Notice a Road Runner/TWC slowdown lately?

Gwen Habenicht · **Posted:** Mon Feb 04, 2008 10:53 am

At home we have DSL w/ Verizon, which seems fine, but here at the kennel we are forced to use HughesNet satellite. (Verizon doesn’t service this section on HWY 501 and Time Warner says we set back too far from the road for service.) For the last week our satellite internet service has been extremely slow and has timed out several times daily. I was glad to read this thread, and assume that the re-routing issues are using all available sources, including satellite. Is that a bad assumption? I’ve sent the obligatory “customer service email” but as of yet haven’t received an answer. I’m sure though, that when I do, they will probably tell me that the problem is at my end. I say this only because a couple of years ago I lost internet service with HughesNet and it took several months, several installer visits, and a march up the corporate ladder until I finally convinced so suit in NJ that it was an equipment failure. Once they reinstalled my entire system and all the hardware-and gave me a 6 month credit- did things begin to work again. You can only imagine my visions when this slowdown began. Good grief! Not another fight with HughesNet. It’s a shame that we still have to pay full fare, when we’re getting ½ service, or less.

Just my .02 worth.

Wow, I feel better now!

Chuck Branscomb · **Posted:** Mon Feb 04, 2008 11:34 am

Gwen,

I've not used it before, but I've heard ok things about wireless broadband from Verizon in Raleigh area. I think speeds run about 1.0 Mbps down and maybe 700 Kbps up. If you have a decent signal strength at your location, it might be a much better solution than satellite?

http://b2b.vzw.com/productsservices/wirelessinternet/?R3D1R3CT=http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/mobileoptions/broadband/index.jsp

Gwen Habenicht · **Posted:** Mon Feb 04, 2008 3:37 pm

Chuck Branscomb wrote:

Gwen,

I've not used it before, but I've heard ok things about wireless broadband from Verizon in Raleigh area. I think speeds run about 1.0 Mbps down and maybe 700 Kbps up. If you have a decent signal strength at your location, it might be a much better solution than satellite?

http://b2b.vzw.com/productsservices/wirelessinternet/?R3D1R3CT=http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/mobileoptions/broadband/index.jsp

Trust me, I've looked into it. The signal gets very weak about a mile from here. When I went through this mess with Hughes I really gave Time Warner a tough go too. Especially since the ajoining property to the north of us has TW. We even tried to have them just bring it to the gate and said we’d be responsible for getting to it the building. No good. They sent men out to do a site evaluation, etc. Ultimately they offered to extend the cables for a cost of somewhere (I forget) around 2-3K, but the monthly cost would be around $300. This was back when we were still living in the apartment upstairs and were more than willing to go with the package of cable, Road Runner, etc.

With Verizon the story is a little different. At first it was not having the optical cable necessary here. That was actually put in about a year and ½ ago. Then we were told that it would be within 6 months. I’d ask every month when I paid my bill. Now it’s just that our phone number isn’t even on the long term plan for our area. The irony is that our business sits right on US Hwy 501. On the highway. No service. Yet, our home is on a small, only recently paved about 4 years ago road, parallel to and just east of 501 about 2/10 of a mile. Here, in the boonies we have Verizon DSL.

If anyone knows ANYBODY else to contact, don’t be shy. I can’t tell you how much I dislike satellite high, not so much, speed.

Chuck Branscomb · **Posted:** Mon Feb 04, 2008 4:17 pm

Gwen Baake wrote:

Trust me, I've looked into it. The signal gets very weak about a mile from here.

The wireless broadband signal gets weak? I'd be looking into some sort of directional antenna to connect to the card in some way. I've not looked into it, but there ought to be some way to make this work.

Gwen Habenicht · **Posted:** Mon Feb 04, 2008 4:56 pm

Chuck Branscomb wrote:

Gwen Baake wrote:

Trust me, I've looked into it. The signal gets very weak about a mile from here.

The wireless broadband signal gets weak? I'd be looking into some sort of directional antenna to connect to the card in some way. I've not looked into it, but there ought to be some way to make this work.

Thanks for the info. Yes, I will look into it again. It’s been awhile. I’ve had a couple of friends/business associates who’ve been here with their laptops-with Verizon wireless. We couldn’t get a decent signal here. He had planned to do some work on his laptop while at the Forestry camp, which is about 3 miles north of us. Just for kicks, when he started home, south on 501, he tried getting a signal a couple of miles south of here and had success. I mean, the signal was so weak that it was slow, slow, slow, and unreliable.

The techs @ Verizon say that if you can get a phone signal you can get the wireless signal. We’ve found that to just not be the case. The same was true of Clear Wire. Clear Wire was aggressively looking for new customers, but told me right away that we’d not be successful in Bahama.

It’s very frustrating, but the way of the world in the boonies!

Chuck Branscomb · **Posted:** Mon Feb 04, 2008 5:24 pm

I really don't know much about it, but if I was in a bind like that, I'd be looking to try a directional antenna pointed at the nearest Verizon cell tower. I'm not sure they have issues with people doing stuff like that, but there has to be a way to make it happen. A directional outdoor antenna pointed at their cell tower would increase the signal strength a gazillion times compared to just the card in the PC inside a building.

