ViaSat internet experience

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AZgl1800
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ViaSat internet experience

Post by AZgl1800 »

Placed this in Open Chat as it is not a question, rather it is just a history of how my personal experience with Satellite Internet access is going.

We are now halfway through our first month of using the satellite for our internet.
Previously, for 10 years, I was using AT&T DSL 10Mbps dn/ 1Mbps up....
or at least that is the Advertisement for what the contract says.
the Real World was, maybe a 1/3rd of that down, and uploads were usually 0.2Mbps

As of today, there has only been 1 outage with ViaSat, and it occurred at precisely the same time that DirecTV lost sync and scrambled.... This was during a very severe Tornado Storm warning about 10 days ago.... Total down time, was about 3 minutes, 20 seconds. That I was told, is the time required for the ViaSat-2 modem to resync with the Satellite above us.

I bought the lowest plan they offer in my area, as seen in this picture.
it appears that it is going to work out pretty good for us.
The plan gives Unlimited access, but states that during heavy Network Congestion, that when I have exceeded my plan's guaranteed access amount, that I might be slowed down.... as we are night owls, it does not look like that is going to be a problem. e.g., just this morning, we went to bed at 6 a.m. and I awoke at 12 noon.... we like it at night when the world is quiet and the internet is fast.

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Some speed tests,

Cellphone on ViaSat WiFi

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Laptop

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Random tests over two weeks, note: SpeedTest.net never shows uploads higher than 1.0 up... dunno why.

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Win7 desktop with SpeedTest's special Desktop Application, no browser used.

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Another cellphone test on WiFi with ViaSat,

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This is an anomaly...... when it happened, was during the setup period while the ViaSat technicians were going through the Setup Phase to calibrate the ViaSat-2 modem.... they were also running speed tests at the same time I was.... when our tests ended, we looked at each other and said "something is wrong, what were you doing just now?" and each of us said, "I was running a speed test"...... interesting, that it still beat the hell out of my DSL service, even though it was loaded heavily.....

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I learned something about the ViaSat-2 modem.... it has 3 separate WiFi radios on both 2.4gHz and 5gHz.
It is guaranteed to service all three radios at the specified rates independently, without interruption to any of the other two WiFi radios..... I have to believe this is true, because my daughter watches NetFlix all the time, and neither one of us have ever noticed that the other person is using the internet.

Contrast this to AT&T DSL and a single radio 2.4gHz WiFi modem.....
it was constantly dragging down, and giving us NetFlix pictures that were always stopping and buffering and then going on. My laptop was very buggy, we were constantly hearing the NetworkUptimeMonitor audible alarm going off indicating "Loss of Service".... and each time that happens, it takes 2 minutes, 10 seconds for it to reacquire service.... the Sunday prior to me buying ViaSat, AT&T DSL was out of service 27 times in a 14 hour period.

https://netuptimemonitor.com/
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Re: ViaSat internet experience

Post by AZgl1800 »

Just now did a new speedtest on my Samsung Galaxy S5 Android cellphone
Using the ViaSat 5g WiFi radio.


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Re: ViaSat internet experience

Post by AZgl1800 »

a good friend of mine down in Valdosta, Georgia asked me about how I was doing.
asked him to look at this thread.

he too, is using AT&T and at best, they can give him 18mbps downloads, WHEN the damn thing is actually working.

he has 18 devices on the WiFi, iPads, Androids, PCs and Laptops, and the latest addition is a Ring Doorbell https://ring.com/ that uses the internet to allow you to use a cellphone to answer the door bell, and talk back to the person there and SEE THEM with 1080p video.

When the door bell would ring, the WiFi just simply locked up, and he had to restart the AT&T modem.
when his grandkids came over, they overloaded the WiFi by watching YouTube all evening....

