All advice needed for a newbie having probs

[joandublin]

Hi Folks

I have been having trouble with my Clearwire box connection since November (so whats new I hear you say... )

Anyway I have been on to them several times (last time this morning) and I have done the usual thing, i.e. checking the signal, moving the box, making sure I have at least 4 green lights, etc (currently have 5 lights twinkling away) and the problem still remains the same....I have massive connection problems once the busy times starts in the evening. The mornings are fine - no problems. However I have NEVER reached the speed I am supposed to according to their service. I think I have a 1mb download - does that make sense? Im kinda new to this

My speed test on Monday 5 Feb at 9.00pm, for example, was
Download 0.43kbps
Upload 3.64kbps Double

This morning things were working fine again .....
Download 1.14 mbps
Upload 114 kbps

Now its slowing down again.....

They said I should phone them at a time when the speed was particularly bad as they can check things better then. Are they talking a load of bull? Im just not sure. I just cant continue with this contract because I am a Moderator on a Message Board and I work most evenings there - you can imagine the frustration.

Any advice or guidance or things I should be saying would be very much appreciated. Im very new to the technical stuff

Thanks
Joan

[Duff]

Hi Joandublin,

Having exactly the same problems...at times its like being back on dial up and then all is well...very frustrating stuff indeed...have been on to them about it but might as well talk to a wall...no help at all....the clearwire story continues i'm afraid.

[GOONER1]

Hi Joan.
First of all I'm not the most techie either but I have had major problems in the past with my eircom connection.
It's all a case of false advertising!
The 1mb you signed up for is the maximum you will get at any time.
When the system gets busy you have loads of people using the same line so it slows down.
It's to do with Irish providers only providing DSL lines and not ADSL.
(Please correct me if I'm wrong anyone).
So Joan, the long and the short of it is your stuck with it and the grass certainly ain't greener on the other side!

I hope I've helped you some way coz I know how frustrating it can get!
I burnt out 5 modems I got from eircom before I had sense to buy a Netopia router!
The only thing is if I have any problems and have to ring the support line, they hang up on me straight away coz I'm not using the supplied hardware!!!

Lovely isn't it!

[joandublin]

Thanks for the replies

Duff - I know the feeling. Its such a pain. In fact I find myself using my dial up connection most evenings because the Clearwire service is so poor - so I am paying double bills.... Grrrrr...

Gooner

I was afraid that was the case alright I wonder if I might be just jumping out of the frying pain and into the fire. The thing is that I have a landline and I might as well use this seeing as I am paying for it anyway. I had hoped eventually to do away with the landline but Im sure glad I didnt.

Thanks you two once again. I will let you know the update. Clearwire were due to ring me back latest today as they had 'reported' my problem to the relevant people in Clearwire - whoever they are. If I dont hear from them by this evening I think I will just cancel my contract and take a leap of faith somewhere else.

Thanks again
Joan

[allyano]

Hi Community People, I'm a NU-BEE too to this site and also to clearwire AND to the bewildering jungle of acronyms etc....
I guess since I have a clearwire modem 1MB I am a prisoner to their service but Im still trying to determine is it a bad service or not???

I live in Rathmines Area, recieved the modem yesterday and when I downloaded off of the Microsoft Site it was saying (Saving to My Folder.... Rate of 60Kbps/sec) then the strength gradually went up and down!

Can somebody tell me what I should expect in terms of my download rate or do I have pretty good service right now!!! Im neutral at this moment! I was not blown away with the speed but it did the job

[howfast]

Originally Posted by allyano

Hi Community People, I'm a NU-BEE too to this site and also to clearwire AND to the bewildering jungle of acronyms etc....
I guess since I have a clearwire modem 1MB I am a prisoner to their service but Im still trying to determine is it a bad service or not???

I live in Rathmines Area, recieved the modem yesterday and when I downloaded off of the Microsoft Site it was saying (Saving to My Folder.... Rate of 60Kbps/sec) then the strength gradually went up and down!

Can somebody tell me what I should expect in terms of my download rate or do I have pretty good service right now!!! Im neutral at this moment! I was not blown away with the speed but it did the job

Hi allyano

Can you check your download speed again and see if it says 60Kbps or 60KBps.

