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GeekInfoNow
join:2012-07-25

GeekInfoNow

Member

OMGfast.... Looking for review

Im currently in south fla where I can get this service. I currently have comcast business class but i am going to cxl them when and if i get this service. I will be getting 50mb down for much less then what i am paying now. No data caps....Anyone have a review? Thx
GeekInfoNow

GeekInfoNow

Member

I also have been asking and posting in this thread....

»Clearband

glitchsys
@openpeak.com

glitchsys to GeekInfoNow

Anon

to GeekInfoNow
I've had them (OMGFast aka Clearband) for almost a week now. Installation time took an entire day, close to 9 hours. The tech said the average installation time is 4-5 hours. It was done nicely and professionally though and there was no additional cost, so that is good.

The service is fast, that 50mbps is more of an average, I've seen mine top out at 65mbps down. The upload is always 3.2mbps though as that's the limit of the WiMax device.

They use MVDDS for the downlink, it's one way only though so to solve the return path (upload) issue they use a separate WiMax antenna installed underneath the MVDDS antenna (MVDDS antenna looks like a round satellite dish, the WiMax antenna is an all in one unit, it's white and about 12" x 12" and mounts underneath the MVDDS dish on the same pole).

The WiMax is better at handling tree's and such, the MVDDS requires direct line of sight. I imagine a tree branch wouldn't harm it too much. I learned that the limiting factor on range from their tower is actually the MVDDS portion, the WiMax could go further.

Well the bandwidth is good, the 3.2mbps upload has been a constant, I've never seen it less, and the 65mbps download is sweet, every speedtest I run always shows 45-55 down, but the latency is fairly bad. Pinging to the first or 2nd hop, which is within their network but beyond my house, the latency is 40-65ms and everywhere in between, and it's not consistent either. It's 40 65 42 60 50 59 58 57 40 etc. and that's just within their network. Try pinging out to the regular internet and you'll see increased latency and erratic ping times. For the average user downloading large files, browsing the web, etc. this won't pose too much of a problem; but certain uses, like VoIP and real-time gaming (Call of Duty, Team Fortress, first person shooters, etc.) could be a problem. I have not verified this yet, but I do know VoIP prefers consistent latency, but good VoIP hardware and provider could probably compensate even for this connection. First person shooters I don't usually play on the internet so I'm not sure how well that'd work either but I imagine where latency is everything, it could make a different. My friend plays Call of Duty a lot and he has U-Verse, which also has a latency issue (it's high latency, but consistent), and he said he never noticed the difference until he played using a xfinity connection, then he suddenly could tell the difference.

South Florida is an experiment for them (ClearBand/OMGFast). They're testing the technology and making constant improvements. A different friend of mine got it 3 weeks ago and the modem they gave me last weekend was already newer/better than the one they gave him. They're learning and getting better all the time. They're probably losing money for every customer they sign up, just to have a sizeable test bed. Think about it, 50+mbps (again I'm getting up to 65mbps) for $40/month, that's insane, no contract and no installation fee either? that's just awesome, UVerse or Xfinity can't touch that (price), but that's the point. They're luring people away from those providers in order to test their MVDDS system. I imagine after some time after all the 'kinks' have been worked out that the big owner will deploy this nationwide.

They've also had 2 outages since I've had the service for less than a week. One point the service cut out and about 30m later it came back but at a much lower speed. 8-9mbps down, 3.2mbps up. It turns out the MVDDS system had issues so they switched to 100% WiMax temporarily. It's good to know they can do that and that the WiMax isn't just pure upload only, in a pinch it can download as well, and WiMax is a tried and proven technology, although I'm thinking that's the cause of the high and erratic latency. MVDDS is the real speed, but also what's really being tested here in Florida. It's only going to get better. Anyways, after 4 or 5 hours on pure WiMax at the reduced download speed, the internet cut out again and this time never came back until I called them. After I rebooted all my equipment they were still down so a call to their customer care department and they had to make some change at the tower end after which I came back online. Frustrating yes, but it's all good because I have xfinity as a backup.

