Hughesnet Community

The Main Router Discussion Topic

cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
El Dorado Netwo
Advanced Tutor

The Main Router Discussion Topic

Non-techies, please bear with me on this. I'm starting a discussion about router technology here which may quickly get hard to follow in places. We have a lot of Techies on these forums, and their knowledge is extremely valuable in solving problems. I'm hoping we can concentrate some of that knowledge here on the key role that wireless routers play in overall system performance and maybe provide some useful information that could help you troubleshoot your own connectivity problems.

I know there's a lot of information and discussions spread all across these Forums about routers. And dwelling on routers frequently gets dissed as just some ruse to ignore the "real" problem. But the router is the piece of gear that is the first and only "point of contact" for most customers' iPhones, tablets, laptops, and you name it. Connect a bad $40 router to a good $600 system and you have a bad $600 system.

I was reminded of this today when I visited a customer's home to figure out why they were having problems with their 1-month-old Gen4 system. Ready to have the whole system ripped out, they were.

Frequent disconnects, buffering, slow page loads, you name it, we've read these same symptoms described in these community forums over and over again.

Plugged a LAN cable into the router, a new, Linksys E1200-NP N300 we installed with the system. Took 30 seconds for a page to load. Bypassed the modem and plugged my laptop directly into the modem, and everything came up immediately.

Traded out the Linksys with a Netgear N300 WNR2000100NAS and that did it. Ran three speed tests and came up with consistent 20 Mbps downloads on a 10 Mbps plan. BTW, this is on Beam 19, one of the most crowded beams on HughesNet's Jupiter platform. Everything normal. Customer reassured.

This isn't the first time we've seen this problem, and I can't stress it enough. Here are a couple of cheap $40 routers, one good - one bad, serving up the business end of several hundred dollars of HughesNet gear. This has to be frustrating to HN Tech Support staff and out of their control, so it's no surprise it would be one of the first things they try to eliminate while troubleshooting and so should you.

I should point out the E1200 is on HughesNet's list of approved routers. But that list can't anticipate some approved routers being bad. Just because a router is listed doesn't mean it's working.

So, let's open this up to some more observations and "Best Practices." I'd be interested in hearing from anyone about their experiences with routers, good and bad, and perhaps we can come up with some ways to help others quickly diagnose router problems, instead of simply "blaming the system." Certainly OK to point to other topics and use this one as a central "jumping off" point.
El Dorado Networks |Diamond Springs, CA | eldoradonetworks.com
95 REPLIES 95
GetSatMan
New Member

Java it is--just checked it on a different PC. I have the Java 8 plugin in Firefox, but it's not normally active and requires that you click an Activate button. So I selected the test, which immediately ran it and gave me a good result, and then I clicked on the Java Activate button and subsequent attempts fail. With IE11 Java was already active so IE11 didn't work at all.

Given the test worked w/o Java active I dunno what that thing might actually do as clearly it's not needed for the test.

Mystery solved.

Thanks fellas.

p.s. Charles I wonder about your 119.8, that it doesn't state Mbps. Further, isn't the LAN side of the HT1100 100Mbps max? That's not a Gbe port is it? Guess I should look...
Christopher San
New Member

I'd like to know on that part  Port and which !!
GetSatMan
New Member

Wow it's a Gbe port. I've had this thing for 18mos and didn't know that! 😮

Of course, my router's 100Mbps anyway...
Christopher San
New Member

learn something new everyday !!!
Christopher San
New Member

wondering why i'm not getting Hughes-Net now , community forum E-mails
C0RR0SIVE
Associate Professor

The HT1100 has a 1000/100/10Mbps port, 1Gbit NIC's are cheap enough today and sometimes cheaper than 10/100 ports that most everyone is throwing in a 1Gbit NIC now.

Just food for thought though, enthusiast consumer grade motherboards on the top end are starting to come with 10Gbit NIC's, but these are boards that cost $500 to $700, as much as a typical consumer PC.
Christopher San
New Member

I know this going to sound crazy to you ,  but  what is the difference between a GIG  and a   Gbit  , just trying to get the drift  and learn !!!   i know a GIG is bigger but in ratio terms ???
Gwalk900
Honorary Alumnus

There are 8 "bits" in byte
GB is is gigabytes
Gb is gigabits
BirdDog
Assistant Professor

Which means 800Gb equals 100GB.
Christopher San
New Member

thank you !!!, Gwalk900 and sgoshe now i can put in perspective .
El Dorado Netwo
Advanced Tutor

Routers to Manage Data Usage: Here is some great information on a solution I found for anyone who's having trouble managing their data usage. This article covers running GarGoyle open-source WRT firmware on a Netgear WNDR3800 router. The article also provides a good account of how an iPhone, iPad or Android device can gobble up data just sitting there (where have we read that before? :).

This is a must read for anyone dealing with data loss, or who's having trouble managing satellite data use in their home or business:

http://raisedbyturtles.org/limiting-daily-bandwidth-on-home-router/
El Dorado Networks |Diamond Springs, CA | eldoradonetworks.com
El Dorado Netwo
Advanced Tutor

As a follow up to my last post, I started a new thread here on  Tips On Configuring and Using A Customized Router with Gargoyle Firmware to Manage Data Use.

El Dorado Networks |Diamond Springs, CA | eldoradonetworks.com