Can a tree effect satelite internet?

[ArcticDriver]

Originally Posted By: Chris142
Originally Posted By: Carbon
Originally Posted By: Chris142


Had the repair guy out 3x in the last week and the last time he said I should trim up a juniper bush and see if that helps.

How high is your outdoor antenna?
How high is your "juniper bush"?
How far is the juniper from your antenna?
Do you notice more packet loss when it's windy?
Its on the roof. I guess 10ft. Bush is probably 15ft tall. 60 ft away. wind makes no difference.


You are going to need to move your house.

 

[Carbon]

Originally Posted By: Chris142
Originally Posted By: mk378
These systems use microwave radio signals usually in the 5 GHz band. Trees and other obstructions will cause significant signal loss.
yes its called wisprenn internet here. Tower is about 30 miles away according to them.


Thirty miles is a really long way. Maybe another 10 or 15 feet of height would make a big difference.

 

[SilverFusion2010]

Originally Posted By: Chris142
Originally Posted By: SilverFusion2010


Do you have a way to monitor signal strength?
no. Can that be done easily?


I don't know how your system is set up, but if you temporarily connect a router running the right firmware you can get signal strength with the signal to noise ratio also.

Let's recap.

It was working, now it isn't. So a part has most likely failed or is failing.
You've had the tech come out... What changes has he made?
You cleared the juniper that was in the LoS.

Potential fail points are:

The far end got hit by lighting or water intrusion and you are getting a lot of noise in the signal.
The aiming of the antenna at either end is off
Something in your equipment has become damaged and you are getting noise in the signal, failing amplifier.
You have a bad ground so your antenna isn't working correctly.
Corrosion on a connection that's exposed to weather.
Bad or degraded coax, bad crimp on connection.

If the aim is good, then you need to get that tech back out there with a signal meter to test the amplifier, and the coax. It's probably in there somewhere.

RF is a strange beast, good luck catching the gremlins

 

[eljefino]

The satellite modem should have a light on it saying it's got a signal from the satellite. It probably even has an internal webpage you can go to, to configure it. Its IP address should start with 192.168.x.x.

Customer service for your ISP should be able to ping your modem through space, and to see if your modem has uploaded anything recently. If your dish shifted, they'll know.

Because you have two-way internet, your dish is an uplink and you need an FCC licensed guy to come frig with it, so you aren't interfering with other satellites in the sky.

I would not be up there checking for corroded connectors. Let them deal with it. If you have a corroded male wire going into the LNB and you clean it up, and the female part of the LNB is also corroded, you took away their excuse to get you a new LNB, for example.

Juniper can absolutely interfere with microwaves. A micro-wave, by definition, has a wavelength of a few inches and stuff that small just wreaks havoc. CB radio by contrast has a 11 meter wavelength and blasts through forests and whatnot.

 

[mk378]

I agree 30 miles is about the limit of this technology. Mounting the dish higher off the ground could help.

The OP probably has a CPE (Customer Premises Equipment) device similar to these:
https://www.ubnt.com/airmax/powerbeam/

There is no satellite. The other end of the link is on a radio tower or other structure.

There is no coax. The radio hardware and modem is built into the dish feed. The connection to the house is through Ethernet networking cable (*).

Grounding the system is important for lightning protection but doesn't affect radio performance.

There are usually signal strength LEDs on the CPE. It is possible to log into the CPE's web page and observe the signal there. This usually requires a password which the company may or may not be willing to tell you.

(*) This is a lot more reliable than coax, and there is no loss of signal quality over a long link. Ethernet cable will of course stop working if it gets physically damaged or waterlogged.