This leads me to my conclusion. I think the only way I could have ClearBand today would be to have a backup ISP. ClearBand's MVDDS is an awesome technology that's still being worked on, and eventually they should be rock solid, but for today if you were to use them, I'd have a backup connection. They can't suffer wire cuts like Cable or DSL/UVerse users could. My comcast cable wire was cut and it took 4 days for comcast to get out there and fix it. My neighbours phone line was cut (at the same time as my cable, thanks FPL) and it took AT&T 6 days to get out there and fix his line. That wouldn't happen with ClearBand. I think one "hard wired" connection and one "wireless connection" is optimal. I'm personally using ClearBand as my primary connection and I switch to xfinity (who I have on the "Economy" plan for $15/mo) whenever I need to. My boss is getting the service as a backup to his xfinity connection. He's getting xfinity at 50-100mbps but is also concerned about line cuts (especially with the hurricane coming) and general xfinity outages, so he's getting ClearBand as a backup connection.
iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Austin, TX

iansltx

Member

A few quick notes:

1. A tree branch would probably kill your MVDDS connection. It's in the 12GHz range, and in that range all sorts of stuff can cause your signal to fade.
2. My bet is that WiMAX is where your high, erratic latency is coming from. If Clearband deployed something like Ubiquiti AirMax as the uplink, they would probably cut that latency by upwards of 50% and lower jitter too. The AirMax stuff is cheap too. But it's not an IEEE standard so they probably won't deploy it :/

I'd be perfectly fine with a setup like MVDDS where you've got an uplink radio that is more robust and could be pressed into service on the downlink side if needed...it's not beyond question to keep a wireless network like that up 99.9+% of the time, to the point that you don't need wireline backup (even if you can get it).

GeekInfoNow
join:2012-07-25

GeekInfoNow to glitchsys

Member

to glitchsys
Thanks for the info! I've got then coming this weekend. Couple of questions.
1. Will they let me use my router? I was told they user a E1200. I have the E3000. I wouldn't mind using theirs for a wireless extender...
2. Is the speed always constant? I have a synology NAS set up for my downloads for the home and business
3 . I do use my 360 to play cod and battlefield. Issues with that?
4. Do you have any pics of your equipment?
5. What takes them 4 hours or all day to do? Isn't it just a dish a coax cable and ethernet cable run into the house to their equipment?

I am coming from Comcast business class for this service so i want to be sure before i cancel them...Thanks
GeekInfoNow

GeekInfoNow

Member

Well Im not impressed so far..... I am not getting my advertised speeds at all. The latency is not good either. Let me answer my own questions so people know....

1. Will they let me use my router? No.... They have to use the cisco e1200 router make sure it works and then you are on your own. I messed with mine for about 30 min or so in order to get it to work.(i have a call in to tech support with no call back...going on 2 hours)

2. Is the speed always constant? Im am not impressed at all....

3. I do use my 360 to play cod and battlefield..... I am actually scared to even test this because I am at this point

4. Do you have any pics of your equipment? I will post pics if people want. Its a router cisco, a clearband box and some sort of small box

5. What takes them 4 hours or all day to do? Isn't it just a dish a coax cable and ethernet cable run into the house to their equipment?
It took my guys about 2 hours or so. They said that I have very strong signal(5.8 out of 6). They put the dish at other end of the house and ran the wires...

At this time im still waiting on a call back about my speed and I cant use my vonage either. I can receive calls but not make them. I will post some test results later....
wirelessdog
join:2008-07-15
Queen Anne, MD

wirelessdog to GeekInfoNow

Member

to GeekInfoNow
Your statements are contradictory.

1. Are you using your own router or not?

2. What speeds are you seeing?

3. Why are you scared to test your gaming?

4. Pictures would be nice

Can you post some speedtest.net results and some pingtest.net results? Also, a traceroute to dslreports.com would be nice.

GeekInfoNow
join:2012-07-25

GeekInfoNow

Member

1. Are you using your own router or not? Yes. E3000 Linksys

2. What speeds are you seeing? 20 down if that

I got a call from the tech dept and he thinks my modem is faulty... I am now switching back to comcast until they call monday or send a tech guy out....

