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Random extremely low signal, clear day, no trees.

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starhouse
New Member

Random extremely low signal, clear day, no trees.

For about the last week I've had issues: internet is down so I check my 1100 and see that it's having a problem downloading data; signal strength is extremely low, 30's or less on a clear day with no trees in the way. I reset the modem and slowly the signal will start rising again and after 10 minutes or so, is back up to 92. But it will happen again at random times. Anyone else seeing this?
113 REPLIES 113
starhouse
New Member

Hi Amanda;
Happy Monday. The tech was great yesterday. He replaced the tria, coax and the ground block; the dish also needed to be aimed. The logs look clean and signal strength is back up to 92. Page loads are a little slow so I'm wondering if something got changed during troubleshooting that needs to be changed back?

Thanks again for all of your help 🙂
Rob
starhouse
New Member

I spoke too soon. Having the same issues as before...
starhouse
New Member

Hi Amanda;

Can you send a replacement modem?

Thanks,
Rob
Amanda
Moderator

Oh whoops hi Rob, I thought I replied yesterday. I reached out to the engineer who recommended the equipment replacement but he was not available as he was working a graveyard shift for beam management last night. He'll be in this afternoon though. 


So I just wanted yesterday to briefly touch on the log you posted. In looking at it, the only downtime was 19 seconds long on 10/9/16 (at least, what was logged). That is extremely brief! Since yesterday have you seen more of these incidents? Can you post a screenshot of your state code/SQF when its actually down? I have another case open right now but as soon as I am done I will take a look at your system and see about sending out that modem.

Thanks
Amanda
starhouse
New Member

Hi Amanda;

I can grab another one when I get home. The issue is that downloading or streaming anything is terribly slow. So I think the outages in the log are just indicative of a bigger issue . I used to use Hangouts to make calls and there were times when the latency was an issue but I would say it was about 90% usable. Since this started a couple of months ago, it's pretty much impossible to use.

Thanks,
Rob
Amanda
Moderator

Oh, that is different then 🙂 

I am guessing it has something to do with this reading I've been getting (didn't want to mention it since we were on the HughesNet side of equipment testing back then).  

Can you give me a little info on the router? Have you recently moved it, modified any settings or done a firmware update on it? Any new electronics in the home like cordless phone, wireless headphones, stuff like that?

If anything, I can actually send you a new router for free to test out.

Amanda
starhouse
New Member

It's a Linksys Wireless N router running DD-WRT. Nothing has changed as far as the router and no cordless phone or wireless anything. I have an older "G" router I can plug in and see if it's any different.

Thanks,
Rob
starhouse
New Member

Hi Amanda;
I'm not sure how you're diagnostics can see my wireless router but after installing my older Buffalo router, there have been no improvements. This morning I had another episode of not being able to browse the internet so I checked the modem (see picture 1). Signal strength was low and lots of red X's. It was overcast at the time but not raining. Five minutes after resetting the modem, I took another screenshot (see picture 2) and you can see that the signal strength is back up. This is the same behavior that I've seen since this issue started.
GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV

starhouse,

Although this may be unrelated to your issue, signal strength can be affected by both the weather in your area and the weather at the gateway.  Cloudy conditions, even without rain, can definitely affect the signal.  The thicker and more dense the cloud cover, the more it can be affected, again, even without rain hitting the ground. 

Again, I'm not saying that this is necessarily what is happening in your situation, as I see it's been an ongoing problem. 

debbie.jean.bro
Advanced Tutor

And, while weather may (or may not) be a contributing factor, it's unlikely to be the only factor, given that the problem suddenly started three months ago and now is continuous. I'm keen on seeing how the new router works.

This is off-topic, but I wish the people who post about terrible customer service would read this thread and see the work Amanda has done/is doing here. It exemplifies customer service at its best. 🙂
El Dorado Netwo
Advanced Tutor

A 55 point signal drop could not be caused by weather unless it was some massive downpour or snow storm, Something else is wrong but darned if I can guess what since you replaced everything outside.

Bad/intermittent modem/power supply?

Ground loop? Is this dish mounted on a ground post?
El Dorado Networks |Diamond Springs, CA | eldoradonetworks.com
starhouse
New Member

Thanks everyone, I grabbed the second screenshot as soon as I could after restarting the modem to try to take the weather out of the equation. I understand its not just my weather that could affect it but restarting the modem "fixes" it every time.

The dish is roof-mounted and very solid with a good ground. The only things we haven't replaced are the dish itself, the modem and the modem power supply.

