GNG News Guy
03-04-2008, 03:00 PM
http://i.dslr.net/urls/57/68057.gif (http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/HughesNet-Users-Report-Massive-Peak-Congestion-Problems-92360)
Caps and traffic throttling are a major reason why the reviews for satellite broadband provider HughesNet are so painfully mediocre (http://www.thegng.org/reviews/1678). HughesNet customers who exceed the company's daily, rolling bandwidth caps (aka "the FAP (http://www.hughesnet.com/HUGHES/Rooms/DisplayPages/LayoutInitial?pageid=fairaccess&Container=com.webridge.entity.Entity OID BD8BE0839F414B4FB7CDDCA10EFA5369)"), which range from 200MB to 1250MB (http://customercare.myhughesnet.com/fap_announce.htm) depending on tier) find their connections throttled for 24 hours to speeds easily bested by rural American dial-up -- circa 1995 (users say around 7-14kbps).
But now, the provider's network is apparently so overloaded, that users who are well under their FAP limit are seeing serious congestion during peak hours. In some cases, users paying $80 a month for 1.5Mbps/200kbps connections are seeing their lines deliver 101kbps/6kbps or worse. Some users say their speed tests show that the HughesNet network is simply not performing from 4PM to 12AM (http://www.thegng.org/forum/r20002403-Deliberate-Limited-Bandwidth-4pm-to-12am-ET), essentially offering very expensive dial-up:February 19th, 04:03PM - 78/65 kbps
February 19th, 03:59PM - 624/65 kbps
February 16th, 04:02PM - 77/38 kbps
February 16th, 03:57PM - 728/88 kbps
February 15th, 04:01PM - 66/32 kbps
February 15th, 03:59PM - 605/38 kbps
The debate currently is over whether this is just organic peak usage congestion, or HughesNet flow control technology (http://www.direcway.com/HUGHES/Doc/0/SIKPBJS69O6KP42VCE4K4ER2BF/Hughes%20PEP_H35661_A4_LR_091206.pdf) kicking in to protect the network from expected strain. One HughesNet reseller in our forums says he's stopped selling new connections (http://www.thegng.org/forum/r20023958-), after fielding so many complaints from users about slow peak bandwidth performance. It's clear the added capacity from Spaceway 3 (http://www.thegng.org/shownews/90314) can't get here soon enough.
Caps and traffic throttling are a major reason why the reviews for satellite broadband provider HughesNet are so painfully mediocre (http://www.thegng.org/reviews/1678). HughesNet customers who exceed the company's daily, rolling bandwidth caps (aka "the FAP (http://www.hughesnet.com/HUGHES/Rooms/DisplayPages/LayoutInitial?pageid=fairaccess&Container=com.webridge.entity.Entity OID BD8BE0839F414B4FB7CDDCA10EFA5369)"), which range from 200MB to 1250MB (http://customercare.myhughesnet.com/fap_announce.htm) depending on tier) find their connections throttled for 24 hours to speeds easily bested by rural American dial-up -- circa 1995 (users say around 7-14kbps).
But now, the provider's network is apparently so overloaded, that users who are well under their FAP limit are seeing serious congestion during peak hours. In some cases, users paying $80 a month for 1.5Mbps/200kbps connections are seeing their lines deliver 101kbps/6kbps or worse. Some users say their speed tests show that the HughesNet network is simply not performing from 4PM to 12AM (http://www.thegng.org/forum/r20002403-Deliberate-Limited-Bandwidth-4pm-to-12am-ET), essentially offering very expensive dial-up:February 19th, 04:03PM - 78/65 kbps
February 19th, 03:59PM - 624/65 kbps
February 16th, 04:02PM - 77/38 kbps
February 16th, 03:57PM - 728/88 kbps
February 15th, 04:01PM - 66/32 kbps
February 15th, 03:59PM - 605/38 kbps
The debate currently is over whether this is just organic peak usage congestion, or HughesNet flow control technology (http://www.direcway.com/HUGHES/Doc/0/SIKPBJS69O6KP42VCE4K4ER2BF/Hughes%20PEP_H35661_A4_LR_091206.pdf) kicking in to protect the network from expected strain. One HughesNet reseller in our forums says he's stopped selling new connections (http://www.thegng.org/forum/r20023958-), after fielding so many complaints from users about slow peak bandwidth performance. It's clear the added capacity from Spaceway 3 (http://www.thegng.org/shownews/90314) can't get here soon enough.