National Broadband satellite - effects of weather on speed

markmagennis

Satellite broadband speeds are affected by weather. I have a two-way satellite package from National Broadband which is rated as 1mbps download and 128kbps upload. As the weather changes from clear skies to heavy rain, I've been logging my actual download and upload speeds using SpeedTest.net. Here are some samples (download:upload).

990:170 Clear sky (I get these speeds most of the time)
976:141 Light rain
609:156 Heavier rain
498:117 Thick low cloud just after rain
586:169 Cloudy
000:000 Heavy rain and heavy mist
376:166 Light rain and heavy mist
639:175 Heavy mist
397:149 Heavy mist

Results that stick out:
1. Download rarely drops below 50% of maximum.
2. But in very bad conditions the connection can be lost completely.
3. Download is affected more than upload (taking % of top speed)
4. Upload is almost always higher than the 128k rating.

Overall, I'm pretty pleased (I'm still in the post-dial-up honeymoon period).
Mark

barnicles

In a school i was on a sat connection once 3 hours to load 1 web page

trabpc

is it Still going ok? Im considering NBB 58 euro a month offer. No other Choice!

markmagennis

Yes it's still going okay. Perfectly usable and reliable.

Mark

watty

Depends what part of Country you are in and how important upload speed is.

Also what size dish they fit.

There is something strange about how you are measuring as up and down attenuation is equal with rain but upload power is much lower as it uses 0.5W rather than normal 2W. With less than 2m dish usually upload is thus affected much more than download. Or you are in a hot spot for upload and poorer place for download. (We are on edge of footprint so odd things happen).

JohnnieM

Mate of mine has NBB..very happy with it,,On average using spedtest he reports 970 ish down and 990-1.2mb up ... High pings though ..in th 8-900ms... ..yes its quite a big dish

trabpc

My bro got it in last week and he seems very happy with it. Always between the 950-1000 mark for download. Alot quicker than his 02 dongle thingy.

mumhaabu

It looks like it would beat "THREE" anyday hands down. I guess a larger dish would give more stable results. NBB if you are reading you are the lesser of two evils and try and get yourself a slice of the NBS booty now that Eircom are excluded.

What is that package costing Mark? Do you use their Voip phone line and how is it?

Fuzzy Clam

mumhaabu wrote: »

It looks like it would beat "THREE" anyday hands down. I guess a larger dish would give more stable results. NBB if you are reading you are the lesser of two evils and try and get yourself a slice of the NBS booty now that Eircom are excluded.

What is that package costing Mark? Do you use their Voip phone line and how is it?

Pity you didn't say that here http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=57829162#post57829162youwhen you were putting down satelitte bb.:eek:

mumhaabu

Fuzzy Clam wrote: »

Pity you didn't say that here http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=57829162#post57829162youwhen you were putting down satelitte bb.:eek:

I like many others were sure Eircom had the NBS in the bag and was not too happy with reports that NBB Satellite would be getting in on the action, however now that the unthinkable happened and Three got it, Three are so bad they make anything look better.

markmagennis

mumhaabu wrote: »

What is that package costing Mark? Do you use their Voip phone line and how is it?

It's €48.90 a month. There is no VOIP service.

The package I signed up for was the Home Office (1024K) subscription which included 200 minutes (I think) free voice calls for a total of €68.90 per month. But they are giving me €20 a month rebate because there is no VOIP service. So it's down to €48.90 which suits me because I never wanted the free voice calls anyway.

Mark

SonOfPerdition

markmagennis wrote: »

It's €48.90 a month. There is no VOIP service.

The package I signed up for was the Home Office (1024K) subscription which included 200 minutes (I think) free voice calls for a total of €68.90 per month. But they are giving me €20 a month rebate because there is no VOIP service. So it's down to €48.90 which suits me because I never wanted the free voice calls anyway.

Mark

hi Mark,

whats the deal with no VOIP service. Is this your choice, or a problem they are having ?

fergalfrog

I have ordered the NBB product but they are out of stock and waiting to get it in before they can send it out to me.

They say:
"Our satellite system is designed for SELF INSTALLATION"

Can I ask how ppl have got on installing it themselves?

markmagennis

SonOfPerdition wrote: »

whats the deal with no VOIP service. Is this your choice, or a problem they are having ?

It's a problem they are having.

Mark

markmagennis

fergalfrog wrote: »

Can I ask how ppl have got on installing it themselves?

I know this doesn't answer your question, but when I subscribed some bloke came round and installed it, but it looked like I could have done it easily myself. Mount the dish, run the cable through the house, unpack the ASTRA2Connect router, plug it in and connect it to my WiFi base station and run a bit of software supplied on a CD to get the laptop to converse with the router. Seemed pretty straightforward, although I didn't actually try it of course, it just SEEMED straightforward.

Mark

fergalfrog

Cheers Mark - thanks for that.

I am hoping I can do it myself. I am planning on getting the dish attached to a pole outside and then run a cable in through the window.

That way if I move house or it doesn't work I can just pick it up and go.

watty

Alignment isn't straight forward and needs a sat meter. There are 22 satellites up there receiveable in Ireland. Only one will work. The dish needs pointing to within 0.5 degree or better if dish larger. A TV aerial is OK within 20 degrees.. 40 times more accuracy needed or you get no signal.

watty

markmagennis wrote: »

It's a problem they are having.

Mark

Like the 800ms+ extra latency. VOIP can sort of work. But the delay makes it awkward and the Astra2Connect hasn't the uplink speed for G711 codec in rain. Also they need to implement some sort of QOS as otherwise any uploading, email, web browsing etc will jitter/packet loss the VOIP and make it very poor.

fergalfrog

watty wrote: »

Alignment isn't straight forward and needs a sat meter.

