jackpinegirl
join:2007-06-12
Littlefork, MN
| Spaceway 3 Speeds
It's me again...I got hooked up to Spaceway 3 this week. I'm a little puzzled by the inconsistent speeds I'm getting. The installer said to give it a couple of days to get "adjusted" Hmmm. seems to me it should either work or not work right away. Anyway, I have a signal strength of 179 and here are the speed tests I have done. I will call Hughes, but just wondered if anyone else had these issues. It's up and down like a yo-yo.
08/07/2008 16:40:22 1403 291
08/07/2008 16:38:14 910 288
08/07/2008 16:35:51 996 101
08/07/2008 16:33:41 1504 285
08/07/2008 16:31:41 940 292
08/07/2008 15:14:51 1575 285
08/07/2008 15:12:46 1444 279
08/07/2008 15:10:39 944 283
08/07/2008 15:08:19 1178 287
08/07/2008 15:06:07 1057 121
08/07/2008 10:30:08 1720 287
08/07/2008 10:28:07 1920 277
08/06/2008 23:23:30 1575 289
08/06/2008 23:21:32 1954 283
08/06/2008 23:19:39 1825 192
08/06/2008 23:17:26 1874 290
08/06/2008 22:22:46 610 287
08/06/2008 22:19:39 810 167
08/06/2008 19:53:43 1588 286 |
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One more too
@direcpc.com
| Can I assume, from your speeds, that you are on the Elite plan?
From your system info page, on what uplink cell and downlink microcell are you?
I moved to Spaceway about a month ago, and I've also seen similar variations in speeds from one moment to another.
Your uplink cell is your spot beam, and it is determined by your geographic location, but, it would appear that each uplink cell is broken up into some larger number of downlink microcells, and the other users on that microcell are the ones with whom you are sharing bandwidth, similar to the gateway/router on the Ku satellites.
I get the feeling that, with the Spaceway microcells, there are a smaller number of people sharing a smaller amount of bandwidth than what was the case with the gateways on the the other satellites. Thus, if there are fewer people sharing less bandwidth, it takes only a small number of people doing downloads at the same time to consume the available bandwidth, and, thus, depending on how many are using that bandwidth at a given time, your speeds can vary more from one moment to the next. On the Ku satellites, with a larger number of people sharing a larger amount of bandwidth, the odds of such dramatic swings in speeds over a shorter period of time is less likely because, by statistical chance, it is more likely that for the bandwidth demand to be consistent from one moment to the next. I have no actual knowledge of how many customers are sharing how much bandwidth, but that is the only explanation I can think of that would account for larger swings in speeds over short periods of time on Spaceway.
Besides seeing larger speed variation within a short period of time, I'm also noticing that the speed variation exists through a larger portion of the day than was the case on my Ku satellite. On my old Ku satellite with the small office plan, speeds were generally consistent at plan maximums until the evening. Now, on Spaceway with the elite plan, I can see 1900 down at one moment and 800 down a few minutes later anywhere from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. |
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jackpinegirl
join:2007-06-12
Littlefork, MN | Yes, I am on the elite plan. My uplink cell is 99 and the downlink microcell is 823.
Argh.... more technical stuff to learn...
I thought at long last I would have a decent connection, but now I'm wondering.... |
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One more too
@direcpc.com
| I'm assuming, but not certain, that, similar to the Ku birds, we are sharing out microcell with others who are on the same plan. I'm also assuming that there is a current default microcell for new installs and that, once that microcell is filled, a new one is opened for future installs.
My plan is that, if things don't seem to be going well where I am, I will downgrade to the pro plus plan, which I'm assuming will send me to a different microcell. If things are good there, that would be fine, and I'll be saving $40 per month. If things are not good there, in a few weeks I'll try the elite plan again, which I'm assuming will put my on the current default microcell, which should be different from the the one I was originally on, and I'll hope that things are better there. Like with all things that are Hughes, it is a crap shoot. If things are bad where you are, it is worth taking the chance that a change will make things better. On the other hand, if things are decent, which is about as good as you are going to get with Hughes, making a change has a better chance of putting you in a worse situation that what it was like where you started out. |
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One more too
@direcpc.com | As documentation of the phenomenon that you are seeing, I just did two speed tests, which were separated in time by one a minute or so. The first one yielded 1243 down, and the second one resulted in 1993 down. |
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jackpinegirl
join:2007-06-12
Littlefork, MN
| Well.....like all things Hughes...who can figure?
I called today to inquire about the inconsistent speeds and they basically told me as long as I wasn't seeing 200-300 download, I shouldn't complain. WHAT!!!
