What ping is normal for Hughesnet?

[Unabletouse]

My ping is absolutely terrible. 500-900 on everything. The hughesnet speed test puts me at 724 ping and 184 jitter. Streaming is slow / stuttering (trying to stream shows like Smallville on Hulu). Web browsing is horribly slow to load, even loading the hughesnet website can take a few tries. Email is slow. ALL games, turn based/strategy and beyond are unplayable. Even phone games are laggy/difficult. We end up having to turn the internet to 5g on our phones and sit in the one area of the house with signal because it's better than the internet we're paying for monthly. When I contacted support, they basically told me tough luck, that's satellite. Is this true? I almost miss dial up compared to this. 

[maratsade]

Due to the distance between the geosynchronous satellite and the Earth, the signal takes 500 ms to travel. The rest of the latency has to do with network and Internet lag. Lag is worse during prime time, but there may be numerous factors affecting this. Streaming can be slow and stuttery, especially during prime time, but also at other times, as it is also affected by congestion, that is, how many people are active on the beam. This is why they can't guarantee speeds and performance (check the subscriber agreement for disclaimers). 

[Unabletouse]

So, in other words, stuttering low-def streaming (keeps going pixely as it auto adjusts down to the lower pixels to try to not freeze), no gaming (not even mobile or strategy/turn based) and very slow browsing / email is the best Hughesnet can offer @ $85/mo? 

[maratsade]

There are strategies to improve the performance. Perhaps one of the Hughesnet reps on this site will jump in and tell you about them. 

But at the end of the day, it is satellite internet and it behaves as such; having unrealistic expectations about it won't change a thing. If you have any other options where you live, you may want to research them. 

[GabeU]

Turn based games work fine. However, some games services may detect the high system latency, causing problems with signing into them.

The high latency combined with system congestion can negatively affect streaming, especially in the evenings, when system congestion is at its highest, though whether it does, and how much, varies. With this said, it will likely be quite some time before the new system (Gen 6 / Jupiter 3) sees any noticeable levels of congestion.

Latency with HughesNet is typically in the 600-650ms range. The distance the signal travels is the main reason, being around 90,000 miles or so for the four legs of the signal's trip from and back to your home, though the ground based infrastructure adds a little as well.

[Unabletouse]

Disconnecting isn't exactly working fine. 

I tried to use live chat to see if there is anything that can be done to help with any of it and I can't even stay connected to their own chat service on their internet. It's frustrating. I had to try 4 times just to load hughesnets own website. If this is "working as intended", then they really shouldn't advertise the elite package as best for ... anything other than Google and emails. Because that's about all I can do with it without being disconnected from whatever I'm trying to do constantly. I'm even scared to use it for online shopping since many have "loading.. please do not refresh this page" and if your connection fails it can double charge your card to have to reload the page. 

The tech that installed said it would be fine for TV and basic use. He asked us what we were using it for to best set up the inside equipment. "You can only stream during off peak hours" should have been mentioned then if that is the "realistic expectation" of their service. Instead he just assured us he'd have it up and running for us to use. And said with the size of our home, we should be fine for service from end to end. 

And... the other internet available is my cell phone hotspot with 1 bar of service (after a dance to find a non-dead zone somewhere) with LTE/4g/5g depending on the mood of the signal. But, we are considering going back to that, if there is no trouble shooting that can make this more usable. 

[GabeU]

It sounds more like you're experiencing issues not typical to the service.Hopefully a rep will reply soon to help. 

Regarding the streaming, it's not that people can't stream during peak hours, but rather only that it can be more problematic during that time. With that said, if you just got service you're probably on Gen 6, which won't really see a whole lot of congestion for a while to come. One thing you've got to remember is that, while you can stream with it, it's not really meant for streaming in the way that ground based services are, primarily because of the amount of high speed data you get before the speed is decreased. Ground based services don't have to deal with the constraints of a finite throughput, as they can easily expand the network, while geostationary satellite internet does, hence the high speed data limits, which basically makes people prioritize their online activities. Not as much as it used to, as the new system has a higher throughput than both the Jupiter 1 and Jupiter 2 (Gen 4 & Gen 5) systems combined, but that finite throughput is still there.

[MarkJFine]

@Unabletouse 

If you're looking to use HughesNet for real time gaming, recommend upgrading to Fusion. Fusion augments the satellite signal with LTE wireless for those things that require quick-ping/lower lag times to work properly. Certainly makes gaming and some downloading/streaming a lot smoother.