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Hi peepz,
I've been using a E160G 3 dongle for my internet in my caravan for about a year or so, about 4 months ago I experienced problems with the signal strength so I brought an antenna to boost the signal.
This is the antenna I am currently using ... 11dbi boost
The last few weeks I have been experiencing a lot of signal dropping and also the strength isn't up to what it normally is ... e.g only 1 bar on hsdpa and not 2 or 3.
My question is, is there anything more I can buy to further boost my signal?
I've checked the cable and antenna and everything is in working order.
Just incase anyone wants to know ... I have dual boot on my laptop, and use vista and ubuntu jaunty ... and the signal is much better using ubuntu than with vista ... more consistant strength and less signal dropping, but still not what it was months ago.
Thanks in advance for any ideas and help anyone can offer.
Mike
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Does the gain take into account the loss in the extension cable, if you can use a shorter lead it may help.
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The author of the above post is a thinkbroadband staff member. It may not constitute an official statement on behalf of thinkbroadband.
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Is this in a static situation or differing sites?
If you are in a fixed caravan site a directional antenna would give a better solution you just point it at the nearest mast for your provider.
But things like trees can proivde a problem as well.
Also water may have entered the coax if mounted externaly on caravan roof or has the cable been squased in a window ?
GLOBALNET now part of madasafish now part of plusnet With The same isp for over 13 years ( now all part of BT)
Edited by adamtemp (Fri 07-Aug-09 12:57:45)
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Hi,
It is in a fixed site, I am living on an orchard, where I also work, and I've tried various locations around the orchard and am situated where the best signal is.
I have thought about a directional antenna, I am over a mile and a half from the nearest mast so that would probably help. I also have a number of trees within a few metres of the caravan so that's probably not helping now that I think about it.
Water entering the coax isn't a problem as the antenna used has one long continuous cable from the antenna to the connector which is inside the van so doesn't suffer from that problem, and I am wary of a window squashing the cable so have sorted that out by putting the cable through a small bit of cork and then putting this in the window.
Perhaps I should think about getting a directional antenna then, just to see if that would actually help at all ... just don't want to fork out the money and it doesn't make a difference, heh!
Thanks
Mike
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Hi,
Yeah I have thought about the length of the cable from the antenna to the laptop I use, but because of the shape of my caravan roof, I have to have the antenna on top of the roof at a distance from where I actually want to use the laptop, and therefore have to use a length of cable from the antenna connector to the laptop.
How long does the cable have to be for the signal to start being lost? ... at the moment I think the cable is about 2 metres in length, but it is in 2 seperate parts that I connect, so perhaps it would help if I had one long cable maybe?
Thanks
Mike
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Mike
Is it a 3g site or a gprs / edge site.
If it is a 3g site a dedicated 3g directional antenna would be preferable rather than a multi band antenna. And at that distance preferd choice on a mast to try and avoid the trees.
Cable loss is an important factor at 3g frequencies so a heavy duty cable is better than a thin coax. Take allog at some of the site should say loss per meter. And yes better to have one piece of cable than joins as these can add to the loss of the cable.
Adam
GLOBALNET now part of madasafish now part of plusnet With The same isp for over 13 years ( now all part of BT)
Edited by adamtemp (Sat 08-Aug-09 11:38:19)
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If the dongle is a USB one, putting it on a longer USB lead to remove one of the bits of cable may improve things
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The author of the above post is a thinkbroadband staff member. It may not constitute an official statement on behalf of thinkbroadband.
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an antenna like this http://www.panorama.co.uk/shop/products/wm11-range.html should help as all the power is radiated in one direction so your signal back to the base will be stronger than a mag mount whip.
And if mounted higher up on a mast will help.
Also the use of a usb lead to the dongle would help in reducung coax length but would need to be secured to the dongle.
GLOBALNET now part of madasafish now part of plusnet With The same isp for over 13 years ( now all part of BT)
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wicked!
I have looked at that antenna before, so to get confirmation that it is what I would need is great, thanks!
Looks like I will be boshing together a mast whilst waiting for it to arrive in the post soon.
I'll post again once it's up and running and let you know what's occuring!
