Yet another Gen5 Beam 55 customer with very slow speed

[TYGRHobbes]

I switched to Gen5 from Gen4 about a month after it was available back in the spring of 2017. It was amazing. I was getting higher than advertised speeds of around 30Mbps avg. around the clock. It was amazing coming from Gen4.

Now enter summer, speeds during prime time were slowing down considerably but other times were ok. I would say it was getting close to what the Gen4 service was like, during peak hours.

End of summer to now. It is definitely worse than Gen4 was. I basically can't watch video from noon to midnight, even at 144p without it buffering every 5 sec. Web pages load very slow. There is a very small window between 1am and 7am that I get anything above 20Mbps. It's pretty ridiculous when the speeds are less than 1Mbps for the majority of the day.

And this is all at full speeed, not FAP.

As far as hardware/software on my end, nothing has changed since I got Gen5. And it has worked wonderfully in the past. It just seems like there was a gradual decline to the point we are at now. I've pretty much gone through all the basic hoops to try and fix this with no luck. It's probably not on my end as I'm getting 20Mbps+ in the wee hours of the morning, so I know I'm capable of it.

Here is the speed test for the last few days. All done at full speed with no FAP except for the very last test at 7:26pm on Thanksgiving. As you can see the pattern pretty much follows the same routine every day which is typical for the last few months. Fine after midnight until the morning with a big decline from noon until midnight again.

http://testmy.net/quickstats/TYGRHobbes

Is Gen4 having problems like this now? I did not sign up for sub 1Mbps speeds from noon to midnight. Quite honestly I didn't expect the advertised rate of 25Mbps to hold up throughout the day or at all, I'd be happy with even half that. But less than 1Mbps non FAP, that is unacceptable. There obviously is a problem somewhere as I've now seen examples of people getting 30Mbps+ throughout the day and night. At least that gives me some hope that this can be fixed.

Thank you.

[TYGRHobbes]

I tried a few more speed tests today while in FAP and was getting 1.1Mbps which was actually a higher speed than the non FAP tests taken previously durning the same time period.

I just now tested at full speed with token bytes and got 1.3Mbps. Looks like there is still a problem.

[3R]

I'm having the same problems you are. HughesNet called me last week to tell me that they are still working on the Beam 55 problem but do not have an expected date it will be resolved--the guy said "a couple of months." It's very frustrating, when it costs so much and was working so well before. I have seen and heard multiple explanations for the problems, though the most credible seems to be that they put too many subscribers on the beam. If that's true, they need to come up with a better solution fast because they are still selling Gen 5. I'm still waiting for a full explanation and a date when this will be fixed.

[macsociety]

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@3R wrote:

I have seen and heard multiple explanations for the problems, though the most credible seems to be that they put too many subscribers on the beam. If that's true, they need to come up with a better solution fast because they are still selling Gen 5. I'm still waiting for a full explanation and a date when this will be fixed.

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I wonder if that is the case, can it even be corrected?  If I understand beams right, the beams cover certain areas.... with some that may overlap.  But I think Northern California is beam 55.  I am not aware of other beams they can switch you to if it is only beam 55 that covers the area in question.

Hope that is not the case.

TJ

[MarkJFine]

It's my understanding that the beams themselves are not overcrowded.

In all likelihood, the processing on the ground is getting bogged down trying to handle a particular protocol that they are having trouble isolating. My uneducated guess is it's one of the streaming protocols, just based on what I hear from customer's complaints, but it really could be anything.

It seems the same as overcrowding because the probability of this occurring is going to be more likely in higher populated areas and during times of higher use.

[macsociety]

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@MarkJFine wrote:

It's my understanding that the beams themselves are not overcrowded.

In all likelihood, the processing on the ground is getting bogged down trying to handle a particular protocol that they are having trouble isolating. My uneducated guess is it's one of the streaming protocols, just based on what I hear from customer's complaints, but it really could be anything.

It seems the same as overcrowding because the probability of this occurring is going to be more likely in higher populated areas and during times of higher use.

