weird linking problems

D

DagegeN

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Aston Manor, Kempton Park
Hi guys...

I want to get your input on this ... it's very weird ...

I live in Benoni North and i am not supposed to have any coverage in my area ..

But i have installed a external antenna and i am linking to kempton park about 12km.

signal is sortof oke .. but during day time from 10am to 4pm i cannot connect and my modem is doing funny things ....

only thing i can think of is that the sun during that time is highest and it's shining directly into my panel antenna ...


might it be UV radiation that causes this ???

open for suggestions ...
 
oke ..

the signal strenght will go from full " 5 leds" to nothing ... and then back to full again, this cycle happens every 10 - 30 seconds and i have also noticed that the power led " one right at the bottom" will turn blue and then will turn purple ... and also going in a cycle every 10-30 seconds.


i later tried to connect directly with ethernet to the modem and my pc kept saying .. calbe connected .. few seconds later cable disconnected ... this will also carry on in a cycle every 10-30 seconds ....

i have checked power to the unit is fine ... and this is only happening during 10am - 4pm daily ... during night times it's fine no problems whatso ever ..
 
I assume you're pointing your antenna in the general direction of the Kempton Base Station. Maybe try to point it at the Benoni Tower. It is situated on top of the Maluti flats.
 
yeah it's pointing towards Kempton...

unfortunatly i cannot access any other sites in benoni .. that is the best tower i can connect to .... i am hecticly restricked by dense tree line or hecticly blocked by buildings to get any signal from benoni ...
 
Have you run utTraceStar? It's great for checking the actual signal strength. The LED's on the modem are worthless. Using it to point your antenna might help you get a more stable signal. Also, mounting the antenna as high as possible always helps.

Other than that there's not much more you can do, except wait for iBurst to put up a tower closer to you.
 
yeah i ran it with utrace and the best signal i can get is -95db to -100db and my antenna is 3m above ground level cant make it higher due to restrictions in my complex ....

but why will this only happen during 10am and 4pm ????
 
_maybe_ the trouble is due to the antenna or the cable overheating? This is the hottest part of the day. Sounds crazy but I can't think of a better reason.

You could always check if it is UV radiation by covering the antenna with a plastic bag (will block UV and some visible light but not IR)
 
so... maybe you need an umbrella for the antenna?
(try getting your complex to approve that one...)
 
I think your signal strength is too weak. Mine's the same and from what you describe it seems like the same thing that happens to me.

I don't know if it could be specific to the daytime, as i am only on after work. Then it could be something else.

I just know that my signal is too weak, can only connect to one tower, which leads my utd to think it's a disco light. I baptised my utd Jamiroquai.

And my connections drops sometimes - i don't know if it's looking to connect through another station, can't find any and then just gives up... :(
 
The signal is simply weaker during those times. The signal strength increases after hours and at night.. not relly shure why though. Its not just speed thatv drops and latency that goes higher becasue more people are on, but you signal actually worsens too. Probably sue to all the other connection being made around you.

Anyway, the point is that your connection is probably just too waek to hold up during the day, you will have to increase it. My antenna is also in the sun dont really have those problems. Try getting your antenna or modem on the roof of your complex, that would be great. If you can egt that allowed..
 
i have checked power to the unit is fine ... and this is only happening during 10am - 4pm daily ... during night times it's fine no problems whatso ever
Click to expand...

You are so far away from the BS your iBurst modem tries to transmit so hard that it pulls the power supply rails down and then the ARM processor resets. The PSU circuit in the modem is probably not strong enough to handle the modem transmitting at full ball.
 
I think the problem has to do with the Tower, as during those times more user are on it... and therefore all users on the edge are "thrown off"

check this out:
http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php?t=43969

and a quote from it

In addition to the above, there is another phenomenon called "cell breathing" which states the more users on a UMTS cell, the smaller the cell.

The cell does not physically shrink, but rather as more users operate in the cell, the conditions for everyone deteriorate and the ones with the worst signal conditions (i.e. at the edge of the cell) will drop off first.

Thus it appears that the cell shrinks and expands, i.e. it's "breathing".
Click to expand...
 
Then they should give it bigger "lungs" by adding more towers so that all customers get what they are paying for.:rolleyes: :D
 
I have heard a rumor (through a source whose reliability is ... unknown) that there is a new tower coming soon that will serve the atlasville/farrarmere area, this should help you out.
 
peterleroux said:
I have heard a rumor (through a source whose reliability is ... unknown) that there is a new tower coming soon that will serve the atlasville/farrarmere area, this should help you out.
Click to expand...


yeah mate ... that comes from iBurst themself ... and they been telling me " the new tower will be in action @ the end of the month " this has been going on sinse Feb 2006 :confused: :eek: :mad:
 
DagegeN said:
yeah i ran it with utrace and the best signal i can get is -95db to -100db and my antenna is 3m above ground level cant make it higher due to restrictions in my complex ....

but why will this only happen during 10am and 4pm ????
Click to expand...
My signal varies from -95 to -102 at night, I track it in a RRD (UTTS like Java prog with JRobin) over extended periods and it seems to fluctuate badly from 10:00 until 17:00, actually between -92 and -110 during that time. I tried a 2nd hand antenna, but its even worse than the UTD's own antenna (been ripped off??). Maybe I have to take the trouble to install it in the roof...

On multithreaded downloads I still get up to 80 kB/s (at night), although the iBurst speed test varies from 250 - 450 kb/s. Most of the time I have 4 / 5 leds on, dropping to 1 / 2 leds for a moment every minute or so.

Average signal over 3,5 days is -99.2, at the moment on constant -97 to -99 with 5 leds...
 
Started fluctuating badly at about 07:10 today and stabilised at 17:36, almost exactly, as if a switch was thrown...

[Edit]
Sunrise: 06:53
Sunset: 17:32
 
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Ekhaatvensters said:
Well thats how Iburst goes, terrible through the day, MUCH better at night. Or just after hours.
Click to expand...
I would'nt say it's "terrible though the day" maybe it slows down a little, but in general iBurst has been pretty stable for me.

My only real problems are the "dead" IPs' (which I'm still getting) and "deathcap" after I reach my cap, besides that it's smooth sailing and good speeds with my connection.:D
 
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