Cheerz
Mike
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Just put my postcode into three's coverage checker I am mostly in the very good area, but also very close to the good and variable areas too ... which might explain some of my problems!
So definately a directional antenna on a mast it is then....
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I've been sat close to the window most of today, using a slightly shorter usb cable connected to the dongle, and I can't say I've noticed any difference in the signal strength, but I'm pretty sure from all of the responses I've had that it's down to several problems;
Being relatively close to several trees
Having an multi-directional antenna
Not having the antenna high enough
With all those in mind I'm off to buy another antenna and build a mast whilst I'm waiting for it to be delivered!!
Thanks for your inputs peepz, tis appreciated!!
Mike
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if you go to sitefinder on the ofcom site and get the exact location of the 3 mast and point it as accuratly towards that direction.
I hope it improves your situation.
Adam
GLOBALNET now part of madasafish now part of plusnet With The same isp for over 13 years ( now all part of BT)
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If what you bought on Saturday didn't work, I just got one of these and one of these (the one on the left of the page) to "connect" to my Orange 3G dongle. Without the antenna, I got 2 bars on the Orange strength meter, and with the aerial I got 5 bars.
Home ADSL: Sky Max LLU 3864kbps down, 625kbps up
Business ADSL:
ZeN Office 8000 2562kbps down, 832kbps up
Orange 3G Business Everywhere Mobile BB 1200kbps down, 320kbps up
Stats shown are recent measurements (same premises)
A member of the ever-growing "I hate BT" Group on Facebook
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Does the sitefinder site actually work? For GU35 9JP there is nothing shown (no blue triangles), even when opened up. But the detail shows sites and 3 claim a mast 1.75 miles away.
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ok I guess that would be the 3 mast in bordon on camp road north of budds lane junction
I put your postcode in then zoomed out to find nearest town and zoomed in and then clicked on triangle to get info.
GLOBALNET now part of madasafish now part of plusnet With The same isp for over 13 years ( now all part of BT)
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Hi you can get a antenna you plug into your dongle which will boost the signal. Go to www,.antennasonline.co.uk they will help.
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www.antennasonline.co.uk
This company has antennas to boost your dongles signal which helps boost download speeds.
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At the beginning of November I started to have problems with my Orange MB, always dropping to GPRS at just 5Kb/s and frequently disconnecting.
Eventually I got Orange to give me the Option 515m dongle FOC, (but extending my contact to another 12 months).
Yes, it works lot better, keeping steady connection and 3G mode most of the time, though the actual speed varies.
However, while my old Huavei works happily on 1.5m of USB two piece cable,
the Option will only work with one piece 1m cable.
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if you have a dongle with an external antennae connector, use a high gain antenna (flat panel antenna for example), but keep the cable between the dongle and the antenna as short as possible.
If you need to mount the antenna some way away from your computer, use a USB extender lead that has a booster in it. These types of long USB cables have a large fat female connector that contains the booster, which boosts the USB signal from your dongle as it goes down the cable to the computer.
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I've had a '3' dongle for a couple of years now, using it at various locations while away in the caravan. It's performance, i.e. connection, signal, stability have all significantly improved since I bought a 5m extension cable with a booster on it.
The general consensus on the mobile bb section of one of the caravanning forums was that getting the dongle high was not a huge issue, but that an extension lead was worthwhile. I can only say that from personal experience, the 5m lead with booster has made a significant difference, as I can now put the dongle wherever in the caravan it gets the best signal.
David
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Post deleted by Sadoldman
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How many time do I have to repeat this: 3 is only 3G 2100MHz.
They ditched the Orange 2G in September 2010 as they were paying £80m which affected £8m of custom, so if they lost all of the customers they would still save £72m a year, Probably why they have made a profit the last 2 years.
If you can get a converter to a standard aerial fitting try an old UHF aerial.
or
A 2100MHz 12 db gain aerial is on eBay for about £15 from China.
nb it might say newbie, Been building PCs since 386SX25 late 80's
My network is VM 30 (soon to be 60) VMDG 480 Gigabit router 2 x cat5e cables to work room, one for gigabit to 8 port switch, second N WiFi router in dual channel mode 300 mbit/sec & other devices, the other for 10/100 to 16 port switch (runs at 200mbit according to the spec sheet) Printer etc.
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