4th day of poor internet connection - recently upgraded to DW7000 from DW6000

[manang]

We initially had DW6000 and were extremely satisfied with it so after  6 months we decided to upgrade to DW7000 Professional Edition.

I earn my living using the internet.  But  last Tuesday, I started having problems with the internet.  I called tech support and was told that we had exceeded the FAP and we had to wait for 8-12 hours for our system status to be back to normal. (Hubby had been donwloading ISO DVDs for Linux).

I did wait...still, after the waiting period, no internet connection (system status degraded, TCP accel not operational, web acc impaired). I called tech support again.  Asked me to do power-cycling, no change.  He made me reset the thing; okay for several minutes.  That first day, I made 2 calls before it was up and running again for probably 3 hours, during which time my husband was again able to download ~100 MB of software.  Then no internet again that night.  Hubby called tech support, and we were finally told that the problem was the satellite itself.  Nothing wrong at our end, nor at their end (they could no longer use the FAP bs because that was supposed to be 350 MB in 4 hours and we waited already; last download was just about 100 MB).

Second day, I made several more phone calls, was basically made to do the same things over and over again, until I decided it was not worth my time to try to work when 95% or more of my icomputer time was spent with tech support rather than online.  When hubby came home that night, he was able to use the net and download some more files.  I was too sleepy to even try to work.  I kept my fingers crossed that the next day, I would be able to work.

Third day, I made my 7th call to tech support, and was told again that it was the satellite that was the problem, and that they could not give me a timeframe when this would be resolved.  He said he wished he could. He sounded apologetic but helpless...I almost wanted to tell him that he was no better than the Indians whom I had talked to in the lower support (I later on realized that I could call directly the higher tech support). 

I used dial-up to try if it will serve the purpose for my kind of work, but it could not.  I surfed the net for posts/articles about DW7000/Direcway complaints, and got very discouraged.  I think we are fucked up.

When hubby came home that day, he called them up.  Relayed to me about something that he was asked to do upon his persistence in troubleshooting, having downloaded some software for the modem, changes in reference to a transponder, and he told me he set it up at 2 watts instead of 1 (although the latter he was not told to do so by the tech support).

I was able to do 1.5 hours of work that night.  I went to bed hoping everything would be fine the next day.

So today, I was able to work for quite a decent amount of time compared to the past days, although from time to time I would have no connection to the Management Server? (I always check the 192.168.0.1 system status and connectivity whenever there seems to be a problem).  I still spend considerable time doing the same powerr-cycling and connectivity tests over and over again when all I wanted to do was to be able to work (which was the primary reason why we opted to switch from dial-up to satellite, our only other option, in the first place).  My work and income are our justification for spending that much money on satellite internet.  But, this satellite performance is way way below what we had during our first 6 months using DW6000.  I am losing income, and wasting money for a service that does not deliver what it promised.

Since we have no other option for a broadband connection, all we can do is wait til the satellite is fixed (whenever that will be).

I came here and posted this, not only to vent, but also hoping that someone might probably have a better solution to offer (I might actually get better tech support from here than from Dway), because at this point, I feel like we are going to be among those who will join the class action lawsuit here https://www.lawyersandsettlements.com/case/direcway_satellite, which I doubt would help us any.

I feel that soon I will have to seek a job not requiring internet.

PLEASE HELP...

[ghostmaster]

What satellite and transponder are you on?  (Listed as Longitude and Frequency in System Info)_

What is your rate of failed transmissions.

What is your rate code?

http://192.168.0.1/fs/advanced/advanced.html

If you are loosing income over this, your best bet is to demand that they move you to another Sat or transponder if it really is a problem with the Sat.  Most of the time, it isn't really a problem on the actual satellite, but a problem with the gateway at the NOC.

[manang]

Hi ghostmaster,

Here are the specifics:

Longitude: 83 west

Frequency: 1330 MHz

Rate Code: 256k 4/5 (TC)

I wonder what the odds are if I indeed demand to be moved to another satellite or transponder?

Thank you very much on your input.

