Questions about my WISP service

Some background:

WISP service provided by Skynet (www.skynetwisp.com) who I think is
local to the area south of Houston. They sell a tiered service, basic
at 3Mb down and 1 Mb up for $45/month and a higher rated service at 5
Mb down and 1.3 Mb up for about double that. I have the $45 plan.

I test my connection speed using the site they recommend
(http://www.ispgeeks.com/wild/modules...TXCapacityTest)
and get rather good results. It varies a lot, but here's typically
the "best" results I get:

D/load capacity 9240 Kbps
U/load capacity 1659 Kbps
D/load packets 1155 Pkts/s
U/load packets 207 Pkts/s
Packet size 1000 bytes
QOS 70%

Summary comments state that my connection should be good for streaming
video.... However, I am unable to stream video.... I get many pauses
for buffering. It makes it impossible to watch even a short U-tube
video, much less attempt to watch a movie.

So the questions are:

Is my service typical of WISP installations?
Is there some hardware problem that could cause actual performance to
differ so greatly from what the tests indicate I should be able to
get?
Do I have a hardware or setup problem?

A bit more information: Before I signed up with this WISP service a
few months ago, I was using AT&T wireless 3G service with a data modem
installed in my Cradlepoint router. I still have AT&T and from time to
time, disconnect the WISP and use the AT&T.... and I get great
performance from that setup! This makes me think my hardware is OK...
that maybe there is some setting for the WISP connection that I have
wrong.

I'd appreciate any comments or suggestions....

Thanks,

Charlie

On 12/28/2011 8:36 AM, Charlie Hoffpauir wrote:
> Some background:
>
> WISP service provided by Skynet (www.skynetwisp.com) who I think is
> local to the area south of Houston. They sell a tiered service, basic
> at 3Mb down and 1 Mb up for $45/month and a higher rated service at 5
> Mb down and 1.3 Mb up for about double that. I have the $45 plan.
>
> I test my connection speed using the site they recommend
> (http://www.ispgeeks.com/wild/modules...TXCapacityTest)
> and get rather good results. It varies a lot, but here's typically
> the "best" results I get:
>
> D/load capacity 9240 Kbps
> U/load capacity 1659 Kbps
> D/load packets 1155 Pkts/s
> U/load packets 207 Pkts/s
> Packet size 1000 bytes
> QOS 70%
>
> Summary comments state that my connection should be good for streaming
> video.... However, I am unable to stream video.... I get many pauses
> for buffering. It makes it impossible to watch even a short U-tube
> video, much less attempt to watch a movie.
>
> So the questions are:
>
> Is my service typical of WISP installations?
> Is there some hardware problem that could cause actual performance to
> differ so greatly from what the tests indicate I should be able to
> get?
> Do I have a hardware or setup problem?
>
> A bit more information: Before I signed up with this WISP service a
> few months ago, I was using AT&T wireless 3G service with a data modem
> installed in my Cradlepoint router. I still have AT&T and from time to
> time, disconnect the WISP and use the AT&T.... and I get great
> performance from that setup! This makes me think my hardware is OK...
> that maybe there is some setting for the WISP connection that I have
> wrong.
>
> I'd appreciate any comments or suggestions....
>
> Thanks,
>
> Charlie

It appears that your connection might need some help but you need to
provide a little more info first.

What kind of connection is your PC using to connect to the box provided
by your WISP? Is it using a Ethernet cable or wireless?

Do you have a WISP provided radio? Does it have it's own router
included inside the same box as the radio?

What brand/model of radio and or router did your WISP install?

What is supplying the power to the radio? Most modern installations use
Power over Ethernet or POE which means something at the home end of the
Ethernet cable going up to the antenna is supplying the power.
Sometimes it's a power injector module and a small transformer, others
can get the power from a router port.

If you can log into the radio/router your WISP installed what are the
statistics of the connection, signal to noise, received signal and the
like. You may need to bypass your Cradlepoint router and hook a PC
directly to the WISP Ethernet feed in order to gain access to
radio/router provided by your WISP to get the statistics for your radio
link.

You might also post your question in the forum located at
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/wireless but they too will ask for most
of the above info just to get things started.

With luck someone who also is a WISP customer of your carrier will be
able to assist you either here or at the above forum.

