Ironically, my neighbor called me yesterday to say his internet was down. I called in today and sure enough he was down to 1 light, then nothing, scanning.....Odd.

I like to think I was smart to mount it quite low down, so I rotated it to a second tower, that was weaker, when we did the installation, surprise, it was now 5 lights.....

I can only guess that they are cutting power levels on some towers, for some reason or other.....

If this continues, I might suggest an Antenna Rotator, as the mounting mast.....lol

My problem has been, and continues to be 2-5 lights flashing slowly after a scan, then another scan every 30 seconds with the same flashing lights every 2 seconds...not the fast flashing you get if you reset the modem with the LAN cable disconnected.
It can see the tower but no IP address is being provisioned.

I ran the test at the tower on Wednesday...see below.

Today my wife and I packed the laptop, the modem and a UPS into the
> car and took a trip around the area.
> The first stop was the Panmure Road overpass where, in full sight of
> the tower we could get no signal.
> Then we drove down onto the 417 right up to the tower where we could
> still get no signal.
> Then we drove East and as soon as we passed the tower...5 lights solid
> almost all the way to the March Road overpass (5 miles away) where we lost the
> signal.
> We turned around and came back, approaching the tower from the East
> and as soon as we hit Shanna Road...5 lights again.
> As we passed the tower the signal dropped to 2 lights going West and
> this is the important point.
> We have been suggesting to Rogers throughout this odyssey that there
> may be a problem with one of the two antennas on the tower and, to me,
> this confirms it.
> We also continued on to Kinburn (5 miles away) where there was no service, which is
> understandable and the results were mixed on the way back. Sometimes
> we got 1 light for a while but mostly no service.
> All through the Deerwood Development (old and new) there was no
> service.
> It wasn't until we were half-way up Panmure that we got a signal but
> never more than 2 lights.
>
> This outage is not the first.
> On June 24th we were out for 36 hours and it came back by itself.
> Then OK until July 23rd when it was out for 2 and a half days. Again
> it came back by itself. This was after an overnight thunderstorm on
> the evening of the 22nd.
> Then the latest outage right after the power failure on the morning of
> July 31st.
> I have asked Rogers to send someone out to look at the tower which
> until now they have not done and have claimed wasn't necessary.
> I have ordered an external modem which I will use (hopefully
> successfully) until Rogers comes clean and does the kind of Tech
> Support they should...the kind of investigation we just did.
> We were among the first to have this service on November 30th and we
> suffered not one single dropout until June 24th...not one.

Update.
It seem that the IP address we got on the South side of the tower when it registered 5 lights was an invalid one. 10.10.something.
They said it was a "provisioning error" and couldn't explain it.

The problem has been solved.
I installed the Outdoor Modem on my 30ft. TV tower and I got 4 solid lights.
I guess my connection all those months was marginal even tho the lights never waivered.
Damn those summer trees.
Rogers was right about their equipment.
Go figure.

Thanks for the update. Glad you are working again.

Hey Maxwedge,

I think that you will get the signal quite well from where you are. I've seen your tower and all you have to do is to point either toward the Aurora tower or the Newmarket tower and you will get the signal. I am pointing towards Aurora and when I get the signal it is works great. I can watch the Olympics streaming and it's flawless... and then there are moments when it just disappears... I'm not quite sure why Rogers wouldn't put a transmitter on the tower by Southdown and point it our way. That would certainly help us out, but it just seems to point to the north.

Anyway, I've heard bad things about the xplorenet system too. Some other people up on Cherry street have that system and have never gotten the speeds that xplorenet clains they should be getting.

For the money, and if it became a bit more consistent, the Rogers systems seems to work the best... oh, and those foggy mornings seem to give it troubles too.

Hopefully the Bell guys can get you hooked up and you find that it works well for you. And if you ever need names for any sort of a petition to any government, just let me know...

Cheers!

