frodoboy

I followed Fikester's advice and filed an FCC and BBB complaint as well as a complaint with the California Attorney General's office for fraudulent advertising. So far no reply. I did all my tests during peak hours and averaged 86 to 300 down and 46 to 180 uploads. The guarantee is 500 down and 100 up during peak hours. If you fill your mydirecway speed test history with less than 500 down/100 up tests, they HAVE to repoint or fix the problem or they are in deep s&#t! I have almost 30 clams in now since mid Dec with one outside equipment replacement by installers. This still (of course) didn't fix the problem. After 3 weeks of promises of engineering calling me back, I finally demanded from a level 2 tech to have my dish repointed to another bird. This requires the tech totally moving the dish to another location. I told Dway I would not pay for this and the level 2 tech discussed it with her super (gee there actually was a real super this time???) and they agreed I should be moved at THEIR expense to a new bird. The installer comes out today. The only problem is I don't know which bird!!! The installer says he has had great success with IA8 and ANC9 (I think it is that) or some other bird. He told me his clients average 1mbps down and 200kbps up almost all the time on the one he will move me to and the same transponder. He is a really nice and very knowledgeable guy and did me real good last time unlike the original FLAKE installer the first time. If you are really unhappy with your installer, you can call RS&I at 800-825-7999 and give them your field service number or current installer-authorized case number and they will try to find you another installer to come out. This is not a commonly shared number but it works if you need another installer. I also wrangled 2 free months of service out of Dway because my "logged" speeds fell below the guaranteed speeds for the professional account. I am hoping to get wireless within the next couple of weeks. The guy came out and he could see the tower but the transponder (or whatever it is called) was pointing in the opposite direction. He told me he will be up there in (now) about 2 weeks to service it and he will put a transponder pointing in my direction so I can get service. They only allow a maximum 35 accounts per transponder because "any more than that and the signal and service are degraded!!!" Gee, do you think maybe he should talk to Dway and explain about over selling, signal degredation and performance?????? With this system, I will be getting 1mbps down and 1mbps up ALL THE TIME!!! He said there are a few times when performance will drop slightly during peak hours as in all web services, but it should not be much. The trick is NOT TO OVERSELL!!! He has only 3 customers on the current transponder and 1 will be the only one on the second one although I have about 15 families who want to switch once I find a service. I may only let about 5 of them (my good neighbors) even know I found a better service than suckway...oh sorry, I meant Direcway!!!

I am hoping...praying that I have found a wireless internet service. I live in a canyon between two really big mountains and no wireless service wants to put an antenna on one of those mountains. I found a service locally and they told me there is one 5 miles from my house. Of course, it is probably on another mountain behind one of mine. Well, I got the map and used Google Maps terrestrial and discovered that the tower should be exactly east of me. I looked out the door this morning and there is a big mountain right there. I got my binoculars and I swear I can see that big tower just like the picture on the web site. I asked what road it was on and it is MY road!!! I am so excited. The guy is supposed to come out today and see if I can get a signal. If I can, he is installing the system today as well. I will be getting minimum 1mbps down AND 1mbps up!!! It is synchronous and VERY fast!!!! Glee Glee Glee :haha: I called direcway last night to get a new transponder assigned and the tech told me that was impossible and that engineering would be called me today. They told me that last week. It is such a joke. I filed a formal complaint with the FCC, BBB and the California attorney general's office last night. I plan to get the $200 upgrade fee back and not charged for this month. I will show my bank the promises and then the stats from the speed test and how many case numbers I have (over 20 now since December) and that should do the trick. God I hope I can dump this piece of shite!!! I will let you all know of the outcome but I would strongly suggest contacting the BBB, FCC and your state attorney general's office to stop this scam and it IS a scam!!!

I thought Direcway tells you to turn the proxy off with the 7000??? Do they even know what the hell they are doing???

What you should have done is what I did...if you were upgrading. I anticipated bad service...just not THIS bad so I bought the modem outright for $200 and didn't sign up for the 2 year joke. That way I will only be out $200 but I don't plan for that to happen. I have so much documentation on the slow speeds verses their "guaranteed" professional speeds of 500down/200up that my credit card company will refund the money if Dway refuses. By the way, I screamed at them (of course I kept getting transferred up to 4 times) the other day and they finally said an engineer would call me the next day between 9am and 12pm. I waited all day and he never called. It took a lot of anger out of me and just sort of depressed me all to hell. I guess they are experts at that! I really need to get the guy on the mountain above me to get wireless so I can finally get 1mb down/up and get rid of this nightmare!!!

