Imagine LTE Rural Broadband

deadl0ck · 27-06-2020 12:21pm

By the way - I've not got almost 5Meg upload when they pointed it a new mast - it's a lot nearer - hurray - way better than the 1.5:
https://www.speedtest.net/result/9670692951.png

WestWicklow1 · 27-06-2020 12:39pm

Thank you to all who showed me what the equipment looks like.

Now it's off around the area to see if I can spot one on a house and enquire if they're happy with it

alec76 · 27-06-2020 12:45pm

WestWicklow1 wrote: »

Thank you to all who showed me what the equipment looks like.

How would you know if it is Imagine’s?
Surely their CPE looks exactly as any other wireless provider equipment ?

WestWicklow1 · 27-06-2020 12:47pm

alec76 wrote: »

How would you know if it is Imagine’s?
Surely their CPE looks exactly as any other wireless provider equipment ?

If it's not, I'll be told. It's not an issue. Not too many houses around.

Falconire · 27-06-2020 2:08pm

alec76 wrote: »

How would you know if it is Imagine’s?
Surely their CPE looks exactly as any other wireless provider equipment ?

Nope, Imagines hardware looks nothing like any other fixed wireless providers kit.

alec76 · 27-06-2020 4:46pm

Falconire wrote: »

Nope, Imagines hardware looks nothing like any other fixed wireless providers kit.

Absolutely, Gemtek & Huawei supplying Imagine exclusively.

joujoujou · 28-06-2020 12:06am

Technically speaking, what Imagine are providing is not fixed wireless. I'd rather call it LTE mobile broadband.

Good evening by the way, I'm Imagine's returning customer, having broadband over ADSL from them years ago, now living in the middle of nowhere only two options were fixed wireless from local ISP (still have it - decent, but deteriorated recently and their tech support now totally disappeared) and Imagine LTE - got it 2 days ago.

So far so good, evening speeds just a bit lower than morning ones:

Mel0CWK_w.-HVDJURwv.png

Don't really believe what their own test shows:

http://imagine.speedtestcustom.com/result/f89202f0-b8c8-11ea-ac7c-f74591e51238

Marlow · 28-06-2020 12:06am

Correct. Once you get an eye for Imagines hardware, it's easy enough to identify.

The antennas of most other providers look very much different.

/M

Marlow · 28-06-2020 12:08am

joujoujou wrote: »

Technically speaking, what Imagine are providing is not fixed wireless. I'd rather call it LTE mobile broadband.

It's LTE based yes.

It is not mobile, because you can not take it with you.

Once it's supplied by a fixed antenna bolted outside to your premise, supplied and installed by a qualified engineer, it is actually fixed wireless.

The quality then depends on how well the network is managed and how oversubscribed it is.

Mobile broadband entails, that you never know the contention, because the users are nomadic. That bit, is not the case with Imagine. The old IBB Ripwave product was nomadic / mobile. Imagine are not supplying such products anymore. At least they learned that lesson.

/M

joujoujou · 28-06-2020 12:13am

As far as I know fixed wireless won't dial up the network, Imagine LTE does. SIM card is in the aerial unit. The only way it's "fixed" are the bolts you mentioned. Open to correction though.

I am going to try to point it to another tower (there are at least 2 I can see from here) and check if I get a connection.

Marlow wrote: »

[...]

The quality then depends on how well the network is managed and how oversubscribed it is.

[...]

Yeah, I know. And I hope there's not too many farmers interested in getting their service from the sector I'm in.

Marlow · 28-06-2020 12:16am

joujoujou wrote: »

As far as I know fixed wireless won't dial up the network, Imagine LTE does. SIM card is in the aerial unit. The only way it's "fixed" are the bolts you mentioned.

I am going to try to point it to another tower (there are at least 2 I can see from here) and check if I get a connection.

If you can switch tower, then it's not fixed wireless, yes. But I highly doubt it.

As for the dial-up bit or the SIM card: that does not matter. Most ISPs use dial-up protocols for their internet connectivity: it's called PPPoE.

The requirement for it to be called fixed wireless is that you're locked into a specific sector or repeater and thus, the provider can manage contention. That is what makes it fixed wireless. The tech or the way the connection is established doesn't matter.

/M

joujoujou · 28-06-2020 12:23am

Marlow wrote: »

If you can switch tower, then it's not fixed wireless, yes. But I highly doubt it.

[...]

The requirement for it to be called fixed wireless is that you're locked into a specific sector or repeater and thus, the provider can manage contention. That is what makes it fixed wireless. The tech or the way the connection is established doesn't matter.

