long range routers or what else to try?

steveinspain · 23 Aug 2009 at 08:44

long range routers or what else to try? With added picture pleasure !

OK, I need help please..
I have what I guess is a slightly unusual problem.
I live in the hills in Spain, and have no landline and only just get a mobile signal. Internet is via a microwave system (Iberbanda if that makes any difference). Currently I am using my dongle, and have speeds of up to 35kb/sec - normally way less, hence me wanting to sort this out !
In order to get a signal, my aerial is 200m up the mountain, so by the time the signal reaches the house, it is very weak. If the weather is hot, I loose my signal. If the weather is bad, the same happens.
When the signal reaches the house, it goes into a box supplied by Iberbanda, then on to my router (sorry, I have no idea what the box is or does, but it has a mains input, an input from the aerial and an output to my pc)
Now I believe that if I can position this box closer to the aerial by building a tiny 'shed' halfway up the hill I may get a better signal, but am I then going to have problems with the output from my 'box' ?
Would it be a good idea to get a long range router and situate that in my 'shed' too ?
If anyone knows what my 'box' is or does, is there any way of boosting the signal in any way ?

Maybe the easiest answer is just to try, but running a mains cable up the mountain is not easy, in part as I need to go across a road, but also as the goats are likely to eat the cable !

Any ideas and help much appreciated, and sorry for not knowing what my 'box' is called...

Edit - just to add that I have a D-Link DIR 655 router - might that be up to the job of giving a decent signal from say 50 metres away, to a house with 350-400mm thick walls ?

steveinspain · 23 Aug 2009 at 21:24

Only just got back online (see how bad it is !!)
OK - JB - we have no land lines anywhere near us. I used to use my mobile but was paying 250 euros a month just to get emails, and it took forever.
ANDARIAL - what is an AP, and please tell me more about directional antennae and what sort of pci card I would need, and do you know anything about inverters and solar chargers - climbing up the mountain with a battery might be fun one time, but it is a hands and feet scrabble at the best of times (and the best of times would be when the wife is doing it...) As for anyone stealing anything - the last known robbery near us was about 18 years ago, when some hungry gypsies dug up 2 of a neighbours potato plants and took them !!
Andre - that sounds interesting too - I will try to look into it !

Thanks for the help guys - much appreciated !

steveinspain · 23 Aug 2009 at 22:54

Caged - Yup - we are in a dip, so the receiver is up there in order to 'see' the main broadcast aerial, then we run a cable down to the house.
ANDARIAL - While we do get loads of sun here, some mains powered thingie would be easiest, as sods law says we loose the sun and need internet or phone (both run via the same system) at the same time, and when the weather turns bad, it is bad for a few days, with no way or climbing up the mountain till it has dried up !

steveinspain · 24 Aug 2009 at 07:32

Caged - yes, Iberbanda's own people, Servcom installed it, but it has never worked very well, though we were the first to use the system, so I guess the signal was stronger then. As for getting help - customer service is non-existant. They shut it down for days on end without warning whenever they want to do any servicing, refuse to come out to help..
And, there is no other supplier, so no competition.
Don't know why we live here...!

I'll try to find out more about homeplugs and wireless routers and high gain antennae but am happy to be helped by anyone who can..
Cheers !

steveinspain · 24 Aug 2009 at 17:38

mattyj - I gather there is, but when I looked into it a few years ago, it cost over £2000 to install, and about £90 a month. It also had a reputation for being rather lass than reliable..
Nuff said ?

steveinspain · 25 Aug 2009 at 22:20

Ryan - yes, I could - It would make running the mains cable up a little more of a problem, as I will need to concrete some long poles into the ground to keep the mains power away from goats etc all the way up, but I guess that as I will be doing it part way it'll only take another day or two to go up to the top (you sadist you..)
One question - How can I tell what my current cable is, as it appears to have no markings on the outside - from what I am learning it is not coaxial, but some sort of cat whatever, as it has 6 cores.
Duke - I will do that, and thanks for the tip about 2 way !

steveinspain · 3 Sep 2009 at 21:14

Sorry for the delay in replying - I got banned for something silly..
Ryan111 - yes, there is 6 core cat5 cable running down from the antenna to the house - 200m roughly of the stuff.
It is a WIMAX service, as Nexy suggested. I do have clear line of sight and a pole as suggested by Caged would need to be roughly 100m long, so unlikely !

steveinspain · 5 Sep 2009 at 06:34

Not sure if these pictures will help, but this is what I have - This is the back of the antenna up the hill

This is the cable coming from it -

This is the box inside, where the cable plugs in, as does another cat5 cable and the mains power

Then we have the splitter box, which takes the cable from the first box and sends out to both my router and phone

Does that help in any way ?
As always, any replies much appreciated !

steveinspain · 6 Sep 2009 at 11:53

Thanks for the further replies guys !
OK, it is a POE setup, and there seems to be no way of connecting to the box to check signal rates. The repair guy who came seemed to think that the cable length was the problem, as his solution, after replacing every part of the chain was to cut a bit off, and move our indoor box to the closer side of the house, which did improve things very slightly, or so it seemed. I did ask about a new or better antenna, but was told that the old one actually seemed to be better than the new one.
We get no vodafone signal, so I use movistar, and despite being about 600m from one of their aerials (when is it an aerial, an antenna or whatever ?) I can only get a 3 bar signal, meaning I get up to 35Kbits a second at best, meaning it takes 5-10 seconds to open a page.
I haver emailed Tariam to see what they say, but the stumbling block might be the instalation costs - around £800 makes it worth trying anything cheaper, so my hut seems to be what to try - I may not be able to increase speeds, but if I can get a reliable connection that would be wonderful !

steveinspain · 6 Sep 2009 at 18:19

The tech was some sweaty little geezer who didn't impress me at all (he looked like he hadn't slept or washed for days, and his smell backed it up...) and as for getting them out again - I may win the lottery 3 times in a row first...
The main antenna is only half a mile away as the crow flies, and it all works ok when the weather is ok, making me lean towards shortening the cable first with my 'Hut' solution - I can see the main mast, and it does look like it is pointing the right way...
Ping tests etc do seem to say it is a very local problem, and others close by who have had similar problems have had them sorted by pulling the cables tighter to reduce the length by a metre or two !