I will post some results in a few before I switch
GeekInfoNow

GeekInfoNow

Member

I just tried some battlefield 3 on the 360.... If your wife comes in and says "wow" I dont need to explain anymore about the gaming. Here is a link for the ping test




Here is speed test

»speedtest.net/result/214 ··· 9406.png

Im unhooking now and going back to comcast until they send someone out monday....BTW a little storm is coming our way monday
jcremin
join:2009-12-22
Siren, WI

jcremin

Member

I'd consider the speed and ping quite good for a wireless connection. It is the 7% packet loss that would be the biggest concern to me as it will make any time sensitive application suck.

GeekInfoNow
join:2012-07-25

GeekInfoNow

Member

Not when they say I am supposed to get "up to" 50mb down constant. When i use my nas for downloads i get 2.8 to 3.2 per sec with comcast . When i tried OMG for my "test run" i was hitting 1.4 and under. I would also be using them for gaming as well and that was no good either. Choppy.... Looked like i was skipping. I have their stuff unplugged at the moment until monday.
jcremin
join:2009-12-22
Siren, WI

jcremin

Member

said by GeekInfoNow:

Not when they say I am supposed to get "up to" 50mb down constant.

I've never used this specific service and know next to nothing about it, but the keywords are "up to". Your speed test of 20 megs is still great for a wireless connection. I don't think that the raw speed is your problem, and I'd also suggest setting your expectations for a consistent speed WELL under 50 megs. If that is the best case scenario with nobody else using the service, your average speed will probably be much lower. 10 to 20 megs might be a more realistic expectation, which is still plenty fast for gaming.
said by GeekInfoNow:

When i tried OMG for my "test run" i was hitting 1.4 and under.

By "1.4" I'm assuming you mean "megabytes" per second, right? 1.4 megabytes per second is roughly the same as 11 megabits per second.
said by GeekInfoNow:

I would also be using them for gaming as well and that was no good either. Choppy.... Looked like i was skipping.

Like I mentioned, I don't think the speed has anything to do with the issues of gaming. Your pingtest showed a 7% packet loss, which is really bad even though your result showed a pretty good actual ping time. A better test would be to keep a ping running while trying to do something and see if the latency goes way up or if you get timeouts while putting traffic on your connection.

And if they don't give you any minimum guaranteed speed in writing, I wouldn't hold my breath that they will deliver anywhere close to the maximum "up to" speed.

GeekInfoNow
join:2012-07-25

GeekInfoNow

Member

Well I guess the guy could have sold me a car then(up to 50mb down). I get constant 2.8 to 3.2 down with comcast. In order for me to switch to them(OMG) they will have to do better than that. I will see what this tech guy says about the packet loss tomorrow. Like I said before he thinks my modem is bad. We will see. I did have to clone my MAC address to use my e3000 so I hope he doesnt come here with "If you use our router your speed would be better".
silbaco
Premium Member
join:2009-08-03
USA

silbaco to GeekInfoNow

Premium Member

to GeekInfoNow
Does being hardwired to the connection yield better results or are your tests already using a hardwired connection?

Why did you have to clone your mac address? I am not following that.

GeekInfoNow
join:2012-07-25

GeekInfoNow

Member

This is with a hardwired connection. They want you to use their router that they set up for you. I have my network setup on my e3000 and i dont want to reconfigure anything. So i was trying to hook up their modem to my e3000. I got no internet once i did that, Then i remembered the guy gave the activation people over the phone the mac address from "their" router. So all i did was go into my settings and put that in and it worked.... Then when I wanted to go back to comcast I just unhooked their stuff and unchecked clone mac.

They didnt make it out today with the new modem but they are supposed to tomorrow between 5 and 7pm. We'll see.
glitchsys0
join:2004-06-12
Boca Raton, FL

glitchsys0

Member

Sorry for the delay. I'm GliTcH. I haven't experienced any service outages since that first week. I'm not sure if they have "flipped" to WiMax since then either as I don't run speed tests daily like I used to but I can say I've been downloading ISO files of Linux distro's and such and I've seen this thing hit 60mbps consistently. You probably do have a faulty modem, if you have a strong signal you should get good speeds. I heard if your further out or the signal is weak it'll definitely harm your speeds. Are you getting 3.2mbps upload consistently? That'd be the wimax portion.

