Warning: This is a long and boring post. 😀
After moving here in Batangas, one of the first things we have to acquire is internet connection. We have some choices: Globe wireless and Smart Bro canopy. We opt to use Smart Bro since some residents here told us that Globe is slow and intermittent.
We had our Smart Bro connection installed last February 25. Connection was fast. But we had a problem since that day. It was fast, but connection was intermittent. It got disconnected at least twice every hour. This is the reason why I always got disconnected while chatting with some of you. It gets disconnected, and goes back after about 1 minute.
I’ve let it that way hoping that it will fix itself for 3 days. After seeing no improvement, I called Smart Bro hotline and informed them of the problem. They checked their logs and then told me that there was a report that the base station where my Smart Bro is connecting has problems. They told me to wait for 24 hours and call them again if the problem persists.
I called again after 24 hours. They told me to wait for another 24 hours since they are still fixing their base station. They said that they are going to replace some hardware on their base station. So, I waited for another 24 hours.
The next day, they told me that their base station is now OK. BUT, I still have that intermittent connection. Hmm. Then, they told me to remove the router and see if it’s the one causing the problem. After removing the router, intermittent connection persisted.
I called again the other day. Told them I still have the problem. They again checked their logs, asked for my IP address and mac address. They found out that my connection got disconnected when their base station got congested. They said that congestion happens, and they can’t do anything about it. I was like, WTH! You mean I have to pay you Php 999/month for this intermittent connection and you can’t do anything about it??? Why do you accept new users even if your base station is already congested?? The agent put me on hold and told me he still needs to check some logs, and then after a few minutes, my call was disconnected, I don’t know why.
I redialled. They can’t just leave me like that. Another agent answered. I need to tell him the whole story again. This time, this agent has another idea to solve my problem: rehoming. I asked, “What is rehoming?” He told me that it is changing base station where I connect to. I said, OK. He made a report and recommended rehoming as a solution.
The next day, I followed up thru Twitter at Smartcares. They took my account number and told me to wait a few days for someone is going to call me for rehoming schedule. The next day again, someone called. They scheduled the rehoming on March 10. That date is yesterday. So, what happened?
Smart Bro contractor came. They are the same people who installed the canopy here. I told them my problem and the rehoming solution. And then, they told me that there is no other base station available on our area. There is only one base station here. Nothing more. WTH! So, how could we change base station if there’s no other base station available? Then, they told me other subscribers here doesn’t have a problem. So, I asked them, what’s the difference then? Why is my connection intermittent and their connection stable? Then they told me they might be using a different AP. AP? What’s AP? Access Point. Ok. So, your base station have many APs? Yes. Ok, change my AP to the same AP they are connecting to. Then, they scanned the canopy settings to change the AP. There are 3 APs detected. But only one has an acceptable jitter. What is jitter? That’s interference. The lower the jitter, the better the connection. Ok. The current AP I’m using has a jitter of 1. The other two have jitters higher than 10. Which means that I cannot change my AP. Then I told them, can you adjust the canopy outside? Maybe, we can lower other AP’s jitter by moving the canopy. They agreed. They adjusted it, but they can’t get an acceptable jitter on other APs. They said that jitter must only be between 0 to 4 to have a decent connection.
Then, they found something uncommon on my connection. It gets disconnected and started scanning for connection on its own from time to time. They thought the canopy itself is defective, so, they decided to change it. After changing the canopy, they reconfigured it. But we still connected to the same AP since other APs have high jitters. Then, they thought, everything is OK now. I told them to wait for a while to make sure that everything is really OK. After around 15 minutes, the line gets disconnected again!
Then, they gave up. They told me there’s nothing more they can do. They already changed the canopy, it is still intermittent. They already moved the canopy to get other access point, but they can’t get a lower jitter for other APs. They told me they can’t do anything about it. All I can do is to tell Smart Bro to fix my current access point since it is congested. The other guy suggested to call the hotline again and ask them to send other contractors for second opinion. But as far as they are concern, they cannot do anything more to fix my intermittent connection. I just said, OK. If I can’t get this fixed, I’m going to have this s#it disconnected totally and I will not pay any pre-termination fee since I can’t get the quality of service they promised. So, they went and left me disappointed.
