Site diagnostics, please

[GW]

Please run diagnostics for me. My Hughesnet has been running slower and slower for a while now. At times it's becoming useless. That's a problem because it's sometimes happening between 4 and 8 am in the bonus zone when I like to do a lot of my work and all the updates on everything. We have the 15GB primetime allowance, don't give a hoot about streaming or things like zoom. We use another provider for things like that. My wife always runs her work computer off Verizon and I tend switch off to Vz for any big downloads or any heavy usage during primetime.

Whenever it does go down the tubes, I must tether my phone to whatever computer I need to use. Not all have wifi. I also like to keep my phones updated over my Hughesnet prior to 8 AM. I needed to install a 50-something MB app this morning and it took more than 10 minutes to download.

I can't see it being a problem with my site since the slow can happen even with high RSS but there's only one way to find out. I suspect my E19 beam 107 is becoming oversold or has a problem. Last night it became completely dysfunctional and clocked a ripping 3.2 Mbps by testmy.net while my SCC was showing a RS of 83.

I have some speed tests randomly collected over time but they're currently inaccessible due to testmy.net being gone with bad gateway 502 error. This is whether connected by Hughes or Vz.

I hope you all had a great weekend!

GW

[GW]

Testmy is back online so now I can offer a link to my test records.

https://testmy.net/quickstats/Gateswood2

My RSS is 84 this morning so that's not a reason for the pitiful results when my internet was basically non-functional earlier today.

I noticed my connectivity results exceeded 2200 ms in all categories at that time but the test told me "You have good connectivity to the gateway".

Thanks,

GW

Edit: This testmy account is for the exclusive use of my main desktop that only runs hardwired ethernet connections. No wifi on this one.

[Remy]

GW,

Thank you for reaching out to us and providing these tests! I was able to test the speeds on our end, and it's showing similar results. It doesn't seem there's any issue with your alignment, and all diagnostics I ran outside of your speeds look alright. First, I want to see if a modem swap will do the job. It seems it's been about 3 years since you've received your previous modem. Please expect the replacement soon; you can use its box to return the old modem. For your convenience, the return label is included in the outer pouch. Please let us know if this new modem makes a difference!

Thanks,
Remy

[GW]

Hi Remy,

It doesn't appear to be the modem. The replacement arrived Friday. I installed it Sunday morning after running 40 hourly automatic  speed tests with the old modem.

The old modem test began Friday afternoon 6/23 at 1:21 pm and ended Sunday morning 6/25 at 4:43 am.

The new modem test of 50 hourlies began Sunday morning 6/25 at 7:49 am and ended today at 9:22 am today.

It looks like the new modem did a high download of 46.4 Mbps at 4:25 am 6/27 and a low of 0.69 at 9:19 pm on 6/26. The high upload was 3.11 at 11:07 am on 6/26. The low was 0.26 at 10:53 pm on 6/25.

The old modem did a high download of 41.59 Mbps at 1:29 am on 6/24 and a low of 1.8 at 7:39 pm on Saturday. The high upload of 3.35 was at 2:30 am on 6/24. The low was 0.33 at 1:35 pm Saturday.

None of these tests appear to be influenced by weather. At least on my end.

We had some quick  thunderstorms come through Sunday and again after midnight for a few hours. You can see the hit on upload speeds during some of the late storms that coincided with a speed test but they didn't appear to bother the downloads all that much.

The modem had a rough time doing a software update Sunday. It stuck on the dreaded 15 signal for quite a while doing that IPGW pool thing when trying to associate.

Thanks,

GW

[Remy]

GW,

Thank you for following up! It's unfortunate to hear that the replacement hasn't fixed the issue. We appreciate the updated speeds and troubleshooting statistics, it helps us out a lot! I've had your case escalated, and I'll provide you with updates once the investigation is complete! You may receive a call from our escalation team within a couple days. I'll also have a complimentary 5GB token added to help out!

Thanks,

Remy

[GW]

Good morning Remy,

Please let me know if/when you need me to do more testing and the exact type. I'll leave the testmy records as they are for now. I think the two sets of hourlies clearly show it's a beam/network problem. I haven't gotten around to arranging and sorting the csv file but it will stick out like a sore thumb there.

Thanks,

GW

[GW]

Thank you Remy. I truly appreciate that and hope it will solve the problem. Yes, it has been just a tad over 3 years. I think it was April 2020. I'll let you know.

Best Regards,

GW

[GW]

Hi Remy

Escalated support called me at noon Friday. Christine and case# 153709860 We had a 1:47 conference where we went through EVERYTHING. We tested modem resets, 2g, 5g, two routers, ethernet direct and routed, phone by wifi, etc.

She found no problems other than constant speed fluctuations that never got up to baseline. She said my  beam has no problems. After confirming modem, ODU and aim were good, she said the coax must be bad. I said it was replaced from end to end some years ago but I couldn't tell her when.

She dispatched a technician to change it out. This was scheduled for between 11 and 2 on Saturday. He called at 6:25 PM Friday and asked if he could come by in a half hour or so. Out of respect for his schedule and request, I agreed even though it was a very inconvenient time.

He connected to the modem wifi with his phone to check things out. He immediately said I was in FAP and was pleased he solved the problem so quickly and easily. My plan bytes were indeed 0%. That ran out during the earlier support call. He didn't seem to believe I was running on token byte reserve. He wasted a lot of time calling someone on the phone to verify I really had that much reserve. Whoever he was talking to eventually confirmed I had that many genuine token bytes in reserve and was not in FAP.