They will let you use your own router and return theirs, you just have to stay on top of them about it. In order to use your E3000 you have to clone the mac address of the E1200. They marry their modem to the mac address of the E1200, using mac cloning you can get around it. If you don't use mac cloning you'll get a public IP but won't be online. They do tend to discourage the use of your own router but you can do it, they're the ones who told me about cloning the Mac Address, and they said I could send the router back for a small monthly discount, not sure how much yet. You could program the E1200 as a repeater or Access Point, etc. I understand why they're pushing the E1200 as part of the setup though. When I first hooked my omgfast to my own router, a Buffalo HP-G54 router running DD-WRT, I was only getting about 30mbps down and 3.2mbps up. Turns out the backplane of the router was about 30mbps, that's all it could "nat", probably CPU limitation. They've tested their setup on the E1200 and it has over a 60mbps backplane, so I could see them discouraging people from using their own routers, what if you hooked their setup to a cheap $20 or $30 router that can only handle 20 or 30mbps internet connections, and then you call yelling at them about speed? The E1200 is a $40 router and can handle it. But I since hooked it to my WNDR4000, a $120 router, and it handles it just fine.

I'm really amazed they got you installed in 2 hours! That's amazing. It just seemed time consuming to bring all the equipment out, hook up the dish, the LNB, run the wire, mount everything, etc. did they preassemble the dish and mounts and everything? I always thought they really should do that, would be much faster to install if the whole assembly was already done and all they had to do was mount it to your house and aim it.

I'll upload some photo's shortly for you others.
iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Austin, TX

iansltx

Member

Yes, photos please!

Also, could you do a couple traceroutes? For example to softlayer.com, dimenoc.com and singlehop.com? Those sites are respectively in Dallas, Florida (I forget there..probably Tampa) and Chicago so you can get a good idea of how Clearband passes their traffic and how much latency is on the last mile.
glitchsys0
join:2004-06-12
Boca Raton, FL

glitchsys0

Member

Click for full size
Outdoors 1
Click for full size
Outside 1
Click for full size
Close Up 1
Click for full size
Close Up 2
Here's photo's of the outside unit.
glitchsys0

glitchsys0

Member


$ traceroute softlayer.com
traceroute to softlayer.com (66.228.118.53), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets
1 192.168.3.1 (192.168.3.1) 4.582 ms 1.163 ms 1.195 ms
2 199.193.105.1 (199.193.105.1) 66.397 ms 64.524 ms 60.098 ms
3 192.168.100.9 (192.168.100.9) 86.536 ms 63.773 ms 85.500 ms
4 74.120.47.233 (74.120.47.233) 20.396 ms 52.436 ms 69.701 ms
5 208.67.164.150 (208.67.164.150) 42.961 ms 59.061 ms 79.866 ms
6 208.67.164.157 (208.67.164.157) 79.920 ms 32.894 ms 39.819 ms
7 198.32.124.221 (198.32.124.221) 36.001 ms 57.727 ms 79.971 ms
8 * * ae1.bbr01.sr02.hou02.networklayer.com (173.192.18.162) 86.414 ms
9 ae3.bbr01.eq01.dal03.networklayer.com (173.192.18.218) 77.616 ms 82.096 ms 79.856 ms
10 ae0.dar02.sr01.dal01.networklayer.com (173.192.18.253) 77.717 ms 97.126 ms
ae0.dar01.sr01.dal01.networklayer.com (173.192.18.211) 126.502 ms
11 po1.slr01.sr01.dal01.networklayer.com (66.228.118.138) 90.188 ms 77.508 ms
po2.slr01.sr01.dal01.networklayer.com (66.228.118.142) 81.718 ms
12 * * *