He had ViaSat installed Monday (yesterday) and is elated..... he went for the Gold Plan.

he is getting 111 Mbps down and 4.7Mbps uploads speeds on average now.
he is groaning about the price, but being a Project Engineer with Duke Energy, he has to have reliable internet access....

he is pleased with the results. Everything works. :D

Oh, UptimeNetworkMonitor shows that we have had Zero Outages since the tornado went thru.
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Re: ViaSat internet experience

Post by DAMIEN1307 »

hi AZg...thank you for keeping us informed on your new satcom system from Viasat...after just converting our church and youth center from century link (no better than 5 Mbps) and setting up new routers for both systems, (we went with TDS cable by the way for no caps and 100 Mbps), everyone is remarking that everything just now works and all are thrilled.

previously we only had one building wired through century link and were paying 175 bucks per month for only that 5 Mbps.

i worked out a deal with TDS where they now pay only 95 bucks a month for the first building which now includes phone service and 47 bucks a month for the new youth center building so now both buildings combined cost us 152 dollars a month saving 23 dollars per month, with far superior speed and service for 2 buildings plus phone. needless to say everyone is happy.

the folks living in Dog Canyon and over in La Luz are now asking what can be done for them out their since they only have access from a small local phone company using antenna connections and Hughes.net satcom which has not been really good for them...you publishing your stats is allowing me to give them hope of something better that what they got out their in the high desert boonies...lol...many thanks for your reports...DAMIEN
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Re: ViaSat internet experience

Post by AZgl1800 »

DAMIEN1307 wrote: Wed Dec 12, 2018 12:01 am hi AZg...thank you for keeping us informed on your new satcom system from Viasat...
snip.....................
the folks living in Dog Canyon and over in La Luz are now asking what can be done for them out their since they only have access from a small local phone company using antenna connections and Hughes.net satcom which has not been really good for them...you publishing your stats is allowing me to give them hope of something better that what they got out their in the high desert boonies...lol...many thanks for your reports...DAMIEN
Firstly, kudos for helping your church and community center. that is great!

my friend in Valdosta, GA told me that his son is using Hughesnet and is so pissed off at them because they do NOT alert him when their data cap is about to be exceeded. add to that, the grossly diminished download speeds when that magic data cap is hit.
They just merely let the data roll and charge him $15/gB extra....

Contrast that to Verizon's MiFi JetPack.... just this evening, they sent me a SMS text message advising me that my Shared Data has only 1.2gB left before it crosses the magic $$$ thresh-hold.
( I was bouncing back and forth between that and ViaSat ) won't anymore, done done for this month.

Peter's son is watching dad's experience very close, and I feel that they will migrate to ViaSat in the near term.

IIRC, ViaSat will assist with closing out a Hughes contract, so that should not be a problem.

For anyone who is interested in ViaSat, I would like to give a plug for my representative.... if allowed here?

Matt Phillips , PM me please to get his ph#... ( he willing to help anyone, anywhere, no matter where you live )
just mention that this thread guided them to him, if that is allowed?

He talked with my friend, let him know the options, and then waited for Peter to make up his mind.
He does not pressure anyone...... he is the anti-thesis of a salesman if I ever met one.

he can guide anyone into making the Best Decision for their own personal needs.
He has pointed out to me over and over, that he coaches potential customers and advises them that Atlas Communications would be better for you at your location here in town
he does scratch their back, and they likewise do scratch his back when their own services won't quite be optimum.

I would highly suggest that folks research the ViaSat Blog and read what they are doing for impoverished areas of this world.... setting up WiFi repeaters on tall buildings, or just a telephone pole, installing Solar Arrays to power them, and then charging the users $0.50 for small increments of use....
they have plans down to 15 minutes in some areas, less in other areas... they also setup Internet Cafes in the little towns, a computer, and internet when you drop pesos into the box on the computer.

Communities with no access to anything modern with a wire, no power, no utilities, are now able to access the internet.... small contractors can write up a Purchase Order, and email it to a vendor, who then trucks it into the small community.... this saves an immense amount of time and expense for those little contractors, or home builders.....

They are currently working in central American countries now, and when the process is " fine tuned " to deliver the internet access to the population in tiny little bits and bytes... they plan to hover another satellite over Africa and do the same thing there... No one is providing internet for the rural areas of Africa..... to say that will be a huge plus for Africa, I can't imagine how much that will help them.
Last edited by AZgl1800 on Wed Dec 12, 2018 3:01 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: ViaSat internet experience

Post by AZgl1800 »

It is now 12:50 a.m. or just past midnight.
My daughter is watching NetFlix on her Kindle via 2.4g WiFi

I am now on my Win7 desktop w/LAN Cat5 to ViaSat modem and just ran SpeedTest.net's Windows App to check speeds.
this image uploaded to Imgur.com in less than 3 seconds... with AT&T, it takes almost a minute... it was so frustrating, as 0.2Mbps was what I usually experienced.


