Honestly I find the wireless performance underwhelming on the Mikrotik devices with integrated antennas.
On Sat, Oct 15, 2016 at 4:26 PM, Nate Burke <[email protected]> wrote: > I think customers for the most part still associate 'big' and 'heavy' with > Quality. I was just a customers house this week where he took out a 951 I > was providing (for free) to put in a giant linksys $300 router. But now he > says his wifi works down the street and around the corner. I find that > hard to believe, but it's physically much bigger than the 951, so it must > be much better... Maybe we should start going back to like 8 pound power > bricks the size of a desktop computer. Then our internet would be better > than comcast. > > > > On 10/15/2016 3:11 PM, Ken Hohhof wrote: > > Pretty much the same here. Lease a managed router from us for $5/month, > or if you buy one at the store head for the $70 to $100 price range. Less > they probably cut corners, more and you’re probably wasting money. > > > > Our leased routers are Mikrotik 951G, we just got some hAP AC in to > consider as a dual band AC solution. We like the ability to manage the > Mikrotik routers but they don’t really give us a solution for customers who > want a fancy router, or to take management to the next level (application > level QoS, customer dashboard). The answer for that is probably Calix, but > our customer base mostly shops at WalMart and Dollar General, I’m not sure > we have enough demand for a Calix class router. There are a few who would > want something like that, but it’s probably well under 5%, unless we > subsidize them. > > > > I only push the leased routers so hard, actually I think it’s a better > deal for the customer than for us, if they want to buy a router and hope it > lasts 5 years they are welcome to. Unfortunately this means the people > taking the leased router may be the people who just don’t have the money to > buy a router we’ll be shutting them off for nonpayment in a couple months > and trying to get our router back. > > > > > > > > *From:* Af [mailto:[email protected] <[email protected]>] *On > Behalf Of *Joe Novak > *Sent:* Saturday, October 15, 2016 1:31 PM > > *To:* [email protected] > *Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] "buffering" > > > > What are you recommending on routers now Ken? > > > > Our spiel usually includes netgear and spend no more then 100$. Especially > for the people on the 3mbit and 5mbit plans. We've been doing good at > converting these people that don't want to mess with it to our rental > router. (Zyxel 2.4ghz) for 5/month. > > > > On Sat, Oct 15, 2016 at 1:23 PM, Ken Hohhof <[email protected]> wrote: > > I’m still waiting to run into a customer with a media library to justify > the $400 WiFi router some kid in the store sold them so they could have > multigigabit WiFi in their house. Cuz if your only source of content is > your 25 Mbps Internet connection, I’m missing why you need that AC5300 > router. And honestly, if I had a media center with locally stored content > streaming 4K video around the house, I’d figure a way to run a cable to the > big screens. Why spend all that money and then cheap out by using WiFi, > especially since that 60 inch TV isn’t exactly portable unless it’s on > wheels. > > > > > > *From:* Af [mailto:[email protected]] *On Behalf Of *Joe Novak > *Sent:* Saturday, October 15, 2016 1:09 PM > > > *To:* [email protected] > *Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] "buffering" > > > > It makes me sad that Kodi got associated with all of the nonsense. It's a > beautiful media center front end. I actually just got a 'NexBox' in that > runs android, outputs 4K, which I can't do with my current media center > setup. I've been excited to play around with it. > > > > > > > > On Sat, Oct 15, 2016 at 1:05 PM, Ken Hohhof <[email protected]> wrote: > > And the people with the Kodi boxes, usually the people who barely know how > to use a computer, are they answering ads in the back of magazines or > something? They seem to expect something like the analog TV converter > boxes, you plug it in and get free live TV. Must be legal because I bought > a box. And for tech support, call your ISP. > > > > > > *From:* Af [mailto:[email protected]] *On Behalf Of *That One Guy > /sarcasm > *Sent:* Saturday, October 15, 2016 12:54 PM > > > *To:* [email protected] > *Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] "buffering" > > > > Don't forget these rooted amazon firesticks are dominating right now. I > won't offer any support for any issue unless it's a vanilla stick. These > things are blatantly illegal like the black box descramblers for satellite > days. > > People are dropping malicious operating systems in the middle of their > trusted network left and right for "free" tv. God only knows what iot bot > net activity is also causing their xhamster buffering > > > > On Oct 15, 2016 12:48 PM, "Chuck McCown" <[email protected]> wrote: > > I read the word “Netflix” and my brain received “Netscape”. Talk about a > confusing moment... > > > > *From:* CBB - Jay Fuller > > *Sent:* Saturday, October 15, 2016 11:33 AM > > *To:* [email protected] > > *Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] "buffering" > > > > > > I have a smart tv that works fine but won't