"Has not been 1 month of service and am having problems. I have used all my anytime data"
Frankly this does not bode well in light of the fact that during the first 10 days (HN9000) or 20 days (HT1100) your allowance is reset daily.
This is done to allow you to update all of your devices without impacting your data allowance.
If you are out of data and the first month is not yet over you certainly have an out of control usage pattern going on.
All Hughes data plans have caps on monthly usage due to the throughput limits of the satellites and Gateways that handle the Earth side traffic.
Activities such as video streaming have to be done very sparingly with a close eye on the usage meter. Video is very data intensive. Reducing resolution to SD or lower will result in less data usage.
All "sync" and "cloud" functions need to be disabled as these too bleed off data.
Once your data allowance for a given time period is exhausted you can expect your speeds to be throttled to about 150 Kbps or 3 X dialup speed unless your plan offers and your activity level falls within the limits of "SmartBrowse".
Hughes does supply you with a number of "tools" to measure your data. These consist of three USAGE meters and two HISTORY displays.
Here is a roundup of the those tools:
Usage meters: There are three of them.
#1: SCC meter: (System Control Center)
The following meter resides "inside" your modem. It can be accessed by entering 192.168.0.1 into your browsers address bar.
This display shows remaining data in Anytime, Bonus Bytes and purchased Token Data allowances.
The "resolution" of the meter is .1 GB (100 MB) and as such it will round up or down to the nearest 50 MB.
The SCC page also gives other important information including refill date and system condition and any active errors by the color of the two icons at the top center of the page.
#2: Download Status Meter:
The Download Status Meter is a utility that can be downloaded from here:
http://my.hughesnet.com/myaccount
Once downloaded and installed it resides on your computers systray on the lower right of your screen.
It too shows remaining allowances for all three data categories as well as indicators of if use of Token Bytes or SmartBrowse features are active. There is also a "usage curve" indicator to tell you if you are using data a rate that will cause you to FAP before your usage period refills.
#3: myAccount Meter:
The meter above can be viewed after logging in here:
http://my.hughesnet.com/myaccount
IMO this is the most accurate of the usage meters reading down to the single MB.
It also shows remaining amounts of Anytime, Bonus Bytes and Token data. It also provides one method of purchasing additional data in the form of "Tokens" by clicking the Buy Tokens button at the lower right.
In addition to the usage meters there are also two "History" displays. These displays are not real-time meters but have a delay factor built in.
The first of these is a secondary function of the Download Status Meter listed as #2 above:
This is a look back at one week, two weeks, 30 or 60 day periods.
The second history display is available after login at http://my.hughesnet.com/myaccount click on USAGE and selecting HISTORY:
Display period options range from a rolling 24-hour period and extend to week, month or two month periods
Those are the extent of the Hughes supplied usage/data "tools".
It is useless to run speed tests while in FAP. When running speed tests the only tests accepted by Engineering are either the Hughes "house" test found after logging into the myAcount page and the one at www.testmy.net
It is suggested that you create an account at testmy.net so that your tests can be saved and performance patterns can be seen if your issue is forwarded to Engineering.
It is suggested that you run a series of 3 to 5 manual speed tests of 12 MB download and 2 MB upload. Space those tests at least 5 minutes apart. Try to post 3 sets of tests in a 24 hour period, early, mid-day and evening.
Run those tests while connected directly to the modem. This is necessary because of a number of router functions such as QoS that will cause "traffic shaping" to occur. That traffic shaping is not a constant function but the result of bias that the router can introduce depending on which devices are connected and the activity of those devices including background processes that may not be readily apparent. Additionally certain routers may re-route wireless devices to other frequencies in an effort to "load balance" the Network load.
It would be helpful if you were to describe your "network" and connected devices so that we may further assist you in determining where your data is being used and what is impacting (besides FAP) your speeds.
Two Apple devices and three BD players .... ouch!
Many devices are not truly "off" when they appear to be. My wife's iPad connects daily for example.
The only practical way to prevent hibernating devices form connecting is to disconnect the Ethernet cable that runs between the router and the back of the Hughes modem. Leave the Hughes modem powered on however so that "sync functions" are maintained between the modem and the Gateway. That "sync" usage is not charged against your allowance.
You didn't state what platform (HN9000 or HT1100) or plan level you have but the truth is that any service with data caps does not lend itself to streaming activity very well.
If you had a 20/50 plan that only affords you 20,000 MB of Anytime data (8am to 2am) for the entire month. 20K divided by 30 days is a very meager 666 MB per day total usage if you are to avoid FAP or the need to purchase Token Data.
In order for the usage meters to be accurate the Modem needs to remain powered up. Even then there is a short lag as data is used and that usage reflected in the meter.
As far as usage during disconnect periods follow this procedure and post the results here in this thread:
The plans offered in your area are the only options until new plans happen to come along, there is no custom plan option.
Thanks for your testmy.net username, I only see one test result:
As Gwalk suggested, at least 3 tests will give us a better idea of what speeds you're getting.
-do the tests while directly connected to the HughesNet modem
-use the 12MB test file
-space each test at least 5 minutes apart
Your cooperation and patience are greatly appreciated. We look forward to hearing back from you.
Thanks,
Liz