Don't forget, even if he only gives them a few million each, they will probably inherit the business like the Walton clan did from Sam. That alone would be worth billions!

Here is a report directly from mydirecway showing my down/up speeds for the last 1 1/2 weeks. The tech told me that my average speeds had to be lower than 500/100 for them to do anything. Also, they will only use the speeds from the Dway site to decide if you have a problem or not. I was testing out at 1-3am with the great speeds and he figured that into the mix which totally screwed up the "true" speeds and hid the problem as far as tech support is concerned. I came home every day for lunch to do the speed tests during "business" hours and I think I have a good case now. These speeds SUCK!!! They are not even worthy of $25/month much less the premium price I have to pay for the Pro account! I am on SatMex 5 and my installer says that is the worst bird for performance. The techs won't let me try a different frequency...says it won't make a difference. During the LONG phone support sessions, one of them found a frequency that gave me 90 signal and 98 cross pole but said it wouldn't make a difference in performance. I want to get them to pay for a tech to come out and repoint to a different bird. Are all of you having the same problem with any bird??? I heard that IA8 is better and my tech says he has had no problems with that one. I am SICK AND TIRED OF ALL THIS CRAP AND WILL PULL THE PLUG ON IT AND GET A REFUND IF THEY DON'T FIX IT QUCK!!! This is just so much bullsh#$ it makes me sick! Hopefully, I can talk a guy on the hill above me (a famous Padres baseball player who just retired) to put a wireless antenna on his hill so I can start getting that. I am in a valley and can't get the wireless signal flowing all over the mountains around me. At least that is 500/500 or 1,000/1,000 synchronous and much more reliable!!! January 21st, 10:57AM - 313/149 kbps January 21st, 10:54AM - 259/106 kbps January 20th, 11:02PM - 366/113 kbps January 20th, 10:56PM - 89/179 kbps January 20th, 03:57PM - 188/180 kbps January 19th, 09:34PM - 118/170 kbps January 19th, 09:26PM - 117/190 kbps January 19th, 05:16PM - 98/32 kbps January 19th, 05:09PM - 161/70 kbps January 19th, 12:11PM - 245/73 kbps January 18th, 10:38PM - 279/128 kbps January 18th, 10:22PM - 274/130 kbps January 18th, 10:16PM - 68/130 kbps January 18th, 12:03PM - 577/64 kbps January 18th, 11:50AM - 338/187 kbps January 13th, 12:00PM - 184/193 kbps January 13th, 11:56AM - 118/11 kbps January 13th, 11:14AM - 387/168 kbps January 12th, 10:35PM - 164/192 kbps January 12th, 04:55PM - 384/19 kbps January 12th, 04:53PM - 270/16 kbps January 12th, 10:37AM - 815/186 kbps January 11th, 11:28PM - 482/115 kbps January 11th, 04:34PM - 95/47 kbps January 11th, 11:55AM - 370/156 kbps January 11th, 11:46AM - 725/132 kbps January 11th, 11:35AM - 429/174 kbps January 11th, 11:06AM - 229/156 kbps January 11th, 10:54AM - 371/124 kbps January 11th, 05:53AM - 984/189 kbps January 11th, 04:48AM - 1002/189 kbps January 11th, 04:47AM - 1002/189 kbps January 11th, 04:41AM - 789/129 kbps

I don't think you can even change the frequency. When I tried, I got 90 and 98 cross poll. But when it was all done, it went back to 1230! The tech said the different frequency didn't make a difference on how fast you connected during the day. Yeah, that is because there is too much congestion at that time. I am about ready to submit my final demand with 2 weeks worth of sub-standard speed tests (below 500/100 average) and the tech said they would move the dish to a new bird if I could prove substandard speeds. We will see what happens and even if that makes any damned difference!