A Rogers representative told me that the usb modem (Ovation) would work in areas that are presently outside the coverage area for their outdoor modem.The Ovation uses HSPA (High Speed Packet Access) technology on Rogers’ high speed wireless 3G network. Confirmation of this would be appreciated.

just an update from me.... with a happy ending.

i had the outdoor modem and parabolic grid antenna setup.

a few weeks ago i noticed my modem working and not working just whenever. i knew the modem was out as the computer task bar said network cable unplugged....a message i get when the tower is down. i assumed it was rogers fault.

after waiting a few days and finally phoning them (on hold for over 40 min) i talked to a techie. he kept asking how many lights on my modem...i have the old one with no lights. then my modem was working all of a sudden, but i still had the network cable message. after messing with things for far too long, and never resolving the problem despite being told i had a strong signal, i said enough!

i canceled my service and went with vianet. for the same price i rent their equipment and had all professionally installed. and, it works. luckily their tower is a km away...unlike rogers which is 8 km away.

so, keep your eyes peeled for others besides bell or rogers. i think there is a niche market for alternates to do well in this frontier technology.

the dude

I just go a portable modem and took it apart, the only thing that makes it different is the enclosure and the fact that the antenna in it is not removable from the board thuse plugging an antenna seams over my skill set.

I have however 3 lights on my roof and one in the window. I will be buying weather box of some kind and mounting it on my tv tower in the next weeks. This will save me some pretty pennies.

I would recommend to everyone try with the portable and get a weather proof box and mount to your wall, chimney, tv tower. The pain is worth the 150 bucks saving.

On the other hand if you need the boost then go with antenna/ext modem.

My speed test are hitting 3000 kb no prob. So no complaints here... Located in Limoges, Ontario.

No off to make a kegerator!
ciao

@ trapperbob

it will work, and does use a different network (aka rogers cellular network) ... anywhere you get rogers coverage you will get a minimum of edge speeds (aka a couple times faster than dialup), or in more populated/dense areas you may get 3g hspda speeds (broadband speeds).. remember rogers 3g coverage is currently pretty limited, so best to check coverage maps before buying a mobile broadband card from them

telus/bell also have cellular mobile broadband plans, they use the EVDO network, and they will have 3g speeds in areas rogers does not (aka in alberta; Telus has province wide highspeed evdo coverage) ...

plan prices can vary..

Thanks for the reply. I was on the verge of buying the Rogers' usb modem service when I saw reference to 4G wireless technology as follows;

WiMax. short for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, is a fourth-generation (4G) wireless technology The mobile data network is designed to cater to the needs of mobile laptop users, not cellphone users, for a fee. Because the speeds are so fast — 10 megabits or better, potentially — it could easily be used as a replacement for DSL or cable modem service in the home and office.

I suppose it will take some time before its available in our area, which does not have access to DSL or cable modem.

Question for those who have Rogers outdoor modem working; when seeking a signal, I realize that the lights on the bottom of the modem flash sequentially looking for a signal. What I can't determine anywhere is what happens when a signal is actually found.
I live in the dark green coverage area of the Rogers map, requiring outdoor modem, which I am right now playing with.
Holding the modem up on a 10' pole (very hard to not sway as you all likely well know), I can get get the lights to stop seeking sequentially and in turn get anywhere from 1 to 3 lights flashing in unison. Does this mean I'm getting a ping out of this thing? Will it only work if the lights stop flashing and go solid or are they supposed to flash for a bit (or forever), while getting a signal?
I figure they're supposed to be solid and not flashing but am grasping at straws here.
Again; 3 lights maximum all flashing at same time as opposed to the "seek/scan" lights. Meaningful or wishful thinking?

If you have a good signal and the three lights flash for more than a few seconds, it means you have a "true signal" rather than a ghost. I have found that the lights will continue to blink until you hook it up to your computer or a router. At that point, you will get a solid set of lights. Good luck.

My signal strength is 3 lights and it's terrific.
If you've got that you'll be fine.

