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My concern is the fact that we had to turn in our perfectly functioning HT1000 modem for a seriously faulty HT1100 modem.

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JohnWaylandBale
New Member

My concern is the fact that we had to turn in our perfectly functioning HT1000 modem for a seriously faulty HT1100 modem.

Our internet service has been seriously compromised by the "upgrade" from the HT1000 modem to the HT1100 modem. The uplink goes down repeatedly. In the three weeks since the "upgrade" we have spent hours talking to Tech Support and had two technician visits without resolving the problem or without convincing HughesNet that there is a problem. They prefer to tell us how many more features the HT1100 has compared to the HT1000.
66 REPLIES 66
BirdDog
Assistant Professor

John, had to turn it in? As far as I know no one is being forced to upgrade modems.

The HT1100 is a much better modem but doesn't mean you didn't get a lemon or have something else going on with your system.

The official reps will be back here in the morning and will check into your case. Do you a case number you can post?
JohnWaylandBale
New Member

We received an email in May asking asking us to click a link to upgrade to a later model modem at no charge so did. But when the HT1100 arrived we thought it was defective because it kept dropping the uplink. We talked to Tech Support several times and could not fix it from either end so we sent it back. Then our HT1000 was deregistered from the HughesNet end cutting off our access. We contacted Tech Support and were told that they could not re-register our HT1000 and that our only option was for them to ship us another HT1100. So we were without service for 100 hours until the replacement HT1100 arrived. But it is doing the same thing that the original one did. So evidently the continued dropping of the uplink is a feature not a bug 🙂 We wrote our case numbers on scraps of paper and these are the only ones I can find at the moment: 54340042, 54402640, 54509564, 54549852, 546056660. There are probably three or four other case numbers lying around here somewhere.
Amanda
Moderator

Hi John

Thank you for the case numbers and for reaching out to us here in detail. I'll be reviewing your previous cases today and running diagnostics on your system. Can you tell me how you determined the issue was in particular "uplink" and not say - upload or transmit? How did you come to that exact determination? 

Do you only drop connection while doing certain activities, or can you leave the modem sitting on and nothing running but still drop connection? Does it occur at a certain time of day? I hope we can get a little more detail so I can pair it up with what I find.

Thanks
Amanda
JohnWaylandBale
New Member

It occurs when I click a link and the page times out. When that happens I go to the Advanced Configuration and Statistics page of the HT1100 and under the Current Hour History it shows a red X instead of a green arrow. Sometimes there will be many red Xs showing even though no one was on the computer at the time. Of course there are automatic processes that access the internet such as downloading email, software updates etc. that could be trying to access the satellite. No, it is not related to time of day. I know in the past we had a problem for a few days when the sun just happened to be in the same part of the sky as the satellite, but that is not the case now. So far it has proven to be a mystery. It usually clears up in two or three minutes, but the interruption can be annoying, especially if I am in a chat session with a student.
C0RR0SIVE
Associate Professor

Hrm, is this happening during "peak" times?  Around 7:00PM till about midnight?  Mine does this when I go to upload during peak hours sometimes...  It does get rather annoying.  When clicking it, it's an uplink error, with a high packet drop rate.
Amanda
Moderator

Hi John

So I have looked into the hourly history that you were talking about. These require a manual and certain tools to completely diagnose.  I was able to drill it down to what I think is a packet transfer issue. The plan you have was not designed with the modem you have in mind. That being said, I want to try swapping you to one of our new plans we developed after releasing the HT1100. It won't increase your bill and won't renew or extend your contract. I hope you do not mind being a guinea pig, but I think this might work. Let me know and I'll switch you over.

Thanks
Amanda
JohnWaylandBale
New Member

I don't mind being a guinea pig if there is a chance it will solve the problem so go ahead and switch me over. Do I need to do anything on this end?
Amanda
Moderator

Nothing at all needed from your side except to just look out for any problems. It should not interrupt your service either. I'll let you know when it is complete and we can start monitoring.

