Promotion has expired; now being throttled?

[loveoldtrux]

HI gang,

Recently recieved this from Hughesnet:

"Dear Mark,

Thank you for being a HughesNet customer. We wanted to let you know that your HughesNet Gen5 20GB Next Plan Up promotional offer will expire on April 29, 2018. Your service plan price will increase to $89.99.  No action is required, but you have options if you would like to adjust your plan:
View Your Options
You can view your account details at any time at myHughesNet.com or on the HughesNet Mobile App. If you elect to change your service plan now, you will continue to receive the Next Plan Up promotional credit until your 12 month promotional period has completed. In month 13, you will pay the standard monthly fee for your plan.
We hope you are enjoying your HughesNet service."

Well, that was sort of "interesting"; I didn't know I was on any special promotional offer - I was under the impression you pay the money you get the data.  Since this promotion has expired I've noticed a lot of speed problems; it's quite obvious I'm NOT getting the data throughput I used to get (look at my previous posts - you'll see where I was constantly have to pay for additional tokens.  My download throughput used to be at LEAST 1 GB per hour - it's now quite less --> I've been monitoring it due to the problems I've been having; see image below; it now takes about 1 1/2 hours to download 1 gb)

I don't know what a promotional offer would give me to enable me to dl 1 gb per hour and then snatch it away after it ended, but it's a definite throttle.  I usually log on to Hughesnet at 4:30 AM and do my slots, so unlimited throughput should be available.

Has anybody else experienced this after their "promotional offer" has expired?  Any idea what this "promotional offer" is / was?...

Thanks for the read,

Mark

[maratsade · Accepted solution]

"Has anybody else experienced this after their "promotional offer" has expired?  Any idea what this "promotional offer" is / was?..."

I had a promotional offer, and when it ended, nothing changed except the monthly fee went up.  

There is likely something else going on with your system that coincided with the expiration of your promotional offer. 

[Groucho]

Shortly after I received notice that my promotional period was expiring, I expected to pay $10 more a month.  No!  It's $20 more a month. And, shortly after that got paid, I had trouble getting into my email.  After a few days, that problem was resolved.  But, a day later, a different problem with email.  Every time I tried to send a message, I instantly received notice that the message was refused by the receiving ISP which considered it SPAM.  And when I looked up Error Codes 500 and 544, the explanation was that the sending ISP -- HughesNet -- did not have certain criteria to protect the recipient.  After that, I also noticed that anytime I attempted to Compose a new email, the address bar would change from 'Secure' to 'Not Secure'.  It's been almost a week now, and I'm wondering how long it takes for HughesNet to correct the problem.  I'm quite sure it must be affecting many more customers. 

[GabeU]

@Groucho

Your issue(s) is unrelated to the OP's.  If you would like help with your issue(s), please start a new topic, which you can do here...  

https://community.hughesnet.com/t5/forums/postpage/board-id/TechSupport

[MarkJFine]

Just to amplify @GabeU's point, it's more likely that one of two things happened:
1. You modem rebooted into a different GWID/outroute configuration that is more congested than what you were in. You can try doing a hard reboot by unplugging the modem from the wall, waiting a few minutes, then plugging it back in to re-associate to a better configuration.

2. There's a problem with the upstream provider's routing tables that's affecting speed to specific locations, such as Microsoft (I mention this because Level3 has been having sporadic issues going to MS for the past couple of months).

[GabeU]

@MarkJFine

Somewhat off topic, but also related...

Do you know when, or how often, the Activity section of the adapter's stats resets?  The reason I ask is that I just turned my computer on about twenty minutes ago, after having been off for a while, and it shows the following....

Now, of course, there's no way I downloaded 7.6GB or uploaded nearly a half gig of data in twenty minutes.  It just gets me wondering when it resets.  When I originally replied earlier it showed 7.5... something or other for the download, so it's not resetting when I shut the computer down (no sleep or hibernation, but complete shutdown).  The time is resetting, but not the data.   

[MarkJFine]

@GabeU

Tbh, I was under the impression it reset when something related to the adapter changed such as the IP address, and that it kept a running total even after a power reboot. But I could be very wrong. Does seem odd that you'd have 7GB after 20'.

Can try experimenting with rebooting/changing adaptors and opening that window right afterwards to see what changes. I know Macs reset their totals on a reboot as well as when you switch from wifi to ethernet.

Edit: Keep in mind that's a number that the adaptor thinks it transferred between the machine and the modem, as well as any other loopbacks. Doesn't necessarily mean it's what went out past the modem.

[loveoldtrux]

Markjfine,

Yeah, with Windows 7 (or was it XP?....) I noticed the adapter reset after every reboot - with Windows 10 it just keeps a running log and does not reset when system rebooted.  No problem - I just reset it manually when turning the system on every day.  SOMETIMES after a reboot, the adapter will reset to 0 KB.  Still no problem - I just keep it open every day to see what's going on...

Thanks,

Mark

[loveoldtrux]

GabeU,

Thanks for the reply; I manually reset ethernet adapter stats each day when I log in at 4:30 am to closely monitor what is going on and I also run glasswire daily.   As the extended data allowance ends at 8 am, I also then reset the adapter stats to monitor my usage as less data is allowed to download from then till 2 am without buying the tokens.