Then, I went back to my laptop. I’ve seen all the troubleshooting they did. I saw how they changed settings. I saw how they scanned for new APs. I saw how they configured the new canopy and how they connected to the old access point. They did all the configuration on my laptop’s browser. So, I told myself, let me try it one more time. I scanned for other APs. This time, 3 APs are still detected. But the jitters of the last AP is now low. It’s between 4 to 8. Mostly showing a jitter of 5. My current AP is still 1. Ok, 4 to 8. If what’s acceptable is 0 to 4, what will happen if I use that AP with a 4 – 8 jitter? They told me it won’t work. Connection will be worse. But I tried it anyway. I changed my AP to the one with a jitter of 4 to 8, mostly 5. Rebooted the canopy. And BAM! Connection became stable. For the past 12 hours, I’ve never had a single disconnection. Update(July 30,2010) : Here’s the detailed step by step guide of what I did.
So, I decided to write this blog post and tell you my experience. My Smart Bro connection is now stable. The speed is still fast. Not getting disconnected anymore. So, it seems that a jitter of 4 to 8 is still acceptable. Although they said it will not work, it works for me. So there you go. If you have a Smart Bro Plan 999 using a canopy and is experiencing intermittent connection, ask your tech support to change your access point. Tell them that a jitter of 4 to 8 still works!
Here are some test results after switching access point.
Speedtest:
Pingtest:
That’s all.
nice. The tech who went to your place were just BOOKISH. They wouldn’t try anything just because the book said that 0-4 jitshit are the ones with better connection.
It’s really frustrating when ISPs send you contractors that are not up to the task of really solving your connection problems. That’s why when I call for an on-site technical crew, I specifically and adamantly demand that they send real engineers from Globe itself, not some contractors. No offense to them, but in my experience, they’re only good for new installations and configuring fresh modems. Beyond that, what they’d do is as good as guesswork.
how do you configure your canopy? i mean how do open the control panel of the canopy to change the settings
i haven’t called smartbro yet. but ive been having the same problem lately. i thought it was just a phase, but after more than a month it’s really bothering me now. the connection gets disconnected every 40min or so. ive had smartbro connection for more than a year now and this intermittent connection started happening just this march or april. it’s been pretty good until now. thanks for the tip.
Can you teach me how to reconfigure my can0py?I transfered to other place and i have to pay an0ther rel0cati0n fee to use it..Please..
you may want to ask SmartBro again… they made adjustments last month and I’m getting up to 2MBps on speedtest now… a couple of months ago, my speed was only 250kbps…
can you please state more about this. . . i mean what are step by step: >>>> I saw how they changed settings. I saw how they scanned for new APs. I saw how they configured the new canopy and how they connected to the old access point. They did all the configuration on my laptop’s browser.
maybe this could help me too. kasi since thursday (June 3, 2010) we cannot access the internet although we are connected to the network but there is no receive kaya laging sever not found. kapag tumawag kami sa hotline they always insisted na ok naman dun sa kanila. pero di kami talaga makapaginternet sayang naman ung binabayad namin. pero before yun intermittent din connections namin tapos yun nga bigla na lang di na nawawal ung receive. your help would be appreciated very much thanks.
