Help with HughesNet dish alignment?

[GilpinGuy]

Cliff's Notes:
Does anyone have the skills to properly align a HughesNet dish at the satellite? I'll gladly pay CASH for the help.

Long version:
Being a high country resident, I am forced to use the HughesNet satellite service for internet access. Other options (like point to point radio wave or whatever services) are not available to me because I'm totally buried in the trees - they came up here once and told me "forget it". I'm stuck with satellite. Qwest has told me that high speed cable "is coming" for 13 years, so no hope of that anytime soon either.

The last few days my connection has sucked ass: slow, and going in and out sporadically sometimes for hours at a time. Last night I called customer service and they ran some diagnostics. Result? "Your dish is slightly out of alignment...it's $125 to have a tech come out to align it." All of the sudden it's out of alignment, after 3+ years. Huh.... Maybe a bird hit it or something? Got me.

$125! And the service itself is $75 a month. That friggin hurts. Especially when I know the guy will turn the dish 1/8" and say "there you go!"

Any ideas/help would be appreciated. PM's for anonymity if your an installer of course.

[buffalobo]

Spent some time 20+ yrs ago installing Primestar.

You will need a signal meter. The Primestar receiver had one built in and could be used to tune alignment.

Check your software and maybe some google fu. Might get you to a spot you can trial and error it.

Make sure to mark/note current setting before any changes so you can at least get back to where you started.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk 2

[Bowtie]

There ar phone Apps that will help align dishes. Dish Pointer Pro seems to get pretty good reviews.

Also see if they offer a protection agreement on the installation and equipment. I know Dish offers it for $8 a month. You can start the protection agreement call them out to fix it and then cancel it in 3 months

[Boadie30]

I do a Hughes Net Dish setup once to twice a month at work for it is a mobile setup. I think I can assume that it is not that much different. Do you have a DAPT above or something similar?


Below is a squinter. Do you have one of these for your Dish? Also what kind of Satellite Router do you have or whats the numbers on the front of the router ie HN9500, HN9000 etc ??



This is really not hard and something I can help you with over the phone or on the internet, but it might behoove you to make some purchases if you do not have stuff to service your system your self.. I do not think this stuff is that expensive.. It looks like it would be between 100- 150.00 for this stuff.. Or you could have someone watch your signal strength screen and go to your dish and use the fine tune adjustments and slowly adjust for a higher SQL value. Start by just putting a little presure on each side of the dish one side at a time to figure out which way you want to go and then slowly adjust and then repeat with the pressure... I rarley even use the tools (DAPT, Squinter).. Like Buffalobo stated there is a few how tos on the internet as well..

[Ah Pook]

Does the system have a screen with reception levels?

We had Dish years ago. Took the tech over 2 hours to get a signal and another hour to fine tune. We ended up with one of us on the roof moving the dish around and the other watched the levels on the TV.

MRIC doesn't work for you? I know there is a tower near where you are. Then again, you live in the sticks.

[GilpinGuy]

I do a Hughes Net Dish setup once to twice a month at work for it is a mobile setup. I think I can assume that it is not that much different. Do you have a DAPT above or something similar?

Below is a squinter. Do you have one of these for your Dish? Also what kind of Satellite Router do you have or whats the numbers on the front of the router ie HN9500, HN9000 etc ??

This is really not hard and something I can help you with over the phone or on the internet, but it might behoove you to make some purchases if you do not have stuff to service your system your self.. I do not think this stuff is that expensive.. It looks like it would be between 100- 150.00 for this stuff.. Or you could have someone watch your signal strength screen and go to your dish and use the fine tune adjustments and slowly adjust for a higher SQL value. Start by just putting a little presure on each side of the dish one side at a time to figure out which way you want to go and then slowly adjust and then repeat with the pressure... I rarley even use the tools (DAPT, Squinter).. Like Buffalobo stated there is a few how tos on the internet as well..