On Thu, 29 Dec 2011 01:23:23 -0600, GlowingBlueMist
<GlowingBlueMist@itruely.invalid> wrote:

>On 12/28/2011 8:36 AM, Charlie Hoffpauir wrote:
>> Some background:
>>
>> WISP service provided by Skynet (www.skynetwisp.com) who I think is
>> local to the area south of Houston. They sell a tiered service, basic
>> at 3Mb down and 1 Mb up for $45/month and a higher rated service at 5
>> Mb down and 1.3 Mb up for about double that. I have the $45 plan.
>>
>> I test my connection speed using the site they recommend
>> (http://www.ispgeeks.com/wild/modules...TXCapacityTest)
>> and get rather good results. It varies a lot, but here's typically
>> the "best" results I get:
>>
>> D/load capacity 9240 Kbps
>> U/load capacity 1659 Kbps
>> D/load packets 1155 Pkts/s
>> U/load packets 207 Pkts/s
>> Packet size 1000 bytes
>> QOS 70%
>>
>> Summary comments state that my connection should be good for streaming
>> video.... However, I am unable to stream video.... I get many pauses
>> for buffering. It makes it impossible to watch even a short U-tube
>> video, much less attempt to watch a movie.
>>
>> So the questions are:
>>
>> Is my service typical of WISP installations?
>> Is there some hardware problem that could cause actual performance to
>> differ so greatly from what the tests indicate I should be able to
>> get?
>> Do I have a hardware or setup problem?
>>
>> A bit more information: Before I signed up with this WISP service a
>> few months ago, I was using AT&T wireless 3G service with a data modem
>> installed in my Cradlepoint router. I still have AT&T and from time to
>> time, disconnect the WISP and use the AT&T.... and I get great
>> performance from that setup! This makes me think my hardware is OK...
>> that maybe there is some setting for the WISP connection that I have
>> wrong.
>>
>> I'd appreciate any comments or suggestions....
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Charlie
>
>It appears that your connection might need some help but you need to
>provide a little more info first.
>
>What kind of connection is your PC using to connect to the box provided
>by your WISP? Is it using a Ethernet cable or wireless?
>
My computer is wired to the cradlepoint router. I do have wireless
capability for my netbook.

>Do you have a WISP provided radio?

Yes
> Does it have it's own router

>included inside the same box as the radio?

No.
>What brand/model of radio and or router did your WISP install?
>
It's Motorola. I think it's "Canopy" or somthing like that. I don't
know the model number, it it's important I can try to get the number
but I have to go on the roof for that.

>What is supplying the power to the radio? Most modern installations use
>Power over Ethernet or POE which means something at the home end of the
>Ethernet cable going up to the antenna is supplying the power.
>Sometimes it's a power injector module and a small transformer, others
>can get the power from a router port.
>
It does use POE. There is a small transformer in my computer room
connected to the ethernet cable, Wiring is ethernet from the radio on
my TV mast, to my room where that cable plugs into the transformer,
then ethernet out of that box to my router, from there several
connections to computers and wireless.

BTW, my tests were done with only my main computer using internet. I
also tried bypassing the router by connecting my computer directly to
the ethernet cable from the transformer, and got similar results.

>If you can log into the radio/router your WISP installed what are the
>statistics of the connection, signal to noise, received signal and the
>like. You may need to bypass your Cradlepoint router and hook a PC
>directly to the WISP Ethernet feed in order to gain access to
>radio/router provided by your WISP to get the statistics for your radio
>link.
>
I can try that later today possibly, and see if I can collect that
information. What do I have to do to find that? I'm using Win 7 Pro on
my main computer... but have Win 7 Home on my wife's and XP on another
if it's easier to find on one of those. I also have Ubunto available,
but don't really know much about it.

>You might also post your question in the forum located at
>http://www.dslreports.com/forum/wireless but they too will ask for most
>of the above info just to get things started.
>
Good to know.... I might try that later.

>With luck someone who also is a WISP customer of your carrier will be
>able to assist you either here or at the above forum.

That would be ideal. My neighbor does have the same WISP provider, but
isn't really any help tech-wise. However he doesn't seem to have the
same problem in viewing video.