You see speeds are measured in two ways either Kilobits per second [Kbps] or in Kilobytes per second [KBps]. There are 8 bits in a byte so 60Kbps equals only 7.5KBps. On the other hand if your speed is 60KBps this equals 480 Kbps.

Confusing, I know but as a rule of thumb a good connection should give you about 85% of the rated speed on the service. Thus a speed of 850Kbps or 105KBps is a good result for a 1Mbps package.

Howfast

[Duff]

Sorry people but Clearwire have lost the plot..below is my latest speed test..?????


Summary Last 10 Results:
Date Download Speed Upload Speed Qos RTT Maxpause
09/02/2007 20:25 54 kbps (7 KB/s) 107 kbps (13 KB/s) 26 % 3 ms 2190 ms
09/02/2007 16:19 779 kbps (95 KB/s) 304 kbps (38 KB/s) 45 % 2 ms 541 ms
09/02/2007 051 2149 kbps (263 KB/s) 324 kbps (40 KB/s) 95 % 2 ms 121 ms
09/02/2007 04:45 576 kbps (71 KB/s) 262 kbps (32 KB/s) 0 % 3 ms 4979 ms
07/02/2007 21:54 660 kbps (81 KB/s) 279 kbps (34 KB/s) 42 % 2 ms 555 ms
06/02/2007 12:44 1144 kbps (140 KB/s) 313 kbps (39 KB/s) 83 % 2 ms 431 ms
05/02/2007 22:19 1006 kbps (123 KB/s) 292 kbps (36 KB/s) 81 % 3 ms 351 ms
28/05/2006 21:48 1410 kbps (173 KB/s) 300 kbps (37 KB/s) 78 % 4 ms 270 ms
28/05/2006 21:35 1282 kbps (157 KB/s) 318 kbps (39 KB/s) 65 % 3 ms 226 ms
26/05/2006 12:48 1001 kbps (123 KB/s) 315 kbps (39 KB/s) 41 % 4 ms 420 ms

Total Averages:
1006 kbps (123 KB/s) 282kbps (35KB/s) 56 % 3 ms 1009 ms

Speed is great if your up and about a 5AM!

[joandublin]

Hi Folks

Just an update.

Well they DID ring me back this evening! Yay! Anyway they said they could see that I was having problems. Although my signal strength was good they could see the interruptions in the service. They figure that the signal is possibly bouncing off something outside and thats whats causing the problem.

Okay - bottom line.... I asked them out straight if this couldnt be fixed, where did that leave me with regard to my two year contract with them. They said that given the circumstances, if they couldnt resolve the problem I could cancel my contract and would not incur any penalties.

They want me to track the speeds over the weekend and email them on Monday and I guess I will make a decision based on their response.

So I am pleased to say that their Customer Service (so far ) has been quite good.

I will keep you all updated

Cheers
Joan

[allyano]

Hey Howfast,
Thanks for your response, made perfect sense! I'm just reporting back on my speed tests which i ran both yesterday and today. Have a look and see what ya think. Really is still not the speed I was hoping for....

10/02/2007 13:54 903 kbps (111 KB/s) 303 kbps (37 KB/s) 33 % 62 ms
10/02/2007 13:50 510 kbps (63 KB/s) 341 kbps (42 KB/s) 29 % 62 ms
10/02/2007 13:47 850 kbps (104 KB/s) 325 kbps (40 KB/s) 53 % 71 ms
10/02/2007 13:34 492 kbps (60 KB/s) 309 kbps (38 KB/s) 11 % 63 ms
10/02/2007 13:33 346 kbps (43 KB/s) 317 kbps (39 KB/s) 58 % 71 ms
10/02/2007 13:31 176 kbps (22 KB/s) 349 kbps (43 KB/s) 39 % 89 ms
09/02/2007 17:37 741 kbps (91 KB/s) 216 kbps (27 KB/s) 36 % 77 ms
09/02/2007 17:36 1039 kbps (127 KB/s) 265 kbps (33 KB/s) 73 % 57 ms
09/02/2007 17:35 439 kbps (54 KB/s) 292 kbps (36 KB/s) 61 % 63 ms
09/02/2007 17:34 811 kbps (99 KB/s) 274 kbps (34 KB/s) 46 % 54 ms Total

