Seems the problems have hit me too

[nbodkins]

Hello, not sure if anyone here still has the Wildblue service (probably wiser than I and switched by now  ), but if your having issues I might be able to help.

When I started with Wildblue(pro plan) I had no issues at all and couldn't understand where all the complaints I'm seeing here were coming from.

As the above tests show I had nothing to complain about lol.

In October I decided to downgrade to the lowest plan to save some money as bills were getting tight, still no problems with service. I was getting around advertised speed at any time of day with no slow downs.

Now that my financial situation is much better i decided to upgrade the service back up to the pro plan to enjoy a bit more speed once again. This is where I ran into problems, my download and upload speed stayed the same(at advertised lowest plan instead of highest plan). So yesterday I called into tech support and spent 77 minutes on the phone going through all kinds of tests and configurations and such to no avail, I was put on hold and finally greeted with, "My supervisor has advised me to tell you to check your contract and you will find we don't guarantee speeds at any time. If you would like to pay 95$ we will send a tech out and check the equipment but we can't guarantee the issue will be fixed." I was not happy with this and hung up.

To my surprise this morning i was almost at the rated speeds of the pro plan and was excited, until I noticed my speeds gradually falling the rest of the day. 

This is what I'm at right now 

So being angry I called tech support back and got a different person. I explained what was going on and the phone call I had yesterday and he told me that was not the correct resolution and apologized for the other employee's and supervisor's behavior, and started right away to find the issue...after failing to correct the problem he set up a service call for a tech to come out on Saturday (I got a pm time because this is when service is at its worst) and correct the issue. He informed me that I will be back up to speed by sunday morning and credited my account 95$ along with giving me his extension number and name to call if I have any other problems.

Quite a bit different customer support between these two employees, they couldn't have been in the same training class lol.

Will post again late Saturday or early Sunday with results of the service call, since I haven't had issues with them in the past I'm somewhat hopeful. 

[tommie gorman]

Sounds like the first employee was acting like it was his money. And yes always try another person if problems do not seem to be getting it fixed. Some are just assholes.

[zalternate]

You have entered the dreaded black hole of doom that many posts have acknowledged.

Hopefully it can get fixed.

Or maybe if you had accepted the $95 fee, it might of been fixed already. Thats another quirk that has been posted about. Hughesnet or WildBlue, same thing.

[nbodkins]

miraculously the downloads like 5 times faster than last nights this morning...

[tommie gorman]

I do have to ask if you hit the FAP maybe.

[nbodkins]

not even close

[generallee76]

As one can see, with Wildblue there is NO rime or reason for the way their system works. I usually get great speeds during the AM hours and after that it goes to hell in a hand basket.  Yes, you can get all kinds of Bull excuses as to why, and each Tech handles you differently. You can agree to have a tech come out and I ASSURE you that on that day the system will run at 150% better an you'll ever get and 24hrs after they leave you home it goes back yo normal. 

FAP  is carp, I don't use 20% of my FAP.  So for Hughs that is important on a 24hr clock most people don't use their FAP on either unless they hit the movies hard and heavy.

The bottom line is Wildblue is just oversold but the will NEVER admit that fact,  Hugh will be there soon also.

So you have to take their s**t in stride and go on.  One thing you can do is what Tommie recommends, EVDO, 3G , but where I live,  I have tries them all and I still endup with less than what Wildblue gives you.  If your still within your 30's cancel and try something else.  If your in a area with 3G and you can use their wireless cards to work do it......

On an average 85% of the time I get much less that I pay for and I'm on the gold plan with is 1Meg down,  but we don't guarantee the speeds.

What you see below is my normal except during some AM hours.

[generallee76]

My latest,  is it 80% of my 1meg?

[generallee76]

        Seems like were going in the right direction?????

[nbodkins]

Well since I talked to them my speed can go higher then the lowest plan, where before it wasn't even close. So I believe some kind of change was made whether or not they admit to it.