I changed my plan back to the ProPlus Plan and I'm getting about the same speeds I had on the Elite plan.
The only thing I can see that was changed by downgrading my plan was the "Address Translation Within Local Domain" I am still on the same uplink and downlink cell and microcell. |
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dbirdman
Premium,MVM
join:2003-07-07
Eureka, CA | Uplink and downlink cells should be geographically based - the only way you should get a different one would be to move. |
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Arion
join:2006-07-09
Marquette, MI
 ·HughesNet Satellit..
| reply to jackpinegirl
As long as it works and with good performance I wouldn't get too anal with the speeds at any given point. You can drive yourself to distraction with the constant speed tests.
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HN7000S IA-8 1270 / 8-PSK 3/4 (14) / Router:67.142.140.95 /.74 1 watt / Pro / Pentium 3.2ghz, 1gb ram /Dual Boot WinXP Pro/LinxuS / Firefox 2.0.0.12 / www.bigbaywx.com |
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One more too
@direcpc.com
| reply to dbirdman
said by dbirdman  :Uplink and downlink cells should be geographically based - the only way you should get a different one would be to move. I knew that the uplink cell (beam) was geographically based and that it would not change.
»www.satelliteguys.us/attachment.···05204215
However, since there are so many more (downlink)microcells for each cell, I thought that the microcell might depend on the service plan. Evidently that is not the case. |
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One more too
@direcpc.com
| reply to jackpinegirl
said by jackpinegirl :Well.....like all things Hughes...who can figure? I called today to inquire about the inconsistent speeds and they basically told me as long as I wasn't seeing 200-300 download, I shouldn't complain. WHAT!!! I changed my plan back to the ProPlus Plan and I'm getting about the same speeds I had on the Elite plan. The only thing I can see that was changed by downgrading my plan was the "Address Translation Within Local Domain" I am still on the same uplink and downlink cell and microcell. Just for information, as I posted above, for a couple of weeks, I had been seeing the wide speed variations just like you. For the last week, though, they seem to have disappeared. Since just about a week ago, I've been running at 1800-2000 down and 260-280 up 95% plus of the time, and, when speeds have dropped lower, they have still generally been in the 1200-1600 range and stayed there for only a short time before returning to that 1800 to 2000 range.
I'm not sure whether Spaceway is still a work in progress and is still being fine tuned, whether they've done whatever kind of load balancing that they can do, or whether some of the college kids who have been watching YouTube have started to go back to school, but, for the last week (knock on wood), performance has been excellent and consistent. It is now just as consistent as it was when I had the small office plan before things on IA6 went to hell, and it is performing now at the levels that I would consider being worth the $120 a month that I'm spending. |
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One more too
@direcpc.com
| Adding to what I said above about how my system's performance has really improved during the last week, the thing that I can see different in my "terminal status" page is that, before when speeds were inconsistent, I had 3 PBP connections open. Now, I have 9 PBP connections open. Also, the number of TCP connections being spoofed and not being spoofed is higher than it was before, but those two numbers seem to vary from one time to the next.
The reason why I'm willing to pay $120 a month for my service is because I want to know that, regardless of when I need to use the system, I'm going to get reasonably consistent performance. I would hope that, when you move to the elite or elite plus plans, that there are fewer customers sharing the same amount of bandwidth than on the less expensive plans. Whatever has happened recently, though, has been very nice and what I had expected to get from a plan a few tiers above the basic plan. Right now, it is about as snappy as I can expect from a $120 satellite plan. In addition to more consistent speeds, it also seems that the responsiveness of the system and pings have improved, too. Again, it may be that Spaceway is still somewhat of a work in progress. |
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Total Obliv
join:2006-06-28
Hattiesburg, MS
| reply to One more too
In order to downgrade you will have to cancel your current plan. I tried downgrading and the rep said that people can't upgrade/downgrade between business class and consumer class accounts. Business class is Elite and the more expensive plans. That may change later this year, when existing customers will be allowed to upgrade (to the Ka band or the Elite, etc., not sure). |
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One more too
@direcpc.com
| said by Total Obliv :In order to downgrade you will have to cancel your current plan. I tried downgrading and the rep said that people can't upgrade/downgrade between business class and consumer class accounts. Business class is Elite and the more expensive plans. That may change later this year, when existing customers will be allowed to upgrade (to the Ka band or the Elite, etc., not sure). As far as I know, even though the elite and elite plus plans roughly replace the small office and business plans, both the elite and elite plus plans are now considered to be consumer plans and are listed as such on the Hughes site. And, as the elite plan and elite plus plan are now consumer plans, you can freely switch back and forth between them and the pro plus or other consumer plans. Before things improved recently on my elite plan, I had considered trying the pro plus plan, and, when I called Hughes, they were ready to let me do it.