[ghostmaster]

I don't think there is anything wrong with that transponder.  Im also on 83 West(aka AMC9) but on 1370Mhz.

What do your number of failed transmissions look like?

http://192.168.0.1

Click on transmission info

I haven't heard of anyone else going down like you describe, and there are a lot of people on that transponder on this site, and on other sites.

Also, what is your normal signal strength?

[EWO]

manang:  I am also on AMC9, 1330, 256 2/3 - DW7000 Home Plan  Currently running on an average of 850/128.  Generally speaking, the only failed transmissions I get is sometimes running DWay Satellite Speed Test, seems to want to hang up for extended periods of time.  Am in Louisiana  Lat 30.78  Long 89.87. 

Signal is 84 to 89.

Jim

[manang]

Ghostmaster and Jim,

Thanks for telling me that you are both on AMC9 (I remember one "higher" tech support told me such).

So, what my husband relayed to me about what he was told regarding the satellite being the problem (and that in fact it affected other companies (including Dish network) utilizing that specific sat of the Hughes Network might have been all bs.  I told him them that I could not believe that was the reason because it would have covered a big area of affected users and that would have made it to the news, especially that it affected businesses.

Your responses to my post confirm this.

failed transmissions: 324

Usual signal stregth lately: 72-74

During our first month or more of DW7000 pro, we had no problems.  My husband had been downloading distros for Linux since our DW6000, but the first time we had a problem, I was told that we had exceeded the FAP, and they suggested for us to use a dl manager, which my husband promptly heeded in order for us not to reach fap again, but, there had been no change in our intermittent online status (which is cumulatively shorter than our offline status) since our efforts not to exceed the fap.  My husband continues to download maybe around 50-1000 MB at night when he comes home (and I do not know why he is lucky to have such uninterrupted internet during such times).  He said he would just try to power-cycling if he starts without connection, then everything would go ok.

But if I try to work at night with him downloading (our comps are networked), I could not.  If I try to use the internet at a later time when he is done downloading, it has the same problem of being online for a maximum of maybe about 10 minutes before it would have problems again, and I would usually be reconnected (without me doing anything) after about 30 minutes.  It sucks, I know, especially that I try to get up at 5 am to work, only to get dismayed by my futile attempts at establishing a connection. Lately I would be able to have connection after 6:30 am, the the whole connected-not connected cycles start all over again.  It has become aggravating to even try to work!

Looks like I really have to look into a career change.  But what if we want to cancel the increasingly worthless dway service (as it applies to us)? I heard we will have to pay $300 for cancellation before the 2 month period (and I think it was extended now that we have upgraded to DW7000).

I hope you never go through this kind of agony.

Thanks for your support.

Well, I really am discouraged now, knowing both of you AMC9 like us have no problems when we were told that the problem was the satellite itself.

[ghostmaster]

"My husband continues to download maybe around 50-1000 MB at night when he comes home (and I do not know why he is lucky to have such uninterrupted internet during such times).  He said he would just try to power-cycling if he starts without connection, then everything would go ok."

1000MB a night WILL get you fapped.

FAP is like a bucket.  If you are on the Pro plan, you get a 350MB bucket, which is constantly refilling at 56Kbps(dialup speed).  They tell you it's in a 4 hour period but that isn't completely true, at least for some of us.  When that 350MB is depleted, you are Fapped, for about 4-13hours.  In some cases people revert to dialup speed, and some lose the connection all together.  You might want to tell your husband to stop downloading when he goes to bed, that way you will have a full bucket during the day so you can work. 

If you are a heavy downloader, (linux distros, movies), then Direcway is NOT for you.  You would have to use some sort of Commercial grade satellite, or think about Wild Blue, as they have a rolling monthly FAP bucket as opposed to a refilling 350MB bucket.  So my advice is tell your husband not to download for a while, and see if the connection improves.  Have you been checking your usage online?  It will tell you when you are being FAPed.

[ghostmaster]

Im done with the FAP rant now.

Time for troubleshooting.