update. It is an earlier > Netflix interface but I actually like it better than the modern > interface..... > > > > Sent from my Verizon 4G LTE Smartphone > > > > ----- Reply message ----- > From: "Ken Hohhof" <[email protected]> > To: <[email protected]> > Subject: [AFMUG] "buffering" > Date: Sat, Oct 15, 2016 12:10 PM > > > > In your experience, does it help if the customer goes through the > procedure to update the app on the smart TV? > > > > Most of the smart TVs we run into seem to be Samsung. I know a lot of the > early ones also didn’t seem to play well with certain WiFi routers. > > > > > > > > *From:* Af [mailto:[email protected]] *On Behalf Of *Joe Novak > *Sent:* Saturday, October 15, 2016 11:59 AM > *To:* [email protected] > *Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] "buffering" > > > > In a lot of the early smart TVs - even some of the new ones - the netflix > 'smart' modulation did not work well if at all. The Roku's and streaming > boxes usually have perfect support for it. Hulu seems to do good too. > Direct TV has shit poor bandwidth management, and poor peering as far as we > could tell. > > > > On Sat, Oct 15, 2016 at 11:52 AM, Ken Hohhof <[email protected]> wrote: > > The most recent customer I think I’ve gotten to clarify the video is > actually stopping and starting. Previously he was saying it took a long > time to buffer but was fine once the picture appeared. That’s what got me > to thinking the latest complaint was impatience with how long it took > before the video started playing, not problems while it was playing. The > next challenge is to find out what streaming service he is using, people > tend to call them all “Netflix”. But I rarely hear about Netflix stopping > to buffer because Netflix can switch stream rates on the fly, if it’s > actually Netflix and it is stopping and starting, in my experience it’s > usually something other than just slow Internet. Like WiFi dropping out, > or packet loss, or a Windows 10 download overloading the connection. > > > > We have transitioned to the point where people sit down in front of their > “smart TV” and expect to watch TV, who knows what streaming service, but > there is only one answer if it doesn’t work like old fashioned TV – your > Internet is too slow. I had a customer call because she couldn’t watch an > online class on her computer which was telling her “you are not connected > to a network”, and there was an airplane symbol in the lower right. Tech > support for the online college told her that meant her Internet was too > slow. I was tempted to tell her the airplane symbol actually meant her > Internet was really fast (it’s flying), otherwise it would show a car or a > turtle. > > > > > > *From:* Af [mailto:[email protected] <[email protected]>] *On > Behalf Of *Chuck McCown > *Sent:* Saturday, October 15, 2016 10:29 AM > *To:* [email protected] > *Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] "buffering" > > > > I presume the circle thing is spinning when people say buffering. > > > > *From:* Ken Hohhof > > *Sent:* Friday, October 14, 2016 8:34 PM > > *To:* [email protected] > > *Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] "buffering" > > > > But that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m wondering if when a customer > talks about “buffering”, he really means having to wait for the video to > start playing. > > > > And maybe I’m confused because I assume everyone is using Netflix. And > I’m pretty sure Netflix starts the stream at a low quality so it starts > quickly, and then ramps up the quality as the buffer fills, since their > technology allows changing the stream quality on the fly. Other services > like maybe Hulu and Amazon Prime may behave differently. > > > > Also with my default assumption that people are using Netflix, I don’t > expect rebuffering because it’s been years since Netflix needed to stop and > rebuffer at a lower stream rate, I think they do that pretty seamlessly now. > > > > > > *From:* Af [mailto:[email protected] <[email protected]>] *On > Behalf Of *Mathew Howard > *Sent:* Friday, October 14, 2016 9:09 PM > *To:* af <[email protected]> > *Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] "buffering" > > > > Well, people certainly want connections that support multiple streams. > Paying for it, I'm not so sure about... at least around these parts. > > > > On Fri, Oct 14, 2016 at 8:52 PM, Eric Kuhnke <[email protected]> > wrote: > > Have you ever seen a 1080p youtube video load on a 1GbE active-E FTTH ISP > that has direct peering with Google from a router 2.5ms upstream? It's a > beautiful thing. > > People will absolutely pay for connections that support multiple streams, > take a typical family of 4 or 5 people with kids that want to watch videos > on tablets simultaneously... > > > > On Fri, Oct 14, 2016 at 6:49 PM, Ken Hohhof <[email protected]> wrote: > > When people say their video is “buffering”, I assume they mean > re-buffering, where the video stops and starts. > > > > I’m starting to wonder if some people are referring to the delay before > the video starts playing. Is this a thing? And do people pay for faster > Internet just to make the video start faster, like cut 15-20 seconds down > to 5 or 10 seconds? > > > > > > > > > > > > >
