Does external antenna really work?

[Freddo the Frog]

Take a look with iConnect

I have an external antennae mounted indoors on the side of my desk. When my UTD does that funky thing where it disconnects you every 5 seconds or so as it can’t decide on which tower to connect to I plug in the external antennae. This definitely sorts out the disconnecting and for a short while the speed problems. After a while (between 1 hour and 2 days) speed dies again and I unplug the antennae. Speed is up until disconnects start again.

So in summary I get some use out of it, nothing remarkable but use nonetheless. Having it outside made no difference.

It sounds to me like your external antenna is not pointing to the strongest signal so that you are selecting different towers with the antenna connected and disconnected.

Get a copy of iConnect and use it to help you position your antenna to get the best signal. It makes an enormous difference. Use the coverage maps on the WBS website to give you an idea which way to point it. My vote goes to iConnect for most useful piece of software this year.

Now the new tower is up in Randpark Ridge I have rotated my antenna towards it and am getting -66dB instead of the -78dB I was getting from Northcliff. Last speed test >800Kb/s. Thanks WBS.