Averages: 631 kbps (77 KB/s) 299kbps (37KB/s) 44 % 67 ms 357 ms

[GOONER1]

If you think their bad speeds, check these results.
Take note that the first test is done on Thursday evening(when it should be slower) and the last is on Sunday afternoon when you think it would be faster!
11/02/2007 146 145 kbps (18 KB/s) 128 kbps (16 KB/s) 52 % 372 ms 1184 ms
09/02/2007 18:52 1721 kbps (211 KB/s) 201 kbps (25 KB/s) 96 % 23 ms 100 ms
08/02/2007 18:55 811 kbps (99 KB/s) 217 kbps (27 KB/s) 75 % 82 ms 206 ms

[howfast]

Originally Posted by allyano

Hey Howfast,
Thanks for your response, made perfect sense! I'm just reporting back on my speed tests which i ran both yesterday and today. Have a look and see what ya think. Really is still not the speed I was hoping for....

10/02/2007 13:54 903 kbps (111 KB/s) 303 kbps (37 KB/s) 33 % 62 ms
10/02/2007 13:50 510 kbps (63 KB/s) 341 kbps (42 KB/s) 29 % 62 ms
10/02/2007 13:47 850 kbps (104 KB/s) 325 kbps (40 KB/s) 53 % 71 ms
10/02/2007 13:34 492 kbps (60 KB/s) 309 kbps (38 KB/s) 11 % 63 ms
10/02/2007 13:33 346 kbps (43 KB/s) 317 kbps (39 KB/s) 58 % 71 ms
10/02/2007 13:31 176 kbps (22 KB/s) 349 kbps (43 KB/s) 39 % 89 ms
09/02/2007 17:37 741 kbps (91 KB/s) 216 kbps (27 KB/s) 36 % 77 ms
09/02/2007 17:36 1039 kbps (127 KB/s) 265 kbps (33 KB/s) 73 % 57 ms
09/02/2007 17:35 439 kbps (54 KB/s) 292 kbps (36 KB/s) 61 % 63 ms
09/02/2007 17:34 811 kbps (99 KB/s) 274 kbps (34 KB/s) 46 % 54 ms Total

Averages: 631 kbps (77 KB/s) 299kbps (37KB/s) 44 % 67 ms 357 ms

Hi allyano

Many issues affect the DL speeds obtainable such as, for example –

· The contention ratio, which is the number of people who are sharing your connection at the same time. This usually does not present problems but if more people are connected to the base station than it is meant to cater for then everyone suffers.

· The general level of traffic on the internet, this is dependant on the time of day and is usually worse after 7pm when most people go online in Ireland.

· Whether the website you are accessing is located locally or far away. Pay particular attention to the local time of day for the website e.g if you are accessing a far eastern website when the locals are all in bed then you’ll get a better DL speed than when they are all up and online.

Taking the above into account a DL speed of 60KBps from Microsoft may be quite acceptable but I’d expect better from say a U.K. or an Irish website. You can check your DL speeds on different EU servers here.

While I would generally not consider DL speeds measured over a such a short period to be indicative of overall performance, I usually make frequent speed checks over at least several days, it does seem that your DL speeds are a bit all over the place.

Have you spoken to Clearwire TS about this?

For downloading large files I’ve found that using a download manager to be a great help even when I’m experiencing slow network speeds. You can get a good free download manager here.

Finally, whilst wireless BB services are great for those who can’t get DSL the modem needs to have a good line of sight to the base station, the signal is susceptible to local electrical interference as well as the weather. If it’s available in your locality I’d personally opt for a DSL service in preference.

Howfast

[joandublin]

Another update.....

They called me this evening (yay again!) and said that they had found the source of the problem. The telephone line was poor and I was in a shopping centre but I think they said that someone was using the line to download huge files (or something like that!). Told you I was a dumbo

Anyway they said they located the culprit and have disconnected their account and that now my service should be better.

I must say it was okay last night and its not too bad tonight - not perfect but definitely improved.

I will give it a few more days and track the speed and let them know how things are.

Just wanted to let you all know....