It sounds to me like your transmitter isn't properly grounded.  When the transmitter isn't grounded properly it builds up a lot of static, and so you get connection failures.  There should be a wire connected to the transmitter and grounded to a small metal stake in the ground, or if it's on the roof, grounded to the house somewhere, (electrical box, water pipe).  It really sounds like a classic case of the transmitter not being grounded.  I'll post some pictures for you to see later, unless someone else here has some that they would like to post.

EDIT: Look at the top right drawing here, there should be a wire connected to a screw label GND on the transmitter....if not...then that's your problem....

[budbem]

Hi - Your TCP acceleration being out has nothing to do with your fap or the amount you download - it has to do with your transmitter power.  Weather can affect this - such as a heavy cloud bank (either at your area or at to noc or both) it can be caused by water then the freezing of the water in your transmitter)  etc etc...  OR even there are periods during the year you will see your transmitter not working well.  (i have a period in december for whatever reason that it doesnt work well for about a week and in the afternoons most of the winter)  Weather is the major factor with tcp being down this will result in the system light being down then the transmit light going out in a few minutes after resulting in a tx code 10 - try power cycling and if this doesnt work best thing to do is turn it off and wait -  usually clears up after the storm front blows off etc maybe a few hours or couple days.  you can get a more powerful watt transmitter but if you are tcp out it is usually a weather or water issue that will clear itself up.

[budbem]

oh and here are my speeds

:::.. Download Stats ..:::

Connection is:: 1021 Kbps about 1 Mbps (tested with 1013 kB)

Download Speed is:: 125 kB/s

Tested From:: https://testmy.net  (main)

Test Time:: 2006/03/20 - 2:16pm

Bottom Line:: 18X faster than 56K 1MB Download in 8.19 sec

Tested from a 1013 kB file and took 8.13 seconds to complete

Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows 98)

Diagnosis: Looks Great : 7.47 % faster than the average for host (direcpc.com)

Validation Link:: https://testmy.net/stats/id-1IN8PUEQT

[php]

In my experience when I get FAPed my TCP acceleration tends to go out as well.  I actually had DWay decomission my modem once

[manang]

Thanks for all the input here...I will show it to my husband when he comes home...He's the technical one (I don't really understand such stuff...I just want to use the internet).

Ghostmaster, sorry that was a typo.  I meant 100 MB.  When I informed hubby about the initial reason of our poor internet performance, he said there was a time when he reached 400 MB of downloads (dunno what the timespan for that was).

He does still continue to dl at nights.  Maybe you were right that he should try not to dl anything for a while and see if that will improve things.

To both ghostmaster and budbem,

I will show your tips about the transmitter to my husband.  Maybe he can try to check into that (I think he knows enough about it, but if not, at least we know what we would ask a technician to do).

Thank you very much for your tech support!

[manang]

Here's my dl speed test while online (when it does work)

:::.. Download Stats ..:::

Connection is:: 1062 Kbps about 1.1 Mbps (tested with 579 kB)

Download Speed is:: 130 kB/s

Tested From:: https://testmy.net  (main)

Test Time:: 2006/03/21 - 7:05am

Bottom Line:: 19X faster than 56K 1MB Download in 7.88 sec

Tested from a 579 kB file and took 4.469 seconds to complete

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.12) Gecko/20050915 Firefox/1.0.7

Diagnosis: Looks Great : 11.55 % faster than the average for host (direcpc.com)

Validation Link:: https://testmy.net/stats/id-92Y1VB576

I tried the upload test but got very impatient.  So I tried again the download test

:::.. Download Stats ..:::

Connection is:: 1069 Kbps about 1.1 Mbps (tested with 579 kB)

Download Speed is:: 130 kB/s

Tested From:: https://testmy.net  (main)

Test Time:: 2006/03/21 - 7:22am

Bottom Line:: 19X faster than 56K 1MB Download in 7.88 sec

Tested from a 579 kB file and took 4.438 seconds to complete

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.12) Gecko/20050915 Firefox/1.0.7

Diagnosis: Looks Great : 12.29 % faster than the average for host (direcpc.com)

Validation Link:: https://testmy.net/stats/id-NXUV05MGP

Still looks good...wonder why I am having problems with the upload? (I was able to do so without problems earlier when I made my first post here.

