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SLOW download & "broken satellite" story

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Don23805
Freshman

SLOW download & "broken satellite" story

When I returned recently from a trip, my neighbor, also on HN, mentioned that he had very slow response and Tech support gave him the Broken Satellite (like BlueSkyxxx) story.  They had no fix in sight and offered him the $30 reduction for 6 months also.

Sure enough, I, too, wait forever for a page to download.  If I run the Speedtest on the myhughesnet site, it shows download speeds around 0.3 Mbps.  Up load is the usual 4Mbps.  All tech support has done is gripe about the fact that I have 16 devices and that is why things are slow.  They are things like Sonos speakers, all on the local wifi side of the system.  I've had HN sine June  '17.  A speed test back then showed 38 Mbps, and it's been generally saatisfactory until recently.  Nobody has yet offered the courtesy of the $30 reduction, which would be a nice gesture until they get it fixed.  HN is really my only current option out here in the woods in Central VA.  Strangely, testmy.net shows about 23 Mbps.  What's the disparity?  All I know is that the reality more closely matches the sub-Mbps number.  Wazzup??

Don

22 REPLIES 22
MarkJFine
Professor

@Don23805
Are you on Echostar 17? I'm also in Central Virginia (albeit more North), but on Echostar 19. I get some slowdowns on Beam 68, but nothing like what you're describing.


* Disclaimer: I am a HughesNet customer and not a HughesNet employee. All of my comments are my own and do not necessarily represent HughesNet in any way.

How do I find out which satellite & beam I'm on?  I saw a post with reference to the same terminology, but it didn't look like I had any say in it. 

This isn't a career or even a hobby.  I just want good service until FIOS gets here.

Don

GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV


@Don23805 wrote:

How do I find out which satellite & beam I'm on?  


Your satellite and beam are in the "Satellite" box on the lower right of this page of your System Control Center.  Look for "Satellite Name" and "Beam ID".

monicakm
Senior

My testmy results are in the upper 30s to mid 40s.  My browsing speed has recently tanked.  I'm doing everything I can on my unlimited mobile data plan on my phone.  The SCC page takes literally minutes to finish loading.  Sometimes I just give up it's taking so long.  It  used to "snap" open.  I just found out from ts that it's not interference of trees like I thought it might be.  It just took 50 seconds for the Speed Test page to fully load.  I just completed a HN speed test.  39.86 down and 1.51 up.  These readings are consistent with testmy.  Web Response: 3.4 seconds.  I don't know exactly what that is measuring because I can't get anywhere in 3.4 seconds!

OK, I'm on ES19, Beam 84.  I'm cheking with my (also dead slow) neighbor to see if he's the same.

Ok. If you're much further north of Richmond, then you're pretty much in a fringe area.

You can compare it with the footprint of Beam 68.

For one thing, ES19 is definitely not broken, but there might be something going on in Albuquerque, NM. I believe that is where the ground station for that beam is located, which connects to the internet. Basically could be anything between your dish, that spot beam, the downlink to NM, to the ground station itself or it's internet provider.

 

Edit: I should point out that if Beam 84 is fringe for you, there might have been a good reason for getting assigned to it. I don't want to imply anything nefarious was done.


* Disclaimer: I am a HughesNet customer and not a HughesNet employee. All of my comments are my own and do not necessarily represent HughesNet in any way.

Deleted

I'm about 10 miles south of Petersburg (37.0876, -77.3883).  As I recall, the installer was an independent contrator, back in June '17.  Don't recall any discussion about beams.  Who assigns them?  The pattern **bleep** with the neighbor.  We're both on 84, and having the same slow problems. 

This morning on the myhughesnet speed test I got about 20 Mbps around 0830, but now it's back to under 0.5 .

Why the huge disparity between the speed test on myhughesnet and from testmy.net, which makes it all look  great.  Except it still takes forever to load anything.

Guess I don't understand exactly how the beam thing works.  Each is a separate transmit/receive radio and each uses its own ground station?  If multiple customers on 84 are having trouble, how do you know if it's their ground end or the transponder in the satellite.  And why doesn't HN know and get it fixed?

It's academically interesting, but would be just as much so if I thought I was still getting the deal I signed up for. 

I just clicked on ALL the Uxxx beam coverages.  Looks like  U068 & U084 are the only two possibilities.  I'm on the third band on each, one at the north end, the other at the south.  Circles must be where you're getting projected signal strength from.

 

 

Deleted

OK, so 2 dB per circle.  And every 3 dB is half power.  I suppose the home equipment is aways running full gain.  I don't find any parameter in the router access page that indicates signal strength.  Too bad.  My DirecTV system has one. 