You canagree to have a tech come out and I ASSURE you that on that day thesystem will run at 150% better an you'll ever get and 24hrs after theyleave you home it goes back yo normal.

Well if the problem is overselling as most seem to believe, I have a hard time understanding how you figure that. Wouldn't it merely be up to whether or not customers were heavily using the service at the time they come?

Now if it were my old cable company I'd agree wholeheartedly as I was paying for 20Mbps down and sometimes I'd call in when it was slow(5-10Mbps) and they'd tell me its fine and that I must be mistaken. When I check again after the call it would be at like 22Mbps lol...obviously not hard for them to make me look silly but didn't bother me none as it was super fast. If only Wildblue could do that. 

[generallee76]

I started off this morning at 339kbps download and 101kbps upload.

So I reset the modem and my Linksys, cleared all my browsing/cookies, etc and powered the system back up as per Wildblues procedure and you can see what it got me. The same old sh*t.  I have had atleast 10 techs tell me (at the service desk and service techs) that the beams (2) here in the Tenn area were oversold. They never expected so many to signup.

I have 2 other friends that have Wildblue and they have the exact same problem.  From what part of this great country do you call home??  There are folks in different areas that don't seem to have this problem,  sooooo...

One could go to Hughsnet, but they will soon have a problem with all the band switching going on....

The best way to go is   EVDO, Verizon, AT&T and Sprint if they have strong 3G in your area, I have NONE of the 3 in my area.  AT&T said that within the next year the 3G should be working in my area.. I have tried to take Tommie's advise and try the omni directional antenna, tried all 3 air cards/sticks and not really much better than dialup.  Sprints didn't even work.  The 3G is still too far away.  So in short if you can go to one of those that would be the way.....

            HAPPY NEW YEARS TO ALL........

[nbodkins]

Don't believe wireless works out where I am my verizon phone hardly gets service at my house lol, requires driving up the highway for ten minutes to place a call. There is a local wireless provider but its pay per usage(MB) and for the price, the avg 80Kbps up and down reported by a friend I'd rather have dial up

[fikester]

I would at least file a complaint with BBB... and call WB customer service,at least make some noise. If enough people raise a fuss, something will get done. Paying your bill on time monthly and pretending something is wrong on the user end will only make WB happy. Hughes is working fine...does slow for a little while in the evening, but as someone mentioned.....they will continue to migrate a very large number of people to Ka band daily. The cycle just repeats.

[larrydeiley]

Since you got a good tech that provided you with his name and extension how about sharing that information with me.  You can send me an e-mail with the info if  you don't want to post it. 

Thanks Larry...

[nbodkins]

The tech guy was supposed to be at my house Saturday night to fix whatever problem there is or isn't, unfortunately I got a call in the morning from him and he rescheduled for next Thursday night because it was too cold.  I was like are you serious, don't you have a coat. Though in his defense there was a weather advisory for a -30 degree wind chill. So i guess I'll let you guys know on Thursday night or Friday if any improvements are made.

Since you got a good tech that provided you with his name and extension how about sharing that information with me.  You can send me an e-mail with the info if  you don't want to post it. 

Thanks Larry...

Will do just send me a pm with your email address and I'll get it to you soon as I get back to my house, hanging out at my dads atm and I have it written down next to my other computer.

Don't you wish we could upgrade wild blue to this connection,

15 Mbps download connection at my dads house, running a fresh Linux copy on my new computer.

[zalternate]

The tech guy was supposed to be at my house Saturday night to fix whatever problem there is or isn't, unfortunately I got a call in the morning from him and he rescheduled for next Thursday night because it was too cold.  I was like are you serious, don't you have a coat. Though in his defense there was a weather advisory for a -30 degree wind chill. So i guess I'll let you guys know on Thursday night or Friday if any improvements are made.

Send the guy up to Canada. Then he'll know what working out in the cold feels like.

If you don't have ice hanging from your beard, it's a warm day in August. 

