New Hughes peak period performance record

[GW]

I was doing some analysis last night and arrived at a function that told me I should update Silverlight because of security issues. Since I was logged into an investment account, and my internet was basically non-functional for any practical purpose, I thought I'd go ahead with the download and come back to work another time.

Out of habit, I checked the progress of download in the browser and thought... "Really? Another 49 minutes to download 12.6 MB? Lets record this performance."

Screenshot taken at 10:34 PM and saved "Yesterday, ‎September ‎02, ‎2016, ‏‎10:35:13 PM"



I came back in about a half hour or so to see how it was doing. At 11:08 PM it was more than half done. File saved "Yesterday, ‎September ‎02, ‎2016, ‏‎11:09:14 PM". Making progress, only 12 more minutes to go.



Minor miscalculation in the projected download time. After coming back to check a couple of times, I saw the "12 minutes" part wasn't happening. I almost missed the grand finale but arrived in time to watch the last of it tick down and grabbed the final working screenshot. File saved "Yesterday, ‎September ‎02, ‎2016, ‏‎11:33:41 PM"



And after hitting the finish line. The end result, an hour to download a 12.6 MB file




How does this amazing performance rank in history? 2016 HughesNet is providing stiff competition for the early 90's 28.8 modem which would have required an extra minute of download time to get the job done. Impressive.

Yeah, I think Hughes has definitely oversold my beam.



You may wonder, am I in FAP? Nah.




I used the happy, confident, thankful, excited SENTIMENT icon but what I really mean is "Amused". Useless internet but high entertainment value nevertheless. You just can't make up stuff like this.

I sure hope Hughes isn't contracting with KaboomX to launch the next supply of rapidly depleting bandwidth.

[GW]

Thank you Liz. You too..

[GW]

Hi Liz

Here's Friday night at the draggy race.

My internet was still great at 6:30 PM. I was gonna set up a routine as soon as I saw speeds beginning to drop. I don't know when it started tanking tonight because I got called out to remove a cottonmouth moccasin from a pumphouse so I was away for a while.

When I got back around to my computer, I got the 463 kbps reading. At that point I bypassed the router and set up an auto-test routine of every 10 minutes for two hours. I let testmy choose the default file size. If I specified 12 MB, it probably would have been non-stop download test for two hours.

For orientation, you'll first see the 8.65 Mbps test from Thursday night that I mentioned above. Then you'll see a 19.12 Mbps test from 6:30 PM. Then you see it has hit the wall by 8:30 PM.

I'll also attach some corresponding Hughes tests from Thursday and Friday.

Just for fun, I'll leave my computer connected to the modem and set up an hourly routine to run all night.

[GabeU]

Wow.  Your peak usage period seems to be affected so much more than most peoples'.  I mean, mine slows down, but not anything like that.   You'd think that if there were that many people on that beam, even your off peak speeds would be affected more.  Talk about odd. 

[BirdDog]

All I can say is it looks like what I went through a year or two back. Really sucked and took about two months to fix. They did assign me an ECC who took very good care of me and stayed in contact over the phone. Pretty sure I'm on a fairly low loaded beam so was even more strange. Of course beam loading is constantly changing.

Hang in there GW, if it can be fixed they will get it done. My ECC did tell me so many tests so close together didn't help them much, they wanted them more spaced apart and not so many. He said so many tests basically make the engineers eyes glaze over.....lol. They are a fragile lot.  : )

[GabeU]

They are a fragile lot.

The poor folks.  LMAO. 

[GW]

I've buried these people in data, facts, figures and statistics. I think the reason they removed our ability to export Hughes speedtest data to csv in July was to prevent me from so easily doing the analyses I've always used to prove my points.

Gabe, my internet service is simply schizophrenic. It's been that way for so long and it never gets better.

[GabeU]

Well, keep a thread of hope alive.

[Gwalk900]

GW,

In a couple of your posts you indicated that your modem was prone to rebooting if the modem was ... touched or the LAN cable fiddled with.