@Don23805 wrote:

OK, so 2 dB per circle.  And every 3 dB is half power.  I suppose the home equipment is aways running full gain.  I don't find any parameter in the router access page that indicates signal strength.  Too bad.  My DirecTV system has one. 


If you go to System Status there will be a thing at the bottom that says WAN Info, Satellite Receive Strength. This is actually a Signal Quality Factor, and is kind of like an inverse bit error rate. It's not really a signal level, but can be thought of that for all intents and purposes.


* Disclaimer: I am a HughesNet customer and not a HughesNet employee. All of my comments are my own and do not necessarily represent HughesNet in any way.


Deleted

 

 

If I check download speed at the myhughesnet site, I get numbers like 0.3 Mbps, reflective of the dirt slow response I'm seeing.  But if I use the testmy.net site, touted by the HN staff here, I see rates of 11 - 13 Mbps, which would be pretty acceptable.  Why the disparity, and what good is a tool that gives only good news when the experienced rate is anything but?

Are we going to be getting any updates on what's wrecking the HN service, or is it just "you'll know it when it's fixed"?

Don

GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV


@Don23805 wrote:

If I check download speed at the myhughesnet site, I get numbers like 0.3 Mbps, reflective of the dirt slow response I'm seeing.  But if I use the testmy.net site, touted by the HN staff here, I see rates of 11 - 13 Mbps, which would be pretty acceptable.  Why the disparity, and what good is a tool that gives only good news when the experienced rate is anything but?

Are we going to be getting any updates on what's wrecking the HN service, or is it just "you'll know it when it's fixed"?

Don


The Hughes test keeps running successive tests until one lasts long enough, then gives the result of the speed occurring at the end of that last test.  TMN (testmy) allows a set size to be used with every test (which is required for troubleshooting).  It's a size that gives ample testing time, and the average of the speed across that test is the result that's given.  That result being an average is the biggest difference between the two test's results.   

The Hughes test seems to more accurately reflect the situation. And the second part is who is doing what and what's the progress?  This board seems full of Sloooow issues.  At least there are knowledgeable HN staff  here rather than the **bleep** who answer the CS phone lines.  Getting a rebate is fine, but it doesn't fix anything.  And it's not encouraging that you're talking 6 months worth.  Is the other beam that covers my location possibily better, and how does one arrange to try that out?  I'm on 84, but 68 looks like an equal possibility.

Don

GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV


@Don23805 wrote:

Is the other beam that covers my location possibily better, and how does one arrange to try that out?  I'm on 84, but 68 looks like an equal possibility.

Don


It's likely that this is not an option, at least not at this point, as engineering would normally put it on the table if it was.  

If you're talking about the variation between the last few tests, a lot can vary over time depending upon usage load on the beam, as well as at the ground station.


As far as how the multiple beam - multiple ground station thing works, the system is designed to have geographically dispersed ground stations (~17 or so) across the west coast so that bad weather in one spot doesn't bring down everyone on the network. Each ground station is assigned as many as 9 spot beams, but as few as 5 for those with beams that cover dense populations areas. The goal is to try to level the load as best as possible across all four time zones and geographic areas so peak demand isn't all at the time, and is optimized as best as possible.

You can think of each beam as a router, where total bandwidth is split amongst all the users in the spot beam. The combination of each beam is then multiplexed like another router, also splitting bandwith. Then all of that is muxed again at the ground station, acting like another massive router to the internet provider. Depending on how subscribers are using their part of the network and the number of them active at one time, speed is going to vary greatly.

For example, getting email is less intense than someone streaming a movie - just based upon the number of pings and the sheer synchronous timing of how streaming works under a 500ms minimally latent system (it's actually a lot more complex than that). The higher the ping demand at that time, the slower your instantaneous speed is going to be. Latency can also increase depending upon server load and processing time, also making overall speed levels slower.

Bottom line: Speed isn't going to be linear on this kind of network because instantaneous demand isn't linear.


* Disclaimer: I am a HughesNet customer and not a HughesNet employee. All of my comments are my own and do not necessarily represent HughesNet in any way.


Deleted


@bluesky636 wrote:

Depending on how far south of Petersburg you are, the satellite EIRP (transmit power level) is 61 to 63 dBW which is 2 to 4 dBW down from beam center. Beam center is around Greenville at 65 dBW.

 

I am on ES17, beam 33 in Natural Bridge. EIRP at my location is 65 dBW.


Did you get your seance with "engineering"?  Any insight, or just Wizard of Oz behinfd the curtain stuff?  I'm in 3rd band, but always probably have been, but it's never been slow like this.

Don