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coffeebaron
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  #1916817 11-Dec-2017 15:25
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I've been using these now x2 for my extended range installs. https://www.gowifi.co.nz/antennas-700-900/ant-213.html But it does sound like peak time congestion too.

 

Can you get any more height, e.g. top of roof, 2m mast?

 

 





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Rikkitic

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  #1916996 11-Dec-2017 20:53
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coffeebaron:

 

I've been using these now x2 for my extended range installs. https://www.gowifi.co.nz/antennas-700-900/ant-213.html But it does sound like peak time congestion too.

 

Can you get any more height, e.g. top of roof, 2m mast?

 

 

 

 

I have two of the ANT0627Y11 698-2700 Mhz Wideband antennas. These were sold by Gowifi at the time. They are rated at 11 dbi gain. At the time I tried every possible configuration and position that I could. They are on part of the roof, fairly high up, but I also experimented with placing them higher and at different angles. My tests at the time were fairly exhaustive. In the end, the best result I could get was with them vertically oriented, stacked one above the other, but not especially high off the roof. I tried greater height but it didn't seem to help. I think it was actually slightly worse. These antennas gave me constant download test speeds of around 40-50 Mbps for a long time, but over time they have deteriorated. Now I am lucky to get 20 Mbps, and that only at four in the morning.

 

I also think there is a mast congestion issue, but maybe also something else. The fact that my speeds are way down even when traffic is minimal says something. I also notice that signal strength seems to be poorer. But I don't have the means to test any of this properly. I really do need someone to come out here with the right equipment. I will push my provider but at this stage I might have more confidence in an independent analysis.

 

 

 

 





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hio77
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  #1917007 11-Dec-2017 21:43
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Rikkitic:

 

I have two of the ANT0627Y11 698-2700 Mhz Wideband antennas. These were sold by Gowifi at the time. They are rated at 11 dbi gain. At the time I tried every possible configuration and position that I could. They are on part of the roof, fairly high up, but I also experimented with placing them higher and at different angles. My tests at the time were fairly exhaustive. In the end, the best result I could get was with them vertically oriented, stacked one above the other, but not especially high off the roof. I tried greater height but it didn't seem to help. I think it was actually slightly worse. These antennas gave me constant download test speeds of around 40-50 Mbps for a long time, but over time they have deteriorated. Now I am lucky to get 20 Mbps, and that only at four in the morning.

 

I also think there is a mast congestion issue, but maybe also something else. The fact that my speeds are way down even when traffic is minimal says something. I also notice that signal strength seems to be poorer. But I don't have the means to test any of this properly. I really do need someone to come out here with the right equipment. I will push my provider but at this stage I might have more confidence in an independent analysis.

 

 

Antennas are an interesting thing...

 

 

 

Often they are installed for the visible thing, latency, Speed etc.

 

Installing them to improve the underlying radio stats, may stabilize things far better in the long run. 

 

 





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Any comments made are personal opinion and do not reflect directly on the position my current or past employers may have.

 

 




coffeebaron
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  #1917012 11-Dec-2017 21:53
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Also mobile network is not static. As new sites come online / sites upgraded etc; network can re-optimise. I.E. cellsite antenna panels can realign, power levels can change. The upshot is that sometimes marginal areas can actually degrade. I've seen this happen a few times.




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Rikkitic

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  #1917121 12-Dec-2017 08:41
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I sure wish it wouldn't keep happening to me. As an added note, we are far out in the countryside (probably 20-25 km from the mast) and surrounded by hills so there should be no other signals coming from different directions. Any mast we might connect to is in the same direction towards Hastings and Napier and the one we do connect to is many times stronger than the others. In the distant past, at one point when we were having all kinds of problems, we did go through a brief period of mast hopping, but there was some other issue underlying that. 

 

 

 

 





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Linux
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  #1917124 12-Dec-2017 08:48
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Rikkitic:

 

I sure wish it wouldn't keep happening to me. As an added note, we are far out in the countryside (probably 20-25 km from the mast) and surrounded by hills so there should be no other signals coming from different directions. Any mast we might connect to is in the same direction towards Hastings and Napier and the one we do connect to is many times stronger than the others. In the distant past, at one point when we were having all kinds of problems, we did go through a brief period of mast hopping, but there was some other issue underlying that. 

 

 

20 to 25km is quite a distance from a serving cell and you are surrounded by hills, Sorry but I am not sure what you are expecting, All it would take is for some trees to grow a bit taller / fatter and there goes the quality of signal down the toilet

 

Anything could of changed on the serving cell as well, Small azimuth change by 1 degree would impact signal at the distance you are

 

Mobile networks are not static and config changes are happening all the time

 

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Rikkitic

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  #1917167 12-Dec-2017 09:40
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Linux:

 

20 to 25km is quite a distance from a serving cell and you are surrounded by hills, Sorry but I am not sure what you are expecting, All it would take is for some trees to grow a bit taller / fatter and there goes the quality of signal down the toilet

 

Anything could of changed on the serving cell as well, Small azimuth change by 1 degree would impact signal at the distance you are

 

Mobile networks are not static and config changes are happening all the time

 

Linux

 

 

@Linux: What I am expecting? At this stage, it is more what I am hoping for, but yes, I do have a minimal expectation. We are paying around $130/month for this service. Initially it worked okay. Then for a time it worked very well. Until recently it worked acceptably. Now, it barely works at all. It works for our phone. It works for email. It works for browsing Geekzone. It does not work for streaming, especially when the resolution of the stream cannot be reduced to avoid buffering.

