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I'm surprised at all of the complaints. I'm a very happy customer.

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pacetree
Junior

I'm surprised at all of the complaints. I'm a very happy customer.

I've been a customer for three months and I must say I'm very happy!  I was concerned at first due to slow speeds with my existing Wi-Fi router.  I was only getting 2-3mbps and I pay for the 15mbps service.  I did some research and replaced my router, then BOOM!  I hardly ever get less than 28-30mbps downstream speedtests.  This is replacing a Horrible Frontier DSL which could give me 1mbps down on a good day.  The latency can be a little annoying with the VOIP, but I get you can't change the speed of RF in space!  The audio quality is always better than the old land line ever was.  We just experienced a glancing blow from Hurricane Matthew, and only had spotty internet and phone for about 1 hour out the 10 or so of heavy rain.  I never thought I would have this speed of internet access out in the middle of nowhere where I live.  I'm loving it.  Now if only my data allowance would include a few hundred gig a month! 
15 REPLIES 15
maratsade
Distinguished Professor IV

Very happy customer here too.  I've had issues over the past 12 years, but they have been minor and got resolved quickly. The good has outweighed the not so good for me, but I get it that this is not everyone's experience.
477phyllis
New Member

I'm happy too but want to hear more about your new router, and what brand was the old one.
BirdDog
Assistant Professor

Agree, that would be very helpful information to share.
williamtobler
New Member

I ended up with both Frontier DSL and Hughes and I am going to keep it that way.  My DSL is typically 11Mbps down and 1 up.  My Gen4 is 20Mbps down and 2 up.  However, the low latency of DSL gives a snappier performance.  The DSL is not as reliable as I thought, and I get outages that last a day or two every 2 or 3 weeks.  So, with one switch of an Ethernet cable, I am on the other service. Email and internet connection is important to my life style, and with the two ISPs, things have worked out well.

BTW, Verizon was the previous phone service before Frontier, and they WOULD NOT provide DSL after many, many years.  So Verizon left Michigan providing landlines, and good riddance.  Frontier is much better service at half the price.

Gwalk900
Honorary Alumnus

Phylis,
Whenever anyone has a speed issue it is suggested that they, during the testing phase, remove the router and connect a single computer directly to the modem.
After doing so they should create an account at testmy.net and run a series of speed tests using the manual 12 MB sized test. Space the tests at least 5 minutes apart ... around 3 tests in a series, and try for three of those test groupings in 24 hours. Early, mid-day and late. This will point out if speed issues are chronic or traffic related. Either way, with documentation the issue can be escalated to engineering if sub-par.

The above will provide a baseline performance of your system with the fewest number of variables.
Once that is established we can troubleshoot further.
There are just a BUNCH of router and adapter settings that can drastically affect your speed.

 
BirdDog
Assistant Professor

Would still like to know the make/model of old versus new router OP mentioned. Something between the two sure made a huge difference. Would be interesting if something as simple as the default address setting. Again, helpful information.
pacetree
Junior

Yes, I should have posted the router info.  Old one was a Linksys EA6300.  The symptoms acted almost like there was a speed mismatch on the uplink port to the ATA.  Like there were collisions occurring or something.  There was no way to lock the port speed on this Linksys.  The new one, which really isn't that new, in fact its a model from a few years ago.  Is a Netgear AC750.  Its a fairly simple router but it seems to work well with the HT1100 and the Cisco ATA on my Hughes Net connection.
pacetree
Junior

I thought about the default subnet, but it didn't seems to matter.  I had both routers setup using 192.168.1.1 and the Linksys was delivering 2-3mbps even on a wired connection.  Netgear delivered 28-30mbps down on wired connection and nearly as fast on dual band Wi-Fi.
El Dorado Netwo
Advanced Tutor

I've been a customer for three months and I must say I'm very happy!
That's really great to read, and I'm convinced your experience is the norm for most HughesNet users. I'm not a psychologist so I can't guess why so many more people complain than praise. Maybe something primitive in our DNA that helped us survive as a species:
"Something's Wrong! Sound the Alarm!!!"
In the interests of full disclosure, I'm a HughesNet Authorized Retailer, Installer and admitted Evangelist. I currently have about 500 active HughesNet customers in our local area. They all have my phone number. And customers call if things go wrong. Yet I get very few trouble calls. Otherwise, I would probably be put out of business. 

For every trouble call I've answered, there has been a solution; bad router, bad computer, bad radio, bad modem, bad power supply, bad cable, dish poorly mounted or pointed, no grounding, ran out of data, credit card expired, etc., and every one has been fixable, given the chance.

No Internet service is perfect. The cable service at our office goes out every month or two, and thank God we also have HughesNet there as a backup.

As long as customers clearly understand what the service can do, and can't, they're satisfied. Sure, everyone would love to get unlimited data, 100 Mbps, and a free pony. But most are happy just to get what was honestly promised; good, stable Internet service, no matter where they live. 
El Dorado Networks |Diamond Springs, CA | eldoradonetworks.com
GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV

Happy here, too.  Next month will be twelve years with Hughesnet for me.  Glad you like it. 
Old Labs
New Member

FWIW, don't know what the experience on HughesNet has been but over at BrandEx, Linksys routers have been problematic. Netgear not so much problematic. Asus near flawless along with some others.
Amanda
Moderator

Hey pacetree

Welcome to our community and thank you so much for this great praise! I admit I have used the HughesNet Voice service and called Mexico, there was some delay but once both sides get used to it, it's very good!

I'm also really glad to hear you were able to troubleshoot and fix your own service concerns. It is interesting what you mention about the interaction between your old router and the ATA. I actually think we stocked a few of those EA6300's in our lab a while back! If we have some I'll ask them to inter-office mail it to my desk so I can play with it in the lab.  It's beneficial to hear things like this because then we can look out for customers with similar symptoms and find a solution faster. Really appreciate your input 🙂

Thanks and have a great weekend everyone,

Amanda
GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV

I can vouch for Netgear.  I have a Netgear N300 (WNR200v4), which is an entry level model, and it has worked perfectly, save for about five or six months back when I screwed up a setting and it started causing problems.  I didn't realize it was my own fault and thought that the router was going bad, but I remembered having changed some things, and sure enough, the router was absolutely fine.  I've had it for about five years now.   For my three devices and little house it's perfect.

I received a D-Link DIR-619L due to the (ultimately repaired) problems with the Netgear, and now feel sort of bad that I don't use it very much.  LOL.  The D-Link works well, too.

Amanda
Moderator

Always good to have a spare @GabeU 😉

I also use a Netgear, but the R7000 (AC1900) Nighthawk. It has great customization options. I also installed the Netgear Wifi Analytics app on my android phone to get the best channel settings and test signal strength all around my apartment. It lets you save the signal and thruput for each room/area you test too. 

I use it here in the office, so you don't even actually need to have a Netgear to use the app (we use dlink dir619 routers)
GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV

Those Nighthawk routers are pretty nice.  A little too much for my needs, but if I had more devices I might think about something like that.  Perhaps even one of those Asus routers that can use the Merlin firmware.

I actually found out that my Netgear router has a built in usage meter, and although it doesn't break it down by device usage, the total still gives a decent idea.  Then again, being that I only use the router when using my laptop or notebook it sort of defeats the purpose of the meter, for my needs, anyway.  LOL.  Still, it's interesting that an entry level router like this even has one.

And yes, having a spare is nice, too.  As we all know, electronics break down all the time, and with this router being around five years old, it's only a matter of time.