Anyway, good thing I posted this as somebody at Hnet must have read it and created a troubleticket and resolved the issue; would have been nice for them to send me the ticket number so when this happens again, I can get it resolved easier .  Somebody must have jiggled a cable or reset a switch or something.  As my adapter stats are reset each morning, I have included a picture this morning of how it usually reads when working properly - you can see I am working much MUCH better now!!  Working SO good in fact, I better WATCH that data throughput .

Ha ha ...yes, I learned years ago to reset the adapter stats daily as it will gradually get bigger and bigger and bigger if not reset.  Then one day you'll look at it after turning the system on and it'll read 50 + gb or whatever.... and you'll be sitting there scratching your head and muttering to yourself I do run the glasswire - nice to see when NOTHING is going on if it's a site related issue or system issue.  If my slots site is not working, I'll jump to CNN.COM to see if glasswire reports activity there - if not, it's a system problem - if activity at CNN.COM, then it's a site problem.  I've doing the slots since last summer - several hours a day, so I know when something is amiss.

Again, thanks for your reply, GabeU

[GabeU]

---

@loveoldtrux wrote: 

Anyway, good thing I posted this as somebody at Hnet must have read it and created a troubleticket and resolved the issue; would have been nice for them to send me the ticket number so when this happens again, I can get it resolved easier .  Somebody must have jiggled a cable or reset a switch or something. 

---

It's highly unlikely that anyone did anything to resolve your issue because the pictures you're posting don't show that one existed.  There is no context to them.  All they show is that that particular amount of data was downloaded/uploaded during that time, but again, there's no context to them.  This is also another reason why I don't believe that there was any intervention.  Any attempt to help would have been preceded by a number of questions/requests to establish that there was a problem, with the likely first request being speed test results, followed by what it is that you were trying to download, and from where.   

If we're to look at the pictures and deduce what I think you're trying to show it only shows that, if you were trying to download a single file during the entire time, your speed went from approximately 1.7Mbps to 2.5Mbps, but again, because there's no context, even that can't be deduced.  

Please understand, I'm not trying to sound like a jerk or condescending or anything of the sort.  I'm just trying to understand what it is you believe the pictures show.   Are you starting to download a large, multigig file, then allowing it to continue downloading for an hour to see how much was downloaded in that hour?  If so, what is the file (from what site)?   Or, are you choosing a 1GB file from somewhere and seeing how long it takes to download the full 1GB?  If so, again, what is the file (from what site)?  I ask because I would like to try the same to see what happens for me. 

[loveoldtrux]

Ooops - spoke to soon.  As you can see from the image below I've been online for 45 - 50 minutes and only 145 MB of data has downloaded - when system is working properly this will read around 750MB +.  Hughes net is now prompting me to mark one of the previous answers as a solution.  None have provided a solution so I'm not marking any as a solution.  I guess I'm just going to have to live with this for $80+ a month.....

[maratsade]

Loveoldtrux, you may want to read what @GabeU wrote to you and provide some context for what you think are issues.  You are wasting your time when you continue to ignore people who are trying to help you, and you are wasting theirs.  

Edit: I am not a Hughesnet employee or representative. 

[loveoldtrux]

Maratsade,

You're a real piece of work, aint'cha maratsade?  "wasting their time and mne".  Right.  You are typical for "tech support" - make the customer feel like an a _ _ so they will discontinue contacting you and YOU end up with goof looking stats, giving you time to sit on YOUR duff to browse the web.  Right - real good. 

For  your information I DID look at GabeU's replies - it's quite obvious he doesn't know what I'm talking about when the information is right in front of his eyes.

Good day all, I'm closing this ticket - I don't need to be beaten up by a company for 88.00 a month

[GabeU]

@loveoldtrux

Again, there's no context to those pictures.  They aren't helpful in any way.  All this latest pic shows is that in 52:12 a total of 145MB was downloaded and 23MB was uploaded, nothing more.  Not when, what, how, size(s), duration, etc.  There is absolutely no context.  

The pics you're posting don't show what you think they show.  

[GabeU]

@loveoldtrux

If you're experiencing speed issues it has absolutely nothing to do with the expiration of promotional pricing.  The two happening around the same time are pure coincidence.    

But, regarding it taking 1.5 hours to download 1GB, the tool you're using to gauge that rate isn't at all accurate in that way, as there is no context and no breakdown.  Are you downloading a single file that's 1.5GB or larger in size, and if so, from where, as servers at the source can have problems (Windows and Apple often do)?  Are you downloading multiple files that add up to 1.5GB or larger in size, and again, if so, from where?  The only way speed/throughput can be gauged is when something is downloaded that is enough to cause the speed to go to as high as it can for a long enough time to get an accurate result.  A speed test does this.  

Glasswire is a much used and often recommended tool for showing data usage in a given time period, including what's using it.  https://www.glasswire.com/  That's for the data.  For measuring speed itself you should use testmy.net, and use the manual 25MB test size for download tests and the manual 4MB test size for upload tests.  

Having to buy the mentioned Tokens, OTOH, is because of exhausting your monthly allotment of high speed data too quickly and having the speed throttled because of it.  Token data doesn't affect your speed/throughput in any other case.  Only when you've exhausted your high speed data allotment and have gone into FAP.  And, actually, if anything, a reduced data throughput, other than when in FAP, would mean your monthly allotment of high speed data would last longer, not the other way around.  But, again, the tool you're using to measure your throughput/speed isn't accurate for that purpose.