/M

Will point myself to another tower soon, that should clarify whether it's locked or not, I've not enough knowledge regarding the details I can read from the data I can retrieve from the router (and I'm not sure if it's there) to determine that.

mossie · 03-07-2020 7:46pm

Some time ago I got the access details for my router and set up port forwarding for my CCTV. It worked fine at the time but for some reason seems to have stopped working. Same for any other device I've tried with. When I put in my ddns address in the browser it takes me to the login page for my router even with the correct port number included or I get "refused to connect". I think the router firmware may have been updated in the meantime but I can't see any change to the port forwarding. Anyone have similar experiences and / or solutions?

Thanks
Mossie

tubawaski · 09-07-2020 12:02am

Hello,

We've been thinking of switching to Imagine. The ADSL we have is very slow, this test done at midnight but during the day we get maybe 2Mbit at most:

We've also tried 3 home broadband plan but it's also shocking, no matter if peak or off-peak the speeds from 3 is always the same:

With some having to work at home and some doing uni work it's impossible to work with these speeds.

I called up Imagine and he told me the house is 2.2KM from the mast, he also said that on average people here get speeds of 80-90Mbit (dont know until I find out). Is this distance fine for signal strength? And also if there's anyone who would possibly be on the same mast (Coolaney, Co. Sligo, you can see the mast on the mountains, the site name of the mast is Bralee), can you provide some speed tests?

Thanks

TopTec · 09-07-2020 8:57am

You should get good speeds from that mast... with Sligo having good FTTH coverage. I recall a few hundred posts back someone who was getting 100+ mbps from that mast when they signed up. Direct LOS that close will be perfect for speeds. Be aware though that the 80 - 90 is in the early part of your contract so expect it to drop off especially in the pm.

I am on the Ballina mast, another relatively quiet one. I average 20 - 40 Mbps during the pandemic, 40 -80 before. Certainly better than what you are currently getting, but Imagine are more expensive and have a fair useage policy in place.

I've just run a test on Ookla, first one in some time, came back as 99mbps down, 3.50 up.

TT

Happy_Harry · 09-07-2020 10:27am

tubawaski wrote: »

Hello,

We've been thinking of switching to Imagine. The ADSL we have is very slow, this test done at midnight but during the day we get maybe 2Mbit at most:

We've also tried 3 home broadband plan but it's also shocking, no matter if peak or off-peak the speeds from 3 is always the same:

With some having to work at home and some doing uni work it's impossible to work with these speeds.

I called up Imagine and he told me the house is 2.2KM from the mast, he also said that on average people here get speeds of 80-90Mbit (dont know until I find out). Is this distance fine for signal strength? And also if there's anyone who would possibly be on the same mast (Coolaney, Co. Sligo, you can see the mast on the mountains, the site name of the mast is Bralee), can you provide some speed tests?

Thanks

I am 10+ k away and would see those speeds during off peak times. In the evening it is a bit of a lottery. Could be anything between 0.5 to 30Mbps down

tubawaski · 09-07-2020 10:38am

TopTec wrote: »

You should get good speeds from that mast... with Sligo having good FTTH coverage. I recall a few hundred posts back someone who was getting 100+ mbps from that mast when they signed up. Direct LOS that close will be perfect for speeds. Be aware though that the 80 - 90 is in the early part of your contract so expect it to drop off especially in the pm.

I am on the Ballina mast, another relatively quiet one. I average 20 - 40 Mbps during the pandemic, 40 -80 before. Certainly better than what you are currently getting, but Imagine are more expensive and have a fair useage policy in place.

I've just run a test on Ookla, first one in some time, came back as 99mbps down, 3.50 up.

TT

I'll take 20Mbps down any day over what we get now. Plus some better upload would be appreciated. I'm gonna have to do a lot of uni work over Teams so I need something decent that can at least handle that. All the other stuff like Netflix, YT would be a bonus.

I'm at home most of the time so during off peak times, guess the speeds would still be better than these times.

I dont mind the fair usage policy, I dont see our household going over the 1TB limit.

tubawaski · 09-07-2020 10:42am

TopTec wrote: »

You should get good speeds from that mast... with Sligo having good FTTH coverage. I recall a few hundred posts back someone who was getting 100+ mbps from that mast when they signed up. Direct LOS that close will be perfect for speeds. Be aware though that the 80 - 90 is in the early part of your contract so expect it to drop off especially in the pm.

I am on the Ballina mast, another relatively quiet one. I average 20 - 40 Mbps during the pandemic, 40 -80 before. Certainly better than what you are currently getting, but Imagine are more expensive and have a fair useage policy in place.

I've just run a test on Ookla, first one in some time, came back as 99mbps down, 3.50 up.

TT

Another thing, what are your average speeds from about 6pm to midnight?(peak times)

joujoujou · 09-07-2020 1:41pm

tubawaski wrote: »

[...]

I called up Imagine and he told me the house is 2.2KM from the mast, he also said that on average people here get speeds of 80-90Mbit (dont know until I find out). Is this distance fine for signal strength? [...]