Here is what you do to get switched to a new satellite or get a credit. DirecWay ONLY guarantees 500 down/100up as an AVERAGE over a week's time with the Pro account. What you have to do is use MyDirecWay's speed test so they can log the results. What my tech did is average all my speed tests for a week and then gave me the result. I work during the day but on my 2 days off I ran speed tests and my results were terrible (250/18, etc.) However, I ran speed tests late at night or early in the morning and they were 1,000/220, etc. The turkey took these fastest tests and added them to the slowest ones and the average results were 520/120 which met DWay's minimum criteria for the Pro account!!!!! He told me they won't send anyone out unless your average speeds fall below this level! So here is what I am doing. Every day I come home for lunch and run 2 to 3 speed tests. They are always 250 or less down and 100 or less up. Then I run several tests during the later peak hours or morning peak hours where the speed is around 750/190. The average for 2 days so far is 450/120. The download is definitely showing a problem. After a week of this, when I call tech support again and they do an average of my test speeds, they will HAVE to come out because they are NOT meeting their terms of service agreement. They may also issue me another credit as they have done for this month (1 month free). I paid the $200 upgrade fee so I wouldn't be locked into a ridiculously long contract with them. I think they are anticipating a mass migration as more wireless internet becomes available to us out in the boonies. That way they will get their early termination fees. However, if they are violating their terms of service speed guarantee (500/100 average) you DON'T have to pay that early termination fee as they breeched the contract! If you don't know how to average your test results, here's how. Run 1 weeks worth of tests. Run several during peak hours when the speeds are the worst. Run 1 or two during peak times when speeds are better but still slow. Do NOT run tests during off peak hours when your speeds will be way over 750/120. You should have over 20 tests run. Add the download speeds up (250+250+750+500+250, etc) then do the same for the upload speeds (160+130+85+28+125, etc.) Then divide the totals for each by the number of tests. In the example above it would be 250+250+750+500+250 divided by 5 (number of tests) and 160+130+85+28+125 divided by 5 (number of tests). In this example the average download speed is 400 (2000 divided by 5) and the average upload speed is 105 (528 divided by 5). The upload average is within range but the download average is well below the 400 guaranteed!!! They have to come out of solve the problem and give you a credit if you persist if they can't deliver on the speed!!! I hope this helps. I am waiting to be moved from SatMex 5 at 1230.....a real dog!!!!! Patrick

Fikester, What are your daytime speeds on Horizons? I am wondering if it is mainly SatMex 5 which I heard is a problem, or do all the satellites have really serious problems during the daytime hours. I've heard they can be slow, but 250 down and 90 up really sucks!!! Patrick

I am on SatMex 5. The original installers located the dish on the side wall of my house so I can only get SatMex 5. The installers who just came out to fix the problem with the 7000 said the dish needed to be moved so I could get IA8 or any other future satellite but it would cost me $200 to move it unless DWay would pay for it...hahaha. My peak hour speeds dropped to around 250 dl and 95 ul so I called Dway tech support and surprise!!! The tech told me that if I was getting a good signal, it didn't matter what satellite I was pointed at, that would not effect the speed! The tech who came out said he has pointed most everyone to IA8 and it is more stable for speed during peak hours. The DWay tech then did an analysis of my last two days speed tests on the DWay site (that is all they use for reference) and he AVERAGED all the tests and found that I was ABOVE the minimum 500 down and 100 up for the Professional plan. 500 down and 100 up is the ONLY guarantee they have to make for the Pro plan!!! That SUCKS!!!!! One word of advice...DON'T USE THE DWAY SPEED TEST DURING OFF PEAK HOURS IF YOU ARE GOING TO COMPLAIN ABOUT SLOW PEAK HOURS!!! They will look at your wonderful 1000 plus downs and 150 plus ups and then average them with your horrendous 250 downs and 90 ups and come up with an average of 750 down and 110 up and say "you are within the minimum average range!" What we all need to do is only do the tests during peak hours or run the testmy speed tests to ensure the up and down tests are below the 500 minimum and THEN run the DWay tests. Do this every day for a week and THEN call tech support and when they review the results, if your average is BELOW the 500/100 limit, THEN THEY HAVE TO SEND A TECHNICIAN OUT OR GIVE YOU CREDIT!! If enough people are not getting the minimum speed, maybe we can get a class action against them for breech of contract or something. They can fix it for us peons instead of focusing all the bandwidth on power and business users. It is unfair to those of us who have to cough up $69/month and have crappy service during peak hours. I ran a speed test on my lunch break yesterday and it was only 250 down and 85 up. I ran one when I got home and it was 750 down and 185 up. I am going to run these tests every day for a week during lunch so I can prove that I am below the 500 down minimum to get a tech out for free to re-locate my dish (not that that will help the problem................) Patrick

