Stuck between a good and a bad tower

[nicroets]

I was right on the edge of coverage when 8ta launched 2 years ago and only the Western half of my house had coverage. For the last year or so, the Eastern half was also covered.

But the tower on the Eastern side (towards Faerie Glen) goes through cycles lasting a few months. Half the cycle is good, but the other half (right now) the connection is unusable. Pings in Linux would average 20000 ms, 2% loss rate (That's 20 seconds!). Windows would report a lower response time, but the lost rate would be over 30%.

When I put my sim in my LG P500, the connection is almost always good.

 

[sajunky]

So tower is not bad, as on the other device connection is always good, right?

 

[nicroets]

No, the tower is bad. I have a E173 modem and a ZTE modem and they both exhibit the very high RTT.

 

[sajunky]

No, the tower is bad. I have a E173 modem and a ZTE modem and they both exhibit the very high RTT.

You need reality check: how you can say tower is bad, if "in my LG P500, the connection is almost always good."?

 

[nicroets]

The E173 and the ZTE are giving high latency at the same time. Then both of them recover a few weeks later. I also tested on multiple Linux machines and on Windows. The only commonality is the part of the house I test in.

The the fact that the LG P500 works better may be explained by the fact that it's only a 3.6 Mbps device.

I count myself as fortunate because I have all this equipment and my house has windows on all the sides.

 

[sajunky]

The the fact that the LG P500 works better may be explained by the fact that it's only a 3.6 Mbps device.

LG has a battery and is positioned on the table.
If you plug modems to PC standing on the floor, it is usually obscured by your body and furniture (frequently metal objects). If you extend with USB cable to get better position, you run into power problems, modem disconnects, or stops responding, or even attempt to reinstall drivers.
If you plug modem into laptop with horizontally positioned socket, its antenna is facing a desk, not open air, except modems with rotating head like E367.
I suggest testing some routers like B683 with battery and strong 3G antenna, or MiFi routers with built-in battery.