$ traceroute dimenoc.com
traceroute to dimenoc.com (72.29.64.136), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets
1 192.168.3.1 (192.168.3.1) 1.724 ms 1.060 ms 1.035 ms
2 199.193.105.1 (199.193.105.1) 65.490 ms 39.191 ms 54.715 ms
3 192.168.100.9 (192.168.100.9) 30.416 ms 40.578 ms 38.611 ms
4 74.120.47.233 (74.120.47.233) 21.063 ms 38.071 ms 23.212 ms
5 208.67.164.150 (208.67.164.150) 38.596 ms 34.117 ms 40.819 ms
6 208.67.164.157 (208.67.164.157) 39.504 ms 51.641 ms 20.211 ms
7 port-channel201.car1.miami1.level3.net (4.71.210.133) 21.772 ms 40.705 ms 39.895 ms
8 ae-32-52.ebr2.miami1.level3.net (4.69.138.123) 39.881 ms 28.862 ms 44.698 ms
9 ae-3-5.bar2.orlando1.level3.net (4.69.148.210) 34.590 ms 28.437 ms 39.767 ms
10 ae-0-11.bar1.orlando1.level3.net (4.69.137.145) 39.390 ms 31.386 ms 39.619 ms
11 hostdime.com-10g-ethernet.core1.level3.net (67.30.140.2) 40.698 ms 45.205 ms 30.229 ms
12 72-29-79-119.static.dimenoc.com (72.29.79.119) 45.805 ms 38.694 ms 41.474 ms
13 * * *
14 * * *

$ traceroute singlehop
traceroute to singlehop.bocario.clearband.com (76.163.66.2), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets
openpeaks-macbook-pro:~ deon$ traceroute singlehop.com
traceroute to singlehop.com (184.154.60.210), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets
1 192.168.3.1 (192.168.3.1) 1.965 ms 1.050 ms 1.174 ms
2 199.193.105.1 (199.193.105.1) 67.124 ms 49.420 ms 81.445 ms
3 192.168.100.9 (192.168.100.9) 74.345 ms 39.395 ms 39.404 ms
4 74.120.47.233 (74.120.47.233) 23.841 ms 36.343 ms 38.798 ms
5 208.67.164.150 (208.67.164.150) 22.025 ms 31.750 ms 27.496 ms
6 208.67.164.157 (208.67.164.157) 23.911 ms 35.009 ms 24.197 ms
7 be-10-902-pe01.nota.fl.ibone.comcast.net (66.208.228.113) 35.964 ms 62.017 ms 79.666 ms
8 pos-1-9-0-0-cr01.miami.fl.ibone.comcast.net (68.86.88.105) 83.586 ms 45.690 ms 80.453 ms
9 pos-0-8-0-0-cr01.56marietta.ga.ibone.comcast.net (68.86.86.197) 94.538 ms 78.288 ms 75.323 ms
10 pos-2-9-0-0-cr01.chicago.il.ibone.comcast.net (68.86.85.169) 103.839 ms 77.253 ms 86.719 ms
11 pos-1-6-0-0-cr01.350ecermak.il.ibone.comcast.net (68.86.88.42) 84.362 ms 182.839 ms 105.828 ms
12 be-12-pe03.350ecermak.il.ibone.comcast.net (68.86.84.190) 77.858 ms 77.255 ms 80.268 ms
13 173.167.57.126 (173.167.57.126) 94.925 ms 103.595 ms 97.681 ms
14 ae1-50g.cr2.ord1.us.nlayer.net (69.31.111.137) 100.069 ms
ae1-40g.cr1.ord1.us.nlayer.net (69.31.111.133) 103.764 ms
ae1-50g.cr2.ord1.us.nlayer.net (69.31.111.137) 115.895 ms
15 ae1-20g.ar1.ord6.us.nlayer.net (69.31.110.250) 127.117 ms
ae2-20g.ar1.ord6.us.nlayer.net (69.31.110.254) 130.523 ms
ae1-20g.ar1.ord6.us.nlayer.net (69.31.110.250) 118.983 ms
16 as32475.ae6.ar1.ord6.us.nlayer.net (69.31.110.202) 113.179 ms
as32475.ae7.ar1.ord6.us.nlayer.net (69.31.111.30) 112.088 ms
as32475.ae6.ar1.ord6.us.nlayer.net (69.31.110.202) 78.213 ms
17 * * *