 

Is this an acceptable service for $130? Am I being unrealistic in my expectations? Try putting yourself in my place. It is incredibly frustrating. I feel like I am back in the days of dial-up. Part of my frustration is with my own limited technical know-how. If I knew why this was happening, and what if anything I might be able to do to improve it, my frustration level would go way down. At the moment I just feel helpless. I can get a technician to come out here at some expense, but what is the point if he is just going to tell me that nothing can be done? At the very least, I would like to be able to improve my understanding of the problem so I can have a sensible discussion about it with an expert, or my ISP, or whoever. At the moment I am just floundering and that also adds to my frustration. If a tree is in my way, so be it, but I would like to at least know that that actually is the problem so I can start thinking about how to solve it. I don't want to go around cutting trees down if it doesn't make any difference.

 

 

 

 





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  #1917171 12-Dec-2017 09:42
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@Rikkitic are you in an official RBI area as per the RBI coverage map or outside of it?

 

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Rikkitic

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  #1917209 12-Dec-2017 10:24
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It is a bit hard to say. When I looked at the map in the past, we seemed to be right on the edge, either just inside or just outside. It is hilly country and the coverage is all over the place. I just looked again and we may or may not  be in the extended coverage area. It would help if Vodafone included a scale on the map. Without one I can't tell if our house is in the coverage area. It may only be referring to the hill behind our house. But obviously, we do have coverage since we have been using this for years and still are now, even if it isn't working very well. 

 

We are blocked in by hills on all sides but one. Where we are not blocked is in the direction of Hastings and Napier, where the mast is. We don't quite have line of sight (we do from the hill behind the house) as there is a low hill in the distance but that does not prevent the signal from reaching us.

 

Edit: Just added a note to point out that modern cell phones do work from our house without apparent problems. The older ones didn't.

 

 





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Rikkitic

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  #1917372 12-Dec-2017 12:48
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I finally got around to checking my antennas. I put this off because it is awkward. One does not appear to be doing much at all, and I have to check that further. But one thing that strikes me is that I get 'good' reception without any antenna at all. The Huawei falls back to 3G, signal indicator jumps up to three or four bars, and I can browse without any problem. A speed test gives me around 3 Mbps down, which is about what I am getting on 4G at high use times, like early evening. With the external antennas I was getting up to 20 Mbps before I started testing. Then it went down to around 13 Mbps, but that was on just one external antenna. I don't know what significance, if any, to place on the relatively good 3G reception with just internal antennas. I know it is at a different frequency, with different characteristics, but it does seem to indicate that I don't have much problem getting some kind of signal at my location.

 

 

 

 





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coffeebaron
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  #1917500 12-Dec-2017 15:48
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Change router setting to prefer UMTS if you want it on 3G (with external antenna's attached)

 

 





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Broadband troubleshooting and master filter installs.
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Rikkitic

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  #1917504 12-Dec-2017 15:56
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I don't, really. Would that improve performance? 

 

 





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Apsattv
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  #1917627 12-Dec-2017 17:47
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Another thing to remember at this time of year is atmospheric conditions can cause long distance reception and other signal issues , the 700 mhz band can be affected.  I use to get quite regular UHF tv signals direct from Auckland down to Nelson around mid December every year.

 

 

 

 


Rikkitic

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  #1917653 12-Dec-2017 18:59
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Apsattv:

 

Another thing to remember at this time of year is atmospheric conditions can cause long distance reception and other signal issues , the 700 mhz band can be affected.  I use to get quite regular UHF tv signals direct from Auckland down to Nelson around mid December every year.

 

 

I am intrigued by this. Especially since it was also about this time of year, with similar weather, the last time our Internet went to hell. I attributed it to congestion from kids on holiday. Interference from other transmissions never occurred to me, especially with our location. How would I go about finding out if this actually might be involved?

 

On a side note, I am impressed that you could get Auckland UHF in Nelson. I had no idea 700 mhz signals could propagate like that.

 

  





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Apsattv
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  #1917754 12-Dec-2017 23:23
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You can look here at a "prediction"

 

http://www.dxinfocentre.com/tropo_aus.html

 

The usual sign of the band being open was the FM band filling up with Auckland stations. Of course the band wasnt chocka with local fm station back then. The TV was still analogue so quite easy to go hunting for analogue reception.

 

I saw the original maori tv,,horizon regional channels,mtv, , max tv, Triangle tv , Juice tv, Prime TV and track side up on channel 59 etc along with all the encrypted sky channels, also tvnz had a test signal from the sky tower the signal would fade in and out one min full colour and full nicam stereo the next minute nothing. All just using a small uhf antenna pointed north, no booster etc.

 

 

 

 

 

 


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