Yes, that distance is fine for decent speeds, especially that area is covered by local fixed wireless provider, so (I guess) there's not so much demand for Imagine rural product as elsewhere.

Treat speedtest's results with a pinch of salt though, it's good to check on other sites as well.

Just now - speedtest gave 81 Mbit/s down 12 Mbit/s up, testmy.net gave 40 Mbit/s down, 4 Mbit/s up.

TopTec · 09-07-2020 2:46pm

tubawaski wrote: »

Another thing, what are your average speeds from about 6pm to midnight?(peak times)

Don't know to be honest... I haven't tested in a while. I will do some tonight.
TT

Wing126 · 09-07-2020 6:44pm

So I just noticed Imagine now have 3 masts closer to me than the one I signed up with initially. I wonder how I could get on to one of those.

Anybody on either of the two masts in Naul or the mast out by Donore?

Mortelaro · 09-07-2020 7:14pm

joujoujou wrote: »

Yes, that distance is fine for decent speeds, especially that area is covered by local fixed wireless provider, so (I guess) there's not so much demand for Imagine rural product as elsewhere.

Treat speedtest's results with a pinch of salt though, it's good to check on other sites as well.

Just now - speedtest gave 81 Mbit/s down 12 Mbit/s up, testmy.net gave 40 Mbit/s down, 4 Mbit/s up.

If you do two tests back to back on imagine,no matter what tester you use they will be different
Sometimes wildly different
Ftth will generally give the same result each time

joujoujou · 09-07-2020 11:03pm

That's why ookla based tests are not reliable.

5uqH5IFOA.CKvi8hhQr.png

TopTec · 10-07-2020 8:31am

As promised...my Ookla tests from yesterday evening... (Ballina mast, been with imagine for 3 years)

19.30 - 84 down, 2.37 up
19.40 - 106 down 3.8 up
20.15 - 88 down, 4.62 up
21.40 - 54 down, 4.58 up
22.50 - 36 down, 4.42 up
23.20 - 41 down, 3.89 up

Following Joujoujou's post above just did a comparison test....

Ookla 107 up 5.37 down..... Testmynet 111 up 4.30 down. Pretty much the same.

TT

dam099 · 10-07-2020 10:28am

TopTec wrote: »

As promised...my Ookla tests from yesterday evening... (Ballina mast, been with imagine for 3 years)

19.30 - 84 up, 2.37 down 19.40 - 106 up, 3.8 down
20.15 - 88 up, 4.62 down
21.40 - 54 up, 4.58 down
22.50 - 36 up, 4.42 down
23.20 - 41 up, 3.89 down

Following Joujoujou's post above just did a comparison test....

Ookla 107 up 5.37 down..... Testmynet 111 up 4.30 down. Pretty much the same.

TT

Do you have your upload and download reversed above? I don think Imagine offer anywhere near 36-107 up.

TopTec · 10-07-2020 7:25pm

dam099 wrote: »

Do you have your upload and download reversed above? I don think Imagine offer anywhere near 36-107 up.

I do... well spotted... Shouldn't post when I am talking to the Amazon chat line!! Thanks.

TT

tubawaski · 11-07-2020 12:39am

We went ahead with Imagine, an engineer is supposed to come on Monday to install the receiver.

Will post once everything is done and have some speed tests.

tubawaski · 14-07-2020 12:14am

Update, the guys from Imagine came today just before 5pm, took about an hour and half or so. Everything works nicely so far but I've a question (which I think was answered already but I'll confirm anyway.

So, I see there is no infromation to login to the control panel of the router, is it right that I have to call them up to get this information? I wanted to change a few things like the SSID and password, also for static IP leases and to setup my other router which I have as a AP, and honestly would prefer that to be the main AP as the Gemtek (WVRTM-130ACN) isn't performing that great through walls.

I've done some speedtests using Ookla and testmy net, the test done back 2 back so one after another. Here are the results:

18:00:

19:00:

20:00:

21:00:

22:00:

23:00:

00:00:

Quick edit:
Done a few tests around 1:30am, all were going over the 150Mbps advertised by Imagine, but this one particularly stood out:

mossie · 14-07-2020 8:03am

tubawaski wrote: »

So, I see there is no infromation to login to the control panel of the router, is it right that I have to call them up to get this information?

I emailed them for it and probably had to do so 5 times before I got a reply. Maybe phoning might be quicker.

joujoujou · 14-07-2020 3:44pm

Got my login details over the phone straight away, no problem. Just tell them you want to open some ports for your own web server/cctv etc. SSIDs and passwords can also be altered after you log on to lteportal.imagine.ie

Found the gemtek they gave me quite decent (but I already have few APs in the house, shed and attic), especially it also has gigabit LAN, but kept rest of my network as well, with just a bit of reconfiguration.

Imagine LTE Rural Broadband

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