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Hughesnet WIFI and HP chromebook

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sepmeier
Sophomore

Hughesnet WIFI and HP chromebook

Ok, tech folks at Hughesnet - here’s an odd one. It’s two problems that may be related. I’ve got 40 years of satellite background and 30 years internet experience, but no spectrum analyzer or test equipment anymore - retired - but maybe you can sort it out.

I’ve had Hughesnet for a year or so. It works well most of the time. But - here’s where it gets odd.

My kid is enrolled in online school due to the covid this year. Things were fine until last October. Out of the blue, her HP chromebook was dumped off the wifi and has never been able to log back in on the 2ghz feed. It tries and delivers an error message that the wifi signal is too weak. Switched to the 5ghz wifi channel and - no problem. Well, I needed to replace it anyway so, I did. It worked fine - for about 24 hours. Then - exactly the same problem happened again and remains a problem. She’s ok on the 5ghz wifi - I just switched the wireless printer to the 5gig signal so she can print as required. Our other devices (the printer, an old HP desktop, two smartphones of different brands) work fine on the 2ghz wifi.

My guess is that google updated the chrome operating system / drivers in October, since both the old machine and brand new one failed identically. (The new one probably updated after taking it out of the box and turning it on. Google does that without saying anything about it.). That update probably has a bug. Second guess is that Hughesnet updated something in the satellite IDU modem. I’ve looked in the admin config and it won’t let me change the wifi channel anymore - if it ever did. Google specifically lists a couple of channels to avoid / channel 6 specifically. I can’t tell what channel the Hughesnet wifi is on - it just says “automatic” under channel selection. That would explain the “low signal” (it isn’t low) - if there’s some issue with chrome on some channels. (It actually presents like interference - I’ve seen people place a 2.4ghz cordless phone on top of or next to a wifi modem and suddenly get similar errors on Mac product.)

Anyway - that’s one issue.

The other is totally random day and night Hughesnet wifi resets that shut down the wifi entirely - both 2 and 5 ghz channels / for a minute. It then comes back up. It seems to be something Hughesnet can “see” remotely / I have posted about this once before and “Liz” at Hughesnet sent a new IDU / modem without my even asking. But - if didn’t solve the issue.

We have noticed that the Hughesnet IDU modem wifi resets SEEM to correlate with the proximity of the HP chromebook(s) to the Hughesnet IDU. If they’re operating on the same floor of the house, the wifi resets happen - and more often. Remember, they’re on the 5G channels - but if within 15’ or so the wifi resets far more often than when the chromes ard on the lower floor and laterally 25’ away from the IDU.

SOOOO - I suspect these two problems - the chromebooks not being able to use the 2g wifi at all and the Hughesnet resets - are related. I’m guessing it has to do with the chrome / google issues with channel 6 on the 2g service. But without test gear I’m stuck.

Can Hughesnet change the 2G wifi frequency to some other channel - if it’s on 6 or 11, maybe to the furthest channel away?

I’ve got Hughesnet telephone service so you have my number. You can also email.

Thanks!

Bill
27 REPLIES 27

Hi Mark,

It’s an odd situation.

My IDU firmware is ver 0.10.10 boot code is 1.1.4.8 and hardware is R01.

I just got slowed down because me daughter used up the data token. AGAIN. LoL But that doesn’t affect these issues - in case anybody looks at the IDU remotely.

I really would look at your code to see if there’s a difference between the 5G and 2G handshake - since one works and the other doesn’t. Google maybe only updated the 2G though snd if they update the 5G there are going to be real problems in schools ...

If it’s google - well - thry have engineers. I know Tim Warner there but last I heard he ran Asia. Your people have to have connections.

Again - my two are HP brand chromes.

Best,

B

Well, I'm just a retired HN customer, albeit a long-timer on a Mac. Any connections I may have had are in Defense. lol

 

My wife has a Chromebook for work, but I don't let it on the local network because everything on it is network-access, meaning lots of pings and high network usage - as you've no doubt found out.

 

Not sure where those numbers are coming from, but my 2000W is running software version 7.3.0.13 with wifi software 0.10.10. You can check it from here using any machine on your local network. Ignore the fallback software version, that's what I think it uses out of the box or if it's completely reset.


Edit: Lol... Did I really call it a 9000W? #blastfromthepast No idea where that came from.


* 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.

Mark,

I clicked that link and my versions are the same as yours. 7.3.0.13 and 0.10.10.

I haven't read back... have you tried powering the modem off then on (remove power at the brick or wall, wait a minute, then re-power it)?


* 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.

Probably should read from the beginning - we are way past that. Yes. That was the first thing (repeated many times). I posted once before about the wifi dropouts, too - Liz sent a replacement IDU. Since then I’ve observed the two (I think related) issues and posted a detailed note at the top of this conversation yesterday.

I’ve checked everything I can given my access to the system and limited test equipment. AC power is clean - verified by scope. I don’t have a spectrum analyzer to look at the wifi RF but short of that we’ve isolated the situation by eliminating variables -

Read the thread and contributions from the three other folks - one a Hughesnet installer - it’s not just me.

Yeah, not denying it seem repeatable. Again, it seems like it's pretty much limited to some incompatibility with the Chromebook.

 

Seem to remember that years ago the HN engineers investigated a problem with Apple networking and were able to provide a simple environment variable to help solve it. Perhaps it's something simple like that for Chromebook. All these boxes are based on some distro of Linux so...


* 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.

I try to only bring up the issues that are a pain ... 😆

I’m getting the impression it’s a widespread chrome issue that has just been addressed by switching them to the 5G wifi - but if google updates that and nukes it like the 2g - well - there are a lot of them in homes and schools now - and if Hughes suddenly has to field entire rural schools and all the online covid school kids at home - well - it’s a situation I would try to get on and ahead of ASAP, having been a global ISP back in the day.