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Unusable During Peak Hours

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RubberBiscuit61
Freshman

Unusable During Peak Hours

Is it reasonable to expect a usable service during peak hours on the weekend?  If no, then I will cancel my service (because I only use it on the weekends).  If yes, then read on for new new user experience and my cry for help:

 

8/30:  Installed new service.  Called in to report poor performance.  Was told it takes 24 hours for it to sync, so please try again later.

 

Called in a few days later to report slow speeds.  Some times they would time out.  Sometimes speeds were as low as 0.26 Mbps download and 0.01 Mbps upload.  After extended troubleshooting, my case was referred to Advanced Support with a callback promised in 3-5 business days.

 

Received callback and was told they had changed my beam and to test again.  Of course, Advanced Support only works M-F during non-peak hours.  So I had to wait until the weekend to test.  Performance was still really bad so I called the special number and pin Advanced Support gave me.  They said they would need to send a tech out to check the hardware and alignment. They said to call back on Monday if the service had not improved.

 

9/15: Tech came out, replaced the dish, the radio, and changed the alignment slightly.  Tested over the weekend and speeds; at times the speed test would not even complete.  Downloads were as low as 0.61.  Uploads were improved at about 2 Mbps.

 

9/18:  Called Advanced Support and the pin had expired, so I was transferred to a tech who wanted to start all over again.  For 30ish minutes, I tried to explain that I wanted to speak with Advanced Support because I had already been working with them and they had asked for me to call back.  He finally said he had "no way" to get me in touch with them and that my service looked great this morning and that they make "no guarantees" as to service level during peak hours.  After several requests, I was finally able to get to a supervisor who also stated that they had no way to get me back to Advanced Support.

 

If anyone from HughesNet wants to (or can) fix this for me, then please respond.  Otherwise, I see no option but to fight my way out of a 2-year contract for an unusable service.

 

 

17 REPLIES 17
C0RR0SIVE
Associate Professor

To help the Hughesnet Customer Service Reps get a head start on your speed concerns, you should create a testmy.net account and perform 3-5 tests during different parts of the day. Then share the account results link with us here.

Please keep in mind that Hughesnet will only accept testmy.net and the official Hughesnet speed test results. Tests from other sites like speedtest.net are not accepted due to the compression technologies and latency that satellite deploys.

Most important points to remember during this test:
-do the tests while directly connected to the HughesNet modem with a LAN cable (NO third party Router or Wireless devices can be used)
-use the 25MB size download test file

-If testing upload instead of download, you must use a 4MB size upload test file
-space each test at least 5 minutes apart
-post your results URL here, it may look something like http://testmy.net/quickstats/C0RR0SIVE


For a more in depth guide on running the tests, please visit: http://customer.kb.hughesnet.com/Pages/7001.aspx

The Reps are on M-F from approximately 8AM to 5PM Eastern. They will be the ones to address your speed issues, but they will need these tests to do so.

I have already run dozens of tests and provided the information to the techs over the past couple of weeks proving that speeds are good in the morning, but unacceptable and unusable during peak hours.  There is a capacity constraint that should be easily identified with the existing data.  The question is whether additional data is really needed to prove it or if we are just spinning our wheels on a problem that will not be fixed because of cost concerns related to deployment of additional bandwidth.

 

Why can I not speak with the Advance Support person who was already working on my issue?  That individual told me she would escalate to engineering if I was still having issues.  I am, but I have no way to reach her now.  

 

Given tech support said there are "no guarantees" during peak hours, I ask again, what should my expectation be during peak hours?  Should I expect constant buffering, speeds below 1 Mpbs, and occasional timeouts?  During the worst times, the speed test won't even run.

Let me say this another way... From reading other Community posts, poor performance during peak hours is a pervasive problem. So I ask, is this an engineering issue or a budget issue?

 

If it's an engineering/technical issue, then I am happy to work with engineering and provide whatever data that is needed to resolve my issue.

 

If this is a budget issue, then no amount of data will resolve the problem because an executive decision has already been made to not resolve it.  In this case, it would be better for me to cut my losses and move on to an alternative provider.

