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Newly Upgraded to Gen5 - Speeds Substantially SLOWER than Gen4

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IHC
Freshman

Newly Upgraded to Gen5 - Speeds Substantially SLOWER than Gen4

We recently upgraded our service from Hughes Gen4 (Dishnet) to Gen5. The service was initially impressive, especially compared with what we were used to Gen4. For the first week or so the speeds were great. I ran a few tests as we were usually at about 20mb/s. Video on Amazon Prime streamed in HD with no buffering. We were happy.

 

After about a week the speeds seemed to suffer. I've been on Gen4 so long I've gotten out of the habit of streaming (used to have FiOS at another house). I tried to watch a few shows on Amazon and kept getting errors from Amazon saying my connection was too slow to stream, even with my video option set to "data saver", Amazon's lowest stream rate. I initially assumed that I was just in the evening rush, which we'd gotten used to on our old service. 

 

Then our service got REALLY slow. I ran a few speed tests on the my.Hughesnet.com support panel and was shocked to see I was getting download rates of less than 1mbps. I recycled power on my modem and that seemed to fix things. My first test was around 18mbps. That didn't last. Here's a sampling of consecutive speed tests I had a couple of nights ago:

1: 1.53 mbps

2: 0.58 mbps

3: 1.69 mbps

4: 1.21 mbps

5: 1.91 mbps

6: 1.37 mbps

7: 0.27 mbps

8: 0.18 mbps

9: 2.09 mbps

10: 0.74 mbps

 

I've called the Hughes support line twice and spend well over three hours in total talking with tech support. I'd already done practically everything they asked of me including: turning off all other wi-fi devices, running tests connected with a LAN cable, not wi-fi, running tests in safe-mode, restarting modem, etc. One huge frustration I've had with Hughes support has been the amnesiac quality of the tech support. I was careful to get a case id from each tech support agent to ensure we wouldn't have to start all over at zero with each call. Each agent assured me they were taking detailed notes and would ensure those were available for future calls. They didn't.

 

On the second, 1.5 hour call, I had to go back and literally do every single step in the troubleshooting process I'd already done the day before. I'm not proud, but I lost my temper and was rude to the agent. She offered to have a technician come out a couple of days later (today)...if I paid $125. I refused, and she said she could cut the price in half. I refused again and said I'd cancel the service before I paid. She agreed to send the technician for free. 

 

The technician came today and tooked our system over. He couldn't find anything wrong. He agreed to swap our modem for another. I'd hoped there was some kind of firmware problem with the modem. Our first few tests seem to confirm this diagnosis. The first few tests on the new modem were great - upper 20's mbps. The tech left, I started watching some shows on Amazon. My speeds have cratered again. These are my last four results from testmy.net:

speed test results - 8-25-17.jpg

 

I'm at nearly a complete loss for what is going on. Has anyone else experienced this kind of degraded service? It almost seems as if someone at Hughes has selected our account for especially slow speeds. 

 

One notable thing - our upload speeds are all great, typically between 2.5 and 4 mbps. How can that be when my down speeds are as bad as they are? 

34 REPLIES 34
C0RR0SIVE
Associate Professor

To help the Hughesnet Customer Service Reps get a head start on your speed concerns, you should create a testmy.net account and perform 3-5 tests during different parts of the day. Then share the account results link with us here.

Please keep in mind that Hughesnet will only accept testmy.net and the official Hughesnet speed test results. Tests from other sites like speedtest.net are not accepted due to the compression technologies and latency that satellite deploys.

Most important points to remember during this test:
-do the tests while directly connected to the HughesNet modem with a LAN cable (NO third party Router or Wireless devices can be used)
-use the 25MB size download test file

-If testing upload instead of download, you must use a 4MB size upload test file
-space each test at least 5 minutes apart
-post your results URL here, it may look something like http://testmy.net/quickstats/C0RR0SIVE


For a more in depth guide on running the tests, please visit: http://customer.kb.hughesnet.com/Pages/7001.aspx

The Reps are on M-F from approximately 8AM to 5PM Eastern. They will be the ones to address your speed issues, but they will need these tests to do so.

Thanks, Corrosive. Here's the link to my testmy.net results. I've set up the automatic test to execute over the next several hours. I suspect speeds will be good (we're entering the bonus time zone). I'll keep it running throughout the day and see what happens:

 

http://testmy.net/quickstats/jesusquintana31 

C0RR0SIVE
Associate Professor


@IHC wrote:

Thanks, Corrosive. Here's the link to my testmy.net results. I've set up the automatic test to execute over the next several hours. I suspect speeds will be good (we're entering the bonus time zone). I'll keep it running throughout the day and see what happens:

 

http://testmy.net/quickstats/jesusquintana31 


If you go with the automated testing that will execute on its own, make sure you set like 30 to 60 minutes between each test so you don't consume too much data, as well as check the NFW option so that the test doesn't suddenly forward to packages over 25MB in size.


@donagibbons  If you have an issue, I suggest creating a new topic, post a link to your results, and follow any advice given.

C0RR0SIVE

 

The last time I followed you suggest to post a new topic, you and your buddies just deleted the question because the results did not meet your dream world.   I have been using and creating bulletin board systems, now called community boards, for over 20+ years, and some have been friendly, and some have been not so friendly depending on who is in charge. 

