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bobjammit
join:2013-07-21
Norwich, VT

bobjammit

Member

Gen4 upgrade reviews?

I've had the HN9000 system for a few years and have been considering upgrading to Gen4. I've seen a number of mixed reviews spanning from when they launched the service and was hoping to get some additional input before dropping $400 on new equipment.

For anyone who has upgraded, do you feel as though it was worth it? Is the speed noticeably better? The extra daily usage allowance isn't that big a deal to me. Speed is the primary motivation.

Thanks a lot for any insight.
JacksonTech
join:2013-06-01
United State

JacksonTech

Member

The speed on my GEN4 system is nearly as advertised (I can hit and sustain near 10MBit/s during most of the day.) I've gone over allowance and been throttled to 150KBit/s; that speed too is steady and near what it should be (about 140KBit/s real-world performance).

However, for every person like me with good speeds, you will find at least one person with poor performance or intermittent yo-yo performance. It may be geographic/by beam. I also think that keeping your installer happy is a major part of your HughesNet experience. A good install/upgrade should yield good performance. Offer your installer (iced) tea, coffee; bribe him/her with cookies. Make sure your current dish is accessible. Trim high weeds around it or make sure there's stable footing for a ladder to reach the dish. Take pride in your install and if your installer does a good job, tell him/her that.

Do bear in mind that the GEN4 system appears to be at or near capacity, considering they're not selling >10MBit/s plans on the west coast anymore. (Or so I hear...)
Elkhorn
join:2009-12-31
Lyons, OR

Elkhorn to bobjammit

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I switched last fall and have been quite satisfied with the speeds (both up and down), a huge improvement over my HN7000S. It's been a positive experience for me so far..........
I can't post any speeds, because I've never ran into any issues where I felt the need to check them.
bobjammit
join:2013-07-21
Norwich, VT

bobjammit

Member

Awesome, I really appreciate your responses - thanks!

theGhostPony
join:2009-07-31
Lexington, KY

theGhostPony to bobjammit

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I've had my Gen4 for about a month and it's a huge improvement over my 5 year old HN7000s.

james1979
Premium Member
join:2012-10-09
Quinault, WA

james1979 to JacksonTech

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said by JacksonTech:

they're not selling >10MBit/s plans on the west coast anymore. (Or so I hear...)

As one of HN's customers on the west coast with "yo-yo performance" with Gen4, I find this to be quite interesting. I nearly believed that there might be a manufacturing flaw in some batches of transmitters or HT1000s.
bill672
join:2004-09-02
Cambridge, NY

bill672 to bobjammit

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I upgraded last month from the HN9000 (Spaceway) modem. I delayed upgrading because of the early problems with Mac OSX, which was corrected by Hughesnet.

I have the Power Pro plan, 10 Mbps down, and 15GB/month daytime/15GB nightime bandwidth.

So far, I'm very pleased. My speeds have been in the 8-10 Mbps range down/ 14-1500 up. Of course there are occasional bad times with only 2-3 Mbps but these seem short and infrequent, so far. The speed increase is readily apparent, with no jumpy Youtubes, much faster downloads of podcasts, music, etc.

I especially like the monthly bandwidth measurement. I know it's a reduction in nighttime usage, but averaging it over a month seems much less likely to result in overage. And, the new System Control Center shows your remaining bandwidth clearly. It remains to be seen how much I use, but I think I'll be able to manage it with less worry about going over.

My installer was very professional. It took about an hour for the upgrade. I think they only changed the LNB, and gave me a new router.
OhioLarry
join:2013-07-27
Graysville, OH

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I had GEN4 installed yesterday as an upgrade from the HN9000 I had for three years. The speeds are as advertised thus far. Took about three hours for the installation mainly because the first HT1100 modem proved defective. Technician was furious as he is seeing an out of the box failure rate of 50%. Says if they work, they work great, but something must be going wrong with final assembly and QA testing. He moved from the 1000 to the 1100 about a moth ago, and they have been making his installations time consuming.
A Tech
join:2008-11-10

A Tech

Member

I am seeing a failure rate below 1%.
OhioLarry
join:2013-07-27
Graysville, OH

OhioLarry

Member

My guy might just have got a bad batch.
OhioLarry

OhioLarry

Member

After two days I am getting along great with GEN4. Have no outstanding issues. I like that the boom on the dish is shorter as it was in danger from the shade canopy of my Kubota riding mower hitting the old model radio.
pvtpilot94
System
Premium Member
join:2001-11-23
Bucyrus, OH

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We have had GEN4 since upgrading in September. It has not gone well since. We have had 2 visits for repair and the last
one everything was replaced and I still have speed tests logged well below 200K. At least Hughes has not charged me for the visits and has credited me for months of service. I am still working with executive customer support in order to hopefully remedy the problems. I am still of the opinion that there are a lot of HT1000 modems out there that are defective. The last one was overheating.
We have no obstructions at all to the satellite with a clear line of sight.