Topic: OSX:issues w/AirportExtreme & Hawking HAWNU2 speed/drops 2.4GHZ interference?

[ArchivalAudio]

Hey (this is lengthy)
So for past few months I have been using a Hawking HAWNU2 http://www.hawkingtech.com/support/details.php?CatID=32&FamID=60&ProdID=409#Images
in conjunction with my Apple Aiprport Extreme : http://www.apple.com/airportextreme/specs.html
the Hawking USB antenna is plugged into my  June 2010 21" iMac
I am running in 2.4ghz n network as the hawking only supports 2.4 n and not 5ghz n  also as 2.4 g penetrates surfaces better- I thought this was fine.
however I am using this to get signal from my house to my detached garage (man cave) which is about 60- 70' behind our house
I have had a good line of site from the antenna placed in a window - aiming it at the place in the house (right behind the wall- in a closet) where the Airport sits.

I have been able to run bit torrents as well as stream movies on netflix however recently in the past few weeks- I have had multiple repeated dropouts time outs and generally very slow connections
where I need to restart all the devices
including our netgear (charter provided) Cable modem/wireless router (Netgear CG814WG) sometimes even my iMac and force quitting firefox
could this be due to now there are leaves on the trees between the house and garage?

the weird thing is that often when I can not load a new web page in Firefox or run a speed test
Transmission is still connected and running.


I am contemplating - ONCE AGAIN- running Ethernet CAT 6 with surge suppressors  out to the garage - buried in a conduit pipe- sort of my last resort but then at least I can eliminate the hawking antenna and run 5ghz

also contemplating getting rid of the old netgear modem/router and getting one of the newer DOCSIS 2.0  or even a DOCSIS 3.0  modem
any ideas or suggestion

My wife and I enjoy streaming netflix out in my media room (the garage)
we have no cable - only internet via charter the crappy old net gear is  "rented" at $9.99 month and I figure I can get a new modem and then bump our internet speed package to the next faster level for the same price we pay for both now, which my help.
http://www.charter.com/internet  we now have "express" but could move to "plus"


any way
I am frustrated as is my wife when we sit down to watch an episode of That 70's Show - or Weeds or Scrubs- etc... and it will start then stop and need to reload for sometime as many as 10 minutes... grrr
worked just fine a few months ago...

thanx
--Ian

[ArchivalAudio]

So here are my results since 7/31/2010 on Speedtest . net
you will notice that my spped slowed signaifantly sicne after April 30th 2011

