IBB Ripwave problems

ironside

Hi there!
This is my first post on here so bear with me if I get it all wrong.

I'm in search of that most elusive of all things - the green light - Signal Strength - on Irish Broadband's RipWave modem. I started with a red light, usually flashing. Lots and lots of emails later to the company resulted in some progress. I now have an amber light. Having asked Irish Broadband if I could ever expect a green light on their modem, I was informed "I've never seen a green light on a RipWave modem".

Has anyone out there who is using IBB's RipWave got a green light. If so, will they please advise as to how they got it. It might also be a good idea to photograph it and send it to Irish Broadband as they "have never seen a green light on a RipWave modem".

Meanwhile I struggle on with the amber light, better than the red but the equipment does not do what "it says on the tin".

Any idea's

Ripwave

ironside wrote:

Hi there!
This is my first post on here so bear with me if I get it all wrong.

I'm in search of that most elusive of all things - the green light - Signal Strength - on Irish Broadband's RipWave modem. I started with a red light, usually flashing. Lots and lots of emails later to the company resulted in some progress. I now have an amber light. Having asked Irish Broadband if I could ever expect a green light on their modem, I was informed "I've never seen a green light on a RipWave modem".

I've seen a green light on a RipWave modem - while sitting in the car park of the Lamb Doyles, a couple of hundred yards from the transmitter.

Actually for a week after they had "IP address allocation difficulties" all day one Monday in August, I had a solid green connection light. But I lost connection one morning last week, and when it eventually came back, the connection was amber again.

ironside wrote:

Meanwhile I struggle on with the amber light, better than the red but the equipment does not do what "it says on the tin".

What sort of speeds do you get when downloading from the FTP site on mon.irishbroadband.ie ?

Kappar

I always have a green light on my Ripwave. I am on the Three Rock transmitter.

Ripwave

Kappar wrote:

I always have a green light on my Ripwave. I am on the Three Rock transmitter.

How close are you to 3Rock?

ironside

Can someone please photograph the green light. How far up the mountain or how near to the "mast" does one have to be?

I am a mere stone's throw from Guinness - maybe I should go in a get drunk. That way the amber light might turn green. If I had enough of the black stuff I probably wouldn't care anyway.

As I said in my first posting the product doesn't do "what it says on the tin" neither does it do what it says on the Navini site.

I wonder how the advertising by IBB and on the packaging "sits" with the trades description act.

Many IBB customers are seeing RED - even blinking red!

Ripwave

ironside wrote:

As I said in my first posting the product doesn't do "what it says on the tin" neither does it do what it says on the Navini site.

What does it do? The presence or otherwise of a green light has little or nothing to do with anything being advertised.

Ragewave

I'm seeing red, and a lot of blinking red this weekend, crashing my computer if I'm accessing a webpage. I wonder are they tinkering with the Guinness mast, as a lot of problems seem to emanate from there?
PS I haven't had the pleasure of seeing amber as yet, five days in. Does anyone know if there is a purgatory period before entering amber limbo and green heaven?

WaitingForIBB

It's going back for tests tomorrow but I'm not optimistic. When I turn it on the signal light goes green then off then green again for a second then blinking red. Does that mean anything or is that normal for having no signal?

Ripwave

WaitingForIBB wrote:

It's going back for tests tomorrow but I'm not optimistic. When I turn it on the signal light goes green then off then green again for a second then blinking red. Does that mean anything or is that normal for having no signal?

That's normal - it does a self test for 5 or 10 seconds, and then takes a few seconds (10-20) to connect with the transmitter, and register itself.

Have you run the diagnostic software that comes with the unit? (I've never found it much use, but it will at least tell you whether you're getting a signal, but not registering, or whether you're not getting a signal at all).

Kappar

How close are you to 3Rock?

I am very close to the three rock in fact the modem is on my pc in the attic room and faces the window and has a line-of-site with the mast.

Ragewave

Ripwave wrote:

That's normal - it does a self test for 5 or 10 seconds, and then takes a few seconds (10-20) to connect with the transmitter, and register itself.

Have you run the diagnostic software that comes with the unit? (I've never found it much use, but it will at least tell you whether you're getting a signal, but not registering, or whether you're not getting a signal at all).

It doesn't seem to be on the IBB CD for some reason but you can also download Ripwave Monitor 2.3 from http://www.navini.com/pages/support/userdownloads.htm.
WARNING It's 7.5 Mb.
It gives signal strength and quality in live time. I believe the strength should be in the range -50 to -80, and the quality around 20. If anyone can comment on that it would be welcome.
Mine is currently signal strength -99 to -104 and quality 10 to 13 - a big improvement over the weekend when it went on blinking red every two hours, crashing my computer every time. No reply from email support since the automated reply at 11.36 on Sept 3, as of 14.20 Sept 6.

