Unsatisfied with the U720 Booster Antenna

donbaloo · EVDO User Joined: 12 Jul 2007 Posts: 27

Greetings everyone. Just received my booster antenna for my U720 modem and I have to say that I was very skeptical upon opening the package. Seems very flimsy and cheap. After attaching it to the modem I saw no improvement in signal or down/up speeds. If anything my performance tends to decrease with it attached. So I have a few questions:

1) I want to make sure I'm doing things properly first. To my knowledge, using the antenna is as simple as plugging it into the external port on the modem correct? One wire and then just put the antenna in a good place, right?

2) Is it possible that the booster antenna is actually faulty? There doesn't seem to be too much to these things that could go wrong, so just wondering.

3) Anyone want to suggest an alternate antenna solution?

My setup:
I'm in a fringe area and I get a good bit of signal fluctuation, typically -106 to -86. Typically I connect at about -90 to -95. Down/Up usually runs at around 500/75 but its not uncommon to get a 750/100 for a decent duration. Outside my house and I can usually pull about a -83 and of course still have the broad signal swings.

I should say, I've never had highspeed internet as we're very rural. I've been running on 26K dialup for years so even getting a 500kbps is a godsend. So I'm happy with the signal and download when its around those numbers. I'd just like to stabilize that signal because occasionally I drop my connection when it bottoms out at -106. Any advice would be appreciated, thanks!

Alex · Site Admin Joined: 19 Sep 2006 Posts: 1945

let me ask some obvious questions.

when you check for rssi, are you moving data?
i always suggest to customers, to do a consistent thing like a speedtest, during which they record the rssi.

using this method, what is rssi and resulting speeds with and without antenna, from inside and from outside the house?

donbaloo · EVDO User Joined: 12 Jul 2007 Posts: 27

Inside the house, without antenna, the RSSI while running a speedtest is about -93 or -94. But like I said, it fluctuates quite a bit so its not uncommon for me, during the course of the speedtest to jump around between -91 and -96. I will sometimes rest easy on a -88 signal, those are good times. Smile

With the antenna I tend to see a 1 or 2 dB drop. But sometimes it stays the same as without the antenna. Its really hard to determine exactly what is attributable to the antenna and what is just the natural signal drop. I think short of doing about 50 tests its gonna be hard to really get a good feel for what's happening. In the dozen or so tests I've done I haven't seen the antenna increase my signal or download speed any, but I have seen a couple very slight decreases.

Its gonna be hard to do the outside testing as it requires my wife to bring home her work laptop whose battery doesn't work so I have to run a dropcord outside for the power. Its a major pain in the butt all the way around. Although I did do the testing outside that you asked me to do back when we first started talking about what I might need. I really don't want to have to go through all of that again though. Smile

kalen43 · EVDO Heavy User Joined: 30 Apr 2007 Posts: 130

I got the booster antenna for the 595U and had the same results. It and the 595U are in the window facing the tower and noise level and data speeds are pretty much the same. Really disappointed.

mooch · Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2007 1:30 pm Post subject:

kalen43 · EVDO Heavy User Joined: 30 Apr 2007 Posts: 130

unfortunately not. I was still playing with it at the 14 day point.
I had bought it a little while before re-aranging my house and by the time everything had settled it was about 3 weeks.

earglued · EVDO Newbie Joined: 30 Apr 2007 Posts: 5

I just got my booster in the mail today. I agree that it is cheap looking and I was about to condider returning it but decided instead to hook it up.
I use a desktop in a ground floor room. When I hooked the antenna up, I went from-97 to -102 to -94 to -97 Without much change in dl speed. However I also bought the extender cable and was able to mount the antenna and position it at the window. Now I get -87 to -91 and 3-4 bars.
I also changed my HA from New York and Pa to Chicago.
I also am using OpenDNS - not much change there.
The biggest change was in the ping which went from 250 to 140.
Upload speeds are 300 and dl speeds are now consistently 1150 to 1250 kbps using speed test. Oh I also the RWIN to 128480 using TCP Optimizer.
I do not think this performance is too bad from the far East of Cleveland in a room that will not allow Sprint cell service without roaming. I am not roaming with the u720 and am getting Rev. A service.

Curtis II · EVDO User Joined: 24 Jun 2007 Posts: 38

When I first received and plugged in my Booster-Antena; the plug was tight, and I did not fully seat it. Once I seated the plug properly, it has worked great. Hope this helps.