I would like some help in seeing if I can access rogers wireless ineternet using an their outdoor modem. I am located just outside (SW) of Glencoe, Ont. near London. This area has recently been added to their coverage but is spotty in some rural sections. I went up on my roof near the peak at about 21feet off ground and managed 2 lights although at times appeared to drop to one. I figured I could attempt to improve on this. I attached the modem to a 15'-0" long aluminum tube and raised it in the air thinking the extra 10-15' might get me another light or two to boost my confidence of a reliable signal. I still could only manage the 2 lights.

I am considering trying the parabolic antenna array. Does anyone know what I should be looking at and where I can get it. I travel regularly to Toronto if that is the best place to get it.

I believe the new tower is just north of Glencoe. Does anyone know where it is? Also am I on the right track of increasing my signal gain or am I dreaming.

How high do I need to go to improve signal gain?

Any info would be greatly appreciated.

Try rotating around 360 degrees to see if you can pick up a different tower. The closest tower to me is 3km, but it points the wrong direction. I connect to one 10km away, and I get 5 lights. As you probably saw from my earlier posts, I was going to use the array I have to try and improve latency, but have decided not to. Since I have 5 lights, it isn't going to improve things.

You guys may remember me from earlier in the thread. I put up my own dish on a pole bolted to my shed. It worked well all sumer, but as temperatures turned colder, my connection has once again began to decrease in stability. Unfortunatly, there are no real alternatives for the time being, the ovation modem is simply to expensive bandwidth wise.

I am located just outside (SW) of Glencoe, Ont. near London.... I believe the new tower is just north of Glencoe. Does anyone know where it is?

mcengbeam, check out this site (http://www.ertyu.org/steven_nikkel/cancellsites.html)to find cell tower locations.
The map shows a Rogers tower south of Glencoe off Centreville drive.
Maybe you're just pointing it in the wrong direction.
I wouldn't keep the modem if you can't get a signal strength of at least 3 lights.

Ok... quick update.

Started out with Bell's Portable Internet (yeah I know this is a Rogers thread but its more active than the Bell one) .. worked great until the leaves started to fall. Slowly went from 4/5 bars to 1/5 bars with hideous packet loss and high latency.

Called Bell to complain and eventually convinced them to switch me over to the "In-home" version (they REALLY don't want to have to send a tech out). After a semi-disastrous activation (Bell's authorization/activation servers were having problems all weekend). I'm up and running again. The radio is about 30' up on and I'm getting a really solid 5/5 signal and back to reasonable latency and no lost packets.

And.. if it drops again, its much easier to hack the external modem with a bigger antenna than it is the internal one !

Ok... quick update.

Started out with Bell's Portable Internet (yeah I know this is a Rogers thread but its more active than the Bell one) .. worked great until the leaves started to fall. Slowly went from 4/5 bars to 1/5 bars with hideous packet loss and high latency.

Called Bell to complain and eventually convinced them to switch me over to the "In-home" version (they REALLY don't want to have to send a tech out). After a semi-disastrous activation (Bell's authorization/activation servers were having problems all weekend). I'm up and running again. The radio is about 30' up on and I'm getting a really solid 5/5 signal and back to reasonable latency and no lost packets.

And.. if it drops again, its much easier to hack the external modem with a bigger antenna than it is the internal one !
What's your latency? Check it at speedtest.net and post the link up for us. Mine is usually in the 250-300ms range...

Sure ...

http://www.speedtest.net/result/35476782.png

186ms seems high ... if I ping a random website (this one for example) .. my results are in the 30-50ms range. But, can't complain about 2.8Mbps down. 250kbps up isn't anything to jump for joy over but its not a huge issue for me. I was debugging some issues earlier and was down around 1.8Mbps down.

I'm less than 4kkm from the tower in Metcalfe and, based on the maps, it looks like I'm catching the north edge of the west facing antenna.

Interesting bit of triva. I was speaking with a second-level tech today and he told me that the tower has 61 subscribers both Bell and Rogers and that is considered "over subscribed" so my performance in the early evening may suffer... an issue I was definitely seeing with the portable unit.