WaitingForIBB

I can't get the diagnostic software to my home pc. I've tried the ripwave monitor and it can't talk to the modem so there could be something wrong with it. (though it could well be my network card or setup).

Mutant_Fruit

Are you sure you have the cables connected correctly. Some modems have an "in" port and an "out" port, and can only be configured through one or the other. Make sure you have the cables set up right for configuring. (i assume the "in" one is what is used for setting up the modem". By "in" i mean the cable that goes out of your computer, and in the modem").

Then, are you using the right kind of ethernet cable? There are two kinds, crossover and pass through. Once again, i assume it uses the same one. But a friend of mine has a router, and it can only be used with a straight through cable.

Lastly, if its USB, try reinstalling the drivers. And try disabling all firewalls (if possible). Especially windows built in one.

WaitingForIBB

There is only one port, and I'm using the cable that came in the box. Turned off zonealarm and the windows firewall was disabled for that connection. I think I'm screwed.

Eglinton

I've gotten as far as amber now. But only in late evening/night. Wave propagation improvement. Blinking red during the day. Does anyone know if you can move the receiver to other tranmitter locations or is each device assigned to a particular transmitter? ie. for taking it to work.
Also where can I get a battery for it? They seem to exclude a lot of info when ordering.

Ragewave

Ragewave wrote:

No reply from email support since the automated reply at 11.36 on Sept 3, as of 14.20 Sept 6.

Still no reply from support as of 14.50 Sept 7

Ripwave

Ragewave wrote:

Still no reply from support as of 14.50 Sept 7

I guess you aren't in much of a hurry, then, or you would have called them.

The number is at the bottom of every page on their web site.

Ragewave

Ripwave wrote:

I guess you aren't in much of a hurry, then, or you would have called them.

The number is at the bottom of every page on their web site.

Was just about to reply to you, Ripwave, when the signal dropped and my computer crashed again.
What I was about to say was that I've decided to see how long
goes by without a reply to an email support query, up to 5 working days. I've made one call
to them already, previous to the email query. Call me perverse, but bad as IOL Anytime, my previous provider, was, support replied to emails. And as this thread is about IBB Ripwave problems, my view is that lack of email support is one of IBB Ripwave's problems. If there's a consensus to the contrary I will of course stop mentioning it.

Ripwave

Eglinton wrote:

I've gotten as far as amber now. But only in late evening/night. Wave propagation improvement. Blinking red during the day. Does anyone know if you can move the receiver to other tranmitter locations or is each device assigned to a particular transmitter?

I've been meaning to bring mine to a couple of locations and test this, but someone from IBB did suggest that "roaming" would be an extra charge service.

Also where can I get a battery for it? They seem to exclude a lot of info when ordering.

Lidl had a portable power pack (7 Amp-hours) a few weeks ago that can be used to power a variety of electrical equipment. I've used it as an external power supply for a Ripwave unit.

(It's heavy - but then, so is a laptop :-)

Ripwave

Ragewave wrote:

Was just about to reply to you, Ripwave, when the signal dropped and my computer crashed again.

Ripwave didn't cause your computer to crash - you might want to get that problem sorted out. If Ripwave is dropping at the same time that your computer is crashing, I'd suggest that you might want to get a UPS that will "clean" your power.

Ragewave wrote:

And as this thread is about IBB Ripwave problems, my view is that lack of email support is one of IBB Ripwave's problems. If there's a consensus to the contrary I will of course stop mentioning it.

Given that many of the people complaining about Ripwave don't have any connectivity at all, I can't see that e-mail support would be that much use to them.

Having said that, e-mail queries should be replied to. But they are also self evidently not as "urgent" as a phone call - have you even sent a follow up e-mail? I can't say that IBB support were ever any use to me in sorting out signal strength problems, but responsiveness hasn't been a big problem, and when I couldn't connect at all, they were up front about telling me if the problem was at their end.

If you just want to slag IBB off, then sit and wait for a response that will probably never come at this point. If you want to get your problem sorted out, give them a call.

Ragewave

Ripwave wrote:

Ripwave didn't cause your computer to crash - you might want to get that problem sorted out. If Ripwave is dropping at the same time that your computer is crashing, I'd suggest that you might want to get a UPS that will "clean" your power.

Ripwave starts to blink and then my computer crashes, which it hadn't done for a long time prior to Ripwave, but I'll be delighted if you're right, and appreciate your suggestion. Can you explain what a UPS is?

If you just want to slag IBB off, then sit and wait for a response that will probably never come at this point.

