This is our second month with Viasat and we are blowing through the high-speed data. It is just me and my wife. She is retired and I work from home. The first month we added 120 GB ($80) to our choice 50 plan with 100GB to get us through. It was suggested that I add “Office hours” to my plan for $40 which I did. Now 11 days into my billing new cycle and we have already used 70% of our high-speed data. Again, it just her and I. I use Cisco connect anywhere VPN which works great and am in video calls (MS Team, Webex and ZOOM) much of the workday. After reading through all the suggestions, there has got to be something set incorrectly or something I can fine tune to get a better outcome. Service works good otherwise. I can’t continue to pay for additional high-speed data. Thoughts and suggestions welcome. FWIW- tech coming out 8-28 to address dish alignment and dish to modem connection that I reported early last week when I had no service at all for 3 days.
Hi, @Adam70vette,
Thanks for your message.
We can check your usage and provide you with some recommendations, but we need your consent first.
Do I have your permission to review your detailed usage information?
That was quick. Thank you.
Yes, you have my permission to review my usage.
Ok, @Adam70vette,
I’ll take a look at it and then send you a private message with all the details.
Hi, @Adam70vette,
As you can see from the private message I sent you, most of your usage is related to streaming.
You would greatly benefit from activating the data saver feature.
The data saver automatically decreases the data usage of streaming apps. That feature is still experimental, but it has helped a lot of customers already.
If you want to know more about it, you can check this forum topic: Announcing the Data Saver Feature Experiment!
If you want to have that feature activated for you, you just need to follow these two steps:
- Fill out this form: https://forms.gle/pdgvMoFk4iRkBGei8
- Let us know that you completed that form.
That data saver feature sounds good. Is there a different form that I should complete to have the data saver feature activated to my service? I started to complete the form but page 2 starts asking question about my experience with the data saver feature
I would like the Data Saver feature activated.
I completed the form as best I could.
Just purchase more data. Hoping this helps going forward.
Please let me know when it is active.
Thanks,
-Adam
Hi, @Adam70vette,
I just activated the feature for you.
Here are some common recommendations:
Your video download speed was set to 2.6 Mbps. You can run a speed test on fast.com and check that.
Please let us know if you find any issues (e.g., buffering, etc). We can adjust the speeds up to 4.5Mbps if necessary.
If you use Amazon Prime, you’ll still have to adjust the video quality manually (we have been working on that, so that won’t be necessary in the future). To change the Prime video quality, please follow the instructions in this video: How To Adjust Streaming Quality On Amazon Prime Video - YouTube
Any feedback is very welcome. This is still experimental, so your comments can help us improve the feature.
That is because some time ago we had a similar feature called Video Data Extender (VDE), but it was discontinued.
But since we had a lot of customers requesting that feature again, we started a new one, called Data Saver, which is currently experimental.
Awesome and thank you.
I will keep you posted related to our experience.
Hi @tzophia57,
Let’s please keep track of your case in this topic you created - Messed up Google map
Thanks,
Nacho
The data saver seems to be helping with usage. When streaming we have only had buffering 4 different times. However, my work video calls via (Webex, MS Teams and Zoom) are sometimes okay but mostly worse with very poor, fuzzy video, out of sync audio and delays with presenting PowerPoint slides. I have also noticed it is slower for me to access and authenticate accounts like banking. Hope this provides some detail for you to make additional tweaks or adjustments. Please let me know if I could provide additional detail that would be useful. Thanks Adam
Hi, @Adam70vette,
Thanks for the feedback. Could you send us the results from a speed test from the modem and another using one from fast.com?
Click here to see how to run a speed test from the modem
To run a speed test from the modem you have to follow these steps:
1 - Open the Viasat browser – this test won’t work on other browsers;
2 - Go to this website: Viasat Speed Check | Home
3 - Log in using your My Viasat account
4 - Run the test
5 - Download the results (or take a screenshot)
6 - Send me the results in a direct message
Just another question: before the activation of the data saver did you never have any issues using MS Teams/Zoom/Webex, even on a VPN?
Your video download is now set to 2.6Mbps. We can, if you want, increase it to 4.5Mbbps or to 5.5Mbps. The higher speeds can help with the buffering issue, although the data usage will increase too.
Let me know if you want to try a higher speed.
Lets try the higher video download speed.
Prior to data saver I did have issues using MS Teams, Zoom and Webex it just seems worse. I use Cisco connect anywhere VPN and it works fine …just slow at times.
Attached are the speed tests you requested.
Thanks for troubleshooting to try and address my issues.
Hi, @Adam70vette,
I increased the video download speed to 5.5 Mbps. Let me know if you notice any improvements.
This conpany is deceitful and straight garbage.
During covid lockdowns i streamed 10 hours a day for 3 months.
Never went over 80 GB of data
But ill blow through 150 GB streaming 5 hours a day for 9 days…
I call horse poopy
If i had the money i would sue them for fraud and deceitful business practices, but im broke so i cant