Date RecordedDownload Result(KBPS)Upload Result(KBPS)
9/17/2017 6:3219422264
9/16/2017 17:428411851
9/16/2017 4:35111202696
9/15/2017 19:396132572
9/15/2017 17:336442512
9/15/2017 14:2747062565
9/15/2017 14:15436712066
9/15/2017 11:2134704215
9/15/2017 11:20474031767
9/15/2017 3:34202647850
9/15/2017 3:063890035216
9/14/2017 18:5618011077
9/10/2017 4:4999883179
9/9/2017 18:4465768
9/9/2017 17:13364922
9/9/2017 13:212729224
9/9/2017 9:553478601
9/9/2017 9:533608660
9/5/2017 10:18287603190
9/4/2017 20:5210783792
9/4/2017 18:352226172
9/4/2017 11:2145142478
9/4/2017 11:1811942654
9/4/2017 5:511706732
9/3/2017 19:085272190
9/3/2017 5:1879402474
9/2/2017 20:109665508
9/2/2017 20:0414188270
9/2/2017 19:551086621
9/2/2017 19:46739155
9/2/2017 19:381180563
9/2/2017 19:299389100
9/2/2017 19:183499266
9/2/2017 19:093116233
9/2/2017 18:45357279
9/1/2017 10:07155761184
9/1/2017 4:46138882740
8/31/2017 17:049362077
8/31/2017 9:4586742015
8/30/2017 19:054262659

Advance Support called me (thanks!) and advised there are known issues on Beam 82.  No need to further troubleshoot until engineering resolves the known issues.  No ETA on the fix, so I will continue to spot check for a while before giving up.  Thus, my expectation is the service will be unusable during peak hours until the engineering fix is in place.  Here's hoping the fix is already funded.  Note my service was moved to Beam 82 from another Beam that was also having issues.

Though my speed tests over the past weekend were still horrible during peak hours, I was actually able to stream a video Saturday night during peak hours.  However, on Sunday afternoon, the performance was so bad that the SpeedTest would time out.  Completely unusable, even for email.  I sincerely hope this can and will get fixed soon.

 

Date RecordedDownload Result(KBPS)Upload Result(KBPS)
9/24/2017 9:5751371527
9/24/2017 4:52121222775
9/23/2017 19:088001470
9/23/2017 7:46102752191
9/23/2017 5:0469993076
9/23/2017 5:03320292658
9/23/2017 4:5515963123
9/22/2017 20:165722558

Hi @RubberBiscuit61, has your service improved or have you received any news on the Beam 82 issue? I'm also on Beam 82 and experience similar peak time problems.

I've heard nothing.  I can tell you my peak hour performance issues have not been resolved.

I ran a 24 hour test this weekend with wireless disabled on the router and only a single test PC connected directly to the router. We did not use the internet for anything other than running these tests.  Results are here:

 

http://testmy.net/quickstats/RubberBiscuit61

 

One tech told me a few weeks ago that they consider anything less than 15M unacceptable, but a different tech told me there are no guarantees during peak hours and my experience is not uncommon, while yet a different tech told me my experience and results are very unusual. 

 

Does anyone agree I have a problem during peak hours?  Or is this working as designed?  Should I expect the service to be unusable during peak hours?  

 

Interesting that these testmy.net results are higher than my previous HughesNet Speet Test results.  In my opinion, though I've read on this board that testmy.net results are more accurate, the HughesNet results more closely represent my user experience.

 


@RubberBiscuit61 wrote:

I ran a 24 hour test this weekend with wireless disabled on the router and only a single test PC connected directly to the router. We did not use the internet for anything other than running these tests.  Results are here:

 

http://testmy.net/quickstats/RubberBiscuit61

 

One tech told me a few weeks ago that they consider anything less than 15M unacceptable, but a different tech told me there are no guarantees during peak hours and my experience is not uncommon, while yet a different tech told me my experience and results are very unusual. 

 

Does anyone agree I have a problem during peak hours?  Or is this working as designed?  Should I expect the service to be unusable during peak hours?  

 

Interesting that these testmy.net results are higher than my previous HughesNet Speet Test results.  In my opinion, though I've read on this board that testmy.net results are more accurate, the HughesNet results more closely represent my user experience.

