I have had Hughesnet HN9000 service in Long Barn, CA (95335) since 2011. This is a vacation home/rental and consequently it is not easy to schedule service, or be there to push buttons to diagnose things. (I do receive e-mails from our automation, so I know when things are working). Recently, the received signal strength (as reported by the HN9000's status info) has been below the normal 170-175 value, and has been variable. Last weekend when we were having frequent stoppages, I noticed it was 90, then would climb to 110, then back to 90. Throughput was stopping intermittently even though station status showed normal. The symptoms seem consistent with a dish that is on the edge of the beam lobe vs. centered on it. The dish was clean and had not been moved or bumped, and I can't see that any vegetation has grown into the view of the satellite. Sometimes pine cones fall in the woods and could have bumped the dish, as could have squirrels, freeze/thaw motion etc. Since the system has not been checked, aimed, or tuned for 5 1/2 years, I would really like to get someone to come out and re-aim it. I have the $7/mo. basic service / warranty plan. Hughesnet customer support has been very difficult to deal with - i.e. I got all the way through system checks and to the rep agreeing to send someone out, but they couldn't schedule because of a computer problem. Someone was supposed to call me back to schedule. That was a week ago. I started over with them today and we were back to trying to run diagnostics, which this time turned up no issue, since the problem is intermittent. Then they quoted a $125 fee to open a service call, "plus parts and labor" ($125 even with the warranty plan ? why do I have it ?). I have tried e-mail support, but there seems to be no consistency between communications (they don't read the referenced case numbers I provided). I don't think this is a DIY project, as I know aiming is very sensitive. Any ideas how to get help would be appreciated.
