About ml520

My experience of switching to a mobile carrier has been excellent and I would never go back. Even at 1/15th the speed of Hughes (I get around 2Mbps on the mobile signal) I have ridiculously better service in every respect. Something is seriously wrong with Hughes' service.   ETA: when I say "1/15 the speed" I mean the speed that I used to get at off-peak hours, which could be up to 30Mbps. During "normal" hours I would regularly get less than 1Mbps download, at which point Hughes was basically unusable. ... View more

@GabeUwrote: @ml520   The trial period was cancelled a few years back.    If, after substantive troubleshooting, the issue still persists, it may be possible to cancel without an ETF, but not until that happens.   Hmm, that's unfortunate....but telling. They must've had a lot of subscibers opt to use that clause. At the federal level consumers generally have a 3-day "cooling off" (buyer's remorse) period within which to cancel a contract, but it appears the OP is outside of that timeframe. Depending on the state he lives in he might have additional rights. ... View more

You used to have 30 days to cancel without an ETF, unless that's changed. Hughes might allow you to cancel outside of that timeframe, anyway, if they won't provide you with any relief. State and federal consumer protection laws might help, too. And you can always dispute the charges on your credit card. Keep good records and cite the plethora of instances on this forum where subscribers have received much worse service than what would be considered reasonable, as well as being misled as to what the service can and can't be used for (for example, "broadband" speeds, streaming, multiple devices, etc.). ... View more

This is a common problem that many, many people are having with Hughes. You'll be asked to run test after test, told that "engineering" is investigating, maybe even have your dish repointed to a different satellite if you complain enough. In the end, months later, you'll have the same horrible service. Have a look around the forum, see that you're not alone, then do yourself a favor and cancel your service while you can still do so without having to pay the $400 early termination fee. If you have any options for Internet other than Hughes, you'll save yourself a lot of frustration and head banging if you avail yourself of them now. ... View more

They're overselling their service and overloading capacity. I got the runaround from them for several months before they flat out told me that they weren't going to help me. I finally decided that my only relief would be to cancel service and find another option for an ISP. Get out now while/if you can. ... View more

@Reggie wrote: Yes I'm happy with HN.  This post is JMHO!   If the internet was used as it was intended the speeds might inprove.   TV was made to wacth movies.   Internet was intended for information. Streaming movies over the internet will slow the system, by using more data.     Yes, and phone lines were meant for voice and cable was meant for TV....but both are being used for data now, too. Nevermind that Hughes promised many prospective customers that their service was perfectly suitable for streaming on *multiple devices.* At peak hours I can't even download emails...which I could probably accomplish with a couple of tin cans and a string. I hardly ever stream video, but for customers that want that functionality it's not unreasonable to expect it from their ISP, since it's the future of television. ... View more

@Sweetpea3829 wrote: I sincerely hope your Hotspot works well for you. For the long run. Ours was good for a few weeks and then it wasn't. Thanks ... cell coverage here kind of depends on where you locate the device, so for phones it can be a bit of a pain. With a stationary router it seems to be working out well. Signal strength is usually only a couple of bars but so far it has exceeded my expectations and is the fastest service I've ever had....bearing in mind I moved from 56kbps dialup years ago to Starband satellite to Hughes satellite, so I've never had the true broadband experience in my home. ... View more

Whoops, yes. Should be GB, not MB. ... View more

@BirdDog wrote: I have a good 4G LTE signal and use my hot spot as a backup to my HughesNet. Thing is, my cell plan is 3 GB and my HughesNet plan is Gen 4 Ultra 50/50 for $89/month plus lease and taxes.   My HughesNet is performing well for some time , I can stream, download, etc., whatever I need to do. To get a similar plan on cell data would be outrageous and btw the fine print says they can restrict speed after 22 GB.   I'm lucky to be grandfathered on a lower cost plan and very good beam/gateway but that is life. My beam could suffer a catastrophic failure tomorrow, my gateway could have a major system failure.   Been with HughesNet for at least 14 years now and my personal experience has been positive overall.   Only saying not all customers are not satisfied. Many, maybe the majority, are satisfied.   Good luck getting a 100 GB (50/50) monthly plan on cell 4G LTE for anything close to what HughesNet costs.   I understand some are having serious speed issues but the Mods here will help and work with those that work with them, regardless the experience with phone, chat, email, facebook, etc.     I get 30MB from Hughes (I'm hardly ever awake to use the 50MB "after hours" bonus bytes) and pay nearly $90 a month for it. I can get two 4GLTE routers added to my current wireless plan for less than $90, and that gives me 44MB that I can use anytime. I never exceed the 30MB on Hughes, so that's plenty (22MB is plenty). ... View more

