but when it comes to technical or billing issues, business customers need to contact business account support.  

Well, going on 3 weeks since I first posted my issue and I have yet to have anyone from HN contact me or even reply to this thread. I am still having horrible speeds between 5:00 and 11:00 pm to the point I can't do anything via the internet. This is the time of evening we occassionally like to sit down and watch something as a family on Netflix, but that CANNOT happen between those hours. Streaming does not exist during that time frame.

 

Just absolutely horrible service and customer service. Pathetic...

@GabeU

@C0RR0SIVE

 

I still have yet to have anyone from HughesNet repond to this thread and try to fix the issue? I've posted my test.my results and am having the same issues... slow speeds at night and no way to stream. What do I have to do to get someone to respond or try to fix the issue? Why is this problem continually going on?

 

Do the staff at HughesNet realize how frustrating it is to pay $120+ a month and not be able to watch a show or movie with my family in the evening when we are all home together? Or not be able to download any files for work in the evenings because it takes so long? Please someone... ANYONE... give me a valid reason why I continually have horrible speeds between the hours of 4:00 and 10:00PM?!?!

GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV

@dirtred9

 

I will tag the reps so that they will be sure to see this thread.  I hope that they soon reply and help you.  

 

@Liz

@Amanda

Hi dirtred9,

 

Welcome to the community and thank you for posting and providing speed tests. Please check your private messages in the top right corner of the community page as I've sent you a PM to further address your concerns.

 

If you have a tech or billing question and need help, please start a new thread in the appropriate board. Unsolicited Private Messages may not get replies.

Slow performance? Click me!

Hi dirtred9, Please check your PMs, I've updated you on your dispatch. -Liz
If you have a tech or billing question and need help, please start a new thread in the appropriate board. Unsolicited Private Messages may not get replies.

Slow performance? Click me!

@Liz

 

Please check my message to you. The technician showed up and claimed everything was fixed. It is not fixed. I am not able to stream anything... tried both yesterday and today. I just ran a TestMy test and got 1.4mbps.

Good morning dirtred9,

 

Thank you for this update. Testmy.net recently made a change on their site that affects the results. Can you post your Ookla results? Were these tests run while directly plugged into the HughesNet modem? If not, please run some tests while plugged directly into the modem. I've run diagnostics on your site, and the equipment is running normally. Looking forward to hearing back.

 

 

If you have a tech or billing question and need help, please start a new thread in the appropriate board. Unsolicited Private Messages may not get replies.

Slow performance? Click me!

As much as I'd like to think that HughesNet, Exede, and the other companies out there are here to help instead of make a quick buck, it's just simply not the truth. That is why they rope you into a 2-year contract and make it almost impossible to get out.

 

The reality is that HughesNet knows they have issues and there isn't anything they can do to fix it. After reading quite a few threads on this forum, have you noticed how many hoops a customer has to jump through just to get someone to help diagnose a problem? Only use this website, only run a speed test this way, etc. And then they ask questions to string along the thread that further increases the time it takes to actually a) figure out what the problem is and b) try to fix it. But after reading others on this forum, I don't think HughesNet actually fixes anything. 

 

It is very frustrating from a customer point of view and there is little we can do. I would suggest dropping your service and going with someone like Exede. I didn't have any issues with them but switched to HughesNet because they offered larger data packages. Now Exede offers the same thing... and I never had the speed issues with them as I do with HughesNet.

 

Very disappointing...

GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV

@dirtred9

 

I have to say, that's complete and utter nonsense.  

 

The beams having the present speed issues are acknowledged and being worked on, as is evidenced by the posts from the official reps.  

 

As for others having speed issues, tests need to be run, on certain sites (accuracy and info), and in certain ways (baseline info), to not only verify the problem, but point to the cause of it.  The further questions also help to pinpoint the cause of the issue.  All speed issues are not caused by a single thing.  Figuring out what is causing them takes time and effort.  There is no "Easy Fix It" button.   

 

Hughesnet isn't unique in having a contract.  Numerous companies do.