Solving Ripwave Problems

Fibonacci

Apologies if this thread is a bit repetitive, but I’ve searched the other threads on the topic and haven’t been able to answer my questions satisfactorily. Maybe if this thread develops well, a mod can put it as a sticky, as there seems to be lots of people in a similar situation.

Anyway, the crux of my problem is as follow….

Ripwave
I’ve had Ripwave for a couple of months. Initially, it only worked sporadically, this has however improved now and it works I guess 98% of the time. However, the speeds I am getting are pretty bad, nowhere near 512 Kbps and only around Dial-up, although frequently below.

1) Tracking Speeds and Service
Firstly, I’d like if someone could suggest what is the best way to measure/track the overall performance of my connection?

1) Download speed
2) Connection Strengths
3) Etc….

(Although not a newbie, I still get lost when people start throwing around pings and other jargon. If you could explain this in as simple as terms as possible, that would be great….)

2) Expected Speeds
Currently, I’ve been using a tool on the McAfee website to measure my download speeds (http://us.mcafee.com/root/speedometer/test_0150.asp). Using this tool, my download speeds have never gone above 50 Kbps (on par with good dial-up). The LED on the Ripwave modem usually flicks between red and orange. But even with orange, I never get above 50 Kbps.

What speed should I expect, and would be considered satisfactory?

3) What can I do on my end to improve it?
Is there anything I can do on my end to improve it? Modem is by the window and facing the Guinness Mast.

4) What can I have IBB do on their end to improve it?
Is there anything I can have IBB do, I’ve read in other threads about IBB throttling connections?

Thanks in advance for all your help!

Baz_

The first thing you should do is get in touch with ibb immediately, I had to contact them twice, and then it was all good. I really don't think there is anything you can do on your end, there are a few tips like putting modem in attic, putting modem outside in a waterproof box of some variety, but basically if you're having problems contact ibb and if necessary get them to send a technician.

The way I measure my speed is I find a big file to download and download that in download accelerator, which has a very nice graphical display of the current download speed. But initially I just used online tools like the one you are using presently and there is nothing wrong with that method.

As for connection strengths, I don't know much about it.

Bottom line, contact IBB.

Baz_

Shiny

Fibonacci wrote:

Firstly, I’d like if someone could suggest what is the best way to measure/track the overall performance of my connection?

1) Download speed
2) Connection Strengths
3) Etc….

I use "netlimiter" to monitor and control all my speeds.
It gives a usage graph for all your traffic and each individual program.
It records all stats meaning you can see how much stuff you downloaded
at 5am, for example

In this image it shows my usage for 24 hours on a specific day.
Also you will see that IBB throttled my connection at exactly 1pm.

At the moment I am getting dire speeds with Ripwave but it will probably
go back up to full speed at 6pm as ususal when business' close.

I dont bother looking at the signal strength cos there is little that can be
done about it bar building/buying an external antenna.
Although I have my modem propped up on a big box so it is in the
top corner of the window.
Another guy in this forum has his modem hanging out the window on a piece
of string. hehe

Turning off the Ripwave modem for a few minutes to let it cool down worked
for me last night. Went from red to green.

All IBB can do is set your modem to roam and connect to the strongest
signal. After that all they can do is talk about engineers checking the
connection.

gline

Man the connection looks unbearable at 10pm

Shiny

gline wrote:

Man the connection looks unbearable at 10pm

thank got that was only one day.

it changes from day to day.

GreeBo

I was just on the phone to IBB support has man Ripwave has bombed in the last 2 weeks
I used to get 100ms pings to boards and D/L of 50k/sec from a "good" site.
Now I'm lucky if I get 10k D/L's and my router spends all day requesting DHCP.

Anywho, they said that a lot of people have had the same problem and they have had a Navini guy here for the last 2 weeks.
If you ring up they give him your details and he adds it to his list of connections that are now buggered.

Good luck!

Fibonacci

Shiny, Are you using Ripwave or Breeze Home??

I downloaded netlimiter to check my speeds and I am getting nothing like your readings. For the number of bytes downloaded per hour, where you are getting 200,000,000, I am only getting around 40,000,000 with a max of 75,000,000?

Shiny

Fibonacci wrote:

Shiny, Are you using Ripwave or Breeze Home??

I downloaded netlimiter to check my speeds and I am getting nothing like your readings. For the number of bytes downloaded per hour, where you are getting 200,000,000, I am only getting around 40,000,000 with a max of 75,000,000?

I have ripwave but I get a constant green light.

When I had my modem placed wrong then I was getting your speeds.
But then i changed it to the window that faces the mast and now i
get a green light and the downloads you have seen.
I am only about 500 yards, unobstruced down the road from the
high site.

Acerferrari3200

Singnal was red all the time with very poor quality. lots of drop outs....!

