Fair Access Policy ... anyone else or just ME?

Changes to the Fair Access PolicyHughesNet™ is increasing the download threshold for Home, Pro and ProPlus service plans. Download threshold is the amount of data that may be downloaded during a typical day before the Fair Access Policy may restrict the download speed. In addition, HughesNet is changing the recovery rate system.



Im so upset over this! I have Directway/Hughes.net satellite service and I simply can not beilieve for the life of me how I ended up using all of my usage in a day! Tech support says I must shut down for 24 hours to reset! Ugh!
Anyone else with this obnoxious service?

SuziMaria said:

Changes to the Fair Access PolicyHughesNet™ is increasing the download threshold for Home, Pro and ProPlus service plans. Download threshold is the amount of data that may be downloaded during a typical day before the Fair Access Policy may restrict the download speed. In addition, HughesNet is changing the recovery rate system.



Im so upset over this! I have Directway/Hughes.net satellite service and I simply can not beilieve for the life of me how I ended up using all of my usage in a day! Tech support says I must shut down for 24 hours to reset! Ugh!
Anyone else with this obnoxious service?

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sound so dumb! Is there a way you can discontinue this service and go with other service?

Wow! That is a lot of money. I have never seen this price before. Yes, it is a huge rip off. I sympathize you. Do you have a TV cable? Maybe, you could contact the cable internet service agent, and she/he might help you to transfer it to the cable account for a less money. I really don't know whether this would work.

My Cox cable cost approximately 40 dollars monthly with a free internet modem. I cannot remember if I paid the service to come and install it at my house. I like DSL better, but my area does not have the DSL service so I have to use the cable internet.

You might be better off switching to WildBlue satellite internet service. Much cheaper than HughesNet. The fair access policy is based on your last 30 days of usage, not just the one day. So if you had a few days of 'light usage' you can have some days of 'heavy usage'.

The bottom line is that music and video use a LOT of bytes. I am in the video-over-internet business, I use WildBlue and I have never gone over $35% of my allowed usage with WildBlue.

Most video is around 3 megabyte per minute. So with WildBlue's limits you could download 94 hours of video in a month and still pay a lot less than HughesNet. (Hughes bought out Direcway a while back.)

People who live in big cities do not understand the frustration for those of us that prefer to live in places that are not over-crowded where the telephone companies and cable companies cannot figure any way to provide internet service. Less than 1/2 of the population of the U.S.A. can get 'high speed internet' in any manner other than satellites. Fortunately, with new satellite technology anyone in the 48 US states can get speeds over 1500 kilobit/second.

hulsw said:

You might be better off switching to WildBlue satellite internet service. Much cheaper than HughesNet. The fair access policy is based on your last 30 days of usage, not just the one day. So if you had a few days of 'light usage' you can have some days of 'heavy usage'.

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I'm very upset about this service. Part of the monies was to pay for the dish equipment plus the service. I have been paying closer attention to what is going on with downloading here in the past few days. I do share paint shop pro graphics in gmail and my son plays with myspace music from his friends. The Ipod is disconnected, not charged and with old songs. Does this mean we have to give up what we like to do with the internet? I can not open gmail or download the graphics from tube sharing groups there. I have called the tech support twice (after waiting 25 minutes with relay) about this and all they say is to shut down for 24 hours to reset. I remember the day I called the phone company to disconnect the dial up line! My speed test right now is 12 DOWN and 822 UP kpbs. Changing to a new service would mean having to buy their equipment, right? Thanks for taking the time to write to me. Suzi

webexplorer said:

Wow! That is a lot of money. I have never seen this price before. Yes, it is a huge rip off. I sympathize you. Do you have a TV cable? Maybe, you could contact the cable internet service agent, and she/he might help you to transfer it to the cable account for a less money. I really don't know whether this would work.

My Cox cable cost approximately 40 dollars monthly with a free internet modem. I cannot remember if I paid the service to come and install it at my house. I like DSL better, but my area does not have the DSL service so I have to use the cable internet.

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Wished I had more options. Living in the country means giving up many things. Thanks for taking the time to write to me. Suzi

How big are the photographs that you are exchanging? I looked on my computer and most "big" photos are only 6 megabyte. Take a look at the size of your photos and do the math and see how many megabytes that is download and upload each day. Maybe you are 'uploading' too much and the problem is not 'downloading'. I looked at the HughesNet website at the link you provided. They do not seem to have seperate limits for "upload" and "download", it appears to be just bytes-total per day.

Here is another possibility; Maybe your computer has a virus or "hijacker" program and it is using your computer to send spam email. This happens quite often. While you are away from your computer you are unaware that it is sending out thousands and thousands of emails per day. One way to test this (works sometimes, not always) is to use "task manager" (These instructions are for Windows XP).
press the control, alt, delete keys all the same time ONCE.