I do not have the DAPT or the squinter. I'm plowing through page after page of the online troubleshooting stuff. Everything seems to work fine now. I can't seem to find a signal strength screen though. I just get "you have good access to the internet" after a diagnostic tool works.

I have cancelled the work order for the $125 visit and told them that I was going to explore other services because I though the charge was excessive. They just said "OK".

Thanks for all of the suggestions guys.

[Boadie30]

Type in http://192.168.0.1/fs/advanced/advanced.html this should take you to your setup screen to where you will see your signal strength..

[BlasterBob]

One of these days SOON, I am going to have to get a new roof installed. The proposed installer indicated that the dish would have to be removed and reinstalled (of course, I was aware of this) but said that since it is for the computer (Wildblue) the aim is not nearly as critical as regular Sat dish for television signals. Hope he is correct with that statement. Anyone here know if that IS correct????????? Thanks.

[Boadie30]

No i do not think he is correct i notice performance differences to the same extent regardless... However, one can teach themselves to be their own technician given enough effort... My dad travels and lives tons in his fifth wheel for work. Hauling his satellite with him. If he can do it (He is a total cheapass...lol) anyone can..

[GilpinGuy]

Type in http://192.168.0.1/fs/advanced/advanced.html this should take you to your setup screen to where you will see your signal strength..

I've been checking this out for a few days. Here's what I get when I run a "Satellite Loopback Connectivity QoS Diagnostic Test'

Satellite Loopback Connectivity QoS Diagnostic Test Results TimeStamp (UTC): SAT AUG 03 22:26:35 2013
Number of Msgs Sent: 5

Number of Msgs Received: 5
Average Delay: 872
Minimum Delay: 783
Maximum Delay: 978

How to interpret these results Results may be interpreted as follows:

If the receive count is 5, you have good access to and from the satellite.

If the receive count is 0, you have no access to the satellite and have a problem.
If the receive count is nonzero, but less than 5, you can transmit and receive but not all packets are getting through due to either congestion, bad weather, or an intermittent connection. Further investigation, such as rerunning the test after waiting 5 minutes, may be required.

For reception test I get "Terminal is fully operational".

However for the Transmission Test:
TRANSMISSION INFO


[TR="class: shaded"]
[TD="width: 210"]Satellite Interface Statistics[/TD]
[TD="width: 230"]Transmit Status[/TD]

[/TR]
[TR="class: shaded"]
[TD="width: 230"]Tx Error
[/TD]
[TD="width: 230"]113
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: shaded"]
[TD="width: 230"]Transmit Path Fault[/TD]
[TD="width: 230"]Feature Not Implemented [/TD]
[/TR]

[TD="width: 210"]Traffic Statistics: Transmit[/TD]
[TD="width: 230"]Total Satellite Packets Transmitted[/TD]
[TD="width: 230"]9939921 [/TD]


[TD="width: 230"]Total Satellite Packets Dropped[/TD]
[TD="width: 230"]0 [/TD]


[TD="colspan: 3"]If the Tx error count is increasing and you suspect a transmission (cable or radio) problem, first check that there is not a weather issue. Then check that you can receive transmissions by navigating to the Reception Info screen, clicking on the Reception Info button several times, and checking that the Number of TIPS Received increases. If the Number of TIPS Received increases, run a Connectivity Test. If the results are that the Number of Messages Sent is not zero and the Number of Messages Received is zero, then you may have a transmission problem.
[/TD]

Up (State Code 25 : Terminal is fully operational)

That Tx Error keeps ticking up every few seconds, and "A rapidly rising count may indicate a transmission problem to the satellite."

So two tests says I have a good connection to the satellite. The other says I have a transmission problem.


What I was hoping to find was a way to actually see the strength of the signal move up or down as I moved the dish slightly - like a sliding bar that goes from red to green or something. That way I could manually move it until I find the spot with best reception. No such luck.

The research continues...