I'm a busy man, with wide interests, and don't need to add slagging off to my workload or hobbies. I'm tired of shoddy service in Ireland, though. I see you expect that a response will never come at this point. Indeed. I'll take another half hour out of my life and ring them tomorrow, meanwhile deleting their email support from my address book.

Ripwave

Ragewave wrote:

Ripwave starts to blink and then my computer crashes,

Have you uninstalled the Ripwave Monitor software? If you're using ethernet to connect to the Ripwave modem, then there isn't even any Ripwave software on the machine. And I don't think that there have been any complaints about dodgy USB drivers either. Either way, a dropped Ripwave signal won't cause your computer to reboot. You can verify this by turning the modem off, or disconnecting the cable.

(Unless one of the viruses that are infecting your PC doesn't like being cut off :-) )

Ragewave wrote:

which it hadn't done for a long time prior to Ripwave, but I'll be delighted if you're right, and appreciate your suggestion. Can you explain what a UPS is?

Uninterruptible Power Supply. If you have two devices, both plugged into the same circuit, both flaking out at the same time, it strongly suggests that the quality of the power on that circuit is suspect. Perhaps if you plug a small incandescent lamp in on the same circuit, you might see if it flickers at all at the same time).

Ragewave wrote:

I'm a busy man, with wide interests, and don't need to add slagging off to my workload or hobbies. I'm tired of shoddy service in Ireland, though. I see you expect that a response will never come at this point. Indeed. I'll take another half hour out of my life and ring them tomorrow, meanwhile deleting their email support from my address book.

Take one of the half hours that you would have spent posting to boards. I'd be pretty certain that IBB aren't going to do anything for you on the rebooting issue, but I've never been on hold with them, so just stick with the flashing red lights, and see what they have to suggest. Perhaps moving the modem to a different location might help.

Ragewave

Thanks for all the suggestions. I notice you've helped a lot of people. Much appreciated.
When I say 'crash' I mean that the blue screen flickers, and then freezes. Then I have to unplug the computer and reboot.
I haven't uninstalled the Ripwave monitor because (a) this was happening before I installed it and (b) it's a kind of lifeline because if I notice that the signal strength is -107 or thereabouts it's borderline and I can save whatever I'm working on - otherwise, obviously, once the inevitable crash comes, it's lost.
I have a lamp plugged into the same power strip and haven't noticed any flicker. There was never any problem with dial-up modem. Also I have library-current AVG antivirus, AdAware AND Spybot Search & Destroy, so I hope a virus or malware hasn't got past that lot. I seem to recall a mention of a problem with a firewall (mine is Agnitum Outpost). Does that ring a bell? I have a USB connection to Ripwave, which I believe is standard.
I'll stick to the flashing red lights when I call IBB. They did skip over mention of crashes when I last called them. Thanks.

Ripwave

Ragewave wrote:

When I say 'crash' I mean that the blue screen flickers, and then freezes. Then I have to unplug the computer and reboot.

What OS are you running? (If it's Win2K or WinXP and you're getting a bluescreen, then the Eventlog might give some indication of what caused it, but it sounds like you're seeing a Win9x "blue screen"?)

Ragewave wrote:

I haven't uninstalled the Ripwave monitor because (a) this was happening before I installed it and (b) it's a kind of lifeline because if I notice that the signal strength is -107 or thereabouts it's borderline and I can save whatever I'm working on - otherwise, obviously, once the inevitable crash comes, it's lost.

Okay, that's a little different, and suggests that interference might be an issue, if you can actually see the signal change. I don't think you said whether this is a new or an old Ripwave install? Do you have the newer 3.5GHz equipment which shouldn't really suffer from interference problems, or the older 2.4GHz equipment that does.? (The 3.5GHZ modem is "chunkier" than the 2.4GHz unit - as you can see here).

Ragewave wrote:

I have a lamp plugged into the same power strip and haven't noticed any flicker. There was never any problem with dial-up modem.

Is the Modem placed very close to the PC? It shouldn't happen, but I wonder if the modem ramps up it's signal when it begins to lose connection, and if that might cause problems (I used to have an old Win98 machine that crashed a couple of times when my mobile rang, or I received an SMS - I was getting rid of the machine anyway, so I never really followed up).

Ragewave wrote:

I seem to recall a mention of a problem with a firewall (mine is Agnitum Outpost). Does that ring a bell?

Nope - never heard of it.

Ragewave wrote:

I have a USB connection to Ripwave, which I believe is standard.