 

Therefore, can you guarantee me that you or your buddies will not delete my new topic?   And to say you are not part of the company makes it very suspicious because it seems to be quite common when discussing with you and your buddies.

GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV


@donagibbons wrote:

C0RR0SIVE

  

Therefore, can you guarantee me that you or your buddies will not delete my new topic?   And to say you are not part of the company makes it very suspicious because it seems to be quite common when discussing with you and your buddies.


Only mods/reps can delete topics.  Not customers.  

GabeU

 

What about System Admins?

GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV


@donagibbons wrote:

GabeU

 

What about System Admins?


Semantics.  Why would you even bother to ask such a question.  

 

SMH.  


@GabeU wrote:

@donagibbons wrote:

GabeU

 

What about System Admins?


Semantics.  Why would you even bother to ask such a question.  

 

SMH.  


Mods/Reps may or may not have the ability to delete topics depending on what the System Admin grant.   In my community system, I control which mods/reps can or cannot delete certain items.


@C0RR0SIVE wrote:

@donagibbons wrote:

In my community system...

Most communities have an edit button ya know...




Most have delete, edit, and update buttons.  Therefore, What is your point?

Donagibbons - I appreciate your frustrations. These inexplicable speed variations have really got me irritated as well. But please do refrain from getting into what seem like personal disputes with these other posters. I'm sure there's a technical solution to this problem. It makes no sense for Hughes to single out particular customers and give them terrible service. 

C0RR0SIVE
Associate Professor

@IHC

 

I am sorry about what happened to your topic, come Monday, I am sure that @Liz or @Amanda will clean your thread up and try their best to assist you with your speed concerns.

I've taken several testmy.net speedtests today. All were good at 20+ mbps. However, I just tried watching a show on Amazon and got a "bandwidth too low to stream" message. I decided to run a test on testmy.net and then one on the Hughes control panel. Testmy.net tells me I'm getting 35.5 mbps - yet I can't stream. Hughes says I'm getting...0.37 mbps. That sounds a little more accurate. 

 

What's going on here?

 

Can't streamCan't streamTestmy Results - Fantastically HighTestmy Results - Fantastically HighHughes Results - These seem more realisticHughes Results - These seem more realistic

C0RR0SIVE
Associate Professor
GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV

 @IHC

 

Speed can vary from minute to minute, and test to test, including those that are hosted by HughesNet, and those accepted as accurate by HughesNet.  This is more likely during peak usage hours, as well.    

 

With that said, though, HughesNet's own speed test has been known to be a bit wonky at times, which is why,  more often than not, they recommend testmy.net.  

 

But, as referenced by Corrosive, the Video Data Saver may be the root of your streaming issue.  If you are trying to stream in HD, or Amazon's service automatically does, it's likely that the Video Data Saver is throttling your speed to one that's too low for HD streaming, which is what it's designed to do.  The VDS is designed to throttle your speed to around 3Mbps while streaming, which is generally enough to stream in SD, and which saves considerable data over streaming in HD.  You can either pause the Video Data Saver for four hours, or turn it off, both of which you can do from within the HughesNet Usage Meter or by signing in to the HughesNet myAccount site (the VDS adjustment is under the Settings tab) at http://my.hughesnet.com/myaccount .  

 

Conversely, if you are able, you can set the source to stream in a lower definition or to automatic, which should work with the Video Data Saver still enabled.  

 

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

    

GabeU,

 

Thanks for the information on the Video Data Saver functionality and the ability to opt out of it. I wasn't aware of that. However, I've set my Amazon account to stream at "good" quality (the lowest of their three stream rates), which I believe is at or just below SD quality. I generally watch on my laptop or tablet, so HD isn't really a meaningful difference. I always turn it off. 

I am having the slow download speeds on Gem5 also. Upgraded from Gen4 July 27, 2017. Download is good till around 5-pm EDT. Then drops to 1 or below. Upload always good. Stuck for another two years. Hopelly by them something much better & more reasonably priced will come to the rural areas. I've tried tech support. Tired of tryig.

GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV

@Rick26582

 

Though you indicated that you are tired of trying to get help for the issue, this Community is a completely different avenue of receiving help, both in who provides that help and the people that can get involved if needs be.  

 

I would advise you to start a new topic in the Tech Support section to receive help, which you can do by clicking on the "Start a Topic" button on the upper right while in that section.

 


@IHC wrote:

GabeU,

 

Thanks for the information on the Video Data Saver functionality and the ability to opt out of it. I wasn't aware of that. However, I've set my Amazon account to stream at "good" quality (the lowest of their three stream rates), which I believe is at or just below SD quality. I generally watch on my laptop or tablet, so HD isn't really a meaningful difference. I always turn it off. 


IHC,

 

Has the Video Data Saver made any difference?   I run all my streaming in SD, and my understanding this only has to do with HD.  Seems to make no difference for me.

 

Now from the Community dealing with Universities and Colleges Learning Management Systems Shibboleth Login Authentication issue, they recommend turning off Web Accelerator or Turbo Page which seems to resolve quite a few common issues.  I have to do more research on this, this is not the first time Web Accelerator broke access to the web services needed for logging into secure websites.  

Web-Acceleration can be good at times, other times, not so great... I personally disable it every time I catch it being on...  Have done so since Spaceway3, and continue to do so, seem to have fewer connectivity issues when it's off.