Thanks!
Amanda
JohnWaylandBale
New Member

OK, go ahead.
Amanda
Moderator

Hi John

I put the change through about 20 minutes ago. I've been monitoring and so far so good. I will be here for another 3 1/2 hours in the office to monitor it live on my other screen. Let me know if you have any trouble on your end.

Thanks
Amanda
JohnWaylandBale
New Member

Amanda,

Thanks for your personal attention to the matter. So far everything looks good.

John
Amanda
Moderator

Hi John

Since I was live monitoring I saw a few DNS issues and dropped packets. I have reset your DNS cache and will watch to see if this fixes the issue. I also want to confirm with you the location for where the modem is plugged in - do you have it plugged right into the wall outlet or into a surge protector? Also, does your coaxial cable run through a UPS or straight from your wall to your modem? 

Thanks
Amanda

edit: Just now had to make another last minute change as I noticed something else (2:18pm est)
JohnWaylandBale
New Member

Amanda,

The power goes through a UPS but the coaxial cable plugs directly into the modem.

John
Amanda
Moderator

Hi John

Thanks for the follow up. Looks like the power is pretty good.. I didn't see the packet loss as bad as before and I definitely see some improvement. We're just seeing DNS traffic get dropped now. Do you ever get DNS errors or just web pages that hang?

Amanda
JohnWaylandBale
New Member

Amanda,

On rare occasions, maybe once or twice a day we get a DNS error, but mostly web pages that hang with no DNS error, just a red X in the uplink row of the diagnostics. That situation has greatly improved, however, although it has not gone away entirely. It is much less frequent and less bothersome that it was. Whatever you did definitely improved the situation to the point of bearability. Thank you for that.

John
Amanda
Moderator

Hi John

What I can do is see if any other users on your particular beam or gateway are reporting the same thing. If this is something we can find more cases of in our records it will be easier and faster to solve. I appreciate your patience while I look into this. I've added a few things at the bottom if you'd care to take a peek.

Thanks
Amanda

P.S. Just some tips - I've never heard of this happening after a modem swap, but it could be possible somehow. Try plugging in the modem right into the wall instead of the UPS and give it a test run. If you have very bad/dirty power or frequent surges, try to do it at a time you know is low-risk. Occasionally I do see low or inconsistent power cause packet loss on the transmission side. The Uplink red X's you are seeing are clickable (for us over here, at least!) and when you scroll down should display what the error is related to. You would most easily be able to recognize the DNS errors/packet loss. Its unrelated to your actual Signal Strength (reads receive, not transmit). 

Sometimes we get false DNS readings from the Uplink table because of retransmits by a router not updating its DNS fast enough. Typically this only occurs with Apple routers. The only MAC I could find on the system is an ASUS - is that a directly connected ASUS device or an ASUS brand router?
Larry Lockie
New Member

I have been on many repair calls for this, and in all so far, the problem was the configuration file was the wrong one. Putting on the correct file was like magic. A quick reboot and ran just fine.
JohnWaylandBale
New Member

The problem now occurs only occasionally and (oddly) appears to be correlated with heavy truck traffic (we live on a four-lane divided highway). This made us wonder if the HT1100 is more susceptible to RF interference from the CB band. Yesterday we put the unit inside a grounded Faraday cage and so far that seems to have improved the situation.
JohnWaylandBale
New Member

I do not know how to locate the configuration file number, but the application software number is 3.2.0.26 with fallback 3.0.3.19.
JohnWaylandBale
New Member

# Satellite-Based Commissioning Configuration File (sbc.cfg) for: EchoStar-XVII
# For use only with Wideband Terminals for: NAD # Copyright 2011-2013 Hughes Network Systems, LLC  [General]  FormatVersion=3  Version=NADWB2.1.306  RevisionDate=2/17/2016  System=Jupiter  NSP=NAD  NSPDisplayName=HughesNet  NSPBrandingLogoFile=hnet.tgz