Amanda has been great with all of this 🙂
GW
Advanced Tutor

I suggest it's time for Hughes to replace all of the hardware that has ever been connected to the old coax.

There are some very weird things that happen with this service. Things that defy logic and understanding. Although I suffered with different problems than you for more than two years (with multiple  hardware replacements and continual intervention by our advocates here and the "experts" they work with) absolutely no progress was made until the coax was replaced. This cured the second of my extremely odd persistent error conditions.

Still, the original low speed problem that plagued my Gen4 system since Day 1 rolled on even though "engineering" continued analyzing while claiming it didn't exist and/or couldn't be fixed because of a variety of reasons.

Another year+ beyond the coax replacement and another year+ of continual effort by Amanda, Liz and myself, it's finally fixed. What eventually fixed it was re-replacement of the modem/power supply and radio AFTER the coax and original ground block were replaced. These were the third copies of modem/PSU/ODU installed for me but now my peak speeds ranging down below 100 kbps are done. It's still not perfect because of the overloaded beam but just about anything is better than a 200-400 kbps average on any Sunday

No matter how good Hughes thinks (or wants us to believe) their network expertise and remote and/or on-site diagnostics are, my case history shows this to be the polar opposite of true. There are too many moving parts and the system is far too complex to be properly analyzed for every individual situation.

Amanda and Liz will work themselves to a nub trying to resolve our problems for us but the truth is, when they are given bad information by their network systems or those who run those systems, there are no solutions. I have so much respect for the Official Reps who help us in this forum but I feel so very badly for them because I know how much pure malarky is dished out to them to supposedly help them in their efforts to help us.

As for clouds/weather doing this to you, I don't believe this could be a factor unless you live right on the ragged edge of coverage for your beam. A thick deck of stratus clouds will drop my signal a few points. Massive cumulonimbus obscuring the view between my site and the satellite will drop my signal more than a few points but we're talking a drop from a severe clear peak of up to 140 down to 80-120. It's only heavy precip that takes me out of the game  and depending on severity, SQF can go to nothing.

I hope you can get this solved. It's very unfortunate but the effort required for getting our Hughes service to function properly can approach the level of a part-time job.
debbie.jean.bro
Advanced Tutor

I wouldn't be too quick to judge the engineering team. First, I doubt. Hughesnet hires kids who just got their GED in juvie and dubs them engineers. I assume they are college graduates and relatively intelligent human beings.

Second, as we all learned from "Jurassic Park," (LOL!) chaos theory tells us that very minor changes in the field can lead to big consequences. In GW's case, one coax cable. There is no way an engineer can divine that one cable, or modem, or whatever, brand new out of the box is going to work better than another one brand new out of the box.

El Dorado has been installing Hughesnet satellite for years and has a huge customer base. In a way, he's much more knowledgeable than the engineers (and for all I know, he may be an engineer) because he's working at ground zero, so to speak. And even he's stumped on this one.

So while I agree this may take a long time to fix, although I hope it doesn't, I don't think we can lay the blame at the engineers' feet. Or anyone's feet. It's one of those things that will be solved by trial and error.

Just my two cents. 🙂
starhouse
New Member

Hi Amanda,

Could you send a replacement modem?

Thanks,
Rob
Amanda
Moderator

Hey Rob

It should be there on Thursday, if not by tomorrow afternoon depending on your local UPS delivery times. If this doesn't fix it, we'll have software team look at your system instead.

Thanks
Amanda
starhouse
New Member

Thanks Amanda 🙂
starhouse
New Member

Hi Amada, just wanted to follow up with you, everything is working again like it used to. Thanks so much for your help 🙂
Amanda
Moderator

Hey Rob

Keep me in the loop just in case. I'll leave this thread open for a while just in case 🙂

Thanks
Amanda
GW
Advanced Tutor

Interesting. Miss Amanda, is this another example of re-used HN9000 coax taking out the hardware on both ends of a Gen4 system?

Edit: Rather than saying "taking out" the hardware, I should rephase that to say, "mysteriously impairing the performance of the Gen4 ODU and modem".
Amanda
Moderator

Hey Don

Yourself and Rob had 2 different issues. Yours was a result of what appeared to be complete hardware failure because of some type of short. The symptoms expelled from your issue are different as well - state codes were pushed that were telling a certain "story" because it used the "hidden code" inside the SQF (remember the 30s?)

Rob's issue is different in it is a power problem altogether ( I suspect) where the power starts at the modem. It could have actually just been a weak or defective power supply for the modem in the end. If it stays resolved then that is my ultimate guess. 

Amanda