Image

that is not too shabby for a rate plan of 25Mbps and a 35gB Priority cap.... after which, data is still unlimited but if you do not use a lot of video, they don't slow you down.... what I am seeing seems to go with that.

NetFlix downloads the movie, and then the data stops flowing, while the user enjoys the movie.
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Re: ViaSat internet experience

Post by AZgl1800 »

ViaSat has this dashboard available all the time.
You can tell exactly where you are reference your usage.


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Re: ViaSat internet experience

Post by AZgl1800 »

Day 24 in billing cycle, dunno why, but ViaSat disappeared around 0700 CST and did not return until 0947 CST

put in a request to find out why, but so far, no answers.

Ticked me off, because there are 4 Rockets blasting off into Space today,
08:11 CST
08:30 CST

and I missed both of those, maybe I can catch the one for 9:30 PST tonight?
it is a military mission with the new super duper GPS III satellites, to get measurements down into the centimeter range.... not the 30 feet of old that we civilians have access to.

Today's outage is the only one of real consequence since I signed up for the service.
there was a modem software upload and the modem rebooted, took about 3 minutes to restore the Internet.

As for our Data used?
it is going to run over our Priority Guaranteed full bandwidth limit of 35gB/month that I am paying for.
Purposely not buying more data, want to see how much, if any, they restrict my normal browser use after the limit is passed..... the daughter watches NetFlix on a Kindle at 480p or less, so she night not even experience a slow down??


33.9 GB used, 6 days remaining in Billing Cycle

This is with my daughter watching NetFlix roughly 6 hours a night from Midnight to the dawning hours.... yeah, we are both night owls...

my laptop is not using that much, vnstat

Code: Select all

       Nov '18     28.24 GiB  /    2.20 GiB  /   30.45 GiB
       Dec '18      8.30 GiB  /  847.22 MiB  /    9.13 GiB  /       0 KiB
     yesterday    331.54 MiB  /   33.64 MiB  /  365.18 MiB
         today    196.88 MiB  /   21.64 MiB  /  218.51 MiB  /     266 MiB
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Re: ViaSat internet experience

Post by AZgl1800 »

Well,
ViaSat was off for 2 hours 45 minutes,

but, when it returned, it came back with a vengeance!!!

I have the Basic plan, 25Mbps and 35gB/data/month before the prioritize me behind the other kids watching videos....


Cellphone 64dn 6up.jpg
Overlimit Now.png

and I have been on Facebook most of the day watching videos, and not once, did any of them slow down and require buffering....

I am impressed with ViaSat and their promises.
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Re: ViaSat internet experience

Post by all41 »

are you saying these download reports are after your 35gb data cap?
If so -- wow
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Re: ViaSat internet experience

Post by AZgl1800 »

all41 wrote: Thu Dec 20, 2018 10:26 pm are you saying these download reports are after your 35gb data cap?
If so -- wow
Yes,
we hit the Data Cap with about 9 days remaining for that billing period.

This was my last Usage Check just prior to the Billing Cycle rollover.

12/23/2018 11:03 43.8 GB used, that is 8.7 gB over our Priority Data Plan
and 1 day remaining and there has been NO slowdown in our use of the internet.

Not once, did we experience any slowdown.....
maybe it is the way we surf?
We are Night Owls and do most of our web video viewing from Midnight to 6 a.m.

Whatever the reason, they have the capacity to hold up to heavy use.

Christmas Day, I surfed all day long, and I watched a lot of videos on Facebook.
as I have the smallest bandwidth plan they offer, my videos are limited to 360p so it does not support 1080HD

but, we have Dish TV for videos that are hours long, so no problem there.

I do NOT regret kicking AT&T DSL in the hiney at all, moving to the Satellite was the best thing I have done for our Internet experience.

Mind you, we are very rural, Fiber Cable is not in our future, ever.....
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