PRAISE! and MODEM POWER SUPPLY questions:

[Lawrence Lewis]

HI, 

After a winter inside, I lurk here occasionally.  Now I DO have a question. But first I do want to say that Hughes is working quite well and has for 2-1/2 years.  

It is not 50MB/Sec fiber in the "big city" but I knew that, but I rarely have to buffer to do YouTube videos.  

What occurred a few days ago was this.  Our internet was in and out many times. Still is. Always comes back on fairly soon (in a minute to an hour - usually the shorter on that continuum) 

We have HN1100 modem.  Gen4.  Installed 4-5 months ago.  We are billed through Frontier now, not Hughes directly, our land line, too is Frontier.

Last Saturday the modem POWER SUPPLY went dead.  It was caught by me with multiple Fluke instruments at 000.0 volts on BOTH the printed-on-the-modem pin configurations on the POWER SUPPLY to the modem itself.   This was over some hours. We checked and re-checked many times.  We were going to go to a remote site where the owners are only there 3 months of the year and borrow their POWER SUPPLY.  (The U.S.Army turned me into a pretty good elec. tech. ) 

however, for no known reason the next morning, and since the power supply seems to be generally reliable.  Incidentally when we wiggled ALL connectors and cords, NOTHING changed - either NOW - the presence of voltage nor during the period Fri evening with no output at 000,0 volts.   

Now, here is the rub:  (And one for the list of people irritated-at-Hughes procedures.)  We called. All I wanted to do was procure another power supply.  There was no provision for just sending me one, either at cost or for no cost.   This was according to a native English speaker and a man who appeared quite sharp, understood our problem, and his script would not allow him to do anything to solve our problem nor start to. He stated that a Technician would have to come out.   For which I would be billed $130.  I was told by Frontier that this would NOT be the case - because i was opting to NOT buy - rather lease the modem and power supply and radio. So I thought I was paying monthly for equipment that WORKED and if it did not, the replacement was one of the things I was paying $1000 a year for.  

I do not trust the modem nor anything similar that elicits totally bad readings and could well be the cause of our losing connection often, as well.  . .  

This switch mode power supply is very common, though of course this one for the modem is more complicated than the smaller ones we all have scattered about our homes and offices.  BUT THEY DO GO BAD. How many of you have had to replace a DC power supply for your laptop?  I surely have and more than once. i have also seen the smaller ones fail and output zero volts more than once.  .

HOW DO I BUY A POWER SUPPLY FOR THE HT1100 modem: 

Thank you very much,

Larry Lewis
Nordman, Idaho

[Lawrence Lewis]

After an interminable time of logging in, I finally re-read my above post. It should clearly state that the NEXT morning we had all lights on the MODEM, and all has worked OK, with normal output voltages TO the modem by the large rectangular POWER SUPPLY.  With the in and out brief exceptions randomly, which random nuisance is a new thing - not in the past over 2 years at all - . This has been occurring for about 2-3 weeks.  AS it is intermittent, the call-in number only "Sees" everything OK and will do nothing. I do NOT trust the power supply and for good cause. i think one should be sent out no charge. 

Thank you,

-Larry in Nordman, Idaho

[Miles2]

Hello Larry,

Thank you for the praise about your HughesNet service!! Your HughesNet account was closed a few months ago, and I think you now have Frontier as your ISP. Please see the contact information to reach Frontier below:

www.frontierinternet.com/‎ (866) 640-4698

Customer Support: 1-800-921-8101

I hope this helps you,

Thank you for writing here today,

Miles

[C0RR0SIVE]

Just curious, why wouldn't Hughes be able to sell power bricks regardless of customer status?  Fairly common item...

[C0RR0SIVE]

Like Miles said, if you are through Frontier, you are going to have to go through them to get your equipment checked out.

[Lawrence Lewis]

Yes, I understand that about Frontier.   However the numbers Miles provided a the top (yes, i printed and dialed carefully -- are WRONG!)

As I suspect that eventually SOMEONE would have to contact Hughes directly from Frontier, I would like an answer to this basic engineering / technical question.  Also I have been on the phone with FRONTIER literally for over TWO hours and still have not gotten this resolved. EVERYONE is kind and compassionate and understanding,  But the SCRIPT, the check boxes will not allow for me to have a SPARE power supply and THIS IS A HUGHES problem,first and foremost.  All Frontier is is a subcontractor, - perhaps another legal word, but Hughes is the brains of the game. PLEASE HELP - someone at Hughes directly.  I am not the only one to which this problem will occur and am not the last. I wonder just how may of the justifiably irate disappointed people who are often here might be from this sort of intermittent problem. These switch-mode power supplies go bad not infrequently. 

Does the "power brick," the DC power supply for the HT1100 modem have an internally (automatic) re-setting overtemp or overcurrent device???

It is the only thing that currently seems to make sense. I have seen these devices in motors, etc. go bad, out of tolerance, or STAY open.  Granted they are USUALLY reliable.  "Usually" being the operative word.  Ha - ha! 

You would not believe how difficult this is getting this seemingly simple task accomplished.  These devices go bad.

Thank you.  Frontier really does not.  They have to defer to Hughes and actually connect me with Hughes, at least if I understand the verbiage correctly. 

Thank you, 

-Larry Lewis, 
on Idaho / Canada border.