On 12/29/2011 9:37 AM, Charlie Hoffpauir wrote:
> On Thu, 29 Dec 2011 01:23:23 -0600, GlowingBlueMist
> <GlowingBlueMist@itruely.invalid> wrote:
>
>> On 12/28/2011 8:36 AM, Charlie Hoffpauir wrote:
>>> Some background:
>>>
>>> WISP service provided by Skynet (www.skynetwisp.com) who I think is
>>> local to the area south of Houston. They sell a tiered service, basic
>>> at 3Mb down and 1 Mb up for $45/month and a higher rated service at 5
>>> Mb down and 1.3 Mb up for about double that. I have the $45 plan.
>>>
>>> I test my connection speed using the site they recommend
>>> (http://www.ispgeeks.com/wild/modules...TXCapacityTest)
>>> and get rather good results. It varies a lot, but here's typically
>>> the "best" results I get:
>>>
>>> D/load capacity 9240 Kbps
>>> U/load capacity 1659 Kbps
>>> D/load packets 1155 Pkts/s
>>> U/load packets 207 Pkts/s
>>> Packet size 1000 bytes
>>> QOS 70%
>>>
>>> Summary comments state that my connection should be good for streaming
>>> video.... However, I am unable to stream video.... I get many pauses
>>> for buffering. It makes it impossible to watch even a short U-tube
>>> video, much less attempt to watch a movie.
>>>
>>> So the questions are:
>>>
>>> Is my service typical of WISP installations?
>>> Is there some hardware problem that could cause actual performance to
>>> differ so greatly from what the tests indicate I should be able to
>>> get?
>>> Do I have a hardware or setup problem?
>>>
>>> A bit more information: Before I signed up with this WISP service a
>>> few months ago, I was using AT&T wireless 3G service with a data modem
>>> installed in my Cradlepoint router. I still have AT&T and from time to
>>> time, disconnect the WISP and use the AT&T.... and I get great
>>> performance from that setup! This makes me think my hardware is OK...
>>> that maybe there is some setting for the WISP connection that I have
>>> wrong.
>>>
>>> I'd appreciate any comments or suggestions....
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>>
>>> Charlie
>>
>> It appears that your connection might need some help but you need to
>> provide a little more info first.
>>
>> What kind of connection is your PC using to connect to the box provided
>> by your WISP? Is it using a Ethernet cable or wireless?
>>
> My computer is wired to the cradlepoint router. I do have wireless
> capability for my netbook.
>
>> Do you have a WISP provided radio?
>
> Yes
>> Does it have it's own router
>
>> included inside the same box as the radio?
>
> No.
>> What brand/model of radio and or router did your WISP install?
>>
> It's Motorola. I think it's "Canopy" or somthing like that. I don't
> know the model number, it it's important I can try to get the number
> but I have to go on the roof for that.
>
>> What is supplying the power to the radio? Most modern installations use
>> Power over Ethernet or POE which means something at the home end of the
>> Ethernet cable going up to the antenna is supplying the power.
>> Sometimes it's a power injector module and a small transformer, others
>> can get the power from a router port.
>>
> It does use POE. There is a small transformer in my computer room
> connected to the ethernet cable, Wiring is ethernet from the radio on
> my TV mast, to my room where that cable plugs into the transformer,
> then ethernet out of that box to my router, from there several
> connections to computers and wireless.
>
> BTW, my tests were done with only my main computer using internet. I
> also tried bypassing the router by connecting my computer directly to
> the ethernet cable from the transformer, and got similar results.
>
>> If you can log into the radio/router your WISP installed what are the
>> statistics of the connection, signal to noise, received signal and the
>> like. You may need to bypass your Cradlepoint router and hook a PC
>> directly to the WISP Ethernet feed in order to gain access to
>> radio/router provided by your WISP to get the statistics for your radio
>> link.
>>
> I can try that later today possibly, and see if I can collect that
> information. What do I have to do to find that? I'm using Win 7 Pro on
> my main computer... but have Win 7 Home on my wife's and XP on another
> if it's easier to find on one of those. I also have Ubunto available,
> but don't really know much about it.
>
>> You might also post your question in the forum located at
>> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/wireless but they too will ask for most
>> of the above info just to get things started.
>>
> Good to know.... I might try that later.
>
>> With luck someone who also is a WISP customer of your carrier will be
>> able to assist you either here or at the above forum.
>
> That would be ideal. My neighbor does have the same WISP provider, but
> isn't really any help tech-wise. However he doesn't seem to have the
> same problem in viewing video.

The stats should be menu item(s) once you are logged into the
radio/router up on the roof, provided your WISP even allows customers to
contact those menu(s), as in having the Motorola's access password and
such. Any modern browser should be able to access the menu items
provided you have the proper username/password for the device.

If it was me I'd be calling the WISP help desk and have them check out
your link from their end to start with since you are not seeing the link
speeds you are expecting. They should be able remotely connect to your
unit on the roof and test from there back to them. If all else fails
request an on-site visit to see what is happening.

Request they bring their own laptop and test so that they can eliminate
your internal home stuff, including your router. Many times these
problems are caused by an alignment problem between the home receiver
and the transmitter hub, but it might just be a setting in the box that
they need to change to accommodate your situation.

On Wed, 28 Dec 2011 08:36:07 -0600, Charlie Hoffpauir
<invalid@invalid.com> wrote:

>Summary comments state that my connection should be good for streaming
>video.... However, I am unable to stream video.... I get many pauses
>for buffering. It makes it impossible to watch even a short U-tube
>video, much less attempt to watch a movie.

From the numbers you posted, I would expect streaming video to be just
fine. However, not all streaming video is created equal. Are you
watching highly compressed H.264 or MPEG4, or are you watching
uncompressed video? What application are you using to watch video? A
web browser, VLC, Winamp, WMP, etc?? Try to be specific.

>Is my service typical of WISP installations?