He checked things and couldn't find anything wrong except low speeds. I asked him if he read all the notes attached to his dispatch because he was sent out to change the coax. He declined to do that (which was good because it was getting late and that's a long, hard job) saying coax lasts over 30 years. (Uh huh, sure it does.) He started changing cable ends because he found some tiny spots of corrosion in them and changed the ground block. The cable ends I looked at didn't have any dielectric grease but I did see the black spots he showed me. Then he changed the radio and was on his way.

This helped nothing. Still slow and erratic. The next morning I set up a auto testing routine to run 50 hours of 5 mb downloads every half hour to make a nice, pretty 100 test page. This makes it easy to see the ongoing situation.I let it run on my main, Ethernet connected computer and made certain nothing interfered with a scheduled speed test. Inconvenient is an understatement but it tells the tale. My testmy page shows a low download of 0.56 Mbps, a high of 42.12 Mbps and a median of 9.55 Mbps. Same basic result as the two sets of tests the week before using the old modem and then the new modem. It appears something is wrong with my system but the problem does not exist on my property unless it could be the underground coax.

The repairman did see the RSS instantly drop from above 80 to 52 when he was watching his phone. No storms, no clouds, no wind, no nothing. I've never seen this happen before but I don't spend much time staring at the RSS in the SCC. Can this be a clue? Is there any way you or I can set up a data logging function in the modem to track signal losses and corresponding time?

GW

[GW]

@Remy 

This morning (7/7 at 7 am) my internet is almost non-functional as I try to do my work. In this case, rolling a triple 7 doesn't seem to be very lucky.

[Remy]

GW,

Thank you for following up! We appreciate your patience, I was out of office for the previous few days. I'm sorry to hear the technician visit didn't solve things! The coax cable should've been something the technician could've replaced. We appreciate the continued testing of speeds and latency that you've been performing, and I'm going to be notating the test results provided. I'm going to take a look into your account in an attempt to pin down exactly what the issue is. I will also have the actions of the technician passed along to our escalation team! I will be following up when I receive an update!

Thanks,

Remy

[GW]

Hi Remy,

I was hoping you getting in some vacation relaxitation time. I wonder if you can access the notes from the escalation conference? Maybe that will give you some clues. I think she did a lot of documentation.

I still can't remember much about the previous coax change but it could have had something to do with that steel ground wire being so rusty. That said, I wondered if Hughes still uses steel ground in the coax. That's affirmative but look what else I found. The tech didn't reconnect the ground to the new grounding block. It was loose and tucked in behind. I know I'm not supposed to goof with Hughes wiring but it's reconnected now. We have been having a few thunderstorms lately. Even though all my stuff is well protected by APC UPS units, finding that didn't give me a warm, fuzzy feeling. I sure am glad a bolt didn't hit our antenna. That would have been nasty.

GW

[GW]

@Remy

This morning my security updates were failing. RSS in SCC was 80. Two of these tests stuck, just as you see them here. They never completed even when left running for minutes. I gave up and tethered my computers to Vz, one-by-one, to get it done. By 7:45 AM, Hughes was functional with a speed test of 4.2 Mbps. Earlier in the morning ~4:30-5:30, the Hughes was working just fine.

[Remy]

GW,

Thank you for the updates! They're much appreciated, and I'll continue to notate these. Between 4:30 - 5:30, would you say that the service was operating as it normally would've before you started experiencing these issues? Or just better in comparison to what you've been experiencing recently?

Thanks,

Remy

[GW]

Hi Remy,

I didn't do much this morning other than respond to website messages, do email, print mailing labels, check package tracking and download invoices. I would say it was cooking along as normal. I imagine if I ran a speed test during that time, it probably would have come back at 30-40 Mbps.

GW

[GW]

I don't know what's going on after 7 AM any more but this just about has to be a beam/network issue. I tried to watch a 20-something minute youtube video about a machine Wednesday morning about this time and it wouldn't even start. I wanted to try it again this morning so I ran a few quick tests prior. That won't be happening.

Footnote: It took me over eight minutes to load the community page, log on, load this thread and upload the 63 kb jpg

[GW]

@Remy

I had a 46 minute conversation with Wences of level 4 support yesterday morning. One thing I continue to find fascinating is none of the elevated support people give a hoot about speed tests or history. I offered both Christine and Wences links to the considerable history I went far out of my way to accumulate so they could simply and easily... and quickly... analyze the situation in excruciating detail. They don't care. All they care about is what they see at the moment they're looking. When Christine was looking, what she saw was wildly fluctuating speeds that never got up to "baseline". When Wences was looking, he was seeing 20+ Mbps. Same as I was seeing that morning.

They may not ever see what I see right now. Presently, 2 Mbps download that's 89% lower than my Host's average of 17.9  Mbps. And they never get to see the really fun stuff like 350 kbps downloads and 300 kbps uploads unless they want to stay around and test for a few hours.

With Wences, after a long duration of trying to solve problems that do not exist and counsel me about things I could care less about, we finally got right down to it. It is as I suspected. There really is a serious problem with my beam but as we all know, speeds are not guaranteed 😀 The beam and requisite network is oversold and grossly congested. My service, with my 15 GB bandwidth and low speed plan, my internet performance is getting stepped on and going down the tubes every time all the kiddies decide to watch some cartoons.

Lather, rinse and repeat. No different than my time on Spaceway beam 55 that went on and on without resolution or relief until Jupiter came along. At least this run lasted 6+ years before service started crashing from too many customers. There also will not be any relief potentially provided by Fusion. Not sure but it seems like that could help by reducing the beam load and shunting uploads over to wireless.  Both Christine and Wences said there's no plans to rework my beam 107 to accommodate this service.

The sad part about all of this is I'd be willing to bet Hughes is still adding every possible customer to this beam without regard to the service quality of existing customers who've been on it since day one.

Thanks Remy. I truly appreciate your help.

GW