ISP rant

[poppo]

I live rural and high speed Internet options are very limited. No cable and no DSL any time soon. So I started with satellite (WildBlue). It was ok all things considered. Download speed was about 1Mbps. But the biggest drawbacks were latency >700ms, bandwidth caps, and high price ($79.00 month). After a couple of years, I switched to a Sprint data card. Download speeds were about the same, latency was good and they had no caps (at first) and it was slightly cheaper at $59.00 month (but had a 2 year contract). Finally we got a WISP (last May). Download speeds were ok in the day (around 2Mbps), no limits, and it was only $30.00 a month with no contract. The only drawback was I had to pay about $400 for a 50' mast to put the antenna on, and the speeds slowed down a bit in the evenings. But overall it was the best deal.

So they finally did some upgrades over the weekend and speeds were great. I was getting nearly 6Mbps during prime time (about the limit of the system) . All was good until a piece of equipment failed on their end. They replaced it, and speeds were ok for a couple of hours and then dropped to like 200K (and stayed there). After going around and around with them (I talked face to face with the head tech and we verified it was not my computers) I was told that since nobody else was having a problem I was SOL. And if I was not happy with the service I was free to cancel it. 

Needless to say I am furious. There really is not much I can do since there is no contract. I guess they feel that it's not cost effective to have anyone spend any time on it for what they are charging, and they don't give a darn about customer service since there is no competition.  

Looks like I may have to go back to Sprint (only carrier with coverage out here).

[jay]

I would see if you could find some of their other customers and check out their systems.
With 50ft masts they should be easy to spot.

Having invested in the mast and such it would be a shame to abandon it.
Is there any kind of signal diagnostics you can do ?

It's possible that they are running fine and your pc is fine but the receiver is misaligned or the active equipment and/or modem is shot.
Maybe you could beg some spares for diagnostic purposes.

[stayouttadabunker]

Maybe you could beg some spares for diagnostic purposes.

"You will kneel down!"

                                - Elizabeth Taylor to Julius Caesar in Cleopatra

[poppo]

Not everyone is on the same access point on the tower. So it would be difficult to know who to ask.

The 'modem' is actually built into the radio at the top of the mast. All that comes down from it is a CAT5 cable that goes into my computer or router and has a power inserter connected to it.

Now I did think of something. Early on they had to turn it to point it at a different tower. That kinked/pinched the cable near the top, and the bottom part literally flaps in the breeze. All of that flapping in the breeze may have worn though or is causing other problems. That may be why they can talk to the radio fine, but I may be having a problem between the radio and my computer/router.

This picture was from before they turned it. Now it faces toward where I took the picture from.

[brichter]

Are you in "Hill Country"?  50 feet seems like a tall mast, when I had Sprint out here the antenna was another 4 feet off the roof of my single story place...

[poppo]

Are you in "Hill Country"? 

No, just pretty far out. The towers are located on things like grain silos so they are not very high to begin with. Since the WISP is line of sight, the higher the better. I originally had it on my old TV antenna which was 20' up, but that was not cutting it. Actually this on is only 45' because the installer made the guy wires too short. I ended up having to re-do much of the work including adding tensioners, but I didn't mess with raising it any more since it worked fine.

[poppo]

Here is a picture of the cable at the top of the mast after they turned it.   

[stayouttadabunker]

ohh!....That was smart....

[poppo]

Since then I rotated the guy wires to relieve the stress. But I don't know what damage was already done. The section that concerns me more is the next segment down. This one has no tie strap on it and the wind (and we get a lot) makes the cable vibrate like a guitar string. It has been chaffing on the ring/wire for about 10 months.

[stayouttadabunker]

Probably not the easiest thing to do considering the height but what
if there was a hole near the top of the pipe and a hole near the bottom -
couldn't you just drop the whole wire down inside and run it out the lower hole near the base?
I can't imagine that's a solid staff?

[poppo]

Probably not the easiest thing to do considering the height but what
if there was a hole near the top of the pipe and a hole near the bottom -
couldn't you just drop the whole wire down inside and run it out the lower hole near the base?

Oh, that would have actually made sense. The only issue I can see is needing some sort of grommets to protect the cable. The mast is telescoping, so it would have been easy to do it that way.

They originally just had the mast sitting on the ground. That of course caused it to start to sink into the ground.   So I ended up fabricating this. I have the mast bolted to two 1/4" steel metal plates that are embedded in concrete. The PVC allows protection from damage and also allows me access to the brackets attached to the mast in case it ever needs to be turned again. I ended up spending about another $100  doing it right. None of the guy wire ground mounts were cemented. They just had the rods stuck in the ground.

[poppo]

Another picture of a fix I made. The rest of the guy wires just went to these crappy T-posts. I put them in concrete and also ran another wire to help brace the post. I also installed the turnbuckles to adjust tension. With the winds we get there, it would not still be standing if I had left it the way they did it.

[brichter]

They originally just had the mast sitting on the ground. That of course caused it to start to sink into the ground.  
 

Wait, what?

Oh, I get it: You're in Texas, so they were drilling for oil with the mast.

[poppo]

 

So I stop at the ISP office again today, and really tried to remain cool and calm.  That lasted for all of 2 minutes. Again I was told that there was nothing wrong with the system and then I got a lecture on 'the laws of physics'. This bonehead was trying to tell me that those laws just decided to change at 9:00pm on Tuesday after 10 months of being fine. BTW, this time one of the owners was present (but has an equally bad attitude).