This really isn't normal.

Items to check:

> Is the DIN connector from the power supply to the modem FULLY inserted ?<

It has been my experience that the plug goes in further than expected and needs a FIRM push to seat it fully.

> Is the coax (both cables on 9000 modem) firmly tightened ?<

> Does the LAN cable and LAN socket of the modem appear to be in good condition and the RJ-45 connector seats firmly and with a positive "snap"?<

Years ago there was a production run of HN9000 modems that had a flakey modem socket and connection to the Modems mainboard that cause all kinds of issues.

> Does doing any bending right at the end of either the coax, DIN connector or Ethernet cable cause any symptoms?<

I'm thinking along the lines of a strain being placed on a connector from the weight of the cabling.

> You stated in one post that even "touching" the modem may cause a reboot.<

I'm thinking static discharge. Is the AC receptacle that the modem is plugged into a properly wired three prong, three wire grounded system ?

Do you know for a fact that the reflector.TRIA body and the modem are all tied to the same common ground point ?

[GW]

Thanks Gwalk.

I think there was something hokey about the power connection. It sits on top of an APC UPS in between outlet rows and is powered by the battery side. Since I have other things also plugged into the UPS, I goof with them on occasion. I've made the modem reboot by leaning it to the side to unplug/replug a printer and the cooling fan for the modem and also swapping LAN cables. After pulling and reseating the power supply plug, it seems to be doing better.

I've also moved my router very close to the modem with a short cable  rather than having it up high and 6' away with a longer cable so maybe that had something to do with it too.

Third thing I found is my coax was a quarter turn loose. It's probably been that way since the coax/grounding block was changed out last year which is what eventually solved the persistent SQF 15 error I was experiencing for so long. In fact, I don't think I've ever had to disconnect coax and/or power since that was done. Doing the cable dance by disconnecting both used to be the only way to recover from the SQF 15 error.

I know for a fact everything is grounded properly. When I got my original Gen4 install, I had a real pi***** match with the installation company who (twice) refused to ground it to Hughes specs. Of course, I wasn't allowed by Hughes to do it myself so this required a completely different service company to come out and complete the work.

[GW]

Ok Liz, here's the result of the hourly auto test I set up to run all night. Looks pretty schizo to me. For orientation, the first entry is the final entry in the screen I posted up for Friday night results.

I'll set up another routine for tonight.

[Gwalk900]

I seem to recall that you and I went over your installation at some length at the Shack.

[Gwalk900]

A couple of thoughts on your modem placement and power connection.

How good is the airflow to the modem ? They generate some heat and that needs to be carried away. Is it in a place where you can see the modems front panel LED's ?

If a overtemp occurs the power LED will turn red prior to doing a shutdown.

As to being on the battery side of the UPS ...

That is likely to isolate the modem grounding wise. The ODU and Modem need to be at same grounding point.

Also, UPS's (except for very expensive models) put out a modified sine wave.

It is possible that the modem isn't liking the "flavor" of its input voltage both in waveform and perhaps current at a given instant.

[GW]

I thought I remembered talking with you about the crazy installers but I didn't see it in the thread here. Must have been at the shack.

I know about the heat these little devils put out. Yes, my modem is always clearly visible with nothing living on either side or behind it.  When my HN9000 began dying from heat stroke I had to put a fan on it to beat the last of the life out of it. The fan did keep me in service until I got my new Gen4 system. Ever since then, I keep a small fan blowing on the modem 24/7 to ensure it stays as cool as possible.

I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around how the grounds could be separated or isolated. The row of UPS outlets and the row of surge protected outlets are all protected by the same ground. The coax grounding block is connected to the same ground.

I don't know what to say about the quality of the power. They only go to battery when power problems such as black, brown, spike or noise hits a threshold. My software says the computer UPS has intervened 24 times in the last 24 weeks for a total of 2 hours 8 minutes. All but 5 instances and 30 seconds were from blackout.

