My Rain 5G experience so far...

R

Raven007140

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Purchase
Monday 11 November 2019 I placed an order for the 5G router and was pleased to receive it on Tuesday 12 November 2019. Less than 24 hours from order to delivery and sim activation, very impressed.

Installation:
It took me 2 hours to find a spot where I had sufficient signal to exceed the 90Mb/s threshold for activation. The router is currently in the kitchen above the sink. Obviously a less than ideal spot. My signal strength jumps between 2/5 and 3/5 bars (depending on how many birds/leaves/insects there are between the router and the tower).

Speed:
300Mb/s down, 5Mb/s up. I'll post speed tests if required, but there are plenty available here. It is fast.

Latency:
Latency is excellent.
PTA -> JHB: 11 ms
PTA -> CPT: 28 ms
PTA -> London: 170 ms

Gaming:
This is where I am most disappointed. All testing done with a wired connection.
Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2019. I'm seeing an improvement in ping from 230ms (ADSL) to 180ms (5G). However I am experiencing packet-loss in MW. I think it's due to the less than ideal connection between my router and the tower. It is noticeable. My NAT type is also STRICT. No negative affect yet, but could cause issues in future.
Dota 2 my ping is down from 42ms (ADSL) to 11ms (5G). However I am experiencing insane jitter (variation in ping). My ping jumps between 11ms and 28ms constantly. Not noticeable in game though.

Router:
I only have 2.4Ghz WiFi devices to test so I am limited in what I can give feedback on. 3 devices tested (Cell, TV, PC), not one was able to achieve more than 50Mb/s. Strangely if I test 2 devices at the same time, combined, they don't exceed 50Mb/s. Not sure if this is a limitation of the routers 2.4Ghz capabilities.

Rain Service:
The support staff are friendly. Currently have a ticket logged to see if there's something that can be done about the connection between the router and tower. Will provide feedback when the issue has been resolved/closed.

Verdict:
The speed and latency is incredibly impressive. Depending on where you're situated in relation to your tower, signal could be a serious issue. Pending the packet-loss issues, this is a incredible improvement over ADSL and a viable alternative to Fibre. The 3.4k buy in is steep, especially if you're in a coverage zone and won't know if you actually have sufficient coverage until you've bought the router and taken it home.
 
Raven007140 said:
Router:
I only have 2.4Ghz WiFi devices to test so I am limited in what I can give feedback on. 3 devices tested (Cell, TV, PC), not one was able to achieve more than 50Mb/s. Strangely if I test 2 devices at the same time, combined, they don't exceed 50Mb/s. Not sure if this is a limitation of the routers 2.4Ghz capabilities.
Click to expand...
That is the issue yeah. If you change it to 5Ghz it will give you full speed. Thats probably why the recommend running the optimiser tests with a cable
 
Hallo Raven,

My purchase experiance rated way above expectation: 10/10
Install/setup was also easy: 8/10

Speed:
Now this is where it gets interesting, the speedtests doesn't make sense to me:
1. Inside house 1st floor infront of sliding glass door I get 100mbps down and 10mbps up with full 5G signal on internal antenna
2. Outside on balcony 1st floor most ideal position 350mbps down and 70mbp up in onternal antenna

So this problem I now how to fix, off to Pointing we go and purchase their 5G external antenna with extra 5M extention and pigtails to fit router

3. Now we are back and begin to test again with the antenna and we can only get 131 to 202mbps down and 12to 21 mbps up.

Looking at the all the Rain towers we adjusted the angle all the time to try and improve the signal.
This process will now have to be measured more accurately.

Consistency is a big issue during all the tests. Quite a few tests failed when repeated after 20 seconds to the same server. The main purpose of this test is to establish if it's a feasable replacement for Streaming Showmax and Youtube with multiple users. So on some tests the download speeds dropped to 14mbps while on 5G signal. So the proof will be to stream for a couple of days to determine reliability.

As for the External antenna it would probably go back depending on future testing.
I am hoping to get consistency and would like to know if there's other users with simmelar experiances.

I am left with the feeling we spent R7 600 rand to save R200 pm but hope to update this this soon with more info.

Latency:
PTA and JBH 9-15ms
NewYork 239 to 249ms

Regards Jaco
 
MyDigital said:
Now this is where it gets interesting, the speedtests doesn't make sense to me:
1. Inside house 1st floor infront of sliding glass door I get 100mbps down and 10mbps up with full 5G signal on internal antenna
2. Outside on balcony 1st floor most ideal position 350mbps down and 70mbp up in onternal antenna

So this problem I now how to fix, off to Pointing we go and purchase their 5G external antenna with extra 5M extention and pigtails to fit router
Click to expand...

Misunderstood the initial issue there :D
Out of interest - You tested on a wired connection every time?
 
Just got modem today, not impressed at all. Missed the call centre hours but not sure what calling them will do. Unless there’s a network outage due to the storm we are currently experiencing in PTA. Product is dog at the moment .

e5b855904a423427b4f3ae6b353934df.jpg
 
Hi did you try the modem in different areas of your house / property. I only say this because I also had terrible speeds and after moving the unit around I found the ideal spot. From 110mb the modem now does around 210 mb download. Try running speed tests in different spots and use the optimization tool
 
Kicker is it says I’ve managed to download 2GB in the last hour. Where/what I have no clue. I can’t even access the internet.

318d0874ea5a3f61f2bb3022807e81ce.jpg
 
Scorpion101 said:
Hi did you try the modem in different areas of your house / property. I only say this because I also had terrible speeds and after moving the unit around I found the ideal spot. From 110mb the modem now does around 210 mb download. Try running speed tests in different spots and use the optimization tool
Click to expand...

For me kinda defeats the object . I prefer direct Ethernet connection to PC from the modem. Will try nevertheless thanks .
 
PAYBACK said:
Just got modem today, not impressed at all. Missed the call centre hours but not sure what calling them will do. Unless there’s a network outage due to the storm we are currently experiencing in PTA. Product is dog at the moment .

e5b855904a423427b4f3ae6b353934df.jpg
Click to expand...

What is your signal stats when you login to your router on 192.168.8.1
 
PAYBACK said:
Just got modem today, not impressed at all. Missed the call centre hours but not sure what calling them will do. Unless there’s a network outage due to the storm we are currently experiencing in PTA. Product is dog at the moment .

e5b855904a423427b4f3ae6b353934df.jpg
Click to expand...
As I said, it took me 2 hours to find one single spot in the house that gave me more than 25Mb/s. The 5G signal is incredibly fragile and hates obstacles. Good luck though.
 
Will give it a go later this afternoon. Have a feeling although I am in coverage lay of the land is going to screw it up for me.
 
NeonNinja said:
Look at the speeds being mentioned in this thread.
Click to expand...
Those are individual cases, and related to signal to the tower? One person is getting 300mbps, one is getting 131- 203 and the other isnt getting anything because of signal?
 
Talking modem out of the equation. Anything speed over 20Mbps for R1000 pm uncapped for fixed LTE is a bonus. Have you seen pricing out there?
 
NeonNinja said:
RAIN 5G already being exposed...
Click to expand...

The only thing exposed here is that high frequency ranges does not travel. I don't know about you but it's common knowledge that 5G suffers from poor signal.

That is why I asked @PAYBACK to post signal stats and I have a feeling it's very poor hence the slow speed. There is no congestion you are trying to imply.
 
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