3G Repeater - no difference to download speeds

tails_naf

Hi All,

I just wanted to ask what people think of the following results -

I'm using mobile broadband for my home connection - and use it in conjunction with a dovado router. This router reports about 29% signal at the best of times, and I was getting 0.3 Mbit down, and about the same up. Sometimes it was better, but not often.

I got a 3g repeater last weekend and was expecting big things. This comes with an external antenna and if I understand correctly, it boosts the 3g signal to/from the cell tower and any mobile devices near it (both voice and data).

Sure enough, with this turned on, and the modem near it, the dovado router now reports up to 60% signal strength - but now my download is still 0.3,0.4Mbit, but upload is faster - I can get up to 1.5Mbit (though sometimes it is as slow as it was before).

So this suggests to me that the connection to the cell tower has been boosted - but dl speeds stay the same - must this mean the cell tower is simply overloaded and the problem is more contention than signal strength?

Note - in my frustration I decided to see if I could determine the max signal strength I could find in my house - so to do this, because the dovado only states the signal strength once (it does not update after the initial connect), I found the following link and used the info there to write a little program that constantly polled the modem and returned then signal strength. It seemed to work - and the strength went from about -91db with the repeater off to about -73db when it was on - which seems to put it in the high category - so I would have expected good speeds.
I can get good speeds if I take my modem into the nearest town (8 miles away, different cell tower) - there I get almost 3mbit down, and 2up.

Any and all comments would be welcome - I'd really like to get to the root of the problem.

jor el

Signal strength is only part of the battle, and does not indicate what speed you will get. 100% signal and zero speed is still possible. There is nothing the end user can do about this, it's an ISP problem. Get on to them about it, but don't expect any improvement.

Change ISP is the only real solution, if that's possible. Definitely try to get away from 3G connections.

tails_naf

Oh believe me, I would change away from 3G if I could, but it's not an option where I live.

I take the point that the signal strength is not the only item that matters.

I was since looking into the whole issue of different cell towers - and maybe the tower I'm latching onto might not be the best one (i.e. better in terms of signal, but worse in terms of contention) - so maybe if I could select a different tower, I could get an overall better experience.

I looked at the coverage map on comreg, but I heard someone else saying that could be well out of date. That map shows one '3' tower near me, but no others for many miles.

What is strange though is I recently got an app for my phone (also from 3), which shows the cellid currently in use - and this seems to jump around a bit - so maybe it is a tower selection issue?

The MCC/MNC also changes from 27205 to 27201 sometimes, which indicates the phone is changing from '3' to 'vodaphone', which I believe are 3's backup network. I wonder if the mobile broadband modems also can use vodaphone - does anyone know this?

Also, does anyone know of an accurate map of cell tower locations - I'd be very tempted to try point my modem at a few (no matter how far away), to see if I can pickup a less contended tower...

jor el

tails_naf wrote: »

The MCC/MNC also changes from 27205 to 27201 sometimes, which indicates the phone is changing from '3' to 'vodaphone', which I believe are 3's backup network. I wonder if the mobile broadband modems also can use vodaphone - does anyone know this?

The Vodafone network is used for voice only, there is no arrangement for data.

tails_naf wrote: »

Also, does anyone know of an accurate map of cell tower locations - I'd be very tempted to try point my modem at a few (no matter how far away), to see if I can pickup a less contended tower...

That won't work as the modems are not directional.

It sounds to me like you need to look into a satellite connection. 3G isn't working for you, and it probably won't ever. You're not going to fix this on your own anyway.

jay93

You can use Vodafones network for data but its only 2G so it would be barely even usable.

There is no agreement with 3 and Vodafone that allows you to connect to Vodafones 3G network.

Seems to me that the cell your connnecting to is overloaded with users there is probably nothing you can do to speed it up if their is too many people connected to the network.

tails_naf

jor el wrote: »

The Vodafone network is used for voice only, there is no arrangement for data.



That won't work as the modems are not directional.

It sounds to me like you need to look into a satellite connection. 3G isn't working for you, and it probably won't ever. You're not going to fix this on your own anyway.

What I meant was I would get a directional antenna (18-20dbi gain), and point that at a different tower than may be picked up purely on the basis of signal strength. Of course, I'd have to know where the towers are first..

As for satellite - with the 2-4gb caps and 600+ ping, it's completely out for me.

So as desperate as it may seem, it looks like my only option is pushing the 3g as far as it can go, and trying to get the most out of it.

William Powell

www.siteviewer.ie

tails_naf

William Powell wrote: »

www.siteviewer.ie

Thanks - I had found that through comreg, but I don't know if it is up to date and a full list or not. If it is, then I only have one 3 mast near me.

Sad thing is the siteviewer doesn't give much useful info like the cellid - just their own id number - I want to be sure of the mast I'm picking up and the cellid is the only way I know of telling for sure..

William Powell

I'd say it was fairly up to date as 3 added another 200 sites recently if there is only one near you then thats all there is. However you could be picking up a signal from a lot further away than you think. Only way you can check is to drive up to the mast and use the MDMA software you probably already have and see what cell ID you get, then if you can drive around the mast and get the ID's of the other 2 cell sectors.

tails_naf

William Powell wrote: »

I'd say it was fairly up to date as 3 added another 200 sites recently if there is only one near you then thats all there is. However you could be picking up a signal from a lot further away than you think. Only way you can check is to drive up to the mast and use the MDMA software you probably already have and see what cell ID you get, then if you can drive around the mast and get the ID's of the other 2 cell sectors.

Yep, I think you are right - no way around it than to go drive around and see what I pickup.

On the software - all I'm currently using is a script I wrote myself - if you have any tips for software (preferably open source or freely available), please let me know.

My goal here is to (perhaps) intentionally pickup a further away site, if that site happens to have less contention.

I think I may be picking up other sites, as speedtest.net often gives my estimated location in one of 2 places, so I wonder is that because of the mast I lock onto has a different IP range..

William Powell

As for software try MBMA hopefully it will give the same ID as your own script, it won't be the same as the siteviewer ID I know that.

Ignore the speedtest.net locations afaik all the backhaul goes to Dublin, its not like each mast has its own connection directly to the internet.

I pick up a signal from a mast at nearest 4miles away and without running around checking the one I'm actually connecting to is probably a lot lot further away. On average I get about 15% singnal strength but still get a usable connection at off peak times at 6% signal strength. Now at 11.30pm I'm back onto ISDN :mad:

tails_naf

I just wanted to update everyone on this - there has been some good news.

As I mentioned I looked at the mast locations relative to where I live.
The one I was aiming for was where I was getting the best signal strength. I know now that was not the way to go.

This mast was < 2km from me, but happened to be near ballyporeen - or as I like to call it 'the last exchange to be enabled for dsl in Ireland'. It's been on eircom's to-do list for years. Anyway I imagine everyone there is using three as a result, and that mast is their only one - so probably overloaded.

There was another mast, I'd guess 10k in the opposite direction - so I thought -maybe the repeater can pick it up. So moved everything to the far corner top floor of my house to try - and sure enough it did pick it up. Speeds were not much better though.

So I turned off the repeater, and let the modem try. It managed a signal of 20% (according to Dovado router), and amazingly was able to hit 1.5Mbits down and 1Mbit up!

So lessons learned:
1) The repeaters seem to do more harm than good. At least for me
2) Don't always go for signal strength - if the nearest mast is highly contended, try another (even if it is far away) - use the comreg map.
3) Id guess a simple antenna connected directly to the modem would be miles better than the repeater - haven't tried it, so just a guess.


So fingers crossed this mast keeps working as it is!