I started using APC stuff in 1990 and never lost anything except for APC stuff that took sacrificial hits. I started using their UPS units for my main computer in 2004 and since 2009 I kept my network stuff on one as well. The computer always seems to be happy even when I have to run on the diesel generator. I imagine I get more interventions on that power than I do from line power.

[BirdDog]

Are you off grid power? I was for 12 years and had no problem. Try plugging into grid power if you have it with no UPS or surge suppressor. If off grid be sure to use a pure sine inverter for the modem power.

[GabeU]

I can attest to some things not being very forgiving when it comes to power input.  I had a problem with my DirecTV receiver a few years back, specifically problem with the picture.  It turned out that there was a slight problem with the breaker it was on.  The voltage was fluctuating wildly, though only within a 2 volt range.  Still, it was enough to cause problems.  I replaced the breaker and everything was fine after that.  Some things are just very sensitive when it comes to power input. 

[GW]

We have co-op grid power with the 15 kw diesel for backup. I rarely use the generator unless it looks like the line power will be off for more than an hour or so. Now we have smart meters and the co-op has some nice on-line tools so it's a lot easier to know what's going on.

When they installed the new meter a couple of years ago they didn't properly tighten the neutral. Things got pretty wild after a while. I had several visits before they finally figured out what they had done.

[GW]

The speeds held up reasonably well for a Saturday but started crashing after 6.  I set up another auto testing routine beginning at 7 PM to run on 15 minute intervals throughout the primetime period. I set it to allow testmy to  choose it's own file size and wired direct from my main computer to the modem.

As usual, the first test shown in the series is the last test shown in the previous series.

Will run an hourly test overnight again.

[GW]

Indeed, the Hughes has fully regressed to typical weekend performance. I left an hourly test running all night and all day.

Tonight, since I really don't need to use my computer, I'll go ahead and specify the 12 MB file size and let it go to download testing heaven.Wouldn't want them there engineers to think I'm gaming the system with the little doinker testmy specified files.

As always to make it easy to follow along, the first test at the bottom of this page is the final test on the previous page.

[GW]

Here ya go Liz. Since Friday night, I've built you a very comprehensive picture of what it looks like to be a HughesNet customer who does weekends on Beam 55/Rapid City. It makes using the internet like watching paint dry.

For the Sunday night grand finalé, I did use the commonly requested 12 MB tests. Like all of the "primetime" tests done for you this weekend, this series ran with my main computer wired directly to the modem.

All through the weekend, every time I looked at my SQF I had 125-130. They can't blame it on bad signal or bad weather.

All tests except for the long duration hourlies were run while connected directly to the modem. Look through the results and you'll see they can't blame it on my network, whether I use it or not.

Notice the speed range over the course of the weekend. From a low of 79 kbps to a high of 24.36 Mbps. They can't blame it on anything on my side of the modem. It's all Hughes.

An 8 PM 164 kbps Hughes test concurs with the immediately previous testmy result of 166 kbps. They can't blame it on testmy.

This screenshot is a 14 minute segment of that 79 kbps download test. Note the few peaks above 200 kbps and also note the complete halts in transfer.

I hope there's a solution. The only one I can think of is prohibiting HughesNet sales from selling something they don't have.  You can't balance a load that commonly drags down to such low speeds. It's like trying to pour a 50 pound bucket of ummm, fertilizer into a beer bottles without a funnel. It just doesn't work.

Something that may help in the near term is simply letting anyone and everyone who complains about low speeds out of their contract immediately. Refund with apologies. This should start freeing up some bandwidth quickly.

[GW]

For ease in reviewing speeds, here all the tables are shown in reverse chronological order. See the final Sunday night tests at the top of the list and the first Friday night tests at the bottom. You'll find them in this order on the testmy page

[GW]

As it was last week, Monday morning doesn't show much relief.