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Trouble accessing Google Drive and Docs

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dk3
Sophomore

Trouble accessing Google Drive and Docs

Does anybody else have troubles accessing Google Drive and Google Docs? I am not throttled. And I don't have any trouble accessing other website - even those that are bandwidth heavy, e.g. YouTube or Facebook. But often I have troubles accessing Google Drive and Docs. The browser will hang, network errors are reported, or timeouts. I've cleared caches and disabled Google's offline extensions. I've restarted all my network devices. Often this will be a problem for hours at a time (typically mornings or evenings) and then clear up.

 

I need this for work and now that my kids are home, they need access for school. It's incredibly frustrating that they can't access a Google Doc even while they are successfully participating in a Zoom meeting! (Kudos to the Zoom folks for engineering an impressively robust video chat client that operates well even with attrocious satellite latency and typically consumes less than 1G/hr - but I digress.)

 

I am certain that this is a HughesNet routing problem. How do I know? Because when I connect to my company's VPN and route all my traffic through my employer, then I can retrieve Drive and Docs URLs with no significant delay (except the relatively modest VPN delay). Today I had to have my kids use my laptop so they could retrieve their assignments.

 

What does this imply? It suggests that the HughesNet path to Google's network is regularly congested. HughesNet needs to increase their land-based bandwidth to Google or add some peering or something. This is so frustrating. And with Covid-19 forcing us all to work from home, it's a showstopper!

 

27 REPLIES 27

I've spent 20 minutes reading this thread while waiting for a single small Google doc to open. And the final word is that there are legal reasons why Hughesnet can't provide service that allows me to access Google Drive for work? I find this very hard to believe, and stand in support of someone who says then they should be upfront that we may not be able to access something as basic as Google Drive. The Hughesnet service comes at premium prices, so they do have a responsibility to those of us paying those costs. They did just send an email telling us they were adjusting bandwidth to certain types of sites, reducing some, and increasing others to ameliorate issues around the current health crisis. So I find it hard to believe they can't do the same for pathways to Google Drive.

 

And meanwhile... I continue to wait for my document to open...

Right on. I am dumbstruck by the pushback on this topic. Are they shilling for HughesNet? The recent letter to customers clearly states that HN is able to prioritize traffic of certain types and destinations. Undeniably that includes routing. To claim that this problem is probably a legal one is absurd. 

HN's business model is based on charging premium prices for high latency internet to people who have no other viable choice. And then milking them for more by charging for bandwidth. Their interests are not aligned with their customers'.

 


@Buffsters wrote:

I've spent 20 minutes reading this thread while waiting for a single small Google doc to open. And the final word is that there are legal reasons why Hughesnet can't provide service that allows me to access Google Drive for work? I find this very hard to believe, and stand in support of someone who says then they should be upfront that we may not be able to access something as basic as Google Drive. The Hughesnet service comes at premium prices, so they do have a responsibility to those of us paying those costs. They did just send an email telling us they were adjusting bandwidth to certain types of sites, reducing some, and increasing others to ameliorate issues around the current health crisis. So I find it hard to believe they can't do the same for pathways to Google Drive.

 

And meanwhile... I continue to wait for my document to open...


 

GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV


@dk3 wrote:

The recent letter to customers clearly states that HN is able to prioritize traffic of certain types and destinations. Undeniably that includes routing.  


You may want to learn about the methods used for traffic type prioritization by ISPs.

 


@dk3 wrote: 

HN's business model is based on charging premium prices for high latency internet to people who have no other viable choice. And then milking them for more by charging for bandwidth.  


HughesNet isn't cheap because satellite internet is the most expensive form or residential internet, per capita, to both provide and maintain.   

maratsade
Distinguished Professor IV

Corporations operate by certain rules, and some of those rules (based on many laws and regulations) dictate how to run the business and the company's level of opacity.  

 

I believe that if the mods here want to reveal what's going on behind the scenes, they will.   Until then, I for one will focus on more pressing priorities, like staying healthy.

 

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. 


@maratsade wrote:

Oh dear, not this again. I fear @MarkJFine  may not have the energy to repeat his explanation of how the backbone provider works. 


Yeah, I don't have the energy. The OP knows it all, so there's no point in a debate.


* 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.
sred
New Poster

We have this same problem in spades! I've heard the same from others. It's causing a lot of problems for children trying to access very basic documents from their school during COVID-19 stay-at-home mandates.

Folks, and for everyone getting on the bandwagon here: HughesNet is not unique in having problems with Google Drive, et. al. I have a web server that is also having problems timing out when backing up to Google Drive and it is nowhere near being on HughesNet. This is a widespread problem.

 

Patience.


* 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.