[fikester]

Myself would be very surprised if they find anything wrong at your site if the speeds are good in the AM hours then slow in the evening. I see on other forums the "Rocket Scientists" are getting hit with many more slow speed issues.... don't see the 80% of package speeds getting mentioned much?

I would insist on the tech coming in the evening hours and then stall things as much as possible at arrival.

-quite a long wait for ViaSat to launch the new bird, even if everything falls into place.

[nbodkins]

Scheduled to be there from 1-6 p.m. so should be horrible when he or she arrives. 

[larrydeiley]

Just click the e-mail logo on the left side of my message and it will direct you to my e-mail.  I was supposed to have a tech come out here today and I got a call looking for directions.  Seems the tech was about 100 miles from my place and the weather is lousy here in PA.  Then I got a call from the guy that normally comes out and he said he was talking to them to try to figure out how he could help me.  I just checked my speeds and found them to be 525 DL and 82 UL  what a marvelous recovery with out the tech coming to the house.  He is still scheduled to come here on Wednesday if the speeds go south again.  But Please give me that contact info.

Larry

[fikester]

WildBlue is simply oversold, over capacity, and waiting for ViaSat1 to launch. The scientist will continue to make excuses, buy time, stall customers until that bird is up and running. This sat is not going to launch anytime soon and when it does expect delays. MY guess would be close to 1.5yrs before they begin install nationwide. List of excuses have seen the WB scientist make about current customers speed complaints:

-holiday use 

-clouds (clouds slow it down, but yet brag of snow on dish) 

-dish needs re-pointed (guess dish comes out of alignment in the evening-gremblins  )

-bad equipment (very low %) 

-change the customers expected advertised 80% of package speeds to 50% or less 

most (not all) of the scientist will not post any test results during the evening prime time hours....seem to forget ignore testmy test results are posted (server time GMT -0700 no DST). 

Yes Hughes has told the lies and spread the BS but very seldom ever seen "system users" spread the lies of not being oversold. Why the scientist (users) are doing this and hiding the truth from fellow customers is beyond me. Its not hard to figure out. I posted one article about "Why ViaSat bought"  and "Why WB needed it".....black and white explains whats going on.

Maybe when ViaSat1 is installing will be the best thing available, but there is no need to try to hook somebody for a service call or hide the truth from customers when there is a problem with the service provider. 

[zalternate]

WildBlue is simply oversold, over capacity, and waiting for ViaSat1 to launch. The scientist will continue to make excuses, buy time, stall customers until that bird is up and running. This sat is not going to launch anytime soon and when it does expect delays. MY guess would be close to 1.5yrs before they begin install nationwide.

Hughesnet SpaceWay3 was up for about 8 months or so being Beta tested before full release to the public.

But the first ViaSat1 satellite is going to be launched this year(mid 2010) for TooWay http://www.tooway.com/  in Europe, so North America testing should be shorter with that advantage.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tooway

TooWay continues to sign up countries to give them 100% broadband coverage.

http://www.tooway.com/tooway-news.html

But all it takes is one part to have a power failure in the satellite or a tiny meteor strike and it's on it's way to being space junk, with no comparable spare in orbit to replace it..  Hughesnet KU band users know very well about satellites with power failures.

[fikester]

The sat that will be launched in 2010 is to be placed at 13 E. (Maybe the scientist can see it) I cant.

ViaSat-1 is not projected to launch until 2011 for North America at 115W....I still predict 1.5yrs before full release to the public.

[marsh_0x]

Hi, I had Hughes 117w bird 1050mhz for 7 years until finally telling off them for good, yesterday.

Have Wild Blue for 2 months and testing them side, WB is far superior.

I'm so happy now but who knows about the future.

Hughes fraud of slow down at exactly 3:01 pm cst until finally recovering at 11 pm cst.

That is an on purpose throttle down, heavier usage is ruled out, fraud down to near dial up 32K to 200K, computer controlled.

But 2 years ago, they have now dropped that policy.

These past 4 months Hughes has refused to transfer me to advanced support because the Indians saids it works half the time haha

Again rules out equipment.

