Signal Strength - Ais Aircard

[patongphil]

I have an AIS aircard but the signal strength in the village does not allow for connection. I have heard you can put together an extension aerial which would allow for my aircard to be remote from my laptop and increase signal strength.

My mobile phone works fine in the same place for internt albeit a bit slow.

It is not an issue with the SIM cards as I have changed them over and the problem remains - phone connects but Aircard does not.

Any advice appreciated as to how I can increase signal strength to the laptop!!!

[ThaiLife]

Hi

As I live in a general poor radio signal reception area I have been trying out different methods to obtain a better signal on my USB aircard . My USB aircard ( some call them USB modems or dongles ) has all the current Thai 3G frequencies -

True / Dtac / CAT - 850Mhz

AIS 900Mhz

TOT 2100MHz

and a socket to receive an external antenna shown here

and this is the type of 3G antenna the USB modems connects to

Without the external antenna connected the signal reception is poor , with an antenna connected this is the type of speeds I'm getting ( showing my CAT 3G connection )

if your USB aircard does not have an external antenna socket on it , its still possible to connect an external antenna using a passive antenna adapter shown here

I have used the passive external antenna adapter with success ( not as good as a direct external antenna connection , but better than no external antenna connection )

The next method ive used is to mount my USB modem on a pole , on my roof and use a USB self powered extension cable , then just plug the extension directly into the computer USB port , this is the USB extension cable I purchased

bought from a local IT store .

the results were a little better than using a external antenna passive adapter .

The best results I got using the USB self powered extension cable , were when I mounted my USB modem on a parabolic home made dish .

Currently I'm using a modified cheap roof mounted TV antenna , and get very reasonable 3G results

this is the TV antenna

if you need any more info , let me know

[lomatopo]

Thanks ThaiLife.

We can probably pick out your home on Google Earth, just from all the antennae.

[TwentyBaht]

thailife,

Yes, thanks very much for posting this. Very impresssive antenna work. I'm intrigued by the parabolic on the tv antenna. You certainly have done a great deal of empirical work with this. Haven't seen it anywhere else. And, I'm interested because I just bought my first USB aircard (Huawei E182e) to experiment with.

Cheers

[Latis]

Wondering if anyone can help me and not sure if this is the right place to post my question. I have a MacBook Air laptop running 10.7 Lion operating system. I live in Suan Plue, Bangkok. I need internet connection and the building I am in cannot provide a connection. I went to AID and they sold me a Pocket Wifi for 3,900 Baht and a monthly package but the connection was soooo slow. I went back to AIS four days ago and another person sold me a USB air card Double-Surf 3G 7.2Mbps with an AIS/TOT simm. 350 Baht of prepaid simm lasted two days. I went back to AIS yesterday and they sold me another package which is AIS 3G using the USB air card. The service of AIS in Suan Plue, Sathorn is terrible and it now takes more than 30 seconds to load a web page. 10 minutes to send a 2MB large attachment to an email. My question is how can i get a TOT service as they have much better coverage for my soi. Do I have to buy another air card and how can I get TOT wifi service? I went to True and they said that their service does not support Mac 10.7 operating system. HELP as I am a techno nerd paying a lot for these air cards.

[lomatopo]

My first piece of advice would be to stop buying stuff for a while, at least until we figure out what might work for you.

First please identify the make/model number of your "pocket WiFi" device, and your Double-surf aircard.

Second, have you ever used 3G before, or is this your first attempt?

Third, does the network device (either/both) seem to start with your MAC? Can you share any details re: the connection?

Fourth, how many SIMs do you now have? Share as much information as possible, and what plans have you subscribed to so far?

Looking at the AIS website I think I see the units you have purchased...

http://www.ais.co.th...ternet/aircard/

The Pocket Wifi device creates a WiFi hotspot using 3G for internet connectivity, then you have to connect to that via WiFi. It looks like the promotional package may limit speeds to 1 Mbps?

In theory AIS has 3G coverage in your area, and so does TOT. You may be able to roam onto TOT, at least you're supposed to eb able to do that. Both devices appear to support 900 Mhz 3G (AIS) and 2100 Mhz 3G (TOT).

Unless there is some unique issue with your location, or a configuration issue with the MAC, or a problem with your account(s) you should be getting decent 3G speeds.

I think the double surf USB card is a branded Huawei E173, and I think the Pocket WiFi device may be a branded Huawei E585u-82 (which might work with DTAC/Happy and TrueMove H, as it looks like it also supports 850 Mhz 3G, but not certain on this aspect.

edited to add: I guess I might take both devices back to the AIS shop and have them verify they work as expected. You could buy a TOT SIM.

And, always buy a volume-based data plan rather than a time-based one.

Edited February 17, 2012 by lomatopo