$ traceroute 4.2.2.1
traceroute to 4.2.2.1 (4.2.2.1), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets
1 192.168.3.1 (192.168.3.1) 3.301 ms 1.828 ms 1.000 ms
2 199.193.105.1 (199.193.105.1) 53.697 ms 38.865 ms 39.947 ms
3 192.168.100.9 (192.168.100.9) 31.648 ms 35.555 ms 37.905 ms
4 74.120.47.233 (74.120.47.233) 22.146 ms 41.315 ms 37.424 ms
5 208.67.164.150 (208.67.164.150) 36.348 ms 39.912 ms 39.655 ms
6 208.67.164.157 (208.67.164.157) 40.255 ms 46.916 ms 35.663 ms
7 port-channel201.car1.miami1.level3.net (4.71.210.133) 20.156 ms 34.777 ms 24.158 ms
8 ae-32-52.ebr2.miami1.level3.net (4.69.138.123) 38.709 ms 24.894 ms 31.887 ms
9 ae-2-2.ebr2.atlanta2.level3.net (4.69.140.142) 38.153 ms 69.606 ms 39.631 ms
10 ae-21-52.car1.atlanta1.level3.net (4.69.150.67) 49.763 ms 37.134 ms 41.980 ms
11 a.resolvers.level3.net (4.2.2.1) 44.225 ms 39.212 ms 39.760 ms

$ traceroute 8.8.8.8
traceroute to 8.8.8.8 (8.8.8.8), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets
1 192.168.3.1 (192.168.3.1) 3.197 ms 1.165 ms 1.042 ms
2 199.193.105.1 (199.193.105.1) 48.083 ms 78.494 ms 145.587 ms
3 192.168.100.9 (192.168.100.9) 21.669 ms 29.405 ms 29.701 ms
4 74.120.47.233 (74.120.47.233) 20.103 ms 29.358 ms 29.967 ms
5 208.67.164.150 (208.67.164.150) 21.839 ms 28.985 ms 41.076 ms
6 208.67.164.157 (208.67.164.157) 37.688 ms 42.779 ms 36.672 ms
7 core1-1-0-0.mia.net.google.com (198.32.124.133) 39.918 ms 58.424 ms 81.664 ms
8 209.85.253.118 (209.85.253.118) 55.941 ms 21.777 ms 39.795 ms
9 209.85.254.252 (209.85.254.252) 56.243 ms
216.239.48.192 (216.239.48.192) 79.561 ms
209.85.254.252 (209.85.254.252) 67.575 ms
10 209.85.248.31 (209.85.248.31) 39.269 ms
209.85.248.29 (209.85.248.29) 75.481 ms 68.070 ms
11 209.85.253.133 (209.85.253.133) 39.437 ms 68.041 ms 89.312 ms
12 google-public-dns-a.google.com (8.8.8.8) 134.301 ms 53.735 ms 60.219 ms


What's annoying is the first 6 hops are 'static'. I know hop 1 is my own router, but hops 2-6 is their network, that does seem a bit excessive to get me to their 'border'. 208.67.164.157, hop 6, is owned by FPL FiberNet. I'm guessing it's OMGFast's upstream provider.

someguy43120
@199.115.86.x

someguy43120 to GeekInfoNow

Anon

to GeekInfoNow
I recently purchased OMGfast service. The speed is fast and consistent. However, I have been very unhappy with the service due to the poor latency/ping rate. I don't know if its the limitation of the technology. If I ping something like google or yahoo, the pings actually fluctuate and spikes constantly, jumping from 40ms to 200ms repeatedly. I am a gamer and require decent ping rate, I notice these little things and its bad enough to ruin the game completely.

These result don't seem bad, but it only become apparent in game when my game skips and misses my inputs, so I guess there are jitters in the system too:
ping -t google.com
Pinging google.com [74.125.229.160] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 74.125.229.160: bytes=32 time=31ms TTL=55
Reply from 74.125.229.160: bytes=32 time=229ms TTL=55
Reply from 74.125.229.160: bytes=32 time=40ms TTL=55
Reply from 74.125.229.160: bytes=32 time=30ms TTL=55
Reply from 74.125.229.160: bytes=32 time=50ms TTL=55
Reply from 74.125.229.160: bytes=32 time=39ms TTL=55
Reply from 74.125.229.160: bytes=32 time=252ms TTL=55
Reply from 74.125.229.160: bytes=32 time=49ms TTL=55
Reply from 74.125.229.160: bytes=32 time=38ms TTL=55
Reply from 74.125.229.160: bytes=32 time=27ms TTL=55

Can others with OMGfast try the ping -t command and let me know if their ping rate stay consistent? I tried several different routers and even connect by Ethernet, but the problem seems further up in the system. I will try calling up customer service and ask them about it, but I'm not optimistic they will do anything about. Its too bad their download and upload speed is very nice, but I rather pay an extra money for dsl or cable if I can get better ping rate.