NOW thanks to the Hi Teach wonders of a sheet of card board curved like a antenna with Tin Foil on it just behind my Ripwave ,,,,I now Have

Constant ....Yellow ....and Yellow quality ...:-) ....


Place Ripwave 120 degrees away from your base station ..let pick up singnal then put your home made reflector dish behind the unit and watch your singnal improve ...!

SkepticOne

Just did a test of downloading a medium sised file from kernel.org in the US.

Connecting to www.us.kernel.org[216.176.132.235]:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 35,628,066 [application/x-tar]

100%[====================================>] 35,628,066 56.85K/s ETA 00:00

12:24:22 (56.85 KB/s) - `linux-2.6.8.1.tar.bz2' saved [35628066/35628066]

That works out at about 455 kbit/sec which is not bad. This is on a constant green signal. I then did a test with the modem moved to a position that gets only a red signal and the result was 27.36 KB/s (or 219 kbit/sec). I would need to do more tests to eliminate network congestion and other factors.

For some reason I can't get a yellow signal. It goes straight from green to red. Has anyone else got this?

Ardent

Acerferrari3200 wrote:

NOW thanks to the Hi Teach wonders of a sheet of card board curved like a antenna with Tin Foil on it just behind my Ripwave

Intriguing! Might give this a go. What do you mean precisely by "curved like a antenna"?

SkepticOne

Ardent wrote:

Intriguing! Might give this a go. What do you mean precisely by "curved like a antenna"?

I'm thinking he means something like this but on a smaller scale.

sprinkles

I'm located in town, on thomas street, I had a usb modem which didn't work at all, now I have the ethernet modem and its working alot better, however I'm getting nowhere near the speeds I get back home (with BT). I'm lucky to get about 30kB/s. I'm getting a green light most of the time and we're on the top floor of our apartment so we're pretty high up. Is there anything I can do to increase the performance???

Ardent

SkepticOne wrote:

I'm thinking he means something like this but on a smaller scale.

Thanks for clearing that up.

It might work, would just look a bit silly having a mini tinfoil dish on your window sill so you can connect to the internet

Ardent

sprinkles wrote:

I'm located in town, on thomas street, I had a usb modem which didn't work at all, now I have the ethernet modem and its working alot better, however I'm getting nowhere near the speeds I get back home (with BT). I'm lucky to get about 30kB/s. I'm getting a green light most of the time and we're on the top floor of our apartment so we're pretty high up. Is there anything I can do to increase the performance???

Sprinkles, if you're getting a green light most of the time then you've got a better connection than me. I normally get an orange light and I live not too far from you. Up till last weekend I was getting 55k/s continuously, now I'm lucky if it averages out at 20k.

There are other Ripwave users currently experiencing the same kind of problems you are. I rang IBB last night and they told me they've had a guy from Navini over here doing some work for the last two weeks and that, by the time he's finished, everyone's internet experience through IBB will improve.

We live in hope.

GreeBo

Ardent wrote:

Sprinkles, if you're getting a green light most of the time then you've got a better connection than me. I normally get an orange light and I live not too far from you. Up till last weekend I was getting 55k/s continuously, now I'm lucky if it averages out at 20k.

There are other Ripwave users currently experiencing the same kind of problems you are. I rang IBB last night and they told me they've had a guy from Navini over here doing some work for the last two weeks and that, by the time he's finished, everyone's internet experience through IBB will improve.

We live in hope.

They said the same to me (about 7-8 posts further up) and my connection has gotten a bit better since then. (wednesday)
I'm still having DHCP problems though...
Whatever that navini guy was doing he has managed to stabilize my pings to about 100ms with no crazy 5 sec spikes... which is nice.

Fibonacci

Acerferrari3200 wrote:

NOW thanks to the Hi Teach wonders of a sheet of card board curved like a antenna with Tin Foil on it just behind my Ripwave
...!

My newly fashioned tin-foil antenna is not working, do I need to add a toilet role insert and some double sided sticky tape?

gline

SkepticOne wrote:

I'm thinking he means something like this but on a smaller scale.

HEHE how much smaller than that, lol

GreeBo

Fibonacci wrote:

My newly fashioned tin-foil antenna is not working, do I need to add a toilet role insert and some double sided sticky tape?

Did you get an adult to help you with the scissors?

lampsie

After contacting IBB about my connection (went from solid connection up until a week or two ago to dire all of a sudden), my pings have stabilised.. but, my download rate is bloody awful, and very sporadic. How are others faring?

- lamps

GreeBo

lampsie wrote:

After contacting IBB about my connection (went from solid connection up until a week or two ago to dire all of a sudden), my pings have stabilised.. but, my download rate is bloody awful, and very sporadic. How are others faring?

- lamps

exactly the same here....
poxy thing