Joe C · EVDO User Joined: 05 Dec 2006 Posts: 76

Bite the bullet and get the Wilson trucker "omni" antenna from 3GStore. My EVDO signal at my home went from -106 and not connecting to -87 with just the omni antenna properly mounted on the roof of my house. I also now run a Wilson amplifier which dropped my signal to a pretty constant -81.

Placement of any antenna is very important, but honestly, I would just get a nice omni antenna and mount it on your roof. This should take care of all your problems.

donbaloo · EVDO User Joined: 12 Jul 2007 Posts: 27

Had the chance to run some tests this morning. I've pretty much narrowed down the absolute best location for the antenna within the cable's radius. I was using the speedtests from speedtest.net and took two signal readings, one at the halfway point of the download and one at the halfway of the upload. Tests were taken back to back in quick succession (actually took about 10 minutes total). Here is what I saw:

-dB at DL, -dB at UL (Download/Upload)

With Antenna
-85,-85 (847kbps/74kbps)
-87,-87 (512/73)
-84,-85 (510/83)
-85,-87 (480/75)
-89,-89 (439/6 Cool

-91,-88 (413/64)

Without Antenna
-87,-86 (469/133)
-87,-87 (479/87)
-89,-88 (517/97)
-87,-87 (535/72)
-86,-86 (710,92)

At that point I was beginning to see slight improvements in signal and nice increases in down/up speeds, so I switched back to the antenna to see if it was getting the same thing:

With Antenna
-87,-88 (671,242)
-87,-88 (796, 210
-88,-88 (816, 215)

At this point some weird stuff started happening. My signal remained steady, never really got worse than a -89, but the test started hanging. I had signal but the the test would start and then drop way down to like 26kbps and acted like it was unable to finish the test. I tried browsing to some other pages and response time was very very sluggish. Back to speedtest.net and still was getting the slow page load and very slow testing results....so slow it just couldn't complete them. I took the antenna off again to see if it cleared up and it didn't.

It was time for work at that point so I had to leave it for the time being. But I just thought I'd share those results.

donbaloo · EVDO User Joined: 12 Jul 2007 Posts: 27

I don't see how to edit in these forums, but obviously the "cool smily" errata above was suppose to read " (439/68 )".

Anyway, a few points I want to comment on from some posts above. First off I've noticed my antenna cable feeling loose at the connection point on the modem. From the time I first plugged it in I thought, wow, its hard to tell if that's plugged in or not. I always take care to ensure that its as far down as it'll go without pressing too hard on it. Even so....its loose enough that if I move the modem any its not uncommon for the antenna plug to disengage on its own. Its that loose. Normal?

I've also wondered if the extension cable might help find a better location for the antenna. Before arranging the computer in the setup its in now I determined that the current location of the modem is the best signal in the room, but perhaps if I could get the antenna higher or lower it would work even better. I don't know.

I've definately considered the Wilson antenna. Anyone want to offer their experience with the Wilson and the U720?

Alex · Site Admin Joined: 19 Sep 2006 Posts: 1945

donbaloo · EVDO User Joined: 12 Jul 2007 Posts: 27

Hey Alex, well I have to say that's pretty good service! I can't promise anything in regards to the video. The only thing I have that'll do video is the digital camera and its tough to get good footage. I'll give it a shot though.

donbaloo · EVDO User Joined: 12 Jul 2007 Posts: 27

Hey, received the new cable today Alex, thanks! I had the chance to connect it at lunch to test the fit. Its certainly much snugger than the original cable and when I first opened the computer I was showing a signal of -65 dB which I've never seen before. Unfortunately upon connecting it dropped dramatically to -75 and continued to slowly climb until it leveled out around the mid 80s.

I want to point out something else though, since I came on here bringing an unsatisfactory judgement upon the antenna. After much experimentation since my original post in this thread I am seeing improvements with the antenna connected. But, it may just be because with the extra cable length I have the ability to place the antenna in places that the modem will not reach. Either way, its pulling me a better signal than I can get with the modem alone. I have ran any more back to back tests to determine just how much help its providing but I do know that in times of peak usage I very nearly can't even get connected without the antenna. Again, whether a simple usb extension cable to the modem could provide the same thing, I don't know. But the setup, as is now, is helping me. The booster is currently suction cupped to the window...about 2 further away that I can reach with the modem alone.

Just thought I'd update. Regardless, that new cable is nice though because now if move the modem over a little the cable won't become loose. Thanks for that fix Alex!