GWISA=SCREAMER

[rebel998]

What CPE and antenna are you using??

I suspect you're on the edge of their signal cloud.

 

[Rocket-Boy]

Why not get the CellC usb modem deal, im sure that something capable of 21mb is faster than what you had and it includes 5GB per month.

 

[murray654]

Why not get the CellC usb modem deal, im sure that something capable of 21mb is faster than what you had and it includes 5GB per month.

Thats if you live inside the red dots on their coverage map, I live in the pink haze (Roaming on Vodacom) I have a cell C modem for personal internet, but not reliable enough for business.

Could not send email for example.

What CPE and antenna are you using??

I suspect you're on the edge of their signal cloud.

Mikrotik RB411 - Grid Antennae - signal strength -75dBm; Signal to noise 29dB; Tx/Rx CCQ 83/73%

Pings to the close parts of the network are under 7ms (0% packet loss) - pings to the internet are at times 50ms (25% packet loss), at time 100% packet loss (host unreachable)

Final results from my monitoring of the Screamer connection before I unplug it. December downtime 68 hours = 30% of these 9.5 days.

 

[Rocket-Boy]

Murray Im amazed that you lived with it for that long!
I would have had nothing rather than pay for something that doesnt work. Lets hope you can get some form of reliable connectivity on your next connection.

 

[murray654]

Murray Im amazed that you lived with it for that long!
I would have had nothing rather than pay for something that doesnt work. Lets hope you can get some form of reliable connectivity on your next connection.

Due to the glares I now recieve (and this is a family business) I might have to eat my post, and cancel my cancelation. Some of my family/business partners are complaining that the Vodacom is too slow. This after I have purchased data for the rest of the month. It seems using Screamer while it works might be the only option. Not really keen on going back to satellite intertnet - that was a more expensive type of joke.

 

[Rocket-Boy]

Murray wouldnt something like this help?
It would be able to share the connection to the whole office and have good signal:
http://mybroadband.co.za/classified...2fpoynting-3g-2fhsdpa-equipment-package&cat=3

 

[rebel998]

Murray wouldnt something like this help?
It would be able to share the connection to the whole office and have good signal:
http://mybroadband.co.za/classified...2fpoynting-3g-2fhsdpa-equipment-package&cat=3

Cost would be a factor.

 

[murray654]

Murray wouldnt something like this help?
It would be able to share the connection to the whole office and have good signal:
http://mybroadband.co.za/classified...2fpoynting-3g-2fhsdpa-equipment-package&cat=3

Maybe if you live in line of sight of the 3G tower. Here we are at least 40kms from it. and there are mountains in every direction.

I already have a 3G router and share the connection when the WISP is down but its GPRS (or EDGE) not 3G. Both Vodacom and MTN installed mini gap filling towers on site. Signal strength is not a problem.

When users are used to 512k its difficult to convince them to use 120k (and share it)

Cell C were in the valley looking for a site for their tower about 6 months ago, and claimed that it would be a 3G tower. I think that was their sales pitch to seduce land owners. I dont think its possible to offer 3G out here due to the non existing capacity of existing infrastructure. I sure hope I am wrong.

 

[Rocket-Boy]

Maybe if you live in line of sight of the 3G tower. Here we are at least 40kms from it. and there are mountains in every direction.

I already have a 3G router and share the connection when the WISP is down but its GPRS (or EDGE) not 3G. Both Vodacom and MTN installed mini gap filling towers on site. Signal strength is not a problem.

When users are used to 512k its difficult to convince them to use 120k (and share it)

Cell C were in the valley looking for a site for their tower about 6 months ago, and claimed that it would be a 3G tower. I think that was their sales pitch to seduce land owners. I dont think its possible to offer 3G out here due to the non existing capacity of existing infrastructure. I sure hope I am wrong.

3G on the 900mhz frequency isnt a problem. Im not sure why you arent provisioned for it already.
IF you are so far away from everything then how is the WISP getting a connection to you?

 

[murray654]

3G on the 900mhz frequency isnt a problem. Im not sure why you arent provisioned for it already.

Hi RocketBoy,

Take a look at the network map of any mobile company. If you have looked, then you will know that most of the country is outside of the area covered with 3G, its the same for any network. 3 G towers have to be close together because the footprint is smaller. This is unsuitable in rural areas where the distance between the towers is too large. Its uneconomical to cluster 3G towers in areas where the population is too small (or too poor). In these areas they put up fewer towers with larger coverage areas - but no 3G.

IF you are so far away from everything then how is the WISP getting a connection to you?

They use WiFi, which is unreliable, and prone to interference since its unlicensed/public spectrum. The most forward looking WISPs have already started changing to alternate technologies like WiMax. Unfortunately the cost of any other type of "carrier class" technology prevents anyone from trying to put up more reliable links into remote areas, where there are few customers, and therefore little money to be made.

Us rural folk are supposed to be happy with "dial up" speeds and to laugh at people who visit us and expect anything different. Isnt that whats going on here?

Heres an article about broadband in rural america If the author is not optimistic about getting real broadband in rural america, what hope is there for me?

 

[Rocket-Boy]

Hi RocketBoy,

Take a look at the network map of any mobile company. If you have looked, then you will know that most of the country is outside of the area covered with 3G, its the same for any network. 3 G towers have to be close together because the footprint is smaller. This is unsuitable in rural areas where the distance between the towers is too large. Its uneconomical to cluster 3G towers in areas where the population is too small (or too poor). In these areas they put up fewer towers with larger coverage areas - but no 3G.