This will bring up "task manager". Click the tab for "networking". You can watch how many bytes your computer is 'downloading' (receiving) and how many it is uploading (transmitting). Even a properly operating computer with no programs running will send a few thousand bytes ever second or so. (This is so that your computer and the modem and things connected know that they are still connected.)

Other programs that cause your system to use more internet than you might be aware of are the ones where you let your computer "idle time" do things like "search for extra-terrestial intelligence" or "search for a cure for cancer". Although those programs may not be doing anything 'wrong' they could be sending and receiving data all night and day.

Is Hughes rate still $115 per month? If it is, then tell them you are going to switch to WildBlue because it is only $80 per month for even higher speed. Maybe they will give you a better price to get you to stay connected with them. If they do not lower your rate, then it might save you money to switch over to WildBlue. You would save a lot per month so after 6 months or so you would save enough to pay for the cost of 'switching over' (new equipment).

sorry if I go off topic but dont you guys use VP thru wildblue and hughes.net ??

IM just so curious...
and if it does use too much of mega.. then I shall not *order* wild blue.. ??

im just so precatious.. I live in country too Suzi... I cant get high speed or dsl in my area. but i can get hughes or wild blue i was going with wild blue but if I use too much mega etc by having 2 computers and vp... that mean I have to get highest to pay bill.... *oi vey* too much to think about stuffs again! dang..

Fair Access Policy: WildBlue | Legal | Fair Access Policy

found some info in wild blue about fair access policy too..

Interesting.. thank you both for bringing up a good point about these megas.. I EMAILED to vp to find out the info ...


wendy

Sharing a email response that I got from Hughes.net
See the small print below? I would need to sign up / pay for more speed.
Why can't I have what I have been paying for?
The FAP started the same month the equipment is paid in full! The service
payment was suppose to go down to $59.00 monthly starting in June! Not one day sooner did I get any of this aggravation.
Dear Susan,

Thank you for contacting HughesNet Technical Support. We appreciate the opportunity to assist you.

Susan, please accept my apologies for the inconvenience you have been experiencing with this issue, and I understand your frustration.

Susan, we have determined that the speed of your system is being caused due to our Fair Access Policy.' You may view the entire policy at:

http://www.hughes.com/HUGHES/Rooms/...iraccess&Container=com.webridge.entity.Entity[OID[BD8BE0839F414B4FB7CDDCA10EFA5369]]



As per the Home plan that you have opted for, the download threshold is 200MB. If any HughesNet subscriber downloads continuously, or downloads large files, they may have their download bandwidth temporarily restricted. After an account has been restricted, a 24 hours wait is required before the restriction is removed but if the system continues to be utilized for bandwidth intensive activities like downloading large files etc. during this period, the full download capacity may not be restored at the end of that FAP recovery period. However, this does not mean that you can only download 200MB per 24 hours. FAP comes into effect only if you download above your threshold in a very short period as it is calculated based on your cumulative usage over a continuous stretch of time.





During this time normal system usage for browsing will be 2 to 3 times slower than the normal browsing experience. Although logging off of the HughesNet satellite network does not remove the restriction immediately, logging off for an extended period of time should cause it to be removed sooner (the modem should be on all the time during this period).



The Fair Access Policy ensures equal Internet access for all HughesNet subscribers by maintaining a running average of customers' downloads. Fair access establishes an equitable balance in accessing the internet across satellite broadband services, by service plan, for all HughesNet customers, regardless of their frequency of use or volume of traffic.


The Fair Access Policy was implemented because the HughesNet Satellite system is based on shared bandwidth. This means that all its users share the bandwidth that is available through HughesNet. If any HughesNet subscriber downloads continuously, or downloads large files such as movies, they may have their download bandwidth temporarily restricted. After an account has been restricted, a 24hour wait is required before the restriction is removed. Although logging off of the HughesNet satellite network does not remove the restriction immediately, logging off for an extended period of time should cause it to be removed sooner.
In order to check your usage, please to:
HughesNet Customer Care and click on the "Check Usage" option under resources.

Susan, I am glad that you have contacted us today. If you have any further queries, please get back to us with the details at your earliest possible convenience so that we can diagnose the issue and provide you with the best resolution. Our support technicians are available 24/7.

If you want to upgrade your plan for a higher download threshold, please call our sales department. You can call HughesNet Sales Support on 1-866-774-6580.

Your case ID for this issue is

Warm Regards from the team at HughesNet,


Cynthia
HughesNet Technical Support

For further assistance, we are available 24/7 and you can contact us through the following