Thanks guys!
After reading this forum for the past few months, I decided to give Rogers a call and "beg" for them to send me an external modem for my house. They were a little dubious at first, but knowing the lay of my farmland; and the fact that I have one of the highest elevations just east of St.Geroge Ontario and only 5 miles as the crow flies from Brantford, I may have a shot at high speed, and say bye-bye to Bell.
So, I set the thing up, and voila, 5 bars! Perfect reception, even inside my house facing the Southwest direction.
So, I've given up my house phone, my sympatico dial-up (that I have had for 9 years)just running my cell, and using Skype to make calls in my house.
So, I'm a happy camper!
Now, does anyone know a reliable provider north of Wiarton without costing an arm and a leg? I did find some info on Maximus up there. My friend is itching to get out of Sympatico dial-up and go wireless too.

Hey Elatu

I too live on a 80 acre farm just east of St George.I also begged Rogers for their outdoor modem to no avail.

I run a business in the GTA and have Bell Business Unplugged the portable modem and as a lark brought it home one day and tried it in various spots in the house and low and behold in an upstairs window directly facing north I can get 5 out of 5 bars on the modem.I was rather giddy at that prospect and got a router and now the whole house is wirelessly hooked up to high speed.So see you later no speed and say hello to high speed.You kind of feel like you are now part of the world when you are on high speed at home in the middle of nowhere.

The moral of the story is you should maybe try and get a portable modem first and see if it will work for you or not.Its cheaper and portable so with an inverter can be used in your vehicle.

Good Luck.

ok...i opened up my modem and have all the gear i need. however, my pigtail from the cable off the antenna wire that leads INTO the modem is not the right size. i have a little wire that has a mini coaxial end on it....what i need is whatever that gold tipped wire is. looks like a mini push on adapter. i have been checking radiolabs to see what one it is, and have emailed them, but who knows what one it is!?

question: if i cut the wire off that leads to the original outdoor antenna modem ... could i simply add that adapter by adding it to the pigtail that i have?

cheers ...

the dude

by the way, new price on the aluminum parabolic grid antenna....much cheaper now!! (69 bucks US)

http://www.radiolabs.com/products/antennas/2.4gig/2.4-aluminum-parabolic.php

the dude

After doing a quick search for NLOS modem modding, this poped up. And after reading some of the posts.. Its like you HAVE ALL BEEN READING MY MIND!:D and nice fourm!;)

I have had my Unplugged NLOS modem, to release my compueter from the terrible torture of Dialup. Even though i did not have service here in Bradford Ontario. I got it anyways because i could still use it in the car when i go to barrie, or newmarket. Plus i knew that i could possibly mod it!:D

Well about a year later, Still no service, and Dialup is literaly killing me.. I can use it for my buissness, i can finish my buissness web page. and i cant play my games ! But bell gave me a bit of hope to have high speed!. The customer support people have no clue about anything! they dont even know what the weather is like outside the window in inda! (no offence to anyone here).

So today actualy i ordered a 24Db antenna for the modem so see if a pre-made antenna will help. I already tried a satalight modem antenna that i made; i didnt try it alot, but lost my efforts in it.

Hope to finish reading this whole tread when i have the time.. Dialup is just brutal.. I have like 20mb of windows updates to do, and im not looking foward to them!

Oh yah, i also sent an email to info@inukshuk.ca they are basicaly the NLOS service provider to bell/rogers, and they controll the coverage areas. I sent them a nasy email about a week ago regarding why Cities and such that already have "2-3" different types of interet have this service, and rural areas dont have any!.. I told them this is Unacceptable and demand a response back, i have yet to hear from them. But i will send them an email once agian.. SO please feel free to send your anger towards them so they get the point!:D

BTW. cool site, and hope to be hearing from you all.. hopefully this modem mod i have planned will work, and for you all too!

Dell,

Let me the 1st to say good for you for reaching out to them. Let me alos be the 1st to tell you I've already tried this and they haven't responded since I emailed them back in March.

I suspect that what we see as arbitrary delays to rural broadband deployment are actually procedural delays at the CRTC. I believe that most rural roll-out will be funded from the Deferral Accounts that the telcos have been accumulating for a number of years at CRTC insistance. Now the telcos have to wait for the CRTC to allow them to spend this money while not impinging on potential competition. Check out [URL="http://www.crtc.gc.ca/PartVII/eng/2006/8678/c12_200615578.htm"]and you'll see the hoops that the carriers (and others) have to jump through to spend their own funds. But as you may also see, some funds have been released and more are scheduled for approval in approx January 2008.
Stay tuned to the CRTC site for the most informative info (pun intended). Then wait a year for roll-out I guess IMHO.