They use WiFi, which is unreliable, and prone to interference since its unlicensed/public spectrum. The most forward looking WISPs have already started changing to alternate technologies like WiMax. Unfortunately the cost of any other type of "carrier class" technology prevents anyone from trying to put up more reliable links into remote areas, where there are few customers, and therefore little money to be made.

Us rural folk are supposed to be happy with "dial up" speeds and to laugh at people who visit us and expect anything different. Isnt that whats going on here?

Heres an article about broadband in rural america If the author is not optimistic about getting real broadband in rural america, what hope is there for me?

I used to be one of the trainers at Vodacom, so im quite familiar with the setups of towers. The towers in your area would be omni's and im fairly sure they are using one of the basic TDMA algorithms. Its normally not a case of footprint or cover but an issue of backhaul. The backhaul shouldnt be an issue though and im sure they are just being lazy in terms of provisioning the tower. EDGE is terrible and I wouldnt be able to live with it.
Satellite isnt that much fun either and I have been through the pains it involves.
I just find it strange that the WISP can make to it to you, they must have some interesting setups to get LOS to a tricky place. The other thing is that weather condidtions etc affect it quite badly.
You dont seem to be in an easy situation unfortunately.

 

[murray654]

Its normally not a case of footprint or cover but an issue of backhaul. The backhaul shouldnt be an issue though and im sure they are just being lazy in terms of provisioning the tower. EDGE is terrible and I wouldnt be able to live with it.

...Heres my coverage:

, I am in the centre of the image, note the green = EDGE.

I just find it strange that the WISP can make to it to you, they must have some interesting setups to get LOS to a tricky place. The other thing is that weather condidtions etc affect it quite badly.

screamer use a network of towers, so there are 4 towers linking me into their backhaul which is ADSL. Total distance is at least 50km.

You dont seem to be in an easy situation unfortunately.

It would be if Screamer got their act together. They must maintain their network and replace the upstream provider that is always down.

 

[murray654]

My connection has been problem free since 10 December.

So I decided to continue with Screamer (Vodacom GPRS(Edge) is too slow)

I looked at the screamer pricing

I assume it applies for wifi too.

I see it is only 3c per mb for over cap usage. With this price structure, the cheapest option is the 3GB cap, and pay for the usage over the cap.

Say I used 6GB and I am on the 3GB package, I pay R199 + (0.03*3072) = R291.16 In other words I get 6GB and pay less than I would on the 5GB package (R299).

Similarly if I used 23GB and I have a 3GB package, I pay R199 + (0.03*20480) = R813.40, which is less than the price of the 20GB package (R824)

This is counter-intuitive and seems like an incentive to downgrade to the lowest package. Why would anyone buy the larger packages?

 

[murray654]

Internet has been down for 29 hours - I think its the whole of Harrismith region that is down. Screamer have no explanation, and no idea when the fault will be fixed. The problem is an upsteam provider.

Here is the track record (number of hours downtime) - I will update this

June 2010: 101.0 hours
July: 0.0 hours
Aug: 75.9 hours
Sept: 12.3 hours
Oct: 62.2 hours
Nov: 109.8 hours
Dec: 91.3 hours
Jan 2011: 0.9 hours
Feb: 48.3 hours
Mar: 46.3 hours
Apr: 35.7 hours
May: 177.5 hours
June: 81.8 hours
July: 43.7 hours

Total for the last six months is 433 hours down (9.9%)

Not impressed. Why cant we have more months like January '11 & July '10?

 

[murray654]

Internet has been down for 29 hours
....
Why cant we have more months like January?

Its back on now. 34.7 hours offline. Feels like days.

 

[murray654]

Trying to download my SARS efiling update

Speed I get is 2.22k

Its a public holiday. Surely the SARS download server is not busy. Why so slow?

I cant wait 9 hours for it to finish, or fail to finish. I guess I have to use MTN at R2 a meg!!

Kind regards,

 

[murray654]

Trying to download my SARS efiling update

Speed I get is 2.22k

Its a public holiday. Surely the SARS download server is not busy. Why so slow?

I cant wait 9 hours for it to finish, or fail to finish. I guess I have to use MTN at R2 a meg!!

Kind regards,

Luckily it sped up, but the average speed was 8.86 KB/s and took 2hrs 10minutes for a 68meg file.

Now I can get back to work before the rest of the country overloads the SARS server tomorrow.

 

[murray654]

Screamer the broken internet service provider

Am I the only person to be blessed with screamer wireless? I am the only person who comented since 14 December...

Gee but it is so slow today - trying to download a hotpatch 4.5 mb from microsoft and it keeps timing out!!

I have to disconnect screamer and use the backup [Vodacom Edge] again...

 

[Rocket-Boy]

Im hoping that "blessed" was a sarcastic one.
Are you still battling with them? surely by now there must be some other form or comms that is better?
Im going to read your older posts and see if I can think of something to suggest.

 

[Slayeruser]

No most of those still "blessed" are commenting on the screamer thread
http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/150126-Screamer-WiMax?p=6218953#post6218953

Previously had very few issued, but this last month was horrible.
Hoping they can improve