I have recently purchased a WIXB-175 with the "Premium" plan and have been trying to do some research on the in and outs of Clear.
First lets get the boring shit out of the way. A little background on me and my current situation. I have an absolute zero tolerance for outages or anything less than at least 6Mbps consistently. I had TW with a 25Mbps connection for 5 years, but moving into a new house put an end to that. Where I am currently the only copper/fiber available is AT&T 6Mbps. I left them because of throttling/capping and outages which I why I looked into Clear. I have come across a myriad of responses in regard to Clear service or really the lack thereof. Most of the negatives I chalk up to uninformed individuals quick to down an ISP. I do, however have some concerns of my own as well as looking for INFORMED reports of continued Clear service.
First, obviously, is data capping. I read everywhere the Clear is completely un-capped. I am what I consider an extreme user where it honestly isn't hard for me to blast 100GB a month on average. Is it true that they will not cap you no matter what? I've read a few post of "red flagged" modems where if you pull a certain amount of bandwidth over a certain period of time they will cap you to unusable speeds. Looking for a little insight on this.
This is where I start to get fairly worried, and start to realize I should have done my research before the purchase. Oh well..
The signal inside my house is far less than pleasing. The closest tower is ~5500ft away from my dwelling in a nLOS setting. It would be LOS if it weren't for all the vegetation. No buildings, just trees. In the best spot I, on average, get inside is around -89 to -81 RSSI and 9 to 11 CINR. Outside on the roof, I can get -73 to -65 RSSI and 17 to 20 CINR. I have yet to receive my modem and am testing on my Centrino 6250 notebook. Hopefully the modem is a little more sensitive. Regardless I plan on purchasing an outdoor antenna since, from what I read, my outdoor signal is decent/quite good. This is where the majority of my questions come from.
Grid vs. Panel. I see that the highest(not necessarily best I realize) gain is going to be from a grid antenna. I also read that this type has some significant drawbacks for someone in a nLOS setting. Also that the front to back ratio is not as high as a panel. From what I understand, front to back ratio is basically how much signal behind the antenna is lost. I don't know how much that matters in my situation since there is one tower ~5500ft due east and one ~8000ft due north.
Type of cable used. I see mostly on this site that anything other than LMR-400 is frowned upon. This I don't quite understand. What I do understand is that LMR-400 is specifically built for wireless high frequency applications. I also understand that as freq. goes up so does signal degradation over span. I know that RG-6 is swept to 3Ghz. I also understand that while it may be swept that high, its performance at the frequency my not be ideal. I also understand the resistance difference between the two. Im looking at maybe at most a 40ft span on the extreme, most likely 25-30 ft. I know it is possible to get successful real world results while using RG-6 instead if LMR-400. I also know that there are zero upsides to using RG-6 aside from price and maybe flexibility. My questions are that given my situation, is it going to be necessary to use the much higher priced LMR-400? I understand the e-diaging something is near impossible, just looking for some recommendations. My main concerns lie with the resistance difference as this may cause my equipment damage, correct?
Im mainly looking for average results here, as I know that determining ones actual results without a site survey is impossible. What do you guys see on average between Grid vs Panel, LMR-400 vs RG-6 or the like? Recommendations on setup given my metrics? Advice?
Thanks in advance for reading my novel. Appreciate any advice/recommendations.
First lets get the boring shit out of the way. A little background on me and my current situation. I have an absolute zero tolerance for outages or anything less than at least 6Mbps consistently. I had TW with a 25Mbps connection for 5 years, but moving into a new house put an end to that. Where I am currently the only copper/fiber available is AT&T 6Mbps. I left them because of throttling/capping and outages which I why I looked into Clear. I have come across a myriad of responses in regard to Clear service or really the lack thereof. Most of the negatives I chalk up to uninformed individuals quick to down an ISP. I do, however have some concerns of my own as well as looking for INFORMED reports of continued Clear service.
First, obviously, is data capping. I read everywhere the Clear is completely un-capped. I am what I consider an extreme user where it honestly isn't hard for me to blast 100GB a month on average. Is it true that they will not cap you no matter what? I've read a few post of "red flagged" modems where if you pull a certain amount of bandwidth over a certain period of time they will cap you to unusable speeds. Looking for a little insight on this.
This is where I start to get fairly worried, and start to realize I should have done my research before the purchase. Oh well..
The signal inside my house is far less than pleasing. The closest tower is ~5500ft away from my dwelling in a nLOS setting. It would be LOS if it weren't for all the vegetation. No buildings, just trees. In the best spot I, on average, get inside is around -89 to -81 RSSI and 9 to 11 CINR. Outside on the roof, I can get -73 to -65 RSSI and 17 to 20 CINR. I have yet to receive my modem and am testing on my Centrino 6250 notebook. Hopefully the modem is a little more sensitive. Regardless I plan on purchasing an outdoor antenna since, from what I read, my outdoor signal is decent/quite good. This is where the majority of my questions come from.
Grid vs. Panel. I see that the highest(not necessarily best I realize) gain is going to be from a grid antenna. I also read that this type has some significant drawbacks for someone in a nLOS setting. Also that the front to back ratio is not as high as a panel. From what I understand, front to back ratio is basically how much signal behind the antenna is lost. I don't know how much that matters in my situation since there is one tower ~5500ft due east and one ~8000ft due north.
Type of cable used. I see mostly on this site that anything other than LMR-400 is frowned upon. This I don't quite understand. What I do understand is that LMR-400 is specifically built for wireless high frequency applications. I also understand that as freq. goes up so does signal degradation over span. I know that RG-6 is swept to 3Ghz. I also understand that while it may be swept that high, its performance at the frequency my not be ideal. I also understand the resistance difference between the two. Im looking at maybe at most a 40ft span on the extreme, most likely 25-30 ft. I know it is possible to get successful real world results while using RG-6 instead if LMR-400. I also know that there are zero upsides to using RG-6 aside from price and maybe flexibility. My questions are that given my situation, is it going to be necessary to use the much higher priced LMR-400? I understand the e-diaging something is near impossible, just looking for some recommendations. My main concerns lie with the resistance difference as this may cause my equipment damage, correct?
Im mainly looking for average results here, as I know that determining ones actual results without a site survey is impossible. What do you guys see on average between Grid vs Panel, LMR-400 vs RG-6 or the like? Recommendations on setup given my metrics? Advice?
Thanks in advance for reading my novel. Appreciate any advice/recommendations.
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