Finally!  here's my upload test results:

:::.. Upload Stats ..:::

Connection is:: 159 Kbps about 0.2 Mbps (tested with 386 kB)

Upload Speed is:: 19 kB/s

Tested From:: https://testmy.net  (main)

Test Time:: 2006/03/21 - 7:25am

Bottom Line:: 3X faster than 56K 1MB Upload in 53.89 sec

Tested from a 386 kB file and took 19.92 seconds to complete

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.12) Gecko/20050915 Firefox/1.0.7

Diagnosis: Awesome! 20% + : 80.68 % faster than the average for host (direcpc.com)

Validation Link:: https://testmy.net/stats/id-H894DBIXN

You can very well see here that my problem is not the speed...Notice the time diffrence between these tests.  That was the time when I had at one time a "satellite outage" that I tried the upload test twice before running the 2nd dl test and then the third and final trial of upload test.

Sometimes my offline status is longer...and this has been happening for almost a week now.  I can't continue to work on such internet conditions.  In fact, I have informed my supervisor (using a dial-up connection) that I would try to work again next Monday just to see if my internet problem will be resolved by then; if not, I might have to look into a career change (I work as a medical transcriptionist, so I download 2-25 minutes of voice files one at a time; not sure how many kb each is, but I should not have a problem with FAP with just those files.)

ghostmaster,

When we were told about hitting the FAP and that we would have to wait, we did wait for about 10 hours before my husband was again able to dl 100 MB. Then we were careful not to hit the FAP again, but still, we are having problems.

[lewplu]

the numbers you posted are good numbers. 1000-1200 download is good and your upload should run 100-200 in general. upload is lower because you only send a small amount of info for a request and that is all that is needed. higher upload is better obviously but direcway only states up to 200 upload and up to 1000 download on a pro plan which is what you have if your fap is 350mb. I am also on 83W (amc9) on transponder 1310. I usually run 150 up and 1100 down which is close to what you posted. the satellites are overloaded and experience more problems duing the day andget faster at night. Do your speed tests at mydirecway.com they log it and tech support can't do much without a log. I think they require your downloads go as low as 200 before they consider it a problem. also did you run lccu if networked? also on mydirecway search about setting up a proxy in your browser that might help.

[lewplu]

you mentiond your husband dowloading software for the modem. there is no software required for the 7000 modem it is self hosted. and changing the setting to 2 watts for you transmitter does not make it a 2 watt transmitter that is only for reference for tech support setup by the installer. you would need to physically change the transmitter.

[disturbed]

DW has always been providing low quality service - overselling their bandwidth, blah !!! - I doubt anything will change unless someone drops a very big lawsuit on them and teaches them a lesson

[lewplu]

proxy link

http://kb.direcway.com/display/2/index.asp?c=12&cpc=dt2wJiVUQ8s0WMPyKTgW6Jd18xTb14qA4cNfr5EdxY0IfnR2&cid=3&cat=&catURL=&r=0.878338

lccu link

http://kb.direcway.com/display/2/index.asp?c=12&cpc=dt2wJiVUQ8s0WMPyKTgW6Jd18xTb14qA4cNfr5EdxY0IfnR2&cid=3&cat=&catURL=&r=0.878338

[Bird Fan]

DW has always been providing low quality service - overselling their bandwidth, blah !!! - I doubt anything will change unless someone drops a very big lawsuit on them and teaches them a lesson

If it's really affecting manang's career, then she should really consider it. Especially if DWay hasn't come out and looked at it.

[lewplu]

DW has always been providing low quality service - overselling their bandwidth, blah !!! - I doubt anything will change unless someone drops a very big lawsuit on them and teaches them a lesson

Great reply to the problem, DirecWay will never be broadband but don't you think she would have cable or dsl if available. Its the only option for some of us and does work fine if you realize it has limitations. For great support go to copperhead.cc and join for $25 lifetime membership. you'll find people in the forum who have had DW for years and will help with problems without the useless comments like above. I am not affiliated with the site but am a member and they have helped me.