But I finally trapped him with his own words. He was claiming that it was 'atmospheric' or something else that was interfering with the signal. But then he said that the logs show that my radio has been working perfectly. I asked him how could it be working perfectly that be if there was interference? It was then that the owner finally admitted that there may be something going on, and he is going to look into it.

I'm not going to hold my breath though.

[stormrider]

So I stop at the ISP office again today, and really tried to remain cool and calm.   That lasted for all of 2 minutes. Again I was told that there was nothing wrong with the system and then I got a lecture on 'the laws of physics'. This bonehead was trying to tell me that those laws just decided to change at 9:00pm on Tuesday after 10 months of being fine. BTW, this time one of the owners was present (but has an equally bad attitude).

But I finally trapped him with his own words. He was claiming that it was 'atmospheric' or something else that was interfering with the signal. But then he said that the logs show that my radio has been working perfectly. I asked him how could it be working perfectly that be if there was interference? It was then that the owner finally admitted that there may be something going on, and he is going to look into it.

I'm not going to hold my breath though.

 'atmospheric' LOL like what an aurora.....In know way am I a expert here and I find this thread interesting
but why would you run cat5 such a long distance there must be some kind of line loss going on here which such a long run
what do you have at the top of the tower is it a dish or some kind of quad antenna,funny that the installer
made the guy wires to short must have been a newbie or just quit working at radio shack.

Anyway good luck with this battle poppo and keep us posted.

Tim

I just thought of something this is wireless correct
what are the chances someone is leaching off you is it secured ?
Heck with it stop paying for it and spin the thing around and leach off someone else for free.....LOL

[poppo]

but why would you run cat5 such a long distance there must be some kind of line loss going on here

The radio is a self contained unit. It has the radio and 'WISP router' built in. So all you need is a CAT5 cable to your computer or your own router (connected to a power inserter first). I think the max cable length is 325 feet. I'm only using about 150 feet. I sort of ruled out the cable though. I ran a logging ping test and went out and shook the cable every which way and it never skipped a beat. The fact that the speeds come to a crawl mostly during prime time leads me to believe that they mis-configured something after replacing the failed unit on the tower.

[brichter]

[The fact that the speeds come to a crawl mostly during prime time leads me to believe that they mis-configured something after replacing the failed unit on the tower.

Or they're oversubscribed on that tower...

[poppo]

Or they're oversubscribed on that tower...

No. Before this weekend the worse it ever got was maybe around 800Kbps during prime time.They did some system upgrades last weekend. That got the speeds back up even during prime time (>4Mbps). But then they had an equipment failure on the tower. After the equipment was replaced the speeds went up even more. I was getting 6Mps at 8:30pm! But then about 9:00pm on Tuesday things took a dump and have not been right ever since. Now I get ~200Kbps in the evenings. I never had that low of speeds even before the upgrades. Daytime is still above 3Mbps, but still not as stable as it was before they replaced the tower equipment.  

Personally, I think they miss-configured something after replacing the equipment that is causing some sort of bottleneck.

[jay]

My speculation at this point is that given the posted picture of the twisted cable around your mast is that your wires are broken or loose.

In my cable TV and antenna experience...... they use coax cables - the coax core is solid.

This core can easily get broken as it is a single solid strand. Its broken when the cable is sharply bent.
Sometimes the break is not obvious becasue it happens inside the wire. Because antennas work on antenuation which is where the signal is carried between the sheild and the core when the core (or sheild) is broken the result is a loss of signal strength and not a toal loss of signal.

[poppo]

My speculation at this point is that given the posted picture of the twisted cable around your mast is that your wires are broken or loose.

I really don't think so any more. This is very time dependent. It slows down during prime time and then gets better as it gets later and past midnight. And as I noted, I really fiddled with that cable and it never glitched. As we speak things are already down to 2Mbps and dropping.

BTW, they told me that they would replace the cable, but I would have to pay for it even though they are the ones who did that. Doh!

[jay]

I just re-read your posts - your not using an antenna. You noted it was self contained and your just running a CAT5.
I doubt that it is the cable now as well.

Are you able to change the channel on the wirless ? Could be your neighbors Microwave (or verizons or at&t's) that crosses your line of sight.

[poppo]

Are you able to change the channel on the wirless ? Could be your neighbors Microwave (or verizons or at&t's) that crosses your line of sight.

I have no contol over the radio.

Neighbors? What are those? 

[poppo]

Also any other interfence would happen suddenly. This is a slow decline (other than the sudden drop on Tuesday) as more people get home and get on line. It almost has to be a bottleneck caused by something.

[StatFreak]

Ah HA! I see your problem. It's those crop circles from outer space between you and the tower!   


Seriously, is it possible that they set up high traffic bandwidth throttling on their end without telling anyone?

[poppo]

Seriously, is it possible that they set up high traffic bandwidth throttling on their end without telling anyone?

It may be throttling related, but I don't do any streaming or anything other than if someone posts a youtube video or something here. My usage is less than 300MB per day (and that is spread out over the whole day because I'm retired). But again, they may have something mis-configured. Unfortunately every time I try to suggest something like that to them, I get told I don't know what I'm talking about.