Bad hardware ? ie overheated radio on the router ? Regards, Manu On Tue, Jul 9, 2013 at 12:06 AM, Herbert Graf wrote: > Hello all! > > This may be one of those "first world" type problems, but I'm curious to > get the group's input. > > When at the cottage we use a "rocket hub" for internet access. To those > not familiar with the term, it's a WiFi router with a 3G/HSPA modem in > it. > > It's an earlier revision of this one: > http://www.bell.ca/Mobility/Products/NETGEAR_MVBR_1210C_Turbo_Hub > > Anyways, it works very well pretty much everywhere it's been used, > except the cottage. The symptom is it connects to the 3G network > sporadically, for no apparent reason. It seems to be up more > consistently on weekdays and early in the morning. > > Now, this is cottage country, and of the 2 provider networks we have in > our area, only one works at all (the other has a site as nearby but > there must be geography in the way). My phone (a Samsung Galaxy Nexus) > also has trouble keeping a connection, best signal strength it reports > is -97dBm, more often it's in the -101 to -110 dBm range, which is just > barely enough to connect. > > The rocket hub, when it is connected, reports similar signal strengths > on it's status webpage, somewhere around -95 to -99dBm. > > So, based on these observations I suggested that the way to "fix" the > problem was to get a directional antenna, point it at the closest site, > and off to the races! > > I did exactly that. I purchased a 24dBm Yagi, mounted it and after > discovering the closest site had zero signal strength (lots of hills in > that direction, so not surprised) I pointed it at the next closest site. > > Using my wonderful RFExplorer spectrum analyzer > (http://micro.arocholl.com/) I confirmed that we were pointed at the > site and that the signal strength from the site had jumped from -98dBm > using just an omni whip to -80dBm at ~885Mhz (and that's with some > mismatched coax going to the spectrum analyzer that I needed to convert > the connectors, stupid RP-TNC, grrr...). > > I plugged the cable into the rocket hub and NO improvement. The > connection still wouldn't come up with any sort of regularity. > > My father in law then asked a question which got me thinking: with all > these internet dropouts, why do phone calls always seem to work? Why > does my phone have a pretty reliable internet connection (I end up > tethering to my phone instead of using the rocket hub) yet the rocket > hub goes up and down all the time? > > So with all that said, I'm wondering if anyone in the industry might be > familiar with this theory: do the providers set priorities based on > types of service? Do the sites provision things so that if there are too > many people in the area they start cutting back, denying things like 3G > USB sticks and rocket hubs from connecting, while allowing my phone to > stay connected? > > A simple test would have been to put my sim in the rocket hub. > Unfortunately although we're on the same network, our service is > supplied by 2 different companies, and since all devices are provider > locked here my sim would have been rejected. I do plan to get my hands > on an unlocked USB stick and connect that up to the Yagi next time I'm > up there. That way I'll be able to switch SIMs and see if there is a > provisioning type of difference. > > > Thanks for any info/comments/critiques/suggestions! > > TTYL > > > -- > http://www.piclist.com/techref/piclist PIC/SX FAQ & list archive > View/change your membership options at > http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist --=20 http://www.piclist.com/techref/piclist PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist .