The difference an Antenna makes

There's no ways in hell I'm going to pay R2500 for an antenna !

I got Sentech primarily for business purposes (freelance webdesign), that doesn't mean I have oodles of cash to spare - far from it.

Without any antenna or mucking about on the roof, I'm lucky enough to have a consistant signal averaging 17% which is fine for now. I'd rather spend R30 on a can of pringles and up the signal to 25% than spend R2500 to get 35% ! [:D]

Yeah, maybe I'm lucky with that - I'm inbetween the Hyde Park and Randburg Metro stations as far as ProAsms list goes and my place happens to be on a hill inbetween them (just of Jan Smuts)

Rodent - yeah, I guess your right about the antenna, I was just thinking that because often there's more than one base station that you can connect to, an omni directional would be better. After reading up a bit, I guess it's not.
 
I still believe it's not worth it to get an antenna if you have a 3/4 lights signal without anything untill proof can be given that pings and downloads are better.

And I can't see how downloads can be better than it already is on my non-antenna setup. I only have a 17-20% signal and download solidly at 30KB/s and upload solidly at 30KB/s aswell. Pings are 90-110ms to 196.4.160.2 (apollo.is.co.za)

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If I ping that IP address (in between dropped packets [:(!] ) I get anything from 71ms to 100ms average. Thats on 20% signal basestation 36. Maybe at 50% that 71 could be 51?
 
Is their any proof yet that using an antenna to boost signal from +/-20% to +/-45% makes any worthwhile improvements in ping times. I'm all for paying R1500+ for an antenna if it makes gaming possibe again, i just don't feel like flusing R1500 for something that may or may not do what i'm expecting it to.
 
The only significant improvement I've noticed with an antenna is a reduction in packet loss thus making the connection smoother.
And that I've noticed once your signal is 30% or better so going for maximum signal above 30% at this point I would not worry and as RoDent says, any good can antenna will do the job.

Just an experiment I did to see what is available, I had someone turn and tilt the antenna at 102 while I watched it at home on my 19 dB antenna and the best we could obtain was 64% and even at 64% everything was the same as it was on 30% odd.
With the new tilt spec at 102 my signal is now 48%


<hr noshade size="1"><center><font color="blue">MyWireless Stuff</font id="blue">
<font size="1"><font color="black">The opinions expressed here are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of my employer</font id="size1"></font id="black"></center>
 
Has anyone doen any tests regarding packet loss.

I have 12% signal and packet loss is running around 10% and higher.

I am wondering if an antennae will improve my packet loss.

Thanks
Clive
 
OK So now what?? I will also gladly fork out R1500 for an antennae if it means I can game. Is this at all going to be a possibility or not will an antenae help at all? Im currently getting about 22% signal strength and no packet loss so getting an antennae just to boost my connection strength will be money down the drain.

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Must think happy thoughts about the antenna!!!
 
Gaming at this point is not a feasible option.
Work is being carried out in this area but like everything else it takes time and there are no guarentees but several of us are looking into the modem and node operation where the problem seems to be.


<hr noshade size="1"><center><font color="blue">MyWireless Stuff</font id="blue">
<font size="1"><font color="black">The opinions expressed here are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of my employer</font id="size1"></font id="black"></center>
 
Whats the lowest local ping time anyone has seen using the modem?

ProAsm? Anything like 50-60ms..?

22% and no packet loss? thats pretty good. why bother with an antenna. It seems the antenna will only be an issue <i>if</i> pings ever get to gaming levels and when speeds will be approaching 3Mbps. Until then I dont think its necessary yet..

That is, if you already have decent service [8D]
 
funny thing is:

when i was able to play StarWarsGalaxies, my ping was BETTER than it was on my 128k ISDN - I used to get 550 - 600ms (that's good for SWG [:D]) - on MyWireless I get about 400 - 500ms

weird.

if all else fails... influence with hammer
 
The best local pings that have been reported to me is someone living at Randburg with a signal of 60% and he claimed pings of 80.

I have another user in Honeydew that gets a signal strength of 74% (so he claims) but he's not interested in gaming so to get him to do a ingame ping test is kinda difficult [:D]


<hr noshade size="1"><center><font color="blue">MyWireless Stuff</font id="blue">
<font size="1"><font color="black">The opinions expressed here are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of my employer</font id="size1"></font id="black"></center>
 
yes, intl pings on MyWireless rocks.
And for RPG/RTS games they're normally acceptable. It's just with FPS games that very low pings are required.

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Well earlier on I was pinging a local server and a few pings were in the low 70ms's. The problem is consistency though. I cant say it stays between 70-80ms. So then in theory, it is probably currently not possible to go below say, 70ms.. 74% signal.. hmm. Thats probably within touching distance of the tower [:D] and if there is no huge gain by using 74% signal then why bother with antennas
 
best bet is to drive to a tower with a laptop and test from there?

surely some of you have thought about this option to make sure so this topic can die already!?
 
like I said.. the antenna or 74% makes little difference. Answer to topic == not much if anything.

Will do the laptop thing another day. The problem is to find a tower..
 
Ok, been to a tower in randburg, signal was at 40%, and the ping times improve slightly, ith no packet loss. I am going around in the JHB area to all the antenna's I know and getting GPS cordinates, will publish them when I have got a few, ProAsm, if you could direct me to some of those hidden ones [:D] would be great

Keep Surfing
 
Dean, Gps co-ords will be great.. ( I will just have to find a GPS).

Maybe this is off the mark, but the way I see this there is no use in installing an antenna if your unit does not connect on its own. Antennae will do wonders if you have a signal but is seemingly a waist if your unit does not connect on its own..
 
I disagree. If you can't connect, it may be that your signal is just too weak (there could be other reasons too, of course). Using a high gain antenna could make a big difference provided you are within the 5.7km radius or 29 km radius on the 29km towers.

Ajax
 
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