I have had DirecWay for a little over a year now, and I have had to deal with A LOT of problems during that time, but my speeds have NEVER been this bad. For more than a week, every night, like clockwork, from around 8:30pm to 11:00pm, my download speeds drop dramatically. I go from surfing at 700Kbps - 1Mbps, to drowning anywhere below 100Kbps. The worst download speed I saw from my numerous testing was 17Kbps. I called Earthlink, who I have DirecWay through, and they've been no help at all. In fact, they've been ridiculous. Everything they've told me to do has been something I would have done way before I resort to calling tech support. Of course there was the usual, "there's nothing we can do...." and "the speeds aren't guaranteed..." I also heard my speed drops are due to the seasons changing or something on my end, such as my computers. I couldn't believe when the tech people told me that my all too consistent speed drops were because of my computers. I have several high-end Macs and all of them show the speed drops. NOTHING changes when I connect directly into the modem (DW6000), knowing for sure there are no other computers on my wireless network; (there's usually only one on at a time in the first place). I have done everything, even re-registering my modem, and nothing has worked. ANY help, suggestions, ideas, etc. would be appreciated. Is anyone else having this problem or has anyone else HAD this problem? I'm located in West Grove, PA. my longitude is 95 West (from my DW6000 Info. page), and I don't know what satellite I'm on. Sorry for the length of this post, but I wanted to make sure I included all the necessary information.

- Shawn          

CHACHING!   Yup knock out the middle man (Earthlink) and you should be good.

I experience the exact symptoms that ThinkDiff89 has explained.  Evening download 50 – 130 kps, morning 500 – 650 kps.  I also live in PA.  Only thing’s I’m a DirecWay customer.  I’ve spent hour upon hours trying to communicate with tech reps that have heavy foreign accents.  They try the same thing over and over again.  I also experience periodic satellite signal loss.  I’m now convinced that the problem is overloaded hardware but they’ll never admit it.  Instead, they will waste hours of my time until I finally give up.  I am EXTREMELY frustrated!  DirecWay was my only broadband (supposedly) option at the time I purchased it.  Wild Blue has just come available but I’m tied up in DirecWay’s web with their early termination penalties.

Just spent another 2 hours and 3 phone calls to tech support tonight.  Did the same things over and over again.  At one point my modem wouldn’t restart.  Tech tried to tell me I had a bad network card.  I said, “Hold on I’ll try another computer.”  Nothing!  Tech told me I must have 2 bad network cards in 2 computers that worked 2 minutes ago.  I would have to install new network cards and call them when I get them installed.  Sounds a lot like some of the auto repair shops!  I unplugged and plugged the modem back in.  It worked.  Called back tech support and danced their little dance.  By now it’s after 10:00 PM and the connection speed is picking up to 200 – 250 kps.  Tech says that’s good enough, call again if you have any problems.  I’m pretty sure I’ll be calling back tomorrow about 8:30 PM when the connection speed drops off to about 50 – 100 kbs.

Have they TURN OFF your TURBO PAGE!

Don't ask, don't request, demand it.

Turbo page is web acceleration for web browsing.  I bet if you did an FTP of a file, it would be just fine.

You can also change to DirecWay and then upgrade to Professional plan, it's better and you get US Support.

If your cross pol is ok and there seems to be nothing else wrong then nothing is wrong.  SOMETIMES (i have had this problem)  depending on the time of year you may have a week or two of bad speeds.  I'm not sure why but sometimes there is a "window" of time that just seems the ol DW wont work well - My best advice is to just wait it out.  But first check that cross pol by going to advanced and checking it - it should pass every time. if it fails then that is your problem  - But dont wig out too much - it will clear up and run faster during peak hours in a week or 2 or 3.

This my DW speed at peak evening time on chepo consumer rate.

::::::::::.. Download Stats ..::::::::::
Connection is:: 796 Kbps about 0.8 Mbps (tested with 2992 kB)
Download Speed is:: 97 kB/s
Tested From:: http://testmy.net/ (server2)
Test Time:: Mon Oct 24 2005 18:43:24 GMT-0700
Bottom Line:: 14X faster than 56K 1MB download in 10.56 sec
Diagnosis: 90% + Okay : running at 95.44 % of your hosts average (direcpc.com)
Validation Link:: http://testmy.net/stats/id-42HT8XV7P

::::::::::.. Upload Stats ..::::::::::
Connection is:: 135 Kbps about 0.1 Mbps (tested with 579 kB)
Upload Speed is:: 17 kB/s
Tested From:: http://testmy.net/ (server2)
Test Time:: Mon Oct 24 2005 18:47:14 GMT-0700
Bottom Line:: 2X faster than 56K 1MB upload in 60.24 sec
Diagnosis: Awesome! 20% + : 175.51 % faster than the average for host (direcpc.com)
Validation Link:: http://testmy.net/stats/id-FPWIQ5H82

If you really want to get rid of it let me know. I'll take it for a backup.
This one won't last forever. Mine just works fine for me.