I've only ever dealt with Ethernet - it's far more flexible, standard and reliable. I'd still suggest that you stretch the USB cable as far as possible from the PC, to see if it makes a difference, but if you had Ethernet, I'd suggest you pick up a 15 or 20 foot cable, and put the modem in the next room. (And I'd also suggest that you invest €40 in a NAT router, just to provide some protection from external attacks, even if you have no interest in sharing the connection. You can't do that with a USB modem).

nuttyboy79

Hi folks I have had a ripwave since they launched them. I have to say apart from problems that the 2.4 GHz modem had (dropping signal etc.) I have had absolutely no problems with them. Especially since I changed over to the 3.5 Ghz there has been one glitch and that was my puter not picking up an IP address. As for the support they have been beyond excellent. I wanted to change from a USB modem to an Ethernet one (this stops the glitch mentioned above) this was done within 48 hrs of my request. As for the signal light I got a green one once and I am about 3 kms from 3 rock right under it. My download speeds are (compared to dial up and 2.4 GHz ripwave) are excellent. I have been in their offices once or twice and the phones are absolutely hopping so maybe the reason they are a while getting back to people is they are up to their proverbials. Anyway thats enough for now.

Keep the fayth

Nuttyboy :cool:

Ragewave

reply to Ripwave Today, 19:55 #24

I'm gobsmacked that you've gone to so much trouble and into so much detail. Many thanks.
I run ME (prefer it to XP, would like to have Linux but not practical right now).
The Ripwave modem is just under a week in my possession, so I imagine it's the 3.5GHz - the box I see actually says RipWave 3.4 USB model. Pack-out date 11-Aug-04.
(I had a two month delay getting it, apparently because of problems with the Guinness mast).
The modem is about 15 inches from the PC, but it's the only place I could get it to work, having tried all over the house. Mobile phones have never caused a problem with the computer (a Dell notebook, no ethernet so I'm stuck with USB), but I've made sure to keep them away from the Ripwave modem.

As the selling point for Ripwave (apart from its price) is that it's non line of sight, really we're searching for excuses as to why a technology isn't doing what its manufacturer and reseller claims it does. The bottom line is that the signal hasn't locked on to the modem, as it should. Perhaps in reality (as opposed to the hype) that takes a number of phonecalls to engineers who can then finetune it. That's what the guy I intially rang did, but it obviously needs another go. I'll ring them tomorrow and report back.
Again thanks for for your very generous help.

Mutant_Fruit

Not sure if ye all got the message or not... But this might give some of ye some faith in IBB:

Dear Irish Broadband Customer,

Due to required maintenance on the core of the Irish Broadband network a planned network outage has been scheduled.

Network services will be unavailable Wednesday 8 th August between the hours of 1am and 5 am.

We apologise for any inconvenience caused by this outage but reassure you that the work being performed is necessary. We will try and minimise the period of outage as much as is possible and hope that you will bear with us while we perform this work.

Thank you for your time.

Barry O’Connell

Irish Broadband Support

Ripwave

IBB wrote:

Network services will be unavailable Wednesday 8 th August between the hours of 1am and 5 am.

8th of August, or 8th of September?

ironside

What I'd really like to know is how many users of IBB's Broadband WiFi systems actually have that elusive green light on their modems.

You see, I was informed by a staff member in IBB that I was the "only" person for whom WiFi didn't work. This makes me feel very left out - alone - lost - isolated. Anyone else for whom the WiFi system doesn't work? Perhaps we could compile a list of people whose modems don't "do what it says on the tin" and forward the messages on to the powers that be in IBB

As I said in my very first posting here: the "sure it'll do" attitude so often attributed to Irish people must not be allowed continue. If we are getting a "half baked" service is it reasonable of Broadband providers to expect people to pay "full whack".

Ripwave

ironside wrote:

What I'd really like to know is how many users of IBB's Broadband WiFi systems actually have that elusive green light on their modems.

You see, I was informed by a staff member in IBB that I was the "only" person for whom WiFi didn't work. This makes me feel very left out - alone - lost - isolated. Anyone else for whom the WiFi system doesn't work? Perhaps we could compile a list of people whose modems don't "do what it says on the tin" and forward the messages on to the powers that be in IBB

It doesn't "say on the tin" that you'll get a green light. You don't need a green light to get 40K downloads on Ripwave. (In fact, the first time I had a green light, I could only manage 20K downloads).

ironside wrote:

As I said in my very first posting here: the "sure it'll do" beloved of the Irish must not be allowed continue. If we are getting a "half baked" service is it reasonable to of Broadband providers to expect people to pay "full whack".

The only thing that's "half-baked" is your understanding of the basic laws of physics. The further away you are from the tramsitter, the weaker the signal that you get is going to be. If you have a problem with that, then move closer to the transmitter.

Mutant_Fruit

Ripwave wrote:

8th of August, or 8th of September?

LOL. Considaring i only got the e-mail 3 days ago, i presume they meant september. But don't hold me to that