TEST_DATE     TIME_ZONE   DOWNLOAd UPLOAD   LATENCY   SERVER DISTANCE
2010-07-31 12:49 AM   PDT   10.99   1.04   20   Grants Pass, OR   50
2010-08-15 11:40 AM   PDT   10.62   1.00   19   Grants Pass, OR   50
2010-12-03 8:11  AM   PST   6.55   1.02   50   Grants Pass, OR   50
2010-12-04 10:20 PM   PST   6.26   1.02   57   Grants Pass, OR   50
2010-12-04 10:21 PM   PST   11.19   1.04   36   Roseburg, OR   50
2010-12-04 10:22 PM   PST   10.55   0.97   29   Coos Bay, OR   100
2010-12-06 12:10 AM   PST   6.40   0.35   411   Grants Pass, OR   50
2010-12-06 12:11 AM   PST   7.57   0.33   196   Roseburg, OR   50
2010-12-07 9:39 AM   PST   9.88   0.59   36   Roseburg, OR   50
2010-12-07 9:40 AM   PST   2.24   0.63   51   Grants Pass, OR   50
2010-12-10 11:08 PM   PST   5.25   0.79   358   Roseburg, OR   50
2010-12-10 11:10 PM   PST   5.89   0.80   49   Grants Pass, OR   50
2010-12-15 1:11 AM   PST   4.39   0.48   120   Grants Pass, OR   50
2010-12-15 10:52 AM   PST   2.62   1.03   46   Grants Pass, OR   50
2010-12-15 10:53 AM   PST   3.42   0.97   36   Roseburg, OR   50
2010-12-26 9:40 PM   PST   3.58   0.29   720   Grants Pass, OR   50
2010-12-26 10:02 PM   PST   4.37   0.66   34   Roseburg, OR   50
2011-01-09 3:35 PM   PST   6.68   0.87   44   Medford, OR   0
2011-01-09 3:36 PM   PST   4.44   0.98   37   Roseburg, OR   50
2011-01-09 3:42 PM   PST   8.36   1.05   42   Grants Pass, OR   50
2011-01-10 4:12 PM   PST   6.33   1.06   47   Grants Pass, OR   50
2011-01-10 4:13 PM   PST   9.53   1.05   42   Medford, OR   0
2011-01-10 4:15 PM   PST   6.00   0.94   30   Coos Bay, OR   100
2011-01-17 1:47 AM   PST   6.52   0.97   36   Roseburg, OR   50
2011-01-30 10:37 PM   PST   8.92   1.05   28   Roseburg, OR   50
2011-02-20 5:56 PM   PST   4.99   1.05   41   Grants Pass, OR   50
2011-02-20 5:58 PM   PST   4.85   1.05   39   Medford, OR   0
2011-02-20 5:59 PM   PST   10.18   1.05   32   Roseburg, OR   50
2011-03-21 1:27 AM   PDT   2.97   0.90   48   Medford, OR   0
2011-03-21 1:29 AM   PDT   5.53   0.95   34   Roseburg, OR   50
2011-04-05 12:37 AM   PDT   8.44   0.87   41   Grants Pass, OR   50
2011-04-30 10:41 PM   PDT   6.40   0.99   27   Roseburg, OR   50
2011-04-30 10:44 PM   PDT   9.05   0.89   28   Roseburg, OR   50
2011-05-06 12:49 AM   PDT   0.07   1.06   33   Roseburg, OR   50
2011-05-06 11:36 AM   PDT   0.34   1.04   88   Klamath Falls, OR   50
2011-05-14 4:17 PM   PDT   0.21   0.97   30   Klamath Falls, OR   50
2011-05-14 4:36 PM   PDT   0.11   0.96   41   Medford, OR   0
2011-05-14 5:31 PM   PDT   2.67   0.70   44   Medford, OR   0
2011-05-14 8:35 PM   PDT   0.24   1.05   29   Roseburg, OR   50
2011-05-14 8:38 PM   PDT   0.68   1.05   36   Klamath Falls, OR   50
2011-05-15 1:55 AM   PDT   0.36   1.03   30   Klamath Falls, OR   50
2011-05-15 1:59 AM   PDT   0.43   1.05   30   Klamath Falls, OR   50
2011-05-15 2:00 AM   PDT   0.44   1.05   27   Roseburg, OR   50
2011-05-15 2:03 AM   PDT   0.78   1.03   69   Corvallis, OR   150
2011-05-15 2:04 AM   PDT   0.60   0.96   72   Corvallis, OR   150
2011-05-15 10:30 AM   PDT   1.03   0.61   41   Medford, OR   0

you'll see that on 4/30 in green my speeds were not bad, but on 5/6 they slowed to a crawl....

really could the apple tree leaves be causing this?
or is some other crazy charter (aka ComCrap) thing?
already replaced all of our coax in the house with quad shielded RG6  with gold end connectors.
any thing else I can do?

thanx
--Ian

[scb]

call your provider

[acidjack]

I bet they are imposing some kind of speed limit on you b/c of the high levels of bittorrent activity.  But that's just a guess.  It doesn't sound like it's your gear to me.  IME when something is wrong with the Airport products, they just die completely 

[ArchivalAudio]

thanx
we have called charter and they did come out 2x once with a charter guy and once with a contracted "decibels" guy, both measured line noise- the contractor did a better job, which is why I replaced my house coax - we had some old style bad cable not meant for broadband with a splitter even on it.  we were getting multiple loss of signal - and we would need to power cycle the netgear modem/router around December- and this was multiple times in a day
now from outside to inside is only one quad core cable as noted above.


the thing I wonder about my  set up is that:  the crappy net gear modem/ router combo - my wife uses as her network in the house, and the speeds in the house have always been significantly faster, and remain so even now.

I can call Charter once again, however I doubt they will be of any help


--Ian

[scb]

your upload speeds seem to be the same, but your download speed looks capped

[ArchivalAudio]

ok well
so I just did a speakeasy speed test out here in the garage  I got like a 1.67 DL as compared to inside the house on  my wife's macbook 5.67 dl
it would seem like I was capped buy my wife's speeds are consistent with what I used to get before the leaves on the apple and Japanese maple filled in so much...
I understood that 2.4ghz is better at penetrating surfaces, but can the leaves be causing reflections? and therefore interference?

[DigiGal]

Best to just go ahead and run the CAT6 cable out to the garage.  Wired connection would be more reliable for you all the way around.

Good Luck!

[ArchivalAudio]

Best to just go ahead and run the CAT6 cable out to the garage.  Wired connection would be more reliable for you all the way around.

Good Luck!

That was my original thought - however I dreaded digging a ditch under concrete sidewalks form the previous owner.  Also besides a surge suppressor (lightning arrester) - can anyone recommend a inexpensive one for CAT6? - what else would I need to be careful of?