Cheers
Joan

[joandublin]

Hi everyone

Long time no see

Well the end of the saga is nigh. After months of up and down speeds, reporting the problems, buying clearplugs, letting my clearwire box fall, getting a new one, emailing them, talking to umpteen different people....I finally finally had enough (Im a bit slow to catch on you will notice)

They finally, finally, finally admitted that the saturation level in my area was the problem. I just cant get onto the net any more after 5.30pm in the evening and this goes on right into the wee hours of the morning. They say they are working to fix it and get some more base stations but they dont know when this will happen. Im on dial up every night.

Sooooo I have had enough. I am arranging to cancel my contract and am on the lookout for another provider...Any ideas?

I am in the Ballymun area

Cheers
Joan

[foggy_lad]

no suggestions as to a new provider joandublin but i hope clearwire do everything they can to make cancelling your contract as easy as possible after you've been so nice to give them every opportunity to improve!

[.:iE/Dixy]

Joan i had a very similer problem to yours with clearwire and probably from the same base station. Clearwires main basestation in the area is at the top of Jamestown rd near the FAS training centre and that single base station services the entirety of finglas, ballymun and St. Margarets (where i am) so the load on that mast is massive as you are seeing with your speed problems. I spent weeks and weeks ringing and e-mailing clearwire with rubbish speed results and finally got an engineer on the phone who told me that the problem all along is that the service in the area is massively oversold and the load on the mast is double what it should be, so the only solution is to add a load of sectors to the mast to help out. Unfortunatly asfar as he knew nothing was sceduled to be done to that mast for atleast 6 months to a year as company policy was to keep putting up masts in area's with no service and not improving the masts that are already inplace.
The story ends when i demanded to be released for the contract and refused to pay my final months payments because of their useless service and am now an eircom dsl broadband customer and a lot happier with the service.

Irish E-Sports

[joandublin]

Thanks Foggy Lad

I certainly hope Clearwire dont give me a single ounce of trouble about cancelling my contract. If they do, they will have seen the last of the 'nice' me Im 49% bitch and 51% nice.....so dont push, I say!

Hi Dixy,

Thanks for the info and advice. I am going to do some research over the next week or so and see what is the best option for me.

Many thanks again to everyone who replied and gave advice. I will be back!

Joan

[SlimBoyJim]

I hate clearwire!!
It worked well for the first 2 months, is this the trial period? No-one told me about a trial period until problems started and I checked boards like this.
Now between 6-10pm it takes ages 4 pages to load.I've eircom broadband in the past and now I feel completely cheated.This aint broadband!!
My speed tests range from a low of 11kbs to a high of 1.3Mbs( 12am at night)
I enquired about p2p via emal and was quoted the terms & conditions,as if anyone reads them..be more careful in the future for sure but since that act of brazness my speeds have gone to hell!!
I noticed my 4 leds on the modem has gone to 3 but according to tech services this does'nt matter.Really?why not save leds and only put 3 in the modem if thats the case..
I want out!!
I hear they send debt collectors after you if you quit without paying, anyone have any experience of this?
Why should I pay for a service that ****e?Can u get screwed if you dont pay?

[foggy_lad]

like any other contract slimboyjim you need to gather info which proves they have not lived up to their end of the contract then best to confront them with this info and ask to be released from the contract and if they dont co-operate apply to the small claims court for reimbursment of connection fee and refund for times you had poor service and also to cancel contract but it does state clearly in terms about p2p etc but if your usage is merely average then no worries!

[markhitman06]

I bought clearwire wireless broadband in november and it was grand for a month or two then it was all downhill from there. I asked when I bought it is it good for online gaming e.g xbox live but after I got it, every game shop I ask in they say its the bottom of the barrol. But after christmas it went so bad I refused to pay the bill. Im from Ballybough in Dublin city centre, and like others the max I can get is 4 bars, but still it is useless. I just did a speed test which was 431 kbps download and 113 kbps upload (done at 12.56am). Their are times when im downloading and the highest it gets is 14kbps... and at that speed id be quicker going to the computer im downloading the things from getting it and id be back at my comp before its even done. Its a joke. Has everyone had these problems cause it seems like their a joke of a company. Remember the ad (as easy as making toast... obviously its not when their involved).