Recommended Tests

I'd like to shed some light here for some of the new less informed users on Xplornet  if I may..to all you that really know your stuff, please let me shine for a few minutes  and seem like I know what im talking about. (LOL)  j/k  I am also new ot Xpornet coming from dail up. In a new fasinating world of streaming videos, faster dloads and whatever else I was deprived of in dial up world I took advantage of watching clips from you tube, dloading files that took so long on dial up I cancelled, etc. I was geting good speed tests in the morning and found my service got sucky as the day went on like it seems alot of you are also experiencing,  so I called Xplornet. I was instructed to do speed tests three times daily over the weekend and call them on Monday with the results, and he did tell me with the 512/128 pkg I should expect to get avg speeds of 300-350 down, 80 or so Up.  I did the tests all weekend and low and behold, good in the morning, slowing down as usual. So I called them back today because I was getting frustrated with my connection again. I must say I spoke to a very friendly lady and very helpfull in trying to explain how the service works. She did say that a few of my speed tests didn't look quite right, but for the most part the rest were around whats expected. She did say she would ask some techs about the few that didn't look right, so hopefully she will  .  She then went on to explain that she saw I was FAP'd quite a few times for excessive usage. I told her what I was doing on the internet and asked if each action I was performing includes itself into the FAP.  Streaming videos yes, dloading files yes, which is mainly what I am doing, I figured dloading was in it but didn't realize watching videos would be.Now mind you I didn't think I was doing it that much, but I guess when your not looking at the file sizes, they can add up quickly. So therefore FAP! She couldn't tell me the size when I asked her what the limit is, I don't know if it changes throughout the day or what, in her defence, maybe that's not her area to know that. She suggested I run updates , dloads or anything else that uses alot of bandwidth during hours that peek time isn't an issue. If you are FAP'd on Xplornet, she said they cut your service by 25% for one hour, after that hour is up if they see basically you aren't being a hog, you get the 25% back, if you continue to dload or whatever got you FAP'd, after that hour, another 25% cut back on your service and so on until you can basically be at a crawl. Seems I was FAP'd today and I didn't eventhink I was using it much and the wife said she wasn't doing much, so that ones a little wierd, but nevertheless, it happened! I'm glad she told me the time limits and such so I know now and I'll have to try to adjust what I do..  As for what I think of my Xplornet now, I think for $65/month plus $400 for the hardware, I should have a little more freedom than what they give without having to pay the high costs of the top plans.  Would I recommend this satellite to anyone..probabaly not! Will I keep it or go back to dail up..not sure yet.

Welcome to the world of satelite simi-dimpskin.   

I think they are all the same underneath. They will promise us the moon just to get us to buy equipment from them. And then the monthoy fees and FAP. Even Wild Blue was found no different. Good story by the way. Been there also. 

There are FAP monitors also. I don't use one, but a suggestion might come along for one. I think Fikester even has one. But they say, they help out. To keep an weye on it anyway.

Thanks tommie gorman , Glad to be here and join the testing community and share my useless or maybe usefull IT Knowledge. Hey I get paid for it, so it must be usefull. 

I called them back this morning and dropped my plan back to a 1.5 . Complained about the speed being an issue and that I spoke to Tech Support a number of times and told her the times. It sounded like she was just an answer the phone girl and do basic tasks so I didn't push the Billing issue as she wasn't part of that department. I will call back to billing once I get the adjusted bill for the plan change and talk to someone in Billing.
The Guraranteed speed on the 3.0 package is 700Kbps .. Max 3.0 Mbps.
I'll watch my speeds and may drop back to the 300Kbps plan.. I'm sure i would get the 300 Kbps all the time.. 

Mike

Welcome to the forum RolandHaley   
I would think that is a lot of U/L for satelite.

Please take this test. The one that says this. "Largest - 2992 kB "
http://www.testmy.net/speedtest/d_load.php

And this. The one that says this. "Medium - 579 kB"
http://www.testmy.net/speedtest/u_load.php

And paste your speeds here please. 

So they must have pretty good U/L then.

But that D/L stinks.

Try reading this and do it all. Do not just say I do it often enough. Just do the whole page after posting the speed tests.
http://www.testmy.net/forum/t-4257

And you might switch that to the 1013 for your U/L test.  And this for your D/L. Be sureto clean out your temp files before testing the D/L as it will take you directly into the test.
http://www.testmy.net/tools/test/d_load.php?ni=1&tt=1&s=5983&st=st

You may just need a larger test to let it warm up. 


Also try scanning in safe mode also. 

Hughes satelite is burst speeds also.

So lets try this, what would you suggest since my suggestions don't work pbicp ? ?

Yep, slowly step by step. Soon we will be on a decent ISP. Just hang in there.