There are two things I initially didn't like:
-Setting me up for autopay system without letting me know. This seems to be their standard, they don't send out paper bills, which is okay and convenient, but they should had let me know it was an autopay system.

-They lock the MAC address of their router to their system, so internet from their modem will not transmit to any other device beside to that specific MAC address. However, most routers have the feature to clone MAC addresses, so you can easily bypass it. Although I can see how this can give problems to people who aren't as techy and wanting to switch to a better router, because the Linksys E1200 have very poor signal range, regardless of being DDWRT compatible.
iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Austin, TX

iansltx

Member

Sounds like congestion on the WiMAX side, which is significantly more capacity-limited versus the MVDDS side. Plus WiMAX seems to have an inherent 30ms+ latency penalty to it.

someguy43210
@op-net.com

someguy43210

Anon

Well after the a bit of thunderstorm recently my internet was down during the evening, I called around 8:30am the next day and I told them the box unit that power the satellite is dead (it was connected to surge protector). They said they would transfer me to the IT department, which didn't call back after 3 hours. So I called again to ask someone to come to replace the broken unit, they're book so it'll have to be the next day. Not until noon the next day I got internet back. Almost a day and a half turn around. But my speed actually improved after this and the ping by a small percentage.

I also talked to the service person about the latency issue and even show the fluctuating ping in my system. We also spoke on the phone, but the other-side reply was expected that it shouldn't defer with normal web browsing. I guess I can't blame them too much since its WiMAX.

One thing I have to note is the way Clearband seems to hire people. They don't issue company van or laptops. The installer and serviceman bring their own van/truck, home laptop, and own equipment. The servicemen who did my installation was a roofer by trait (which is fine), but wasn't trained properly on the IT stuff and took until the second day to finally installed everything correctly, because of issues with his equipment and laptop. The second servicemen I met was extremely disrespectful, I won't go into details, but he doesn't even know how to greet. And base on someone else saying it only take 2-4hours for his installation compared to mine of more than one day, it seems to depend on luck which type of person you will get.

If you can put up with some of these issues you might save a little money and get fast speed, but really as you can see from my experience if you can afford more expensive service and don't mind paying a little more money for 20MBps ATT or Comcast, sure its 30Mbps slower, but at least you get consistency. One thing I like is I can use clone MAC address and use my my own router, instead of using the all in one ATT's UVerse modem/router box, but that's hardly a plus considering everything else I had to deal with.
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iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Austin, TX

iansltx

Member

Re: OMGfast.... Looking for review

Who knows...maybe they really have no good processes for vetting (obviously) contractors.

...and people where wireless is competing with cable/DSL can apparently afford to be nitpicky

someguy43210
@199.115.86.x

someguy43210 to GeekInfoNow

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I got a surprise last night. It looked like OMGfast finally updated their system or did something to fix the latency issue.

Before this, in an online videogame, my character's footsteps actually skips. Now the footsteps is actually in rhythm and ll the game information are smoothly portrayed/downloaded. It's a night and day different.

My ping test still show the ping spike up in a pattern, but more stretched out now than before. Though pingtest.net shows my jitter rate lowered.

This is in the Margate area of Florida, so I don't know how it is for everyone else, but for the first time I'm happy with their internet. Just finger crossed its going to stay this way.
glitchsys0
join:2004-06-12
Boca Raton, FL

glitchsys0

Member

Well I too have noticed more consistent ping responses. Latency is still higher than DSL or Comcast but at least it's not erratic like it was before.


28 packets transmitted, 28 packets received, 0.0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 35.364/48.717/66.863/8.126 ms


I've clocked it as high as 65mbps which is nice. 3.2mbps up is always the case, that's wimax. I'm just wondering why they're using this system. I heard from one of their tech's that MVDDS is the one that's limiting the range of how far they can go from the towers, and I also hear that it runs in the 12ghz range which is why they require line of site. MVDDS just doesn't seem that feasible to me then. Why not try pure WiMax, LTE, or even 2.4mhz (or 5ghz) WiFi. I have 2.4ghz directional WiFi Antennas, smaller than OMG Fast's antennas, and they can do 2-5 miles. 5 miles with direct line of site and enough power. And that means you could do 802.11n which is 150-450mbps.

