Basestation 36 - Halfway gardens

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MichelleC

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Has anybody else had trouble connecting to this basestation since Saturday?
I haven't been able to pick it up at all since they did a "frequency change". I finally found this out on Tuesday after having to deal with 1st line support for 2 days. (Please switch off your modem, please reboot your pc, etc. etc.)
They were doing wimax testing or something & rolled back on Wednesday but I still haven't been able to connect :mad:

They're now trying to convince me to connect to basestation 82... it picks it up, but I have never been able to connect to it, so I'm stuck. Their latest suggestion is a driver upgrade :confused:

What to do?!?!?!
 
In all honesty, I'm suprise someone is still actually using Sentech.

What do you do? Get something else... this will solve your problems fastest and you NEVER have to deal with this crap again.

If money is an issue I'll PAY you to not use Sentech, hows that sound?
 
Oh there are still a few out there - and they can get some pretty decent speeds as the congestion resembles a 4-lane highway at 3am.

MichelleC, the problem here is, seeing as you're on that Midrand tower you're blerry far away from any OTHER tower they have and, for all that your modem can pick that #82 up, it's going to ignore you as it has been programmed to do so: you're too far away. In their infinite *gag*wisdom*choke*, Stinktech locked maximum tower distance to around 5km (I think I had a personal best of 5.4km) and even if you can see one further away it's sorry for you, you'll never get a connection to it.

As to driver upgrade, describe your modem: does it lean over at an angle in its cradle and have a black face with lots of lights or is it the fully rectangular one that stands up and has only a couple of teeny-weeny li'l lights on top?

Oh, and if you have to stay wireless (e.g. no ADSL possible) itBust :rolleyes: has better coverage in the area anyway - maybe worth thinking about?
 
On returning home yesterday we found that basestation 36 had made a comeback :D

Unfortunately I forked out for a sentech modem & a high gain antennae so I'm not willing to give it up just yet, and as bdt pointed out, the speeds are not bad at all ;)

bdt: Thanks for the info about the 5km range! Is there somewhere you can get the GPS co-ordinates of the basestations?
The modem is the one that stands up in the cradle with only a few lights on the top.

Is the My Signal software any good?
 
MichelleC said:
Unfortunately I forked out for a sentech modem & a high gain antenna[-]e[/-] so I'm not willing to give it up just yet, and as bdt pointed out, the speeds are not bad at all ;)

bdt: Thanks for the info about the 5km range! Is there somewhere you can get the GPS co-ordinates of the basestations?
Click to expand...
Sure, I have 'em in the GPS I used while I was putting HGAs up all the time, it's a bit of a mission to get 'em out again but I can likely find that 082 tower near you.
The modem is the one that stands up in the cradle with only a few lights on the top.
Click to expand...
Then you've got the IP1D (i.e. 'new') modem. The modem dialer has a tab that shows your firmware version, what is yours on?

Is the My Signal software any good?
Click to expand...
Particularly so, you get a wealth of info from it.
 
Tower 36 has died again... I haven't been able to pick it up since Monday night :(
Does anybody know what's up?
I called Sentech this morning & was simply told that they were busy with it.
I have 3Gb's left this month so the timing of this really SUCKS! :( :(
 
MichelleC said:
Tower 36 has died again... I haven't been able to pick it up since Monday night :(
Does anybody know what's up?
I called Sentech this morning & was simply told that they were busy with it.
I have 3Gb's left this month so the timing of this really SUCKS! :( :(
Click to expand...

They eventually had some chaps up the tower on WEDNESDAY morning. It would appear, from my dialer, that I now connect to Base Station 16. The connection is absolutely shocking, with 25-40% packet loss any which way I test it.

I'm going to keep the ticket open until it's fixed, and I don't care how bad it makes their call-centre stats look.
 
Last edited:
I'm still down.
Called support & they reckon it's resolved :confused:
Aaaaaagggghhhh
 
MichelleC said:
I'm still down.
Called support & they reckon it's resolved :confused:
Aaaaaagggghhhh
Click to expand...

Well, considering it took them 12 hours to even acknowledge the problem in the first place, I'm not surprised. Keep at them, and good luck.

I'm waiting for the usual "can we close the ticket?" call, so I can chat with them some more ;) .
 
I asked them to open a ticket for me, up until today they kept telling me that they were working on it, and didn't log it.
I've asked them to transfer my remaining 3 1/2 Gb over to next month, but they first have to request that from the customer care manager, who will then need to speak to the finance manager... in other words, forget about it!
It's total bull!!!!!
 
Nova2020: I can connect to 16 now as well, but it's TERRIBLE.

Resolving host 'www.sentech.co.za'
Pinging [66.18.65.124] x 4 with 32 bytes of data

Reply from 66.18.65.124 : Timed out
Reply from 66.18.65.124 : Timed out
Reply from 66.18.65.124 : bytes=32 : time=2850 ms
Reply from 66.18.65.124 : bytes=32 : time=2868 ms
Min=2850 : Max=2868 : Ave=2859 ms : Packetloss = 50%

... and I'm already using a high gain antennae.
 
MichelleC said:
I asked them to open a ticket for me, up until today they kept telling me that they were working on it, and didn't log it.
I've asked them to transfer my remaining 3 1/2 Gb over to next month, but they first have to request that from the customer care manager, who will then need to speak to the finance manager... in other words, forget about it!
It's total bull!!!!!
Click to expand...

That support ticket is essential if you hope to have problems addressed. If you call with a problem, insist on a ticket if it isn't resolved by the end of the call.

MichelleC said:
Nova2020: I can connect to 16 now as well, but it's TERRIBLE.

Resolving host 'www.sentech.co.za'
Pinging [66.18.65.124] x 4 with 32 bytes of data

Reply from 66.18.65.124 : Timed out
Reply from 66.18.65.124 : Timed out
Reply from 66.18.65.124 : bytes=32 : time=2850 ms
Reply from 66.18.65.124 : bytes=32 : time=2868 ms
Min=2850 : Max=2868 : Ave=2859 ms : Packetloss = 50%

... and I'm already using a high gain antennae.
Click to expand...

Last call I had from them seems to indicate that they have some form of "adaptive shaping", which apparently will need to "relearn" your usage patterns, and prioritise the appropriate ports. My connection is slowly improving, so with any luck, yours will too. Keep the ticket open until you're satisfied.
 
Packet loss way down now, hitting 4% at worst. Either the software pulled finger, or the techies did. :p

Hopefully sparkling clean line soon. :cool:
 
The wind changed & I lost tower 16.

I pick it up occasionally but it doesn't respond when I try to connect.

:mad:

If they don't get tower 32 back I'm gonna have to cancel my contract & find something else.

Anybody interested in a Sentech modem & high gain antennae?
 
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