 


Your #s look good to me over the weekend.  I see only a couple blips of low 8 or 11Mbps.  The rest are well above the 15Mbps they don't like to see folks be under.  With those speeds, and the correct settings at Netflix or the like, you should be able to stream do what you like.  Sure I bet every now and then some buffering will happen, happens to me even when I have fast speeds, but over-all it gets through most shows OK.

 

I was expecting to see some 1Mbps downloads in your test but don't so that is a good thing.

 

TJ

 

 

 

Hi RubberBiscuit,

 

Thanks for running and posting your testmy.net speed tests, I can certainly send your results up to the engineers. First I'd like to issue a complimentary dispatch to get your dish re-aligned before we escalate. 

 

Your dispatch is currently scheduled for our earliest available slot: Thursday, Nov 9, 2017 between 8:00 AM-11:00 AM. Call us at 866.347.3292 and reference case #107363957 if you need to reschedule. Please let us know how the site visit goes.

 

Your cooperation, patience, and understanding are much appreciated.

 

If you have a tech or billing question and need help, please start a new thread in the appropriate board. Unsolicited Private Messages may not get replies.

Slow performance? Click me!

Liz, my service was just installed on Aug 30 and I've already had a realignment since then.  Happy to have another one done, but during the previous realignment, the tech also came inside the house to access the router.  Will that be the case again?  In other words, someone has to be home, right?

TJ, yes there were only a few results less than 15M, but all three were in a row and during peak hours - which is my complaint.  I agree that even at 8M I should be able to stream just about anything I want, but I can not.  That is why I mentioned that the HughesNet Speet Test more closely represents my user experience.  I've had many, and I mean many, results using Speed Test at 1M or less.  Most of the time I can stream music, but rarely can I stream video during peak hours.  And sometimes even music stops playing during peak hours.

 

Sat Nov 04 2017 @ 9:40:48 pmDallas, TXarrow25 MB8.71 Mbps 1.09 MB/s2285226674977 TQAU8w2cmshare history
Sat Nov 04 2017 @ 8:40:09 pmDallas, TXarrow25 MB11.31 Mbps 1.41 MB/s2285226674977 8yjR52IKBshare history
Sat Nov 04 2017 @ 7:39:44 pmDallas, TXarrow25 MB11.79 Mbps 1.47 MB/s2285226674977 3PYemF21bshare history

Cool, agreed @RubberBiscuit61.  It is not what it should be.  Your boat sounds like ours on beam 55.  I can get some great #s too but when late afternoon early evening hits, it degrades.  Reboot of modem is what I have had to do and that always does not help. But I could live with 8Mbps usable during peak peak peak if I had too, if it still streamed and such.  I have my Netflix set to LOW and stream Youtube at 360p max.  Sometimes it degrades to 144 or 240p too.  144 is bad.  240 usable.  360 just about right.

I hope for a future all beams are cranking well and even during FAP, we can all still stream low rez video.

Hope your issue gets resolved soon.

TJ

 

Great news, after the dispatch tech made some changes on Friday, my downloads speeds have all been more than acceptable even over WiFi.  I'm not quite ready to claim victory yet, because I want more time time to test.  Unfortunately, I've already used up most of my data for the month (mostly due to testing), so I will resume testing next month.

 

Once the download speeds were corrected, I was able to identify a couple of in-home issues that might be of interest to some readers:

 

1) Amazon Music to an Echo device over 5G wireless was problematic, but flawless over 2.4G.  Likely due to a rock fireplace near the router.

2) Even direct connected, my NetGear NeoTV was unable to stream a Vudu movie without constant buffering, but my Roku was able to flawlessly stream an Amazon Prime Video during peak hours.  I will test Vudu over the NeoTV next month once my data plan is reset.

 

Thanks~

 

 

Good morning RubberBiscuit61,

 

Thank you for this nice update! Glad to hear your speeds have improved since the dish alignment. Please check your private messages in the top right corner of the community page as I've sent you a PM to further address your concerns.

 

If you have a tech or billing question and need help, please start a new thread in the appropriate board. Unsolicited Private Messages may not get replies.

Slow performance? Click me!