No. It's typical of Canopy wireless. Canopy uses a polling system,
which polls the client radios for traffic. The result is short bursts
of extremely fast traffic, with long delays in between. Comcast does
the same thing with their 1MBit/sec cable modem service, where you get
a 1 second burst of 10Mbits/sec followed by 10 seconds of nothing. If
you don't have your unspecified video media player set with an
adequately long buffer, it's going to stall.

>Is there some hardware problem that could cause actual performance to
>differ so greatly from what the tests indicate I should be able to
>get?

Dunno. You didn't mention anything about your hardware.

>Do I have a hardware or setup problem?

Dunno. Let's test. Find a nice fast computah and plug it into an
ethernet switch. Do the same with the computah you're using to watch
the videos. Unplug the Canopy wireless thing.

Download and install JPerf on both machines.
<http://code.google.com/p/xjperf/>
<http://openmaniak.com/iperf.php>
<http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/lanwan/lanwan-howto/30408-measuring-network-performance-jperf>
Setup the nice fast computah as a server and your video computah as
the test client. Run a benchmark, initially using TCP (not UDP). Are
you getting decent performance? For a 100BaseT connection, you should
see at least 60Mbits/sec. With some tuning, you can get it as high as
90Mbits/sec.

Now, try it with UDP, which is what all streaming video uses. It
should be slightly faster due to less overhead. Some buffer tuning in
Jperf may be needed.

If you download speeds is slow, erratic, unstable, or insane, you
probably have a computah or configuration problem. If the speed seems
fairly normal for an ethernet connection, it's not the computah.

Next, try watching a video with this arrangement. Put an MPEG4 video
(or whatever you can find) on the nice fast computah server. Setup
sharing, and watch the video on your computah. It should be just
fine. If not, there's a problem with the computah or setup.

Incidentally, whenever I get the same complaint from my customers, it
almost invariable is caused by additional traffic running in the
background. Things like file sharing programs (BitTorrent), Windoze
Update, and the kids in the house, are suitable culprits.

>I still have AT&T and from time to
>time, disconnect the WISP and use the AT&T.... and I get great
>performance from that setup! This makes me think my hardware is OK...

That's a good indication that it's not the computah or setup. Still I
think it might be interesting to verify it. For example, it might be
something as simple as a miswired or broken ethernet cable to the
Canopy radio.

--
# Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D Santa Cruz CA 95060
# 831-336-2558
# http://802.11junk.com jeffl@cruzio.com
# http://www.LearnByDestroying.com AE6KS

On Wed, 28 Dec 2011 08:36:07 -0600, Charlie Hoffpauir wrote:
> 3Mb down and 1 Mb up for $45/month
> Is my service typical of WISP installations?

My old WISP, Silicon Valley, was $50/month for 1 Mbps symmetric.

My new WISP, same place, is $50/month for 2 Mbps down & 0.5 Mbps up.

You have a much better deal in Texas!

BTW, I use www.speedtest.net to test speeds.

On Thu, 29 Dec 2011 13:14:59 -0600, GlowingBlueMist wrote:
> The stats should be menu item(s) once you are logged into the
> radio/router up on the roof...
> Any modern browser should be able to access the menu items
> provided you have the proper username/password for the device.

By way of example, here's what I do to check my radio status:

1. I bring up a browser and type the address of my radio connected to my
antenna
2. In 'my' case, for a Ubiquiti Bullet M2 radio, that default address is
http://192.168.1.20
3. That brings up the login screen, where I type the default login (ubnt)
and the default password (ubnt).
4. Then, as stated above, there are menus which show my signal status,
particularly the "main" menu (for Ubiquiti equipment)
5. For example, this is a screenshot of my 'main' tab just now.
http://www1.picturepush.com/photo/a/...mg/7293579.png

I am not a WISP expert, but I'll try to sound like one to suggest you
look first at your signal strength (notice mine is excellent, at -66 dBm)
and at your CCQs (notice my transmit CCQs are only 84%, which isn't all
that great).

Also notice my transmit:receive ratio is 1 Mbps to 11 Mbps (I'm not sure
'why' my TX is only 1 Mbps as I just noticed that discrepancy now).

This is, I believe, the kind of information GlowingBlueMist is asking you
to find out if you can.

Chuck Banshee (for it is he) wrote:

> Also notice my transmit:receive ratio is 1 Mbps to 11 Mbps (I'm not sure
> 'why' my TX is only 1 Mbps as I just noticed that discrepancy now).

Either because that's the tier you're on, or because of the signal you're
getting. Note that the M series can speak a proprietary TDMA protocol which
is probably what your WISP is using.

--
<http://ale.cx/> (AIM:troffasky) (UnSoEsNpEaTm@ale.cx)
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"People believe any quote they read on the internet
if it fits their preconceived notions." - Martin Luther King