I would still end up using my airport extreme in the garage- as I have my ports forwarded and like the ability  to do so and have a general wireless set up.

thanx
--Ian

[DigiGal]

Here is one from Tripp Lite Model DNET1, this link is to Amazon but my local Computer & Electronic Parts Store stocked them.





Another one by APC Model PNET1GB

[ArchivalAudio]

Here is one from Tripp Lite Model DNET1, this link is to Amazon but my local Computer & Electronic Parts Store stocked them.





Another one by APC Model PNET1GB

yep thanx - I think I ran across at least the APC one
this should help
is there any value or should I have one of these on each end- at each building?

[DigiGal]

APC's PNET1GB Product Documentation Can Be Found Here...

[BJ]

I have been able to run bit torrents as well as stream movies on netflix however recently in the past few weeks- I have had multiple repeated dropouts time outs and generally very slow connections
where I need to restart all the devices
including our netgear (charter provided) Cable modem/wireless router (Netgear CG814WG) sometimes even my iMac and force quitting firefox

--Ian

can you wife, on her macbook inside, still connect and browse the internet inside in the cases where a reboot is needed on your imac?

do you have the same wireless setup[ssid, key, etc] on each(netgear, airport) and one act as dhcp, the other relay?  or are both independent wireless hotspots/lans?

this is very interesting to me, as I have an airport also, with an old dsl modem...and i have the same problems, usually(90%) when i am running netflix...  i have just dealt with it.  what is very puzzling is, i have tried both wireless and wired connection to the airport, with same results.  AT&T says the connection is fine, and the modem(how they know i have know clue) is working properly...which leaves only the airport extreme as the problem.  I have 3x windows 7 comps[1 wired, 2 wireless], 1 macbook pro, android tab and ipad....its not related to any device...its the connection to the internet that dies....im still connected ot the airport fine(strong signal via wireless), but i have to reboot BOTH the aiport AND the modem to get it working again.

[ArchivalAudio]

I have been able to run bit torrents as well as stream movies on netflix however recently in the past few weeks- I have had multiple repeated dropouts time outs and generally very slow connections
where I need to restart all the devices
including our netgear (charter provided) Cable modem/wireless router (Netgear CG814WG) sometimes even my iMac and force quitting firefox

--Ian

can you wife, on her macbook inside, still connect and browse the internet inside in the cases where a reboot is needed on your imac?

do you have the same wireless setup[ssid, key, etc] on each(netgear, airport) and one act as dhcp, the other relay?  or are both independent wireless hotspots/lans?

this is very interesting to me, as I have an airport also, with an old dsl modem...and i have the same problems, usually(90%) when i am running netflix...  i have just dealt with it.  what is very puzzling is, i have tried both wireless and wired connection to the airport, with same results.  AT&T says the connection is fine, and the modem(how they know i have know clue) is working properly...which leaves only the airport extreme as the problem.  I have 3x windows 7 comps[1 wired, 2 wireless], 1 macbook pro, android tab and ipad....its not related to any device...its the connection to the internet that dies....im still connected ot the airport fine(strong signal via wireless), but i have to reboot BOTH the aiport AND the modem to get it working again.

Ok so I think I understand your questions but may be over my head...
so here goes with what I can answer:I think we have  different SSID's but I'm not sure- they are separate networks with different MAC addresses- obviously.
So as an example We have different IPV4 addresses mine is 192.168.0.12 and wife's is 192.168.0.10
the router number is th esame on both 192.168.0.1 but my airport uses the 10.0.1.2 and 10.0.1.1 scheme

as far as if my wife's macbook  can connect when I restart my computer of Firefox, I believe so, but have not tried that. I do know that I usually just start at the shouce, by restaring (powercycling) the Netgear modem/wireless router, by unplugging it for a few minutes. - well not exactly often I quit the hawking HAWNU2 wireless utility, and restart that - sometimes that fixes my lazy connection issue- which may be I can not connect via safari or firefox to the internet, however I may still be connected uploading bitotrrents via my client Transmission.
sometimes I just change the  DHCP lease time from say 5 days to 4 days or vice versa, on the Airport and then update (restart) the Airport
if the two back end of the chain don't work then I go back to restarting the netgear device.


however I think my speeds are issues are really due to leaves on the trees coming in full thus causing reflections and interference at leat that's my hypothesis.

I did talk to a buddy that has a lightning quick fiber optic connection and he mentioned that netflix has issues of needing to reload often - he feels its on their end server or streaming  issues or the like.

don't know if that helps you or I answered your questions or not
but there you go
--Ian

[ArchivalAudio]

APC's PNET1GB Product Documentation Can Be Found Here...

Thanx DigiGal
You Rock!

I'm leaning toward this one- may be two for safety measures - one at each end of the house/garage.