We used to have the cheapest plan with minimum amount of data, so naturally we had reduced speeds in the evening when we inevitably used up all of our data prior to the end of the month. The “changeover” would normally happen in prime streaming time, say 8 or 9 PM.
However, we now have the Connection 25 plan and never even come close to using up our data allowance (go ahead and check our usage history!). Still, lately, around 8:30 or 9:00 PM, our Viasat service has been turning off completely (modem light red), and stays off for 15-30 minutes.
Please help explain why this is happening! Thank you.
It went out just now. Can you see this on your end? The lights turned pink and purple, but it resolved itself and is now blue and the service is back on. But, this is not the same as the frequent 8-9 pm glitches. Will report if those happen again
It’s 11pm local time and it just went out again. Turned pink/purple and then fixed itself within a minute or two, turned blue and came back on. Have unplugged and replugged in/rebooted modem multiple times lately. Still no answer as to why service keeps cutting off in the evenings only.
I’ve confirmed there are issues happening with your hardware. I’ve already escalated to our field team to get a technician there for a visit. Sorry for the delay and thank you for your patience! You’ll be contacted soon to schedule this visit.
No, CANCEL THAT. I WILL NOT PAY FOR A TECH VISIT. I DID NOT REQUEST A TECH VISIT. You did not obtain my permission for a tech visit. If you would have asked me, the answer, as it is EVERY TIME Viasat tries to get me to do this is “No, I do NOT want a tech visit”. CANCEL WHAT YOU DID IMMEDIATELY. Thank you.
Please allow me to explain. The issue that is happening with your connection is a hardware issue, what I have detected is that your antenna has been gradually failing more, meaning that at some point you can have your service completely broken off, and this can only be fixed by having a technician take a look into your setup.
With that said, I will cancel the tech visit request for now, and if you want it you can request it here once again, but bear in mind that since the issue is in the hardware, it is not possible to solve it without a visit.
Every time I have a break in service, a different hardware issue is “detected that can only be resolved by a service visit.” Then the service magically restores itself. The issues are almost universally around the time of day when high-speed data is switched over to standard data, so that the people on the lower-priced plans are slowed down. There is only one catch - - I used to be on one of those lower data plans and I now use only 10% of my data each month on a 660 GB plan. Still, during the “switch-over” during evening tv/streaming, Viasat does NOT slow me down, but shuts me off completely for about 15 minutes. Then I’m back up and running at very high speeds, with no action on my part. This is no coincidence. This is a back-end issue. Luckily, I have kept my other internet service this entire time, the one I’ve had for 15 years prior to starting with Viasat. So, when Viasat goes out, I’m never “desperate enough” to fall into these traps that Viasat sets, trying to get me to replace my modem, replace my antenna, get a service visit, etc. I will not be tricked into paying extra money. I will simply use my other service. I know nothing I say will get me on some type of list to get Viasat aware that I will not respond to these tactics. Oh well. I’ll just have to put up with periodic service interruptions - - that have occurred since the first month of service. Funny how when I went from the mandatory 2 year contract to a month-to-month plan that “suddenly” I was told that the modem was in critical condition and needed to be replaced immediately. That was 18 months ago.
Given the severity of your modem issues (over 50 offline events just this week, while the average is less than 3), your service call would not be charged at all. We had already confirmed this exception with the Field Ops team.
While the peak period is often busier and does present congestion from time to time, your hardware issues can make things much worse.
If you’ve already had this modem replaced, then the cause, as @Leo mentioned, is likely due to an antenna or dish misalignment – which can cause modem drops and other problems.
If you haven’t had the modem replaced or your antenna checked recently, then we strongly suggest a technician visit to investigate the hardware.
When a representative from the service dispatcher called me last week, she stated that I will be billed and charged for this service visit, as usual, as everyone else is normally billed and charged for a service visit. I told them I would not schedule a service visit until Viasat could communicate with them what you stated — that I “should not be charged at all” for this visit.
I took a fresh look at your account and went over this entire thread.
I see some indicators of a very slight mispoint, but I don’t think this is causing the offline events you are reporting. Your speeds are outstanding (see below), which to me indicates that the mispoint is very slight, and far from being severe.
Offline events can have multiple causes:
Antenna mispoints
Cabling issues
Tria issues
Modem issues
Bad weather
Wi-Fi issues
Outages (technical issues on the Viasat gateway side of things)
So I propose this: The next time you experience one of these, please let us know the exact time and the duration of the offline event, describe how you noticed it, provide a screenshot of anything relevant, and note the color of the LED light on the modem. That way we can continue digging.
We hope to be able to get to the bottom of your issue, it might take some time, but I think we can do it.
Thank you so much Nacho for taking the time to see the specifics of the situation. The senior customer service manager I spoke with on the phone thought it was the tria. The “randomly occuring” events have been exclusively in the evening, in the 8:30-9:30 pm range, and I notice the streaming stops (Netflix, Prime, etc.) and the modem lights turning purple/pink (not red). I will unplug the modem and plug it back in and that seems to work. However, I usually don’t do this right away, I usually wait 20 minutes or so. Next time I won’t touch anything and will follow your exact instructions and report back here in this forum.
I am perfectly fine with it taking some time — I also have a DSL service here that is 1.5 mbps, so I do have a backup. I would much prefer to find out what is really going on than have someone repoint the dish and have my daytime service become worse. Although I understand that congestion usually happens during “nighttime recreational streaming” when this issue is occuring, I work from home so having service working during the daytime is actually more important to me. I agree that it probably is not the repoint because I otherwise the service is just fine. I don’t want to risk changing something that will cut me off from the good daytime service I now enjoy.
Thanks again! Sincerely, Lauren
Still experiencing intermittent loss of connectivity. Each event resolves itself eventually; after a period of time the modem returns to blue without me taking any action. I will document the next service-interruption event with the date and time and post here.
Please note: I will NOT post service-interruption events that take place during cloudy days or thunderstorms (because I accept those as non-fixable interruptions), I will ONLY document events that occur on sunny/clear days, so there will be no question about the weather.
Experienced service outage/interruptions at 6:30 PM and 10:30 PM MDT on 7/7/24. Can you see from your end what might be causing these? IT WAS CLEAR AND SUNNY, 0.00 precipitation: the weather data can be seen on the NOAA federal government weather almanac.
Thank you!
