new iBurst user - questions

[daelm]

so. i'm basically touring wireless service providers. i've used both main cellular providers (too expensive; erratic) and neotel (hopeless) and now i'm on iBurst's month2month service.

i signed up because i was assured that they have 2 base stations in my area - Auckland Park, Johannesburg - and coverage was 'excellent'. for the last five days (the entire lifetime of my involvement so far), my signal fluctuates from 5% to 80% (according to the iBurst dashboard and terminal). the high end of that never lasts more than a few seconds. mostly, i spend time between 20% and 40%.

interestingly, this translates to download speeds of in the single digit kb/s, across a range of sites and downloads (so it's not site-specific). that is, under 10 kb/s.

that's really, really poor.

so here's some questions:

1.) is this the normal iBurst speed? even Vodacom, whose coverage in this area is poor, is faster.

2.) should i expect more?

3.) how can i speed this up?

4.) why is the signal so poor in an area that is claimed to have 'excellent coverage'?



hope someone can give me some insight. thanks.


d

 

[ginggs]

1.) is this the normal iBurst speed? even Vodacom, whose coverage in this area is poor, is faster.

Did you mean kilobits per second or kilobytes per second?

Installing an external antenna made huge difference to my set up. Before, my signal strength was all over the place like yours and I would get 300kbps (kilobits per second) if I was lucky. I installed an omni antenna and now my signal strength is always high and I regularly get 1Mbps download speeds.

 

[eltherza]

1.) is this the normal iBurst speed? even Vodacom, whose coverage in this area is poor, is faster.

iBurst is 1Mbps, so when you download, the max is 128KB/s.

2.) should i expect more?

It also depends on weather and other users, but anything under 300kbps (about 40KB/s in download windows) I would consider too low. In the mornings I can easily go 100KB/s, but during the day and evenings I see it close to 60KB/s

3.) how can i speed this up?

4.) why is the signal so poor in an area that is claimed to have 'excellent coverage'?

The new USB modems from iburst are pretty darn good, but as ginggs says - an antenna could help. Also try get closer to a window, walls and the such block the signals and cause errors too. My place is a black hole of signal, even my cellphones lose all signal when not near a window. In my room I get 5% or no signal, if i go near the window I can get about 100% signal strength.

Also, find out where the tower is, and set up in the room closest to the tower.

Find a good place for the aerial and stick it there (even on the window with some presstick). Find the best place for the aerial and leave it there, when you need to move just unplug the areal.

Advanced tip on finding best position if you are using the usb - the iburst terminal only updates it's signal strength indicator once in a while unless there is data flowing. Makes it difficult to move the areal around and find the good spot. To keep the data flowing and save your cap, ping google (ping www.google.com -n 1000) and you can move it seeing where it's best strength is. You want a very low error rate as well.

 

[EasyUp Web Hosting]

Did you mean kilobits per second or kilobytes per second?

Installing an external antenna made huge difference to my set up. Before, my signal strength was all over the place like yours and I would get 300kbps (kilobits per second) if I was lucky. I installed an omni antenna and now my signal strength is always high and I regularly get 1Mbps download speeds.

Funny how that works, cause I had to remove my antenna to get 100% signal and a stable connection.

Of all the wireless providers, I would say that 3G is the most portable, but Iburst is the cheapest and best for online gaming. Unless you go WiMax, which is 100% better than the rest.

 

[Durandal]

The aspect that it seems pretty much NO-ONE is ever told, is that the iBurst signal is susceptible to interference from pretty much anything, with regards structure (Shaun explained it to me years ago, can't remember the specifics, but the frequency range iBurst uses is sustceptible to things like thick walls, burglar bars, etc. I would check the iBurst coverage map for starters, and see where you are based on that map. You might well have to, like a friend of mine had to, is move your PC to the side of the house were the signal is coming from/strongest. Place your antenna, if feasible, in the actual window frame, so all it has between it and the outside world is a pane of glass. If that's not possible, the external antenna should work. But your comment about the signal fluctuating is very strange - I have only ever seen that once in my four years with iBurst, and that was on a night after a huge lightning storm, and I think my local iBurst tower had got fried. I have a steady 100% signal, but the speeds vary depending on time of day and weather conditions.

 

[captain911]

so. i'm basically touring wireless service providers. i've used both main cellular providers (too expensive; erratic) and neotel (hopeless) and now i'm on iBurst's month2month service.

i signed up because i was assured that they have 2 base stations in my area - Auckland Park, Johannesburg - and coverage was 'excellent'. for the last five days (the entire lifetime of my involvement so far), my signal fluctuates from 5% to 80% (according to the iBurst dashboard and terminal). the high end of that never lasts more than a few seconds. mostly, i spend time between 20% and 40%.

interestingly, this translates to download speeds of in the single digit kb/s, across a range of sites and downloads (so it's not site-specific). that is, under 10 kb/s.

that's really, really poor.

so here's some questions:

1.) is this the normal iBurst speed? even Vodacom, whose coverage in this area is poor, is faster.

2.) should i expect more?

3.) how can i speed this up?

4.) why is the signal so poor in an area that is claimed to have 'excellent coverage'?



hope someone can give me some insight. thanks.


d

Also check this out. http://forums.xaprief.com/showthread.php?t=7224 I have made my own and it works very well.A must if you struggle with a crappy signal.Hope it helps.

 

[r00igev@@r]

iBurst is 1Mbps, so when you download, the max is 128KB/s.



It also depends on weather and other users, but anything under 300kbps (about 40KB/s in download windows) I would consider too low. In the mornings I can easily go 100KB/s, but during the day and evenings I see it close to 60KB/s




The new USB modems from iburst are pretty darn good, but as ginggs says - an antenna could help. Also try get closer to a window, walls and the such block the signals and cause errors too. My place is a black hole of signal, even my cellphones lose all signal when not near a window. In my room I get 5% or no signal, if i go near the window I can get about 100% signal strength.

Also, find out where the tower is, and set up in the room closest to the tower.

Find a good place for the aerial and stick it there (even on the window with some presstick). Find the best place for the aerial and leave it there, when you need to move just unplug the areal.

Advanced tip on finding best position if you are using the usb - the iburst terminal only updates it's signal strength indicator once in a while unless there is data flowing. Makes it difficult to move the areal around and find the good spot. To keep the data flowing and save your cap, ping google (ping www.google.com -n 1000) and you can move it seeing where it's best strength is. You want a very low error rate as well.

Good advice, eltherza.

Can I retire from the forums and go farm potatoes and drink mampoer?

 

[X-Gamer]

Funny how that works, cause I had to remove my antenna to get 100% signal and a stable connection.

Of all the wireless providers, I would say that 3G is the most portable, but Iburst is the cheapest and best for online gaming. Unless you go WiMax, which is 100% better than the rest.

same here.