Thread: 2G/3G GPRS etc problems and HELP needed (as usual)

from what you describe it sounds as though the modem does not support the Optus 3G frequency, 900Mhz, but does support the Telstra frequency, 850Mhz, the modem will likely be quad band for GPRS so will get 2G with either one

make and model?

Thanks jok11n,Its a Telstra model MF 626i.
I put this Optus card in the mobile which is a Telstra ZTE F156 dual band 3G and on the screen it can display 3G, G and E indicating the network in use along with signal bars
The G is a half size of the one for 3G.
With the Telstra NextG card in it reads 3G but with the Optus card its only reading G which according to the book is GPRS or 2G and thats what I am now wondering if the signal from Optus is only 2G here.
Thats doesnt mean 3G isnt available from this particular transmitter but it could be either highly directional or I am 'under' the beam.

Imagine it is a huge roundabout with a 5 km diameter with the tower in the centre and I started at one point and stopped 1/4 of the way around the circle which was home.
At the starting point I had full bars but as I drove around the circle, the bars dropped to barely one by the time I reached home.
The distance from start to finish is about 5km as the road isnt quite circular so dropping 4 bars in that distance when your almost circling the centre shows how directional the signal is.
At start I would be say 100 metres lower than the towers and at home possibly 150 meters with mostly only trees between me and the tower.
So tomorrow I will see what it shows from a couple of locations as I go to town.

Gordon, with all due respect you seem to be your own worst enemy and appear to enjoy the grueling painstaking broadband issues that you go through.

Both you and I know the countless email exchanges between you and I where I have emailed you pictures of the tower and your property, congestion limits, antenna coordinates to the tower and the list goes on.

I have offered to send you hardware to trial at no charge and offered to sell you hardware at no profit to me. Mostly because I can't stand reading post after post complaining about crap internet.

I've detailed massive savings to what you are paying now to which you have agreed to.

To be fair, you are most courteous in your emails, although you never did reply to my last one weeks ago.

As you already know, all I do almost every day is install wireless broadband in rural areas. Mostly farmers giving up on Satellite. It's not like i'm some hack giving you some ill informed advice looking to profit from it.

I just don't get what you have to lose by accepting my offer which should solve all of your existing issues.

I agree that Telstra has better coverage. I recently changed to an Optus reseller and found I usually always have reception but it's a bit like the cells don't overlap hence get a lot more drop outs. But in saying that it's a $10.95 plan with the equivalent plan costing $50 or more.

Leroy

There's no doubt that Telstra wins hands down for mobile broadband situations usually in both speed and in coverage.

However in a fixed situation like Gordon's none of that matters. It makes sense to consider the options available, the speeds and the value for the fixed address. If he gets 3 bars of Optus with a crappy 3dbi whip antenna imagine what he'd get with a directional yagi around 12dbi. 21dbi yagi's are available as well if required.

Originally Posted by gordon_s1942

Thanks jok11n,Its a Telstra model MF 626i.
I put this Optus card in the mobile which is a Telstra ZTE F156 dual band 3G and on the screen it can display 3G, G and E indicating the network in use along with signal bars
The G is a half size of the one for 3G.

That modem simply won't work with Optus 900umts which is the tower where you are. It will work on 900gsm which is why you get gprs signal (a crawl).

Originally Posted by warbo

Gordon, with all due respect you seem to be your own worst enemy and appear to enjoy the grueling painstaking broadband issues that you go through.

Both you and I know the countless email exchanges between you and I where I have emailed you pictures of the tower and your property, congestion limits, antenna coordinates to the tower and the list goes on.

I have offered to send you hardware to trial at no charge and offered to sell you hardware at no profit to me. Mostly because I can't stand reading post after post complaining about crap internet.

I've detailed massive savings to what you are paying now to which you have agreed to.

To be fair, you are most courteous in your emails, although you never did reply to my last one weeks ago.

As you already know, all I do almost every day is install wireless broadband in rural areas. Mostly farmers giving up on Satellite. It's not like i'm some hack giving you some ill informed advice looking to profit from it.

I just don't get what you have to lose by accepting my offer which should solve all of your existing issues.

