Any wireless experts in the house?

Discussion in 'Anything Goes' started by tinkerinWstuff, Sep 21, 2014.

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  1. reg71

    reg71 Poser Staff Member

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    I think your best bet is to move to civilization.
     
    reg71, Nov 7, 2014


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  2. Pliskin

    Pliskin New Member

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    What about something like this?
    Satellite.jpg


    (Sorry Tink, couldn't help myself). Good luck.
     
    Pliskin, Nov 7, 2014


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  3. tinkerinWstuff

    tinkerinWstuff Administrator Staff Member

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    Mount bracket:

    [​IMG]
     
    tinkerinWstuff, Nov 7, 2014


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  4. tinkerinWstuff

    tinkerinWstuff Administrator Staff Member

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    I thought I did live in civilization. I could hit a baseball and take out the windows in a dozen homes bordering the property all with high speed internet. :frusty:
     
    tinkerinWstuff, Nov 7, 2014


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  5. tinkerinWstuff

    tinkerinWstuff Administrator Staff Member

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    So I gained a few dbm with the new antenna but the SINR had no improvement and no noticable improvement in speed. So now I'm glad I didn't spend more money on a different antenna. My next step will be to get the spotting scope out and try some different things around the property.
     
    tinkerinWstuff, Nov 11, 2014


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  6. skimad4x4

    skimad4x4 "Official" VFRWorld Greeter

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    A bigger aerial will generally help where the problem is due to a weak signal - but it probably won't make the signal quality any better - hence the SNR has not changed. Signal quality can often be more important than signal strength - a strong signal with lots of defects or drop-outs (for instance if there are lots of trees or buildings in the way) will simply result in high error correction losses and hence you see a very slow internet connection. You may want to check to see if there is another tower you could try to connect to?

    http://www.cellreception.com/towers/

    Even if a tower is further away, provided the signal quality is better you may get still get improved performance. Otherwise if the telcos still won't install a landline to your property, then some sort of informal local bridge to a DSL location may be the route you need to go.




    SkiMad
     
    skimad4x4, Nov 11, 2014


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  7. tinkerinWstuff

    tinkerinWstuff Administrator Staff Member

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    The point wasn't to make a bigger antenna but to build one that was a narrow band tuned specific for the single channel of the modem as opposed to the wide band antenna I had purchased originally.

    I'm on the same page with you regarding towers and I installed opensignal on my phone last night in order to do a better site survey. All the cell tower mapping websites seem to be incomplete.
     
    Last edited: Nov 12, 2014
    tinkerinWstuff, Nov 12, 2014


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  8. tinkerinWstuff

    tinkerinWstuff Administrator Staff Member

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    The roof has been covered in snow so I have not been able to try and connect with other towers yet.

    without antenna:
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]

    Antenna Mounted:
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]

    and it seems I forgot to save the screen shot of the speed test taken at the same time as the other. It will vary widely by time of day. At this moment I've got -78dBm and 1 SINR with a speed test of .65mb up and 2.32mb down. This weekend I was in a hotel with -90dBm and -1SINR and was pulling speeds of 2mb up and 3mb down.

    Sure sounds like a bandwidth issue on the tower....
     
    tinkerinWstuff, Nov 18, 2014


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  9. Allyance

    Allyance Member

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    Most non-cable internet connections are asynchronous, they would rather devote a higher portion of the available bandwidth to downloads than uploads to keep the majority of customers happy. When I do a speed test on my Comcast connection, I get a warning that the upload figures will be incorrect due to compression, and they are inline with your hotel tests. This is not to say that the tower you are using doesn't have bandwidth issues or a lot of users.
     
    Allyance, Nov 18, 2014


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  10. tinkerinWstuff

    tinkerinWstuff Administrator Staff Member

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    So to the northeast and a different tower instead of the northwest and the one I can see from the roof:
    [​IMG]

    Finally seeing reasonable results although not always consistent:
    [​IMG]
     
    tinkerinWstuff, Nov 22, 2014


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    #30
  11. DaHose

    DaHose New Member

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    That's a good result, Tink. Very acceptable speeds if you can get it consistent.

    There are a lot of hard core horror stories about HughesNet satellite internet. I wouldn't even consider it.

    How serious are you about getting better service? Height really makes a difference. Maybe putting your antenna 50' in the air with a signal booster is the answer. A 50' mast can be found for about $300 in kit form.


    Jose
     
    DaHose, Nov 22, 2014


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  12. DaHose

    DaHose New Member

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    DaHose, Nov 22, 2014


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  13. tinkerinWstuff

    tinkerinWstuff Administrator Staff Member

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    no business. I think I mentioned previously that I'm bordered by two schools.

    8.5meg down tonight and 4.5 up. It slowed during the day but this is best results yet.
     
    tinkerinWstuff, Nov 22, 2014


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    #33
  14. DaHose

    DaHose New Member

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    Again .... those are decent numbers Tink. If you can keep that consistent you are golden.

    Jose
     
    DaHose, Nov 22, 2014


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    #34
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