Irishbroadband wireless

JakeLuxor

Hi I got the Irishbroadband.ie ripwave package about a month ago and it installed well and was working a treat.
Then about two weeks ago I switched it on (having mad no changes to my pc set up or performance) abd bam Im averaging dowloads of between 5-7kb per second.
I though it might be something to do with my setup so I tried a different cable.........no effect, still between 5-7kb.
Then I tried reinstalling windows xp..............no effect, still between 5-7kb
Then I installed a different fast ethernet pci card off another pc and again no effect, still between 5-7kb
Then I tried a different pc and still the same result.

So I came to the conclusion that it is a problem with the ripwave modem itself.
I rang them yesterday and they did some tests and according to them the signal strength is fine but the signal quality is being effected (the little bars on the front of my modem showing the signal would seem to verify this although I must say the 'quality' indicator was never fantastic for me but the system had previously been working fine).

They told me that it could be a strong electrical pulse thats interfering with the signal quality and asked me if any sort of building work ect. had been done around the house.
The only things that I can think of is that the Chorus cable guys were working on the reciever on our house (the wireless went arseways roughly the same time they were here).
And my phone line (eircomm was cut off) it still has a signal but if you try to dial out it gets cut off after you dial in about four numbers of a phone number.

My question is could either of these be the cause of the interuption in the quality of my signal or am I just clutching at straws or what else is there that could cause a 'strong electrical pulse' as they call it that would interfere with my connection.
As I say the signal strength is fine its just the quality of the signal thats being effected.

Many thanks

MunsterCycling

That's about par for the course I'm afraid, have they beam formed the signal for you to see if that will improve your (but u****rove others) quality. That seems like a low speed even for them. Try downloading a linux .iso from ftp.heanet.ie and see what d/l'd speed you get from that, just stop the download after 30 mins or so and delete if you don't want the .iso

JakeLuxor

Thanks for taking the time to reply MunsterCycling but Im afraid Im a bit of a thechnofob and to be quiet honest Im not really sure what you were talking about there:p
Any chance of explaining the above in laymans terms.

Cheers

MunsterCycling

Beamforming IIRC is when the wireless signal is focused in a particular direction hopefully resulting in a higher strength & quality signal

Its discussed here

The iso suggestion was to use a linux iso from the mirror site @ ftp.heanet.ie to test your download speed. Try this to test and you will get a better idea of your download speed, post up how you get on.

:eek:

JakeLuxor

Thanks very much for your help Munster Im trying to get my head round it right now.

JakeLuxor

Ok, I got a patch where it was 'flying along' at 12kbs per second but that was the exception to the rule, its still in the 5-8kb range as it has been for the last two weeks.
As I said before the signal strength is fine, its at the max or thereabouts the whole time its the quality of the signal Iv recieving thats the problem.
It had been fine as well but now apparently somethings interfering with it, but I cannot seem to get any answers from them as to what may be causing the interference or what I can do to combate the interference.

MunsterCycling

First modem I had died after 5 yes 5 days, rang them up told me to return it to shop and get a new one which I did and that one has 'worked' fine since despite never being turned off once for longer than 10 mins (except to reboot) in 3.5 months. To be honest I don't expect much from it in the way of bandwidth, just gives me a cheapish way to have net on 24/7 at a capped cost and no cap to worry about.

Dunno what to advise you to do, try ringing them and getting them to beamform the signal to see if you can improve the quality. Know they were fecking around at the weekend as I was getting 480kbs for a very short period and then back to 80 - 140 kbs.

MunsterCycling

Over the weekend the speed and latency has improved no end, now getting 480kps down 50kps up on irishisptest.com.

480 kbps (60 KB/s) 51 kbps (6 KB/s) 99 % 125 ms 192 ms