2 years ago watching one of their commercials on TV, called and was able to get advanced support toll from them, amazing she couldn't believe was that slow.

Support via the telephone I was given a new transponder assignment and magic the speed was back until 4 months ago.

Same 117w bird, 1050MHz transponder is being over sold.

Point is and should be plan and simple, over usage of too many ppl on that assigned transponder for my past 4 months and to think every other customer was/is suffering the same pain.

Unfortunately didn't discover I could join here and keep the logs online.

Lost all my proof when my 2 month old, SSD HD died.

Still going to take serious action with the BBB and FCC, I'm beyond angry.

Yes they both have slow periods in the afternoon and it's all do over usage, nothing wrong with your equipment.

Just tested and will attempt to img, 1600 is my best, usually 1550 and getting what Im paying for, so happy with WB.

Oh, btw, soon to put TMN in my signature at G4 Tech Forums (285,000 members) where I've been for 15+ years.

marsh_0x

my.net/stats/id-OFZI4K

[zalternate]

Hi, I had Hughes 117w bird 1050MHz for 7 years until finally telling off them for good, yesterday.

Have Wild Blue for 2 months and testing them side, WB is far superior.

I'm so happy now but who knows about the future.

Might you know what beam you are on?  You may of lucked out with a beam that does not have as many users on it, due to it's area coverage.

The Hughesnet timed slowdown is to give their paying corporate customers full bandwidth. It's well posted, even though some deny it still.  It's one thing to see speeds slow down over a few hours, it's another thing when the National NOC cuts your speed at a designated time and then restores it when the business customers have closed for the day.

And people have documented slowdowns and the times of those slowdowns and support still illegally convicts the user of having a faulty computer or faulty satellite Internet hardware.

Some people spend many dollars at the computer shop, when the satellite Internet system is too blame. Namely the software on the system that controls the throttles. Oh and selling the system to a capacity that is guaranteed to see major slowdowns every evening.

But got to keep those installers employed somehow so they don't starve with no work.

Hughesnet does load balancing from time to time, so if a user had a good connection, that may change the one day as more users get shifted onto one transponder, due to another's failure or Hughesnet giving up the lease on it.

[marsh_0x]

The transponder frequency is as listed, 1050MHz also horizontal polarization.

I think the old transponder was 1000MHz ?

Assigned one with less traffic was the only answer, maybe a 20 minute walk threw.

Now not sure if that's what you mean by a beam ?

Oh how ironic the tech in Florida knew me from Vietnam days and talked for hours about what Hughes is doing and the old days.

I don't really dare share more what was said, one of my most rewarding days to make contact again, oh so long ago before the internet !

I will try to make e-mail/lady contact and will not jeopardize his career.

A satellite like C-band usually has 24 transponders, the Ku birds like used by Dish Network and Direct have 37 to work with.

With WB, Hughes, Starband and others you are that 1 frequency only, no auto switching possible.

Yes, way too funny Indians  my computer problem having 5 available, but only one at a time, no conflict with sharing.

Good grief I retired 8 years ago at age 54, my American dream, Broadcast Engineer with 5,000 hours uplinking different birds and transponders, retired Dish Network dealer/installer including Star Band and say an equipment problem haha

The topic was Wild Blue, so need to be careful getting off topic, I think ?

Anyways no slow down yet, tested 3:24pm cst and sure like my WB service.

Btw went threw Dish Network so I have strong reputation for service, my WB installer (Greg) is 20 minutes away if needed, ah tipping is a hint, said that was too much haha

Cloud cover with heavy moisture will loss the signal do to it's short wave length,

Gets much shorter with the KU birds.

I also use the formula 2808 divided by the freq in MHz equals a 1/4 wave in inches.

So there is a better understanding how big raindrops will absorb intelligence.

With digital you either have a perfect signal or you don't have one.

A slight signal degradation means nothing about speed.

I love your forum, I'm learning or it was a wasted day, as usual haha

Marsh

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