Anyways, my connections been unstable for the past week, every few days it goes down and I have to power-cycle the modem. They're looking into it. My friend a few miles away has a more stable connection so I know they're 'capable' of it, hopefully it's just my modem which can be replaced.
iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Austin, TX

iansltx

Member

Re: their using different technologies other than MVDDS for the downlink...

1. WiMAX - Slow. You've seen what it can do on uploads. Multiply that by three or four for download speeds, if that.
2. LTE - Not available for the spectrum Clearband owns, and no spectrum is available to buy at this point that supports LTE. Even if it were, the spectrum would be too expensive to deploy speeds, without caps, comparable to what they're doing now. Plus, I haven't seen an LTE fixed terminal anywhere yet, and that's the only thing that would give you better range than the current MVDDS system while still having any sort of capacity. You would need a 10MHz channel at least for FD-LTE, or spectrum usable to TD-LTE, and the former is tied up by AT&T on 700MHz and the latter by Clearwire on 2500MHz.
3. WiFi - It's a good option. Not so much on 2.4 but 5GHz would work. 2.4 has too much interference in a flat place like Florida. 5GHz may not be much better though. The result: you'd end up with, at best, the same speeds as you get on MVDDS at the same distance, but using cheaper equipment and unlicensed spectrum (unlicensed may have reliability issues). Getting even 80 Mbps of capacity out of a single WiFi channel (20MHz wide...40MHz is a bad idea for point to multipoint due to signal-related issues...so your air link rate is at best 130 Mbps with a dual-polarity antenna at each end of the link) is iffy in PtMP over long (more than a mile or two) distances.

Hence Clearband's choice of MVDDS, particularly since they own that spectrum anyway...and they own more than all 2.4GHz, 5.8GHz (longer-range 5GHz due to FCC requirements), 700MHz, Cellular and PCS spectrum combined...for all carriers...and nearly as much as all of the above plus AWS. To put things into perspective, Clearwire, which says it has a lot of spectrum (it does), has less spectrum than what's available in just the PCS band.
eke8
join:2012-09-27
Pompano Beach, FL

eke8 to GeekInfoNow

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Could someone provide the general direction their receiver (satellite dish) is facing? I'm trying to determine the location of the towers and if I'm in the line of sight for their service. I have a very tall roof, but only have 1 clear area for mounting...the front of the house . I have a high screened in pool area that is attached to the eaves in the back, so i'd have to do some sort of mount/bracket to attached the dish there.

GeekInfoNow
join:2012-07-25

GeekInfoNow

Member

I canceled them. They came and picked up their equipment from me. Since my last post I had the tech come out twice to the house. The ping and lag was crazy and I wasnt getting the speeds that would beat my current provider. I also couldnt get my router to clone their router so that wasnt good for me. I think they need to do a few things to fix their service(IMO).

1. Let us use our own router. You shouldnt have to reconfigure your home network to use their service

2. When they do an install they should explain how they are setting you up and what they are doing. Ex. I have to mount this dish on top of your roof and not on the side of it like your directtv.

3. Vonage (or any voip) wont wok with it. I dont know if its possible for them to make it compatible but it would be nice

I told the techs that came out to leave the box outside the house just in case i wanted them back once they get some things worked out. Overall their customer service was great. They log your calls and emails are sent out when you do call them so thats a plus.

TopCoder
@ncci.com

TopCoder

Anon

I got it installed a few days ago, installation time is long takes pretty much all day. But my home is a little tricky.

The speed hardwired is about 68mb download, upload is always around 3.3.

Through the wifi it's about 30ish download (limitation of the wireless router perhaps?)

It went out one time for like 30 seconds, then everything was back to normal.

It's light years better then bellsouth/att DSL.

The cable modem box runs very hot..

They *sales* guy kept pitching that they are going to 100 mb soon. It will require an equipment change, but it's on the way.

They *sales* guy said the rates are locked 4 life, I'm sure that's far from the truth.

I been playing some online games and haven't had an issue.

I have directv and on demand was horrible with bellsouth dsl, with this, I can instantly watch on-demand movies and shows. That's a big plus.