Warbo, if I didnt reply to an email of yours then I most certainly apologise as I did not do so intentionaly.
Warbo, I stopped communicating with you because I felt I had been taking up far too much of your time and you had other problems such as your wifes ill health to contend with then and thats what I said in the last email I sent you.
I do ask a lot of questions and to some that seems overwhelming but here for years I have had no other way of gaining information and I have always had to 'Cut my cut my cloth to suit my purse' so this too seems to make me appear to disregard advise given but thats an erronious assumption.
I have to plan ahead when considering expenditures and so I explore every avenue available.
Now when I posted this query re 2G/3G/G, it was because a friend had brought his Optus card here and we gave it a try with mixed success.
Now I spent $10 on that '$2 a Day Optus' plan and poked about the village to see what signal was where on the Mobile both with and without an external antenna as I have had an antenna on the car for 3 or 4 years and I never tested it untill I had the Mobile 'Unlocked'.
I was neither surprised or amazed at where the signal varied as I know this place rather well after 49 years and would you believe I sit nicely in an almost dead zone.
You drew a line on that Google map from the towers towards the village but you stopped 500 metres short of my house.
Where you stopped would have no signal there at all unless on a good high monted yagi.
Now understand I do not doubt your genuiness or nor do I take lightly the help you have offered and what you proposed was of great interest to me but I have to look, I have to ask and I have to TRY to see if it suits me in every way.
Remember I do NOT have the knowledge or access to equipment you have in your everyday job so its all a 'learning Curve' to me.
Your more than generous offer to supply me with equipment took some very serious thought as to if I should accept it as I wasnt sure I could furfill my part of the offer.
Also I set no timetable to make any changes other than it was going to happen hopefully sooner than later so in the meantime, I ask, I look and I listen.
I have cancelled the Ipstar satellite service from this Saturday (30 June) as step ONE. last month I bought those $30 Telstra Starter kits cheap ($10 each) which I had no intention of doing untill I saw the offer along with a dongle off Sanity (again cheap) and small whip antenna to experiment with.
I knew if they didnt work here, I could soon pass them along so I had nothing to lose.
I said I was very reticent in disconnecting the landline, something you said many of my era have also stated but in all my years here, except in the big snows of 1965, the telephones have worked almost continuously but an internet system runs on mains power and that can and does go off for hours sometimes unless you have a UPS backup available.

Now as for 'Complaining', I am almost 70, married 42 years, fathered 4, buried one, sold newspapers as a 12 yr old, shift worked for 36 years so I reckon I have paid my dues and now reached a point where I shall continue to hone those skills till the day I die.

Originally Posted by gordon_s1942

Now when I posted this query re 2G/3G/G, it was because a friend had brought his Optus card here and we gave it a try with mixed success.
Now I spent $10 on that '$2 a Day Optus' plan and poked about the village to see what signal was where on the Mobile both with and without an external antenna as I have had an antenna on the car for 3 or 4 years and I never tested it untill I had the Mobile 'Unlocked'.
I was neither surprised or amazed at where the signal varied as I know this place rather well after 49 years and would you believe I sit nicely in an almost dead zone.
You drew a line on that Google map from the towers towards the village but you stopped 500 metres short of my house.
Where you stopped would have no signal there at all unless on a good high monted yagi.

Your problem there is you weren't connecting to the Optus 3G signal as you were using an incompatible modem. You could live in Rydal for 100 years, but it all depends on height of the tower, strength, objects in between and most importantly the way the cells are located.

In your case Rydal is in the middle of two of the cell radius's making it not the most ideal location. However as already discussed in the past, an external yagi would be enough to bring in some good consistent signal. In fact as there is minimal population in the vicinity of the tower I imagine the speed with a good signal would scream.

Originally Posted by gordon_s1942

Now as for 'Complaining', I am almost 70, married 42 years, fathered 4, buried one, sold newspapers as a 12 yr old, shift worked for 36 years so I reckon I have paid my dues and now reached a point where I shall continue to hone those skills till the day I die.

Fair enough. What you choose to do in your later years is entirely up to you. I guess this just goes to show the difference between some people in the older generations and the younger ones.