They give you an audio ear piece which you put in your ear and move the satellite dish across the sky until you hear a pinging noise. When the pinging is at its loudest you then lock the dish in position. You cannot lock on to the wrong satellite as the ear piece will only ping for the Astra satellite at 23.5 degrees east. It will not ping for anything else.

I will let you know how I get on. My credit card got charged nearly 2 weeks ago so I'm hoping they send me the equipment soon.

mumhaabu

fergalfrog wrote: »

They give you an audio ear piece which you put in your ear and move the satellite dish across the sky until you hear a pinging noise. When the pinging is at its loudest you then lock the dish in position. You cannot lock on to the wrong satellite as the ear piece will only ping for the Astra satellite at 23.5 degrees east. It will not ping for anything else.

I will let you know how I get on. My credit card got charged nearly 2 weeks ago so I'm hoping they send me the equipment soon.

Lol! I can't believe this was being rolled out on a DIY basis? I was certain they installed it for you! I remember those buzzers from that piece of crap Lidl satellite system a while back, there is no way it is humanly possible for an average person to be expected to be able to set this up before unless they know the workings of Satellite technology and all the trappings that go with it. For VSAT and especially for this product that is on the margins of footprint you need to dish to be 100% aligned correctly as if it is not then in light misty rain it will cut out which is of no use whatsoever to a product that delivers internet based data.

This product is best left to a experienced satellite engineer as you will see in the video below even the guy in the video is using a professional meter not a cheap buzzer that can be got on ebay for pennies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LNSPZCrjbM

This is their promo video also, the video on the NBB site is not working presumably they must be hosting via satellite too:eek:

Best of luck aligning it but I can see it becoming a real nightmare!

fergalfrog

They will install it for you for 100 euro if you want. I thought I'd have a go myself anyway. According to the guy I spoke to most people can install it themselves - he spoke of 600+ installations and only a handful where the user had to call out an engineer.

I will update as to how it goes as soon as I get it. They have a 14 day money back thing so I don't think I will get stung too badly. It seems great but whether it does what it says is another thing.

Where I am it's this or dial-up (I have tried everything else as documented on williamstownoffline.com), so if I get anything like the advertised speeds I will be happy. I may however have some difficulty explaining to clients that I missed a deadline because it was raining!!!

48nico

HI,i just recently installed the satellite myself during the bad weather of 3 weeks ago,i found the ear phone useless as i was getting their full package broadband+tv+voip.i found the tv channels first the broadband wasnt far from that. my package was 1mb download,128 upload ,using broadband speed test it shows im getting around 90% average,the jitters are between 185-350 not great,im still waiting on phone handset from them,im using an old phone till then:)

YOU will never align it on your own it took me 4to 5 hours and alot of srcreaming,if i were to do it again i would get it installed

fergalfrog

48nico wrote: »

YOU will never align it on your own it took me 4to 5 hours and alot of srcreaming,if i were to do it again i would get it installed

Right - that's not what they told me - they said they had sold over 600 and only a few required an engineer to come out...

48nico

YOU have no problem putting up the dish it the alignment can be hard(pick a dry day:D)

trabpc

My brother who knows nothing IT related installed it in an afternoon. Yea Aligning the dish can be tricky but he managed it. Im getting it next week or early in new year. Save your self the €100. he also is paying €58 but is getting the €20 rebate.

Will the phone element ever work?

Ill probably get Eircom for the phone anyway.

fergalfrog

Cheers - What is the 20 euro rebate you mentioned?

I am still waiting on my equipment.

trabpc

His charge is €58 p/m but because phone is not working on sat yet he is gettig the €20 back so all he is currently paying is €38 euro.

NWM

My experience with NBB (I have posted in the past about not having any other option where I am, and I tried them all).

Last week in Nov: I rang and made my order. The guy says that most people install themselves and it is no bother because of the sat meter, so I choose this option. He says I will get it by the end of November.

1st week in Dec: I ring again since nothing has arrived the previous week as they promised. They have lost all my details so I order again. They say I should get it before the end of the week.

16th December: I ring asking what the status is. They say they will ring back. They don't.

17th December (this morning): I ring again, they guy fesses up that there is a huge backlog and the whole thing is in chaos and he will TRY to get it out to me before XMAS.

****ers.

boggerboy

NWM..
they don't have any stock of product, thats why you are not getting your order. Be careful with your cash...

NWM wrote: »

My experience with NBB (I have posted in the past about not having any other option where I am, and I tried them all).

Last week in Nov: I rang and made my order. The guy says that most people install themselves and it is no bother because of the sat meter, so I choose this option. He says I will get it by the end of November.

1st week in Dec: I ring again since nothing has arrived the previous week as they promised. They have lost all my details so I order again. They say I should get it before the end of the week.

16th December: I ring asking what the status is. They say they will ring back. They don't.

17th December (this morning): I ring again, they guy fesses up that there is a huge backlog and the whole thing is in chaos and he will TRY to get it out to me before XMAS.

****ers.

fergalfrog

I have had the same experience. On their website, www.nbb.ie they have:

"Order now and be surfing the net at BROADBAND SPEED WITHIN 72 HOURS !!"

My credit card was debitted on Nov 28th and I sent my direct debit form on Dec 2nd. I have not got anything yet and it would appear it will be well into the New Year before I get anything. I will update here as soon as I get anything.

Zaphod

Eurosat/BeyonDSL have been signed up recently as UK distributors for Astra2Connect. Considering the differences in prices per month for equivalent 512Kbps packages (NBB €50 vs BeyonDSL £29), they might be worth contacting.

http://www.beyondsl.net/a2cinfo.htm