Ok Aubrey, here's a question. Why is it that everytime I call Direcway tech support (in India of course) they always have me do the frequency switch thing? I finally got an installer to come out and replace all the outside gear and he recommissioned it on SatMex 5 because that is the only one he could point it to. He told me I'd do better on (oh I forgot the sames...1A8 and G5 or something like that) but he'd have to come out and remount the dish. After several hours, my download was only at 250k but the upload was finally between 100 and 200. I've never even seen it over 45! So, the nice Indian man had me trying all kinds of frequencies around the 1230 that it defaults to. I noticed that SatMex 5 is supposed to be 1270 but he tried all kinds of frequencies around that. One of them (1170 I believe) gave me a whopping 92 on signal strength and 99 on Cross pol, but he didn't choose that one. In the end, I ended up with 85 down and 28 up!!! I finally did the installer setup myself putting it back to 1270 and last night got speeds around 1100 down and 200 up. This morning I am back to 250 down and 100 up! My question is: Why, when I change the frequency to re-commission it and it shows 92 and 99 cross poll does it revert back to 1230 and 70 for signal strength when it is done commissioning? What is the point of them trying different frequencies if you can't use any of them? My installer told me they were different transponders and only 1 on SatMex 5 is working with the 7000 right now. I don't see why, if I can get such a good signal and cross poll that I can't use that frequency and it will lock in unless the NOC has something to do with changing it or that frequency doesn't work with the 7000. This is always baffling to me because no one has ever explained it to me before. Should I just get the installer to move the dish to one of the dedicated satellites? I will not tollerate 250 downloads during the day for what I have to pay. Please explain, if you know, what all those frequencies really mean and which ones can be used with SatMex 5. Thanks, Patrick

I am currently waiting for a tech to come out and replace the outdoor hardware. I have been (unfortunately) a DirecPC/DirecWay customer since 1994 and have had problems since day 1. When I got the 6000, the so-called techs came out and installed the unit on the side of my house. It fell off about 1 month later! I put it back up and readjusted it myself. It never got better than 40kbps upload, usually around 8k to 25kbps if I was REALLY lucky. My download speeds were usually around 1200kbps however. When I upgraded to the 7000, I was promised the world like everyone else. I too could not get past the last test (just past the cross-pol test). I was on the phone with so many senior techs for hours at a time, I have a whole page of case numbers. In fact, I noticed that every day I called in and got a new case number, it was usually several hundred or even 1,000 higher than the night before! I finally had enough and called to cancel my 7000 and re-commission the 6000. I was given 2 free months service and the whole down time I am having, then transferred to the highest level senior tech (I could even understand him...I think he was in the US!). He had me run the direcpc site speed test and told me that if the outdoor unit was working properly, the upload speeds should be fairly consistent all the time. He decided that my outdoor unit was defective and ordered a new one for me. He also told me that the techs who would install it would have to get me to at least 100kbps upload or I could refuse to sign off on the service and he would find someone else for me! That is quite good for customer service...if that IS the problem! If it is not, I will chuck the whole thing. There are two wireless companies coming to a mountain near me soon and I will switch in a heartbeat to 1,000kbps synchronous for $39/month over this 10 year fiasco!!! They really have you by the gonads if you live in a remote area and that is really taking advantage of people!!! I will keep you all posted on what happens when the unit is replaced. Right now my numbers are (fastest they have EVER been! : :::.. Download Stats ..::: Connection is:: 1210 Kbps about 1.2 Mbps (tested with 2992 kB) Download Speed is:: 148 kB/s Tested From:: https://testmy.net/ (server2) Test Time:: Wed Dec 28 22:37:22 PST 2005 Bottom Line:: 22X faster than 56K 1MB download in 6.92 sec Diagnosis: Awesome! 20% + : 31.24 % faster than the average for host (direcpc.com) Validation Link:: https://testmy.net/stats/id-GZX9UQKFS :::.. Upload Stats ..::: Connection is:: 66 Kbps about 0.1 Mbps (tested with 97 kB) Upload Speed is:: 8 kB/s Tested From:: https://testmy.net/ (server2) Test Time:: Wed Dec 28 22:38:28 PST 2005 Bottom Line:: 1X faster than 56K 1MB upload in 128 sec Diagnosis: 90% + Okay : running at 94.29 % of your hosts average (direcpc.com) Validation Link:: https://testmy.net/stats/id-8R40ENPAC A few hours ago I was running at 560kbps down and 22kbps up!!!