Skinny Fixed Broadband - Optimal Setup?

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Shrapz

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#223677 12-Oct-2017 08:43

I am in the unfortunate situation of having to go back to ADSL and am looking for an alternative, Skinny Fixed Broadband jumped at me as an alternative that would work, provided we used less than 200GB per month ($100 worth of data plans).

I see Skinny provide an indoor modem, but want to increase my chances of a decent speed by either installing a decent antenna on the roof and a better modem or both.

So questions being...

1. Is the Skinny modem decent and can an external antenna be fitted to it?

2. Are there any other better modems that are compatible and could be connected to the skinny network?

3. Any suggestions for a decent directional antenna?

4. Can the current skinny modem be powered by POE?

Thanks!

Linux

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#1882252 12-Oct-2017 08:46

1) If you are close to the serving cell adding an extrtnal antenna may not add much value

2) Skinny modems can only be used as they are locked to the SIM cards (TAC locked)

3) See point 1

4) Nope

Linux

Shrapz

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#1882256 12-Oct-2017 08:49

Linux:

1) If you are close to the serving cell adding an extrtnal antenna may not add much value

2) Skinny modems can only be used as they are locked to the SIM cards (TAC locked)

3) See point 1

4) Nope

Linux

Thanks!

2-3 bars from my cell, we are "fairly" close to the tower but have some trees in the way

alasta

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#1882274 12-Oct-2017 09:00

I have Vodafone fixed wireless, and I assume that Skinny probably also use the same Huawei B315 router. If so then one thing to be aware of it that the wifi isn't very good and it doesn't appear to support bridge mode which complicated things for me when connecting my Airport Extreme to it.

PhantomNVD

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#1882275 12-Oct-2017 09:00

I have had a Skinny BB setup since it went live, and it’s really good for those who can’t get xDSL/fibre. I did find a slight increase when I first set it up by positioning it at various different places in my house...the right window (luckily in my case this is in the attached garage) added a ‘bar’ of signal and about 8mbs speed at peak download (Speedtest).

I was a marginal case to start with, and the tower was 27kms away as the crow flies...so only got around 15mbs down... a few months later I then invested $22 in a couple AliExpress 5dbi aerials to hopefully improve signal and speed... this unfortunately (or fortunately!) was in the post just as they upgraded my loca tower and I went straight to 40-45mbs down.

Since then (over months) this has slowly tapered back to around 15mbs download during peak NFlix time presumably due to growing uptake (ie congestion). Since I had the aerials anyway I did tinker with them even after the tower upgrade, but found no significant benefit at all.

Linux

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#1882278 12-Oct-2017 09:04

In this case an external antenna may help but of course it comes back to the capacity of the serving cell as well

Linux

alasta

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#1882285 12-Oct-2017 09:09

The above example seems like a good case for an aerial, however in my case I live on a hillside and I have positioned the modem on a windowsill that has line of sight to the nearby shopping village which achieves five bars of signal, dropping to four bars occasionally.

I would suggest that whether you need an external antenna really depends on your location.

PhantomNVD

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#1882296 12-Oct-2017 09:19

Also, when you get the unit, there are only 3 bars on the lights outside the box, but in the software their scale is a more accurate 5 bars...

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Shrapz

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#1882414 12-Oct-2017 12:38

Thanks Guys

I went ahead and ordered the Skinny modem today and also ordered an external 4g Yagi Antenna for the roof.

Will do some testing with and without the antenna and give some feedback, likely next week!

Antenna: http://cellutronics.co.nz/Buy_Now_AY12-700.php

hio77

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#1882425 12-Oct-2017 12:44

PoE is possible if you get crafty, not supported out of the box.

#include <std_disclaimer>

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

SATTV

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#1882435 12-Oct-2017 13:14

Shrapz:

Thanks Guys

I went ahead and ordered the Skinny modem today and also ordered an external 4g Yagi Antenna for the roof.

Will do some testing with and without the antenna and give some feedback, likely next week!

Antenna: http://cellutronics.co.nz/Buy_Now_AY12-700.php

You should have ordered two antenna as this is a MIMO system. There are a few threads on here saying that when they put on the second antenna they doubled their speed.

Hopefully your location uses 700MHz, my area, New Windsor, Auckland, Spark does not use 700MHz.

I had skinny for a while but the deal breaker for me was no public IP address, also sometimes had great performance and sometimes dial up was faster.

John

I know enough to be dangerous

Shrapz

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#1882436 12-Oct-2017 13:18

SATTV:

Shrapz:

Thanks Guys

I went ahead and ordered the Skinny modem today and also ordered an external 4g Yagi Antenna for the roof.

Will do some testing with and without the antenna and give some feedback, likely next week!

Antenna: http://cellutronics.co.nz/Buy_Now_AY12-700.php

You should have ordered two antenna as this is a MIMO system. There are a few threads on here saying that when they put on the second antenna they doubled their speed.

Hopefully your location uses 700MHz, my area, New Windsor, Auckland, Spark does not use 700MHz.

I had skinny for a while but the deal breaker for me was no public IP address, also sometimes had great performance and sometimes dial up was faster.

John

Thanks for the info, I will give it a go with the single antenna and grab a second if i need to

hio77

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Lizard Networks

#1882439 12-Oct-2017 13:25

SATTV:

Hopefully your location uses 700MHz, my area, New Windsor, Auckland, Spark does not use 700MHz.

Please DM me your address, New windsor is covered from all angles i can see with both 1800 and 700 overlays.

#include <std_disclaimer>

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

Shrapz

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#1884640 16-Oct-2017 22:11

Hi Guys

Got setup today with the new modem, get about 15mbit / 5mbit with 2/3 bars of signal

With the external antenna i can get 25/30 with 3/4 bars of signal. - This pointed in the general direction of a known tower, have not set it properly with compass headings yet.

There are two Spark towers nearby, one to the south and one to the west, is there any way to tell which tower i am currently connected to? I assume that I would be connected to the tower that my antenna is pointing at but you never know..

Can the modem give more details such as dB readings instead of just the dumb 5 bar signal graph?

Cheers!

am289

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#1911961 2-Dec-2017 13:32

I also have a B315 on a fixed Skinny wireless. I am have had numerous problems with the wireless. In particular some devices won’t connect, or will connect and then after half an hour will report password incorrect and bump off network. I haven’t had time to look into it, but it seems to happen to numerous devices so I’ve assumed its the router.

I can’t remember about signal figures, on my other B315 (not on skinny) certainly does, but Skinny’s one I’m not sure.

Did you manage to improve the speed by making adjustments with the antenna?