Instead of borrowing sims, loaning modems, going in and out of Telstra and Optus shops, driving around and around for signal, spending hours on forums looking for help and I don't know how many hours on the phone to Ipstar, I know I'd be going for the free advice.

Good on you for finally ditching Ipstar. You just want to make sure your next choice isn't just as bad.

This is my last post. Good luck in your quest for some decent broadband.


500m short makes no difference.



Showing Mt Lambie as a 3G 900umts Tower



Red is no sell zone. But that is based on the customer using a usb modem with no antenna.

What's the going rate for a 12db 850/900Mhz 3G YAGI antenna? got a brand new one in the box here with mount bracket and about 10 meters of cable attached

Believe me I am not disputing the use of high gain antenna, would you like to see the dual phased array CA16's I hauled 80 feet up a pine tree to get a TV reception over 30 years ago?
My current TV antenna is a 106 metres from the house in a spot found for me by MTV to whom I am indebted for his efforts.
Having a truck load of equipment to try out isnt often an option for many individuals so they have to try to select whats best.

And too warbo, you critisied my clumsy efforts in experimenting which make me wonder if when you are buying a motor vehicle new or 2nd hand for personal or business use, do you simply accept some pimply faced suited cars salesman proclomations or do you like the rest of us go thru the tyre kicking, Horn blowing test drives we mere mortals do?
Same with buying a house, building one or renovating, do you ask around or just accept the first on face value?

Age teaches you that just because its the Latest, Greatest, flashingly coloured wind fluttering bunting up the pole wont answer the perenial question of 'What comes First, the Chicken or the Egg'?

You said 500 metres made no difference in your projection, well that point is some 75 metres LOWER than I am which means its FUTHER under the signal path than I am which would require a taller mast to raise an antenna to reach it and a longer cable run which could increase signal loss.
All of this no doubt you would handle without raising a sweat but for us not so well versed, its more cost and effort needed to achieve a good result.
I intend to keep posting on things I think others may be interested in and asking questions about the myriad of things I dont know about so all I can suggest is when you see my name, turn the page and move on.

Originally Posted by jok11n

What's the going rate for a 12db 850/900Mhz 3G YAGI antenna? got a brand new one in the box here with mount bracket and about 10 meters of cable attached

Sounds like an Exetel one? Their prices have been as low as $25 which is crazy cheap up to $100 or so. They only do the dual band yagi's now which are $80 plus post. Still a very fair price imo.

I'd say for someone who only needs 850/900mhz $60 plus post would be fair.

Originally Posted by gordon_s1942

And too warbo, you critisied my clumsy efforts in experimenting which make me wonder if when you are buying a motor vehicle new or 2nd hand for personal or business use, do you simply accept some pimply faced suited cars salesman proclomations or do you like the rest of us go thru the tyre kicking, Horn blowing test drives we mere mortals do?
Same with buying a house, building one or renovating, do you ask around or just accept the first on face value?

Sorry, I know I said i wouldn't post anymore. However yes, I would be keen to take the free advice from any member of this forum who has been around a while and works in the field I am interested in (just like you did with MTV). FYI I have 350 of these devices installed in and out of rural areas as well as 36 of them that travel from city to city with the Easter Shows. When they are in capital cities they send over a million dollars a day worth of transactions back to headquarters in Melbourne. I am lucky to ever hear from anyone in terms of troubleshooting.

So Gordon, yes when I am buying something I know nothing about I'll kick the tyres too, but I won't look a gift horse in the mouth when one is standing in front of me.

Originally Posted by gordon_s1942

You said 500 metres made no difference in your projection, well that point is some 75 metres LOWER than I am which means its FUTHER under the signal path than I am which would require a taller mast to raise an antenna to reach it and a longer cable run which could increase signal loss.
All of this no doubt you would handle without raising a sweat but for us not so well versed, its more cost and effort needed to achieve a good result.
I intend to keep posting on things I think others may be interested in and asking questions about the myriad of things I dont know about so all I can suggest is when you see my name, turn the page and move on.

You totally misunderstand my point, but it is futile trying to explain it, it seems.

I'm sorry it's come to this. Seems ridiculous to me but you just never know how things can turn out in life some times.