What is the formula for HughesNet FAP calculation?

Question

I am somewhat frustrated with the only FAP monitor I have found on the net and discovered because it relies on a running count of bandwidth usage which (1) requires a service in the background; and (2) Tends to get inaccurate over time.

Given that there is a diagnostics page on the firmware of the modem that tells the exact usage per hour, I was planning on writing a more accurate version with a better UI. However, it appears that HughesNet keeps the exact formula for calculating whether you are in FAP a secret. I have no idea why they wouldn't be more forthcoming with this information.

Wondering if anyone out in SU-land had done some trial and error testing to reverse engineer the formula or had some inside knowledge to share.

Answer 1

Okay. I found this, but it still leaves the question as to whether the bucket continues to refill during the FAP-Free time, and whether using it during that time affects the refill rate.

How Does it Work?

Think of having a bucket full of tokens. If you still have tokens, you haven't exceeded your allowance. How many tokens are in the bucket to start depends on the service you have. Download Bucket Sizes

Here are the download numbers for the different HughesNet services:

* DW6000 Home: Enough tokens for 169 MB of data
* DW7000/HN7000S Home: Enough tokens for 200 MB of data
* DW6000/DW7000/HN7000S Professional: Enough tokens for 375 MB of data
* HN7000S ProPlus: Enough tokens for 425 MB of data
* DW6000/DW7000/HN7000S Small Office: Enough tokens for 500 MB of data
* DW6000 Business Internet: Enough tokens for 800 MB of data
* DW7000/HN7000S Business Internet: Enough tokens for 1250 MB of data

Refill Rates

Each service also has a "refill" rate. This is the rate at which tokens are put back into the bucket. The bucket can never be more than full, so, even if you don't use the service for days, the bucket will never hold more than it's starting amount. Like a bucket full of water - the rest spills over the edge. If you use data at the exact rate as the bucket is refilled, the bucket would always be exactly full.

FAP buckets are rarely full unless the system has been off for 12 hours or more, so at any given moment you are likely starting with less than the full amount.

Here are the last published refill rates for the HughesNet services:

* DW6000 Home: 47 Kbps
* DW7000/HN7000S Home: 50 Kbps
* DW6000 Professional: 50 Kbps
* DW7000/HN7000S Professional: 56 Kbps
* HN7000S ProPlus: 56 Kbps
* DW6000 Small Office: 56 Kbps
* DW7000/HN7000S Small Office: 150 Kbps
* DW6000 Business Internet: 100 Kbps
* DW7000 Business Internet: 200 Kbps
* HN7000S Business Internet: 150 Kbps

Note: HughesNet does not currently publish the recovery/refill rates, so it is unknown if the above values are still accurate.

Souce: http://www.mobileinternetsatellite.com/HughesNetUserGuide/UserGuide.html#50565121_pgfId-40745

Answer 2

there is a small wrinkle in the fap/ download process during the fap-free time. if you are trying to do large downloads during 2-7am, then it is important that you reset the hughes modem at 7am.

from careful and painful experiments, i concluded that during the fap-free time, the download buffer is filled. if you do not clear the buffer at 7am (with a reset), you pick up the freight charge. to clear the buffer, you can manually go to the moden url at 192.168.0.1. or you can simply issue a form event at 192.168.0.1/com/gatewayreset/