Any video streaming has poor quality, skipping, and loss of connection.
Hi @jbmilehi
Sorry about this experience you’re having with Viasat.
I have a few questions to help us start the investigation into your issue (you don’t need to answer all of them if you don’t know/recall, just what you remember):
- When did you notice this issue starting? I found many drops in your connection this week, but they seem to date all the way back to last month as well.
- Do you have buffering and connection issues using all your devices, on all pages/apps, or is it a specific set of apps or devices? Does it happen every day?
- Do you currently use only the Viasat-provided modem, or do you have a secondary Router/Extender/Mesh etc.?
- Have you been able to run any kind of speed tests right when you notice the buffering or drops happening?
On a first look, I can tell that your account might be suffering from what we call deprioritization of speeds due to heavy data usage. You can see this same message if you access your MyViasat app:
However, it’s quite probable that this is not the cause of all your issues, as right now for example it looks like your modem is totally offline (and heavy data usage wouldn’t result in that).
At this moment (08:47 AM EDT), my tools indicate that your modem cannot see a device (such as a PC or a router) connected to the modem, and also that your modem is totally offline. Did you recently unplug it, or try to reboot it?
I am currently using the Viasat modem and Hitron router installed with the new receiver in Feb. Speed was never good but has become worse over time.
Web browsing isn’t affected as much but video streaming on all devices is so poor that it becomes unwatchable.
I have been trying to resolve this with multiple resets but nothing helps. That may be the outages you noticed.
I have run speed tests during the issue and it shows good speed for the test but red speed for “other usage” which I’m guessing is my streaming.
An associated issue is that I no longer receive local channels. I have been told that this is due to DHCP and there is nothing to be done about it. The speed test feature in the MyViasat app indicates I am hosted by Appalachian Wireless so I get local channels from that area instead of my area.
Hi @jbmilehi
Your speeds overall seem very good – you only had 2 results with 10 Mbps, which is still good enough for streaming, but the rest are over 50-100 Mbps:
I see that your first 2 speedchecks done in June also had great speeds:
Are your devices very far from your Hitron Router and Viasat Modem? These are very high speeds, so you should not be encountering any issues.
Could you make a list of the websites or apps in which you experience buffering?
My devices are in the same room as my router and modem.
Prime Video suffers the most. Fubo is also poor. All video is poor.
Hi @jbmilehi
Got it; your speeds in general are very high, but it could be that a fluctuation in satellite connection is causing the apps to buffer more than they should.
We can try to manually lower the video quality on those apps, and check if this helps.
I’ve found 2 articles explaining how to change video quality on most available devices, for both of those apps:
As an additional experiment, could you run for us a quick test called “fast.com”? This is a tool designed by Netflix Inc to specifically test your video streaming speeds.
- Go to fast.com on any browser and wait for the test to run. It’ll look similar to this screen when finished:
Make sure to click on “Show More Info” to show the rest of the result:
We won’t have access to your fast.com results, as we have no link to this tool, so please copy and paste the results here – or attach a screenshot. 
Thanks!
Can’t adjust Prime Video because it is unable to load any channel.
Hi @jbmilehi
Thanks for the fast.com result! It does look like your device is getting a good streaming speed – 3.0 Mbps would already be sufficient for high-quality videos.
Let’s try lowering the video quality in both of those apps, and see if this helps with the buffering problem 
In the meantime, I’ll escalate your connection drops to our internal modem team, as I can see a lot more offline events than reboots. I’ll let you know if they find anything amiss with this equipment!
Sorry, do you mean that your TV itself is unable to load the channels?
Yes. Prime video won’t load now.
Hi @jbmilehi
Can you connect your TV directly via Ethernet cable to the Hitron router? If the channels are not loading due to a Wi-Fi fluctuation, we will at least be able to access the apps with the cabled connection.
Did that and it may help some. I have fubo running to observe quality.
Hi @jbmilehi
Understood! Let us know if you see an improvement on those apps.
About your connection drops:
We identified some issues with your physical equipment, so I’m putting in a request for a technician visit.
The Field Team will get in touch as soon as possible to schedule this visit. They’ll contact you using the phone number and/or email address associated with the account, so please keep an eye out for any calls or texts.
Just dropped while watching Prime.
Hi @jbmilehi
Sorry to hear that.
What did you experience when you were using Amazon Prime? Did the screen freeze, or did the app quit due to no connection? Also, were you able to set this app to a lower quality like with FUBO?
Your modem hasn’t been offline after 1:15 PM GMT (9:15 AM EDT), so at least we know this was not a total drop like what happened early this morning.
Whenever you next experience any of those 2 apps freezing or dropping connection, can you please try to run a quick fast.com test?
Also, are you experiencing drops and buffering with other websites and apps, or only video-related/streaming services?
When Amazon was dropped, the video quality deteriorated then froze. After a period of time frozen there was a message along the lines of Oops! Something went wrong.
I have not lowered the video quality. The article for Prime does not mention a non-apple tv. My tv has a setting that I will look into.
Frequently after connecting to my wireless home network from my PC, the connection is dropped almost instantly and I must reconnect. Otherwise, the issue is with video streaming.
Hi @jbmilehi
What is your TV Model? We can look for its specific Amazon Prime settings if you’d like.
the tv is a samsung UN55TU700DF
Lots of buffering now watching Prime.
