iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Golden, CO
 ·Comcast
 ·Qwest.net
 ·magicjack.com
 ·BeeCreek Communica..
·Sprint Mobile Broa..
1 edit | How's My Signal? Would an antenna improve speeds?
Have been contemplating getting an aircard for SPrint, particularly with the new Virgin Mobile data card coming out (that's the one I'd get) and the increasing unreliability of my wireless internet provider (need some good backup).
I'm writing this via WMWiFiRouter on my HTC Touch Pro. Signal is -75. Pings to Google and SoftLayer are both around 110-125 with what I suppose is lower network load (almost all the time). »sprint.com/speedtest to Atlanta (I use it since I suppose being on the Sprint network will give me the highest speeds and thus the best representation of the last mile) just got me 1206 kbps down and 476 kbps up with latency of 66 ms (!?! yeah right). First hop is 80-90 ms.
I've seen -68 to -71 on the signal meter before. Tonight it's storming out, so I'm supposing that's what's attenuating the signal.
No antennas used; my phone is sitting at about 5.5 feet above floor level (a little above normal talking position) on its base (balancing acts FTW). I rotated it to get the best signal.
So my question is, do you guys think that any additional antenna equipment could get me higher speeds, or is the bottleneck at the tower? I could believe the latter; I've seen ~2 Mbps at the local Denny's with my older phone (Mogul) and T1s run ~$500 per month at the absolute minimum, with the low end of the average around $600.
Thanks in advance for your input!
EDIT: Phone is sitting at desk level beside me pulling -75.
Pings to SoftLayer are 110-130ms (average of 120, StDev of 8.1 over 20 pings). Google is cranky right now, but appears to be similar. First hop is 80-100ms. Hope that helps further diagnose my state. |
|
Jim_in_VA
join:2004-07-11
Cobbs Creek, VA
·Verizon Wireless B..
·Sprint Mobile Broa..
·Millenicom
| I would wait until you get the card first. Improving on -68 will gain you very little if anything at all in speed. An antenna may help reduce packet errors and/or noise (and thus speed) - but you won't know that until you try the card.
..and if you typed all that on a Touch Pro, I tip my hat to ya ...
--
... need help? »evdo-tips.com/ |
|
iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Golden, CO
·Comcast
·Qwest.net
·magicjack.com
·BeeCreek Communica..
·Sprint Mobile Broa..
| Heh, I could've...I can write novels on those keyboards, as opposed to the vertical-style ones (despite my love for all things Palm). Actually, this post and the one before are via WMWiFiRouter. Best piece of software ever 
Looking at -69 now (5.5 foot position, not my desk). Connection is a bit more jittery this morning, but I'm guessing that's because people are using the network. Here's what I get form VoIPReview:
Speed test statistics
---------------------
Download speed: 922632 bps
Upload speed: 631192 bps
Quality of service: 60 %
Download test type: socket
Upload test type: socket
Maximum download pause: 866 ms
Average download pause: 14 ms
Minimum round trip time to server: 151 ms
Average round trip time to server: 178 ms
VoIP test statistics
--------------------
Jitter: you --> server: 4.1 ms
Jitter: server --> you: off
Packet loss: you --> server: 0.0 %
Packet loss: server --> you: off
Packet discards: 0.0 %
Packets out of order: 0.0 %
Number of supported VoIP lines: 10
Estimated MOS score: 4.0
»www.voipreview.org:81/myspeed/db···d=231301
Is that about as good as it's gonna get? |
|
Jim_in_VA
join:2004-07-11
Cobbs Creek, VA | I've always gotten better speeds with my EVDO modem vs my Mogul, even though both are RevA - and that is with a antenna plugged into both.
--
... need help? »evdo-tips.com/ |
|
iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Golden, CO | Makes sense. $150 is a lot of money but I'll porbably pick up the Virgin Mobile modem as soon as it drops. Hopefully it'll get me 1.5/512 here. Just wish there weren't those pesky caps. |
|
Jim_in_VA
join:2004-07-11
Cobbs Creek, VA
·Verizon Wireless B..
·Sprint Mobile Broa..
·Millenicom
| Swapping the method of connection between the modem and the cell phone from time to time ought to deal with the caps - particularly since you're using WMWifiRouter.
--
... need help? »evdo-tips.com/ |
|