Here's a link I found real quick to a directional antenna (and it's only $37):
http://www.pacwireless.com/products/yagi_900mhz.shtml.

Gwen, I don't even know if you can get broadband wireless cards with external antenna connections on them -- perhaps someone here in the club has some ideas?? I'm just winging it here...

Wes Eargle · **Joined:** Mon Oct 27, 2003 9:47 am **Posts:** 3683

Gwen Baake wrote:

The techs @ Verizon say that if you can get a phone signal you can get the wireless signal.

The techs lied to you. Data access isn't the same as voice access.

There's a coverage map here where you can select your address and click the Broadband radio button. It looks like there's a node right around Bahama and it sounds like you're on the wrong side of it.

Donnie Barnes · **Posted:** Mon Feb 04, 2008 5:36 pm

You might see what the return policy is from these guys:

http://www.evdoinfo.com/

They should be able to tell you who has a closer tower to you, Sprint or Verizon. You could then try a card for the right one as well as one of their bigger antennas and even the signal amplifier. I've used their stuff with very good results in mobile operations (both with Verizon and Sprint cards).

Failing that, you can try these guys:

http://www.cellantenna.com/

I have one of their directional antennas on my house with the repeater system. Before installing this my cellphone would only occasionally even ring for an incoming call and to answer it I *had* to run outside and even then the signal was sketchy. Now I get two bars in my entire house. Our house is four floors and it took three internal antennas to cover it. But even then the closest Verizon tower is only 1x, so I don't get any kind of great data speed with it (fortunately I don't generally need that, either).

For $400 per month or so you can always get a T1 from a telco. 1.2+Mbs both ways (up to 1.5 depending on the carrier). Sucks, but that's what I do out here in the real boonies...

--Donnie

Chuck Branscomb · **Posted:** Tue Feb 05, 2008 8:16 am

News on the Internet issue last week: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/04/business/worldbusiness/04cnd-cable.html?_r=1&ref=technology&oref=slogin

steve remchak · **Posted:** Tue Feb 05, 2008 11:56 am

Chuck Branscomb wrote:

News on the Internet issue last week: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/04/business/worldbusiness/04cnd-cable.html?_r=1&ref=technology&oref=slogin

Godzilla????????

Gwen Habenicht · **Posted:** Wed Feb 06, 2008 12:58 pm

Thanks to all of you guys for your information. Donnie, if things don’t get better soon, your ideas may get some serious consideration!

It’s been a bad week so far for me and the internet. Monday evening we had a power outage-and I suspect a surge-that took out the Verizon modem at home. That meant slooooooow internet at work and NO intern net at home. So, I was on the phone with India, mostly on hold and being transferred here and there for 35 minutes to order a new modem. God, I hate dealing with techs that I can’t understand. I’m language cnallenged anyway, as my relatives with German accents always remind me, but apparently I don’t speak India English either. :whoknows:

Well, the modem came today and I guess Bernie will handle the language barrier to install it.

I did hear from HughesNet about why satellite internet has been so slow. Here, in part, is what they said:
HughesNet, as you know, is a "Satellite Internet Service" provider. The "Satellite Internet" technology works on shared bandwidth. Therefore, like any other "Satellite Internet Service" provider, we are committed to adhere to a globally accepted mechanism which would enable all the users use the internet in a "Fair" and "Just" manner.

The "Fair Access Policy", FAP, was introduced to fulfill this commitment. As per the policy, depending upon the kind of plan you are subscribed to, you will have a definite "Daily Download Threshold". Once you cross the threshold the speed of the internet connection will keep on decreasing as you go on using the internet. Finally you will reach a stage when the connection will be so slow that you will not be able to use it at all.

For a speedy recovery from FAP you will need to stop using the internet connection for a "maximum" of 24 hours from the time the account was subjected to FAP, however you can continue to browse the internet without downloading too much data.
So, I guess it will speed up when fewer people are using it. It actually seems OK today.

Again, thanks for all the info.

David Spratte · **Posted:** Wed Feb 06, 2008 2:08 pm

steve remchak wrote:

Chuck Branscomb wrote:

News on the Internet issue last week: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/04/business/worldbusiness/04cnd-cable.html?_r=1&ref=technology&oref=slogin

Subject: Cloverfield.

Marty Howard · **Posted:** Thu Feb 07, 2008 3:35 pm

Just a small update about the transcont lines...

There are now not 1, not 2, not even 3..but 5 cut lines in so many days. Way to many to be accidental.

Richard Casto · **Posted:** Thu Feb 07, 2008 5:26 pm

Marty Howard wrote:

Just a small update about the transcont lines...

There are now not 1, not 2, not even 3..but 5 cut lines in so many days. Way to many to be accidental.

Believe me, I am rooting for it being something like a shark with lasers on it's head or godzilla or something. But where are you seeing the "5" figure. I was reading that the report of "5" was someone who counted one of the lines twice and didn't actually list what #4 was.

I think they said there are about 50 cuts per year and that with a number of these being very close to each other (I think two are within site of each other) may be just bad luck.

Ash Nelson · **Posted:** Fri Feb 08, 2008 11:40 pm

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