@GabeU wrote: @ml520 wrote:   Actually, aside from the question about performance, the intention was to encourage others to look at alternatives because it's clear to me that Hughes is not going to help them.  You should change that to "Hughes may not be able to help them," as Hughes is helping those they can, as is evidenced in more posts every day.   Time will tell. I've seen a few get repointed with great service for a day or two and then back to slow speed. Regardless, the fact that many of us have been waiting months for any kind of response, and the fact that they're still selling the service, is evidence of contempt for their current customers. ... View more

  I'm simply pointing out that you're not considering how petty and vindictive this makes you look. Most people would just take it in stride that they solved their own problem and go on their way without having to belittle those that are unable to do so. But, if that makes you feel better..   Actually, aside from the question about performance, the intention was to encourage others to look at alternatives because it's clear to me that Hughes is not going to help them. I wasn't aware that 4GLTE routers even existed as standalone devices, and I assume others might not be aware of the alternatives, either. If this appears belitting to anyone then I apologize, but based on the other posts that I've seen you troll this forum with, that appears to be the least of your concerns. ... View more

@jezra wrote: @ml520 the modem has a built in battery, but for portability reasons, I need the ability to run in from a solar powered setup.  Even if the setup were permanent at my location, it would still need to run from a solar powered setup because the best signal (even with a 20-30' antenna) is no where near a power outlet.  Can you run coax from your remote antenna site to your router? ... View more

@jezra wrote: @bare65 "fully portable" doesn't mean "works everywhere". My plan is to operate my 4GLTE from a solar panel and deep cycle battery.  It won't work everywhere, but it will be portable and should work well in areas with extremely weak signal reception. That's awesome! See if you can find a router that has a built-in battery. Then it gets really portable! 🙂  ... View more

@bare65 wrote: @ml520 Totally portable huh?         Of course it doesn't work *everywhere* but it's a helluva lot more portable than a satellite dish!   I've been using satellite Internet since the introduction of Starband. Then Hughes came along and I was quite happy with it until last year when I switched to Gen 5. I had no reason to investigate alternatives until that point.   ... View more

If anyone has the right to gloat it's the long-time Hughes customers that have been receiving pi$$ poor service from them and getting the run-around for months while they continue to sell subscriptions on an already overloaded network. I've had sketchy cell coverage from day one here, so I actually didn't think the router was an option or that the speed would be sufficient but the local wireless guys let me have a try and, what do you know, it works like a charm! Costs have also recently come down so it made sense to give it a try at this point.   Do you have any answer to my question, or are you just upset that someone is actually getting some relief from poor service? ... View more

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@ecoalex2 wrote: I hope you're wrong. I also remember great support from the Mods, they seem to be overwhelmed, as the techs appear to be. If it is a satellite problem, we will have to wait for years for a new satellite to replace the damaged one, I hope this is not the case. Something is seriously wrong, as we should of seen an improvement by now.If it is a ground problem, it should of been fixed by now I would think.. The satellite was supposed to be high capasity. If over sales of some beams is the problem, Hughes should stop selling to those beams.A statement from Hughes for the beams affected would be appreciated. As far as I'm concerned, I have been offered zero support by the mods or anyone associated with Hughes. The only thing I've gotten is some discounts on my bill and repeated pleas for patience. The complaint that I filed with the agency that oversees this kind of stuff simply resulted in a call from Hughes HQ telling me to contact tech support and run more tests....which is pretty much what everyone who comes on here and complains about slow service is asked to do ad nauseum, despite there being a clear problem on Hughes' end. Liz PM'd me a few days ago to tell me "Thank you for your patience while your case was investigated. Engineering has no plans for adjustments or other work on your beam, I'm sorry. I understand this isn't news you want to hear and how frustrating this is." She then goes on to explain how I can call Hughes and cancel if this isn't to my liking. Bear in mind I have been waiting almost four months since my initial complaint, only to finally be told to go screw myself. Kind of what I expected would happen, but totally unacceptable. My belief is that there is no "engineering" division which is doing anything. Hughes is just waiting out the storm while some upset users cancel, others just grin and bear it, and new users continue to be signed up. If they do this long enough eventually it will all balance itself out with a set of users who are OK with mediocre service. If I'm wrong, I would be happy to get set straight by someone from Hughes, but so far they have offered only vague explanations of what's going on and what they plan to do about it. Speaking as an engineer, I know that no company with this many affected customers would continue to employ any engineers that couldn't resolve a situation like this (or at least offer an explanation of what's going on) in a matter of -- at most -- a few weeks. The broken record which says "engineering is working on it" is utter BS. ... View more

