Earlier this summer (2019), my old modem, and the dish transponder, were zapped by a nearby lightning strike. The tech said the anti-lightning squib failed to protect the modem. He had with him a replacement modem, an HT2000W. It had an ungodly long and complicated password--more on this later. The "new" modem worked fine for a month or so, and then a couple of weeks ago it started disconnecting from the satellite, requiring a reboot. It would work fine for a few hours and then would disconnect again. After a few days I called the Service Center, every few days, for another week and a half. On successive calls I was directed to perform increasingly elaborate resets, re-registrations, re-installations, whatever. Nothing helped. The modem soon began requiring reboots every 20-30 minutes. Finally tech support decided to send out the technician. He asked me if the modem was a refurbished modem. I said, I don't know, how can I tell. Then he looked on the back and noticed the long, complicated password. "Yup," he said, "It's refurbished." He said Hughes had finally started sending him new HT2000Ws, and he got a new one out of his truck and set it up. It seems to be working fine a day later. TL;DR: Watch out for refurbished modems. Mine had a 16-letter/number password that was a nightmare to type in. If your password isn't something simple, like "pine42blue", you got a refurbished modem. Sometimes the refurb center cannot diagnose a given modem's problem, especially if it's intermittent, and they slap a new label on it and put it back in circulation. At least that's what I suspect. Question: The Service Center said that I would have to pay $100 or so for this technician's visit. This seems outrageous. The service call to replace the lightning-zapped modem was free. I was given a defective replacement modem...so now I have to pay to get that modem replaced? I haven't received a bill yet, but I'm on the lookout. the local power company says they are bringing high speed internet to my area...there is competition even in the hinterland, Hughes.
... View more