Obviously, what I said only applies to 9000 modem customers on Spaceway because the elite and elite plus plans are only available on Spaceway, but even though it is not an officially allowed change, there is still the possibility of flexibility for customers on the Ku band birds, too. I was able to close my small office plan without early termination charges, to return my Ku equipment for full credit, and get a Spaceway/9000 installation. |
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Argus P
join:2004-08-31
Lake Cormorant, MS | reply to jackpinegirl
Latest results on Spaceway/9000 system, Elite plan. About 7:10pm on Tuesday, CST.
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HN9000/Spaceway III, ELITE Plan with Dell 2508 Gigabit switch = 5 users |
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One more too
@direcpc.com
| said by Argus P :Latest results on Spaceway/9000 system, Elite plan. About 7:10pm on Tuesday, CST. Like I said above, for a couple of weeks, I was getting very inconsistent performance, but since I had new parameters loaded into my modem about 2 1/2 weeks ago, performance has been as steady as can be. I'm probably hitting 1900-2000 down and 260-280 up (on Elite plan) about 90% of the time. Now "slowing down" means down speeds of 1700, and, if there is anything slower than that, it is very brief. The OP may have had bad timing here and given up on her Elite plan just when Hughes was getting its fine tuning of Spaceway completed. The test results below are from about 8:30 p.m. central, which should be right in the middle of peak time.
:::.. Download Stats ..:::
Download Connection is:: 2101 Kbps about 2.1 Mbps (tested with 4096 kB)
Download Speed is:: 256 kB/s
Tested From:: »testmy.net/ (Main)
Test Time:: 2008/08/26 - 7:34pm
Bottom Line:: 37X faster than 56K 1MB Download in 4 sec
Tested from a 4096 kB file and took 15.969 seconds to complete
Download Diagnosis:: Awesome! 20% + : 53.13 % faster than the average for host (64.141)
D-Validation Link:: »testmy.net/stats/id-NDMIHZTLC
User Agent:: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1; .NET CLR 1.0.3705; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; Media Center PC 4.0; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.30; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.648) [!]
:::.. Upload Stats ..:::
Upload Connection is:: 268 Kbps about 0.3 Mbps (tested with 1013 kB)
Upload Speed is:: 33 kB/s
Tested From:: »testmy.net/ (Main)
Test Time:: 2008/08/26 - 7:35pm
Bottom Line:: 5X faster than 56K 1MB Upload in 31.03 sec
Tested from a 1013 kB file and took 30.985 seconds to complete
Upload Diagnosis:: Awesome! 20% + : 44.86 % faster than the average for host (64.141)
U-Validation Link:: »testmy.net/stats/id-JI5XMRT07
User Agent:: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1; .NET CLR 1.0.3705; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; Media Center PC 4.0; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.30; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.648) [!] |
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lastmile
join:2007-09-08
Robertsville, MO | reply to jackpinegirl
What kind of latency is everyone receiving with the spaceway service and do you know if its fairly consistent throughout all hours? |
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rjgogo
join:2003-10-22 | reply to One more too
How did you get new parameters loaded into your unit? I am having some of the same issues you were. one minute very fast the next very slow. |
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One more too
@direcpc.com
| said by rjgogo :How did you get new parameters loaded into your unit? I am having some of the same issues you were. one minute very fast the next very slow. I didn't do anything. I noticed that the system performance was much snappier and more consistent, and I checked the system logs and say that new configuration parameters had been sent to the modem. I also noticed on the terminal status page, that tne number of addresses open had increased at the same time, and that was also when the system started to work more consistently. So, I assume there was a connection. With Spaceway, I'm not sure whether things like different software, maintenance, etc. are done to the whole satellite at the same time, whether they are done one cell at a time, or whether they are done by service plan levels. |
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rjgogo
join:2003-10-22 | Thanks, did you initiate a call with support to complain? If so what did you say as I would like to do the same thing. my thought is if you complain to them they adjust the parameters. |
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One more too
@direcpc.com
| said by rjgogo :Thanks, did you initiate a call with support to complain? If so what did you say as I would like to do the same thing. my thought is if you complain to them they adjust the parameters. No, I didn't do anything. I doubt that the parameters were changed just for my modem. Instead, I'd be fairly confident that they were changed to some sub-set of Spaceway modems. Again, I don't know whether it is done by cell, sub cell, service plan, etc., but I'm confident that the change was a part of some larger maintenance plan. |
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