[Guest thecableguy]

Great reply to the problem, DirecWay will never be broadband but don't you think she would have cable or dsl if available. Its the only option for some of us and does work fine if you realize it has limitations. For great support go to copperhead.cc and join for $25 lifetime membership. you'll find people in the forum who have had DW for years and will help with problems without the useless comments like above. I am not affiliated with the site but am a member and they have helped me.

I think she's paid enough already.....besides the people here have had an equal amount of experience with DirecWay and it won't cost her a dime. 

There is a silver lining in all of this.  DirecWay's reasonable customer base has proven the viability of the technology and there are now several choices in the satellite internet game with several more about to start operations.  Although she has a significant amount of money invested in hardware it might be time for her to consider the alternatives.  The initial results from most of the more recent startups has been for the most part encouraging.  I'm compiling a list and will try to get them posted.

Thanks for the info though.

[lewplu]

It would be to bad for her to invest in another system thats starting up and will have it's own growing pains. Especially when her problem may be something as simple as a bad cable end. I didn't mean to take anything away from the help on this site I simply pointed out an alterative where she wouldn't get heckeled with the DW sucks postings and could possibly find other support to help her get back in business. Satellite sounds like her only option and I know how frustrating it is to be down when needed.

[ghostmaster]

DWay's poor customer service is a given.  I think we should focus on helping her with her problems rather than debating a moot topic.  Another great resource for DirecWay is: http://www.dslreports.com/forum/sat

Lots of longtime experts there...

[manang]

I intended to post this about 1-1/2 hours ago...but could not get online (again!).

*****

Transmit Status

Transmitter ready. (TxCode

Number of Successful Transmissions

10504

Number of Failed Transmissions

15165

Number of Packets Submitted for Transmission

3547

Sigh...

lewplu,

I was looking at the LCCU and wanted to post here to ask whether it really is helpful (we have 5 comps networked at present, and my hubby has just built another comp as a server, the parts for which he ordered before we started having problems).  I will try to install that in mine, but I want hubby to know about it first.

I guess the main problem really is his downloads, as what ghostmaster suggested. I checked the Wild Blue site and it offered monthly fap of 5000 (which averages 166 per day), and I think that, indeed, my husband could be considered a heavy user.  (I think he did not dl anything last night when I told him I had a total of 1.75 hours of work for the whole 5am-5pm period because of crappy internet), and I told him I was seriously considering stopping my online work. I guess that made him feel guilty to be spending so much on the service when all we could do with it was to download his "toys" (his words, not mine).

Well, I now have several issues to consider: downloads, transmitter, and LCCU.  Thanks a bunch for all your input!

****

I have now just read page 2 of this thread, and while I did consider looking into other sat alternatives (no dsl or cable here,  unfortunately), I am afraid they might be using the same sat services (by Hughes Network).  How can I verify that?  Anyway,  I am now seeing money going down the drain with this recent upgrade to DW7000, and I am so discouraged that I do not think I want to invest again on another service that might end up giving us the same headaches in less than a year.

lewplu, now that you mention about the modem being self-hosted, I did see that page about that when I was checking into the LCCU and, in retrospect, it seems that the tech support just wanted to seem to have done something about it when my husband called them.  So that, in reality, it did not make any difference (which I knew when I tried to work the day after that and found no change in or even worse service).

I read somewhere in old posts that Dway might be trying to shake off some customers...Is it really a possibility?  I would never understand that a big company would want to lose customers, especially that we just recently upgraded to DW7000.  One would think that is an ineffective marketing strategy.

I will check out all links that you people gave me. 

I really really appreciate you guys!

[manang]

DWay's poor customer service is a given.  I think we should focus on helping her with her problems rather than debating a moot topic.  Another great resource for DirecWay is: http://www.dslrepots.com/forum/sat

Lots of longtime experts there...

I can't get there...it gives me a list of related sites...

[ghostmaster]

my mistake...typo

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/sat