Has anyone ever had success with a 2.4-2.5 GHZ antenna? (high gain). I have no signal at all on an indoor modem and wish to try it. I have bell unplugged and cant even connect yet. I am trying to get them to send me an outdoor antenna but no luck yet. BTW they have a fairely competitive plan now. 1 year contract and only 80 bucks for modem. They also claim 3mbps

i hope to know during first week of the new year. i am awaiting parts, but have done most of the setup for the experiment.

just as a note, radiolabs have been great to deal with. i had to ask them some questions and called them on the 1-877 line. and, prices seem fair.

the dude

What I dont understand is the NLOS . If this is truely non line of site, similar to FM signals the only factor should be distance, yet when you look at the coverage maps there are pockets of blind spots...covering my house of course. What I am wondering is if they base this coverage on a ground signal reading when in fact most people in rural areas have 30 - 40' towers. I would love to try one but dont want to be stuck with the modem if it doesnt work, and they may only offer me 'mobile' since I am out of the coverage zone.
Paul

i got the equipment with the condition i could return it for a refund if needed. you should look into that.....i got my stuff from the muskoka store.

and, i got a signal despite being in a blind spot. for me, the tower is 8.5 km away...so not too far, but i am in a bit of a depression geographically. so, with the tower my problems were solved. how far from the tower are you?

even still, i get a faint signal but its really flakey. high in summer, low in winter. but high again during a storm. i don't undertand the technology at all!

so, heres hoping this higher gain antenna and another 10 feet will do the job.

will soon find out.

the dude

Hey Dudler! Thanks for your info, Interesting they would hive you a modem knowing you are outside fo their 'service' area. I thought they would since this would only drive calls & return equipment issues. I am about 13 km from the tower but my elevation is about 400'(north) of the tower. I just think they must do a drive by to establish signal strengths. There is an area north of me by about .5km and 40' higher in elevation they show as covered, thats why I think with my 45' tower I should be able to get service.
Motorola says they have up to 35km NLOS. If I can get a modem I will post my results.
Thanks,
Paul

Can you help me with the parts list for antenna hookup to internal modem? So far I have gathered this much.

the 2.4 GHZ antenna from radiolabs
pole and tripod mounting kit? If so where can I get a good one?
(1) MMC connector
50' lm400 cable with female connectors?
staples for external wire anchoring
ground wire and stake?
crimper? If so what kind?

Anythings else? Many thanks

i think your list looks similar to mine. hoping to get the one part i need asap and will find out if the plan works. hold off on ordering your stuff for another week and i may save you some money!

the dude

by the way genx, i am using the outdoor modem, so double check the fact that it is a mcx end inside the modem. i know the outdoor modem uses that end, but no guarentees that the indoor modem is built the same way.

also, be careful not to confuse it with an mmcx end...which is a different beast altogether!

Ok I will wait until your reply for confirmation that it works. So far I already bought the 3' tripod at the source for $44. (I need it anyways for UHF). Thank you for your help!

just a follow up to those who are interested in attempting to strengthen your signal....it worked for me! my score is around 50 (which is better than the score of less than 20 a few weeks back)

i am not sure if it is the height of the antenna (about 10 feet higher on my antenna tower than my outdoor modem was) or not, but who cares, i have a signal and highspeed again.

only issue is that my link monitor software was working but then stopped. i totally panicked....although it indicates on the screen that the modem is not responding, i am surfing the net just fine. i could reinstall the software, but don't feel like any more trouble shooting if my net is working at the moment!

cheers!

let me know of anybody else's progress in this mod.....

the dude

Just thought I would provide an update. Bell would not provide an outdoor modem so I canceled my subcription. I hooked up with rogers and am waiting for the outdoor modem before trying anything else. I should mention that the price seemed to be negociable with Rogers.

price of modem or subscription price?

good luck with the signal...go to your roof and give it a whirl!

the dude

This is an awesome thread; I'm in the same boat as everyone here. Has anyone hacked the INDOOR modem? I don't have one yet but I would like to try if it's possible to hook an external antenna into an indoor modem. Rogers won't sell me an outdoor modem no matter how hard I try.

Greg.