They won't do anything...at least that's what they've told me. I'm convinced now that their solution lies in the hope that enough people will cancel their service to relieve the overload on the network. But are they still signing people up? The whole situation is one of the worst customer service experiences I've ever had...which is unfortuate because my inital experience with Hughes for serveral years prior to Gen 5 was and excellent one. I can't quite figure out what happened to them. ... View more

I've been having problems accessing Amazon on and off since the Gen 5 install. Was working fine literally an hour ago, but now get this. Other sites appear to be fully accessible.   ... View more

My service is totally down right now, too. Normally just very slow, but completely down with lots of red X's on my system status. Have to use my cell network to access Internet. I can't even get through to Hughes on their support #. I get the "number is no longer in service" tones. I've tried five times, same thing each time. ... View more

Another month has passed...tonight it took me 56 minutes of "your connection was reset," "the web page took too long to respond," "DNS entry not found," and the like to finally get to the point of being able to access this forum. Then for kicks I checked the speed: 719kbps download. I got a message a couple of days ago with an encouraging promise of capacity upgrades. Obviously not there yet, but does anyone have the scoop on what's planned and what the timeline is? ... View more

Liz, I need to know what's being done to investigate and resolve this issue. Six weeks should be plenty of time to get some response in that regard, and so far there has been zero, despite what I feel has been an incredible amount of patience on my part. Any other company would be looking for new "engineers" should they be incapable of identifying and proposing a fix within that time frame, for a problem that appears to be affecting such a large number of customers. While offers of credit for unusable service are appreciated (although I have yet to see any credit on my statement since this was first discussed in late September), they don't really get at the issue here. I use Hughes to run a business out of my home in a very rural area where I have no landline options. This is costing me time and money beyond any credits being proposed. Please provide a timeframe for a fix on this, and please get assurance from HQ that we will be able to cancel service without penalty once that timeframe has expired. I have been thrilled with Hughes service prior to Gen 5, and before this experience I was quick to recommend it to everyone. But since Gen 5 and its dismal customer support, my enthusiasm is in rapid decline. ... View more

Same thing here in S. Oregon. Upgraded to Gen 5 over the summer, super slow downloads for at least a couple months now and no sign of abating. No useful response from anyone at Hughes. Just pleas for patience, promises to get "engineering" involved. But no action. Gen 4 was 100000x better, hardly ever had a problem. So many people are having the same issue now that obviously there's a problem that Hughes knows about but doesn't want to acknowledge. ... View more

I'd like to bump this to the top of the pile again, as it's been a month and a half since my original post and I am still having the same problem, only it appears to be getting worse at other parts of the day, as well. Nearly unusable and can't do even the most basic things without a long, long wait. Apparently no response from engineering, and only mention of a month's credit. As I look at other posts on the forum I see many others experiencing the same issue. Surely someone at Hughes has a clue about what's going on? ... View more

Liz, I'm wondering if you've heard back anything on this. Tonight around 9pm the speed was so slow that I couldn't even access a speed test for at least 15 minutes. When I was finally able to do a testmy check, the result came back at 1.961 GIGAbits per second. Tests following that one have all come in at between 2 to 7Mbps. ... View more

Thanks, Liz, I sure appreciate the help! Let me know if you need anything further from me. ... View more

Here's the link to the test results: http://testmy.net/quickstats/ml520   Unfortunately there's a period later in the afternoon when I'm usually not around to do the test. I could possibly do a fuller sample on the weekend, if that would be helpful to see. As you can see, though, by the 8:50pm entry, speed has significantly slowed down. When I check with the test on the Hughes site, it has normally shown just over 100kbps, so the testmy.net reading is a little higher. Still well below 1Mbps, though. This is pretty much every night as far as I can tell. Daytime speeds are actually quite fast for the most part. ... View more