Wireless Internet Rant (Motorola Canopy)

[jeder212]

Sorry in advance for this being so long. So about a week and half ago, we got internet through a local company that offers high speed via the Motorola Canopy system. We had an AT&T wireless card in SWMBO laptop, but wanted something that we could use for both computers. We do not have cable or DSL in our area, so besides dial-up, this was our only choice, plus it is cheaper than what we had with AT&T. It worked great for about 3 or 4 days, then the signal would kinda fade in and out, and we would momentarily lose service. Tech guy saw this, and called me on a Friday. He said that if antenna gets knocked off just a little, then we would be out of service, and he would like to come fix it Monday (yesterday). Well, Saturday evening the wind got up and sure enough, knocked us out completely. So we went all day Sunday without service, and part of yesterday. So they came out yesterday and put up a bigger antenna, and put it about a foot higher. This worked great....until about 11am this morning.....NOTHING again. I call, they apologise,and very quickly have someone out here. They replace the radio and antenna this time. I'm up and running now, but not too happy. Does anyone have any experience with the Canopy system, can I expect this to happen more, or does this sound like an isolated case. The company is making it out to be an isolated case, but just wondering if any of you had any clue. Thanks for putting up with my rant.

 

[fratermus]

In my experience doing tech support with stores that incidentally use have different forms of internet access, I'd say that point-to-point wireless seem to have more and harder to diagnose outages. My layman's understanding is that they are line of sight, short wavelength signals that are affected significantly by antenna placement and aiming.

But they are, as it is said, better than nothing.

 

[Saccharomyces]

YOU COULD HAVE A TELEGRAPH STOP SO INTERMITTENT ACCESS DOES NOT SEEM TOO BAD IN COMPARISON STOP



Hopefully they'll get it straightened out.. seems in situations like this eventually you get a tech on the second or third try who really knows what he/she is doing and fixes it the right way, so you're good. But it sure is frustrating the first few times when you are dealing with the wrong people who know nothing.

 

[jeder212]

But it sure is frustrating the first few times when you are dealing with the wrong people who know nothing.

Should have known something would go wrong when the original install guy says...."You live close enough to the tower that I'm not even going to bother testing anything" He just made sure I could get on-line, and was out.

 

[pen25]

friend runs a wisp. thing to remember is it is line of site. the further away the more sensitive a misalignment is. sounds like the second time they came out they had issues with the radio and or antenna. next few weeks may have this issue and they will be tweaking it. what kind of antenna did they put up If i may ask

 

[jeder212]

friend runs a wisp. thing to remember is it is line of site. the further away the more sensitive a misalignment is. sounds like the second time they came out they had issues with the radio and or antenna. next few weeks may have this issue and they will be tweaking it. what kind of antenna did they put up If i may ask

I'm not up on the actual names of types of antennas, but first one was a beam antenna maybe....looks kinda like old school TV antenna, the second one was same thing, only bigger, and they put it higher up....the one they put up today I think they called a panel antenna, its basically flat, more like the new HD TV antennas.

 

[pen25]

ok was just wondering if they were using a dish. my buddy that runs the wisp doesnt have too many troubles and the installers should now what they are doing so hopefully they can tweak it pretty quickly.

 

[GlueGuy]

Sounds like they are using 900 MHz with a yagi antenna originally, and you are non-LOS?

Sometimes they can be tricky, depending on what kind and how many obstructions you are trying to get around.

The best situation is if you can make LOS, because then you won't have to deal with any obstructions.

Our experience with Canopy is that they are rock-solid. The closest thing to carrier-class in the WISP business.

 

[Homercidal]

This sounds normal. You should feel lucky that they are willing to send someone out right away to fix it. Due to the technology, they may have to try a few things to get it aimed just right. A guy at work was telling me the same story. I don't know what system he was using, but it was the same technology. The speed is not great compared to DSL, etc., but much better than dial-up, which was all he could get where he lives.

Once they get the right antenna, and get it positioned right, you should only lose signal during strong winds, and hopefully it will right itself when the winds subside.