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Yeh, is not the new ES19 bird have lots more capacity than the ES17.  Would be weird for them to be over-sold this early in its life.  Just started this year.  But I really have no clue.  heh

TJ

[TYGRHobbes]

Something is going on this weekend. Either no one is using the internet or they are fixing it. From noon until now I've been getting 10-30Mbps+ and it's still going strong. I guess the full test will be tomorrow prime time. I'm south of Bakersfield so I imagine I could get switched to the beam that covers LA but I don't know if that would be any better considering its population. Beam 55 Gateway 8 here.

[Liz]

Good morning TYGRHobbes,

Thanks for posting your experience. Glad to hear you saw improvement this weekend. Please let me how speeds fare through tomorrow (since today is CyberMonday and all).

Your cooperation, patience, and understanding are much appreciated.

[TYGRHobbes]

@Liz   Unfortunately it's gone back to the old routine, today was especially bad. http://testmy.net/quickstats/TYGRHobbes

[Liz]

Good morning TYGRHobbes,

Thank you for the latest speed tests, I'll send this over to engineering. I'll post back once I have any updates to share.

Your patience and understanding are much appreciated.

[TYGRHobbes]

@Liz  Speeds are hovering around 10Mbps during busy hours (which is way better!) but videos are still buffering rather frequently on 144p setting. That's still pretty bad. Does HughesNet not play nice with YouTube?

Has there been any changes to help out beam 55 in the last week?

Thanks!

[Liz]

Good morning TYGRHobbes,

Thanks for this update. The only update I have so far for you is additional capacity is being added in an effort to address these concerns. No timeframe has been given on when this work will be completed, but once I have news about it I'll let you know.

Your patience and understanding are much appreciated.

[TYGRHobbes]

@Liz  Something is definitely wrong tonight. I just did a speed test that lasted 8 minutes with a result of 435 kbps. That is at 7:54pm PST. That is the worst that it has ever been. Web pages aren't even loading now. I don't know how you go from 21.32 Mbps one day to the next day being 435 kbps at the same hour. I thought we were going forward but tonight took a huge step back. I'll continue with a few more speed tests throughout the night. http://testmy.net/quickstats/TYGRHobbes

[Liz]

Hi TYGRHobbes,

Thank you for this update, I'm sorry to hear that. I reviewed our reports and I don't see anything regarding your beam or gateway that could have caused that level of degradation. We are expecting a general update from engineering next week.

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.

Your patience and understanding are much appreciated.

[TYGRHobbes]

@LizThank you!

[TYGRHobbes]

I'm getting speeds in the 100-200kbps range right at this moment not in FAP. Pages are taking minutes to load, secure pages failing to load, and the speed test taking near 10 minutes to complete. I haven't seen speeds this bad since cyber Monday.

https://testmy.net/quickstats/TYGRHobbes

[Liz]

Hi TYGRHobbes,

Thank you for this update, I'm adding this to our escalation notes. Once we have any updates from engineering regarding your concerns, we'll let you know.

Your patience and understanding are much appreciated.

[bugstomper]

Liz, I could use your help.

Was having lost of slow issues for months on beam 55, three technician visits and numerous tickets. 

Was changed to Beam 19 on 1/12/18 and there was some improvement.  However, especially the upload speeds have decreased again.  Did more testing tonight and these are some Speedtest results:  (crazy download results!)

down          up

281.27      0.43

4.87           0.92

319.42       0.67

Testmy.net

6.00           287 kbps

6.1              362 kbps

5.3              179 kbps

As of tonight I can no longer even slowly play the online game I was able to somewhat follow when on Beam 19 (and wasn't able to do it on Beam 55 from the middle of September until changed to beam 19).

Can you help me out?  This constant unknowing when the internet will work and won't work is discouraging.

Thanks -  Ron

[Hangtown]

Call for a refund and ask for a monthly credit until it's fixed... I'm getting $30/mo off for a service they cannot provide band 55 for some reason? been happening since 2015 I hear?  

[GabeU]

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@Hangtown wrote:

Call for a refund and ask for a monthly credit until it's fixed... I'm getting $30/mo off for a service they cannot provide band 55 for some reason? been happening since 2015 I hear?  

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No.  A few months for those that are affected.  

[Liz]

Hi TYGRHobbes,

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.