I recently acquired service from a 900 mhz canopy provider and have been experiencing connection/bandwith issues from the start. Using the bandwith meter from the cnet website I have only once seen the badwith at the subscription level of 1kbps I have ocassionally seen early morning(4-7am) numbers in the 800-900kbps range but they consistantly drop off as afternoon and early evening approaches to between 130kbps and 330kbps. My gut tells me that it is a traffic/congestion issue but the provider insists that their equipment is functioning properly and that they have more than ample bandwith for their subscribers. They tell me that I should expect a reduction during peak times. But I insist that a 70-86% loss in bandwith during peak usage is not nor should it ever be expected. They currently are using a “TV style” directional antenna and not the dish type I have seen on canopy equipment sites. I am running active port (port monitoring software) and have seen no difference in active ports during almost all of these bandwith tests.
Are there any issues with temperature affecting equipment mounted on roofs? and any solutions
Should a reduction in bandwith from 900kbps to 200-300 be expected from a Canopy provider? Is this the industry standard?
Is there any software that can be installed to monitor/collect information
on bandwith and programs that are using bandwith that can be installed to provide a more accurate picture? :?:
Sounds like congestion to me also…although there are possibilities it could be interference in the 900 spectrum given the times of the days (phone activity, other 900 spectrum noise being generated) but I’m doubting that…
What is the speed package you are supposed to be getting? Record your results from your tests during the different times of the day for a period of time and email to your ISP’s support department.
If the ISP is allowing full bandwidth capabilities of the radio, then you’ll have congestion during peak hours of the day…it’s unfortunate, but it’s their decision to run their network like that.
Also keep in mind as the day progresses there are more and more users the internet (not just your ISP networ, but world wide) Therefore more and more people willbe testing there bandwidth on the speedtest sites. This in turn will cause reduced reading on the bandwidth test sites. I’ve seen a 1Mb connection drop to 300Kbps on the same test site.
The best way to determine if it’s actually congestion on your ISP’s network is to get them to set up a SpeedTest Server at their POP site so you can test your speeds from your place to their server. If your getting good speeds from A>B then the network SHOULD be good. If not then there is a Network issue, somewhere.
Only the speed is affected or is it the latency also?
Try pinging the default gateway with large packets, 1400 bytes, during the whole day. At the same ping something like google and take notes is there a difference in the results when the speed is good.
If the latency goes up and if the gateway router is on the same POP as your AP then it’s congested.
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I noticed no one addressed the question about the antenna. Even though it is obvious to us, it may not be to you. The most common antenna used out there is the Yagi antenna that looks like what you referred to and they perform very well. They range in DBi depending on distance and interference which should be used. The Dish antennas are used also in areas that need a little extra help through interference ie... trees rf etc. This antenna is usually not needed and will not increase or decrease your bandwidth. The Yagis in most instances are the better antenna. They are a directional antennas and point in the directions of the tower. Pinging is the key to figure out if it is your signal or not. Ping the gateway not something out of the network because then you are seeing potential problems outside of you ISP. Remember if you are pinging and run a speed test or you are creating heavy usage at the same time you will experience possible time outs and high pings.
I appreciate your replies. I never felt it was an equipment issue from the start and tried on every call to let them know this.
Here is some additional information.
Distance to AP transmitter 2.23 miles. I live in a rural area and would expect 900mhz phones to have minimal impact in this sparsely populated area. I Recently downloaded port monitoring software and network monitoring software and have retested with the same results and no other traffic from my computer. I don’t know the address of the server to ping. I purchased a 1k tiered connection to the internet, not to their server. Speeds from my system to the network server are only part of the issue. Getting through their server and on the internet is what I’m concerned with. If I could run a speed test from my system to their internet feed then I would have an accurate picture of what I’m getting without other internet sites or congestion having to be considered. The isp has a 5 tiered system with download/upload speeds as follows 1)500k/250k, 2 750k/375k, 3)1000k.500k, 4)2000k/750k, 5)3000k/1000k. I have package 3. I haven’t contacted people on other packages to see what kind of service they are getting, but if the ratio of service reduction were the same, the level 1 package would be getting a bandwith of 160kbps or less, definately not “high-speed”.
One week ago was told by the tech Rep that the "Owner would have to get involved because the tech’s had done everything they could and the owner was more knowledgeable. On the last service call was treated as “Oh it’s you again”, but the tech finally admitted that I should expect a reduction in bandwith during peak usage. Although he said he wouldn’t be happy with his 9mbps home connection being reduced to 1mbps he didn’t seem sympathetic to my situation of a 1kbps being reduced to 130-330kbps. And again, I was told that the owner or 2 managers would have to get involved to increase my bandwith? What type of increase he was taking about I,m not sure.
For those of you interested in a consumer’s oipinion:
I’m not sure how the industry handle’s congestion during peak, but I can’t believe you could expect consumers to be happy with 15-35% of their tiered bandwith being available. Allowing that smaller isp’s have difficulty averaging out peak usage it would be in your interest to be open and honest with customers about these connection issues while you work it out. Also, it might be in your interest to provide a speed test to your internet feed point and reduce the guessing as to what the consumer is getting and where the problem(s) lie.
I would be extremely interested to meet any isp that would not only guarantee connection speed but then guarantee that speed to any server on the net