@jhe : yup the connections are crazy these past few days… I had the same problem.. try this out.. go to accessories, click command prompt, you’ll see a black window…
type ipconfig
take a look at the IPv4 address ….. if it starts at 192.x.x.x then you are connected … but if it 169.x.x.x then you are disconnected…
type ipconfig /release
after the ip address has been released
type ipconfig /renew
your connection should be restored …
hope this helps…
Talisay, Batangas. i think its already exactly one year since we got our internet installed here. i started experiencing this intermittent connection for about two weeks already. its like everyday im calling to smartbro CSRs to get help regarding this problem. i made like 3-5 calls a day and stating them over and over again the same thing. Making me do so many troubleshooting and voila!!! its still the same intermittent connection i am getting. i didnt stop calling them and request for a tech visit. then imediately after 2 days, they sent me 2 techs to solve my problem. one sat in front of my pc, checked my APs, found 3 and told me that the AP i am using that time is an old one and it keeps on disconnecting me. so he made a conclusion that that AP is the root cause, so he decided to change my AP to one of the three and told me that it wouldn’t be happening anymore. so i trusted him.
and after how many minutes after they left, the intermittent connection returned proving that it really didnt solved my problem. i called so many times again and still they keep on telling me that they are really informing the base station that i am on right now. no changes and i am still getting the same thing. now worse. those first days that i got this problem, i am like being disconnected for 10 seconds twice every hour. now i am experiencing this even worse, like il be connected for 3mins and then disconnected for 2mins. on and on.. so freaking bad ever!!
solution part which i think may solve the problem, as what i have read for how many forums and threads, considering all possible things…..
******************there may be a possible obstruction along the LOS (Line of Sight) between your antenna and the base station. Probably the best answer because there might be these trees before that are not that tall enough when we have our antennas installed (thats why we were able to get a nice signal before) and those trees grew, tall enough to block our LOS right now. but AP switching might be able to solve also this problem because there may still be one of those APs that are strong enough to make it to ur antenna (im talking about the signal strength).
BOTTOM LINE is cut the trees that might be blocking the signal, or put additional height to ur antenna high enough to get a better signal.
This is only a conclusion of mine, and might be different for others.. but i will be taking this belief into application so as to prove if it would be the real solution. 2 to 5 days from now, i will be reposting here again the result if it really solved the problem.. fingers crossed… 😀
Na experienced q rin yan laging nddisconnect nung last week pa. nagpunta nga ang mga taga smart d2 at ginawa pero 1 day lng ganun na ulit. tawag ulit aq sa smart pero sinasabi na visible daw yung connection q.. pero sa umaga lng ngyayari to sakin pero sobrang bagal na ng connection q. sinu marunung d2 na mg set up ng canopy ung step by step balak q ibahin ang location ng canopy q. at ung canopy settings panu ba maoopen yun dati kc alam q ngyon hindi na ng sisimula na sa 10.xxx.xx.x . dun sa may alam post namn. thanks.
smartbro knows the problem…sino b makalaro or maka browse n every 2-3mins disconnected..im experiencing this almost a month na..wla p din nagawa..i’ve done everything from tcpoptimizer..tweaking everything dns,proxy etc…not the canopy kc d n tlga ma access
the longest im online is 20minutes..im a heavy online gamer and i cant possibly play like that
@ts ..everytime i browse for help…ito lagi lumalabas pero wla nmang na itulong..sorry
and i dont believe in LOS..its wireless yes pero that doesnt mean..straight line ang pagkuha ng signal..its just one of their excuses..mas tanggap ko pa kung “sir madami na po kc kyong na approved namin d n pla kaya ng base station”
advice ko lang sa smart broadband sana kung may problem yung site nyo dapat bawasan nyo yung bill namin like globe, basta nagkaproblem sa net mo next bill mo bawas na… and pansin ko lang sa smart bro dati hangang-hanga ako sa consistent ng signal nyo pinagmamalaki ko pa nga kayo kase although mabagal consistent naman hindi madalas ma dc, ngayon pumpilit kayo maging 2mbps, ano naman nangyari lagi naman disconnected… mas pipiliin ko n ang 512kbps kesa 2mpbs kuno kung lagi naman kami disconnected… since 2007 nako naka smart bro pero klahit masakit at napamahal na ito saken di ko na ito babayaran hahayaan ko na lang putulin nyo,…