[SOLVED] Wireless connection stability -- is my ISP deceiving me ?

[b.eggersglusz]

Hello,

I currently live out in Rural South Africa and the only internet solutions out here is LTE, Satellite or Wireless point to point connection.

We have tried all methods and the only one that seems to somewhat hold its ground is Wireless point to point, we switched providers at the end of February for higher speeds and better prices but i've gotten to the point where I feel like im being taken for a ride by them and they've over sold their network. Here is the situation

My network configuration is Router > POE > Dish on roof > Their tower (hops to data center)

My previous supplier was 30km away but held stable and consistent speeds and latency with minimal issues. The new ISP is 1.8km away but one day I will have amazing download stability and speed and the next I will get half or even less of my download speed, this in turn also lowers my bandwidth which heightens my latency especially if the connection is in use. So one day good, one day bad. (I have fought with them on this) The weird part is that my Upload speed is also consistent.

I have a 15mbps down/7mbps up.

One day I will test and my results will be 5ms, 14.89Mbps download and 7.44Mbps upload then the next day I will test and get 22ms 7.44mbps download and 7.65mbps upload. No matter how terrible my speeds become (latency and download) my upload will always remain consistent, So my Transmit speed is consistent but my receive speed is jumpy.

Now I originally assumed it was because there was too many users going through there tower ( or too much data) so they have to split up bandwidth. But they informed me they have a 40% lee-way on load so it cant be that. They then informed me that they were going to install a new "sector" on their tower and connect me to that and it should fix the issue. However I need to sign a 1 year contract if this was to happen.

But again I find it weird how upload never drops below what it should be but my download also jumps around, it was terrible for 1 week, then amazing for 2 days, then terrible for half a day, then fine again.

So in short, do you think ive been lied to about the capabilities of their network? Is it possible that it's their problem not mine with too much usage through their tower since the patterns are so unpredictable? Will the new dish (point to point) connected fix the issue?

Let me know if you need nay more info, just dont wanna get ripped off.

 

[Lutfij]

I used to have a point to point connectivity using a wireless antenna on my rooftop. The thing was within 2 years the ISP themselves apologized and packed up and left. "Why?" you may ask? Simple, there were building being erected between their propagation tower and my antenna. Then was the quality of air, sometimes the speeds drop when we experienced dust storms and the monsoon.

Getting rid of it was also a good thing because I figured their tech support guys were getting tired of coming to my place and seeing that I wasn't at fault.

When you say PoE, have you tried using just the Ethernet port on your system? It could be that your power grid might be playing foul, it could be that they have users on their network that could explain the drop in speeds, it could also be that they might need to upgrade their platform/network.

 

[b.eggersglusz]

I used to have a point to point connectivity using a wireless antenna on my rooftop. The thing was within 2 years the ISP themselves apologized and packed up and left. "Why?" you may ask? Simple, there were building being erected between their propagation tower and my antenna. Then was the quality of air, sometimes the speeds drop when we experienced dust storms and the monsoon.

Getting rid of it was also a good thing because I figured their tech support guys were getting tired of coming to my place and seeing that I wasn't at fault.

When you say PoE, have you tried using just the Ethernet port on your system? It could be that your power grid might be playing foul, it could be that they have users on their network that could explain the drop in speeds, it could also be that they might need to upgrade their platform/network.

The thing that im confused about is that previously with the old supplier I never had speed issues, just the occasional stability issue that they managed to sort out in the space of 1-2 days then it was fine again for months.

This new connection has tested perfectly from the 30th of march till the 1st of April, now again today its testing terribly on download speed, 1 test gave me 3mbps and the next gave me 12mbps, I have access to winbox router OS and can monitor all usage coming off the Dish, so even if my PC is running a test and another computer is pulling bandwidth I would be able to see the exact amount it reaches.

My Upload always remains perfect throughout all the issues.

Its just confusing, their tower is closer, their line of site is better, their signal is better. The possible upload/download is 100mbps down/50mbps up.

Yet my transmit is perfect but my download is jumpy. Thats why I still think its something to do with load on their tower, yet they are saying its not. I unfortuantly can't just use the Ethernet without the POE injector as then the Dish wouldn't receive power. I have a UPS connected though as of yesterday and its got a output monitor, and it shows stable output so doubt its a power issue.

I just have to sign a contract with them by the end of today for the direct link to a dish and am unsure if its worth it if it wont solve the issue.

 

[bill001g]

A good test to see if the ISP has over sold their network is to test very early in the morning. If you see most your problems say between 5pm-10pm that is highly likely there is just too many other people.

Now it could also be interference from a neighbor not just usage. If a neighbor happens to be in the same narrow beam to the tower it could impact your signal when they are using theirs. Good WISP systems do not have this problem. They use special radios that prevent overlap transmissions and the very newest technology is using the same LTE used by cell providers just on the unlicensed bands. If the ISP is cheap and just using normal wifi you get all kinds of issues when you share the radio bandwidth in a uncontrolled nature.

 

[eldridgep2]

Completely agree with Bill on doing the test early AM and comparing to peak times PM to see if user load is the issue.

What are you testing your connection to if you are seeing ping times of 5ms? That is crazy quick assume you are just hopping to their tower as if you are testing to the internet I'd suggest your equipment is at fault.

WISP can be tricky I have several clients using different systems one provider in the city is rock solid they'll provide connections all the way up 300Mb-1Gb per second and I never get any issues. Other more rural ones are generally fine 30Mbps each way or so but on bad days (usually weather, in my country heavy rain) then the speed and latency just goes mad. Even had t setup 4G failover for a few i the cases where this can happen. The provider stated that can happen with the older system due to the frequencies it uses and was planning to upgrade the mast with newer equipment that would be multiple frequency and if the connection got bad it would fail over automatically.

I have a lot of clients in rural areas and one thing I am keeping a very careful eye on is Starlink the Elon Musk satellite broadband, unlike traditional satellite where you get crazy latencies these are in low earth orbit and here in the UK they are in trial and people are getting 150-180Mb on them which is faster than my FTTC connection with ping times of 20-40ms. It is a beta service and I've no idea how the roll out is planned for SA but worth keeping an eye on.