My HughesNet absolutely sucks. Completely useless.

[Sweetvirgo381]

I fly through my data in one night with my children and my husband on it. Plus DIRECTV is hooked up to it. I told the guy when I ordered that my kids use a lot of data. He assured me I would be ok. Well obviously we're not. Yes we have wifi. But we have to deal with the slow speeds all month long. The buffering of YouTube and Netflix for my children. It's crazy that they don't offer an unlimited plan at a reasonable price. I got to figure something out.

[GabeU]

@Sweetvirgo381

At this time they can't offer unlimited plans as the throughput of the system doesn't support it.  It would also be prohibitively expensive when compared to the prices of the plans offered. 

Make sure to watch the DirecTV connection.  DirecTV receivers have been known to use data for things other than On Demand.  There's no guarantee that it will, but only that it can, and has for other people.  Unfortunately, there's no way to control it.  

Plus, if you are going through your data in one night, then things buffering for the rest of the month wouldn't be unusual, especially if streaming them in higher definitions when the FAP speed given doesn't support it.  If you've used all of your data, the system generally throttles to speeds between 1Mbps and 3Mbps, though those speeds are not guaranteed.    

Streaming in HD can use around 3GB per hour, SD around 700MB per hour and LD around 350MB per hour.  

If you are able to set the definition to something lower, like SD, or even LD, at the source, like you can with Netflix, that would help to save some data.  Gen5 also has the Video Data Saver, which can be turned on or off through the Hughesnet Usage Meter, or by signing into the Hughenset myAccount site (http://my.hughesnet.com/myaccount) and going into the settings section.  The VDS throttles the speed when streaming through many services, like Youtube, to save data, while normally still giving DVD quality results (usually 480P).

Conversely, if you have data and are deliberately trying to stream in HD, having the Video Data Saver on can cause buffering, as it's trying to throttle the speed while the service is trying to stream it in HD.  

[Sweetvirgo381]

Yeah no kind of broadband or dsl is offered where I live. I'm gonna look into the mobile hotspots but I'm not so sure I would get enough signal to use those either. But thanks for the advice.

[Sweetvirgo381]

If I'm flying through my monthly plan now. There would be no way I could pay the amount they want for tokens to cover my children doing their thing. Lol. So that won't help. Hopefully somebody will offer broadband out here in the near future.

[kitnbob]

Since AT&T recently bought DirecTV, I would check into their offer of unlimited Cell Data plan, and with the TV-Cell bundle you can save a bunch the first year.

[BirdDog]

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@kitnbob wrote:

Since AT&T recently bought DirecTV, I would check into their offer of unlimited Cell Data plan, and with the TV-Cell bundle you can save a bunch the first year.

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May want to read the fine print. Their "unlimited" may ( as in probably) throttle after 22 GB.

[GabeU]

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@kitnbob wrote:

Since AT&T recently bought DirecTV, I would check into their offer of unlimited Cell Data plan, and with the TV-Cell bundle you can save a bunch the first year.

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Though that may be a viable option for those that can get a good cell signal, even that has "fine print".  They "may" throttle the speed after 22GB.  

Edit.  I had my broswer open to this page for a while.  I didn't see that BirdDog had already posted this info.  

[kitnbob]

I dont know about AT&T 's plans, cause I am just barely "out of cell coverage" I would need a 40'

antenna on the side of my house to even bring cell signals into my house. So I'm trying HughesNet Voice for a while.

All my cell phones work great sending mail and pictures using Wi-Fi.

But If AT&T expects us to stream movies on their cell data, they had better figure it out.

[Msholl09]

Hughesnet is the worst service I have tried. Way to expensive with to little data for any streaming. Buffers way to much when doing live channels. Dsl worked better then this. I definitely will not renew contract when time comes

[GabeU]

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@Msholl09 wrote:
Hughesnet is the worst service I have tried. Way to expensive with to little data for any streaming. Buffers way to much when doing live channels. Dsl worked better then this. I definitely will not renew contract when time comes

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Try turning off your Video Data Saver.  It deliberately throttles the speed while streaming, and if what you are referring to is like streaming, it may be doing just that.  

What is Video Data Saver?