OK! Let make something which help ppl.
Everyone is welcome with PROOVEN DIY stuff from personal experience.
Firstly we have to accept, that CellC is not yet perfect. This is as iBurst in first year.
Coverage not 100%, not enough towers e.t.c.
Let's make our life easy and share tech help.
Next is something from my personal experience since nov.
1. Regardless of CellC statements i measure signal inside the house -87dB and when i move modem outside i have -73. Big difference. Brick walls.
2. Good things - in Nov it was only 1 tower - 10181. By now i can see 5(!) towers.
3. 1820 modem designed on the edge of USB tech specs. Working fine with the direct connection to the nicely powered USB2 port, but to make it working with the LONG (5M) USB extension is some times very tricky. Requires really good cable and sometimes extra capacitors on the end of the cable. 1752 is "low" speed and much more tolerant.
4. I made couple of the really working extension cables. Cable can't be longer then 5M by USB specification. All USB cables what i found in the shops are crap. Signal pair for USB cable have to be twisted pair with the impedance of 90 Ohm. No one cable uses this!!! All of them are 4 straight wire cables with the shield. So i made cable from 2 cables. First one had 1 twisted pair with the shield and another one is the simple rip cord. With length 5M it working in USB2 mode an with 7-8M it switch to USB1.1.
5. Usage of external antenna connected to the external connector of the 1820 will not use the full potential of the modem. Problem sitting with the initial connection to the tower. First handshake work only from the internal antenna and negotiated speeds are limited. Towers see the week signal level from the modem and establish link on the low speed. So, the story is to make modem signal stronger for the tower. This is only possible by concentrating emitted power from the modem to one direction. So the modem has to be in the focal point of the some type of directional reflector. Idea with the box, cowered with foil is good. Working.
I found other solution. There is the plasticware shop at the back of the Life Style centre. They sell yellow cowers for the food on the table made from metal mesh. Cost – R19.90. Shape is very good as the reflector. All what you have to do is to cover internal surface with the kitchen foil and to make round central hole (for the knob) square to fit USB connector from the modem. So the modem stay inside the dish and cable fix it from ouside (back) in the right position. With this “device” I can choose to which tower I want to connect. Mounted on the top of the old photo tripod.
With usage of the proper connection cable and this “dish” staying on the balcony my signal improve from -85 to -53dB and the speed from 3-4M to 13+ M
6. CellC chitting us! At the beginning of the story i nad negotiated UPLINK 7.6M in my garden with -71dB. During past 4-5 weeks i can't connect with such uplink speed. Only 3.8M!
7. For the ppl with the low speed connection and 1752 users - there is the USB - CAT - USB extenders. Most of them working at USB 1.1 mode. But they can work as USB etener up to 45 meeters!!! OK! Speed is limited to 12M in theory, but in practice such extender work rock stable with 6.8mbps! One can mount modem on the roof or any other good position.
8. External antenna connetor. 85mm piece of wire is the quarter wave vibrator for the 900Mb frequency. So you can "plug" such wire (0.4mm) into connector and have nearly twice speed. Working. Bend it 90 degree next to the connector to run parrallell with the modem. Cost? < 1c.
9. To prevent disconnection. It is look like if modem is idle for some time then tower "forgot" about it. To "remaind" i'm using small very old programm UOTrace. Settings are - ping cellc.co.za, ping delay - 250ms, ping buffer - 8 bytes. It is running from the one of the PC on the network and keep connection alive.
http://www.speedtest.net/result/1145238543.png
Everyone is welcome with PROOVEN DIY stuff from personal experience.
Firstly we have to accept, that CellC is not yet perfect. This is as iBurst in first year.
Coverage not 100%, not enough towers e.t.c.
Let's make our life easy and share tech help.
Next is something from my personal experience since nov.
1. Regardless of CellC statements i measure signal inside the house -87dB and when i move modem outside i have -73. Big difference. Brick walls.
2. Good things - in Nov it was only 1 tower - 10181. By now i can see 5(!) towers.
3. 1820 modem designed on the edge of USB tech specs. Working fine with the direct connection to the nicely powered USB2 port, but to make it working with the LONG (5M) USB extension is some times very tricky. Requires really good cable and sometimes extra capacitors on the end of the cable. 1752 is "low" speed and much more tolerant.
4. I made couple of the really working extension cables. Cable can't be longer then 5M by USB specification. All USB cables what i found in the shops are crap. Signal pair for USB cable have to be twisted pair with the impedance of 90 Ohm. No one cable uses this!!! All of them are 4 straight wire cables with the shield. So i made cable from 2 cables. First one had 1 twisted pair with the shield and another one is the simple rip cord. With length 5M it working in USB2 mode an with 7-8M it switch to USB1.1.
5. Usage of external antenna connected to the external connector of the 1820 will not use the full potential of the modem. Problem sitting with the initial connection to the tower. First handshake work only from the internal antenna and negotiated speeds are limited. Towers see the week signal level from the modem and establish link on the low speed. So, the story is to make modem signal stronger for the tower. This is only possible by concentrating emitted power from the modem to one direction. So the modem has to be in the focal point of the some type of directional reflector. Idea with the box, cowered with foil is good. Working.
I found other solution. There is the plasticware shop at the back of the Life Style centre. They sell yellow cowers for the food on the table made from metal mesh. Cost – R19.90. Shape is very good as the reflector. All what you have to do is to cover internal surface with the kitchen foil and to make round central hole (for the knob) square to fit USB connector from the modem. So the modem stay inside the dish and cable fix it from ouside (back) in the right position. With this “device” I can choose to which tower I want to connect. Mounted on the top of the old photo tripod.
With usage of the proper connection cable and this “dish” staying on the balcony my signal improve from -85 to -53dB and the speed from 3-4M to 13+ M
6. CellC chitting us! At the beginning of the story i nad negotiated UPLINK 7.6M in my garden with -71dB. During past 4-5 weeks i can't connect with such uplink speed. Only 3.8M!
7. For the ppl with the low speed connection and 1752 users - there is the USB - CAT - USB extenders. Most of them working at USB 1.1 mode. But they can work as USB etener up to 45 meeters!!! OK! Speed is limited to 12M in theory, but in practice such extender work rock stable with 6.8mbps! One can mount modem on the roof or any other good position.
8. External antenna connetor. 85mm piece of wire is the quarter wave vibrator for the 900Mb frequency. So you can "plug" such wire (0.4mm) into connector and have nearly twice speed. Working. Bend it 90 degree next to the connector to run parrallell with the modem. Cost? < 1c.
9. To prevent disconnection. It is look like if modem is idle for some time then tower "forgot" about it. To "remaind" i'm using small very old programm UOTrace. Settings are - ping cellc.co.za, ping delay - 250ms, ping buffer - 8 bytes. It is running from the one of the PC on the network and keep connection alive.
http://www.speedtest.net/result/1145238543.png
Last edited:
