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Anon | Sprint Not So Highspeed Broadband I purchased this wireless technology to be a great replacement for my 56K. But this technology sucks. The speed is inconsistant and my ping bounces back and forth so much that it is not worth playing any of my online games like Q3 or UT. Here is what customer service says about this: Unfortunately, the Sprint Broadband Direct service is not ideal for real-time gaming. This is due to the nature of the technology that we use for our connection.
First, our service utilizes a system called "burst packets". This is a process of gathering a group of packets that need to be sent, and sending them in groups or "bursts", rather than sending each packet as it is received. While this has no visible effect on download or surfing speeds, this can have a noticeable effect on ping times for
real-time/streaming applications such as online gaming. This occurs because the application on your computer sends out packets of information at a much higher rate than the antenna, since the
application sends out each packet as it is created. The Sprint Connection, on the other hand, waits until it gets a group of these packets together, then sends the group. The result? A sometimes noticeable lag in real-time applications.Second, "ping" packets are given a very low priority on our service. It is possible for a ping packet to be "ignored" by the service in favor of other packets of information, such as downloads or web pages. This can result in the service taking a longer time to respond to a ping
than to some other requested information packet. This allows our servers to dedicate more time and power to more important data streams, such as downloads or web pages, than to packets that are, quite simply, not a necessity for the functionality of most internet applications.By default, our Installation Technicians add a registry patch to your computer.Sometimes, removing this patch will result in improved
performance for real-time applications. However, overall download speeds will increase. Please visit »www.sprintbroadband.com/utilities to
add or remove the registry patch.
I would consider something else. Oh to cancel, they said the cost would be over $700.00 for a two year service in which I decided to get out within 30 days. This is bullshit! Buyer beware!!!!!!!! | |
Anon | I fully concur with this statement, and would like to warn any consumers NOT TO PURCHASE THIS SERVICE.
I've had this technology for 10 days, and have had nothing but problems with it. Problems which Sprint refuses to acknowledge even exist, making it difficult to obtain help with.
Speaking with the pre-sales people, you'd believe this was the end all, be all technology. Download rates of 1-5 Mbps, and uploads of 256kbps for only $39.95 a month. Faster than a T-1 and cheaper too. Everybody there you'll speak with has the system, and will report wonderful experiences with it -- sans problems. And they constantly refer you to their website, where it specifically states that users can expect typical download speeds of 1-2Mbps, and that it enhances all aspects of the internet, including online gameplay.
The story changes decisively once you're a customer. The biggest first problem is the installation. Installers don't tweak the system for maximum packet receipt, and don't inform you of the requirement of a firewall for an always-on connection.
The typical speeds I encountered varied principally between 100-200kbps, and the only time I encountered speeds even nearing that which they advertise were on their test ftp server.
The next set of problems I experiences were frequent time outs, and dropped connections in all persistent real time applications: telnet sessions, IRC, instant messangers, etc. Included in this were terrible ping times (5 times slower than 56k dial-up), and frequent disconnections in Half-Life and Team Fortress.
Upon further communication with tech and customer support, I got the following response:
- Sprint broadband direct is NOT configured to allow efficient online gaming, despite it saying otherwise on their own website. In fact, they say their sales personnel are explicitely trained to inform people not to buy the service if they want a game experience.
- Their network is also NOT configured for telnet, chat, or other PING based systems. And since ping packets make up the basis for Windows NT networking, I can't imagine the problems somebody with that OS would have with this technology.
- Sprint Broadband Direct IS ONLY configured for one purpose, and one purpose only: the download of webpages.
So what's my story? After paying 300 dollars for the equipment, I have a system that downloads only 2-4 times as fast as my 56k connection, and only uploads on par with it (0-50kbps). And while Spring claims "our technology delivers the internet to your house or business the way you want it, FAST," I find Sprint's definition of the Internet to only be limited to web pages, thereby effectively preventing you from other meaningful means of internet activity.
I just thank god I am on a month to month payment method. I intend on cancelling the service immediately, and requesting a refund for commercial misrepresentations.
With Sprint rolling this dud of a technology into 20 cities by the end of the year, I urge everyone to be incredibly cautious when considering it. I happily accept my 56k modem and dialup connection over this, and will return to it anyday now.
Sprint Broadband Direct = caveat emptor! | |
Anon | reply to Anon
Here is what I hope will be a balanced review of Sprint Broadband (used to be called SpeedChoice).
Why did I choose SpeedChoice? It's the only high speed option (DSL and cable are not yet available). I live on the fringe of town (Mesa east of Gilbert), so other high speed options will be slow in coming.
It took less than a month between the time I ordered the service and the time they came out to install it. I chose the 2-year contract which costs $100. (The 1-year contract is $200 and the month-to-month is $300.) Please read the contract terms here. They advertised speeds of 5Mbps downstream (1Mbps typical) and 256kbps upstream.
To install the system, they erected the diamond-shaped antenna on my roof, pointed to South Mountain in Phoenix. (If you live in Phoenix but don't have line-of-sight to South Mountain, you don't qualify.) They ran a ground wire from the antenna to an 8 or 10-foot rod they pounded into the ground on the side of the house. They also ran a coax line into the room where the modem was to be. (Not very sightly, but then it's hard to crawl around up in my particular attic.) I just wish they had used a white coax wire to match the wall.
How does it work? Well, there are good and bad points. First the good. In practical terms, I can get nearly 2Mbps downstream from Microsoft at around 3-4am. The test at DSLReports.com reported up to 1.3Mbps at 6pm yesterday. I usually have no problems with their mail server. And connections usually won't drop for more than 30 seconds at a time. (They'll pick right back up automatically.)
Now for the bad. Transfer rates are VERY inconsistent. Each test on DSLReports.com yesterday actually yielded several results, ranging from 300kbps downstream to 1.3Mbps downstream. Every test was done pretty much right after the other. It's unpredictable. And upstream speed is horrible! Normally I get around 10-20kbps upstream (DSLReports.com says I get 30-100kbps). To compare, standard modem will give from 20-30 kbps upstream.
Ping times are pretty bad. They start at 200ms and go up from there. Many packets (roughly 10%) are lost! As for online gaming (Half-Life/Team Fortress), during peak periods I'll lose the connection for ~30 seconds every 5-10 minutes (which means certain death). Between connection losses, the game works pretty well - at least better than a standard modem. I could adjust the TCP packet size (which is what their registry tweaks do) to help decrease ping times, but that's not the issue - the issue is really the dropped connections.
On the same subject, often (again, roughly 10% of the time) I'll try to get to a web page, but it says the web page is unavailable. So I immediately hit reload, and it comes up fine. So I don't think it's only ping packets that are getting lost - either the DNS server keeps going down, or I'm also losing legitimate packets destined to be html web pages!
All in all, it's better than a standard modem (the only alternative), but I wish I wasn't locked into that contract, and I wish I could get QWest's new 1Mbit synchronous DSL option which consistently achieves 800kbps up and down (ahh, heaven!). | | |
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Anon | reply to Anon
Re: Sprint Broadband experience For a Sprint Broadband description, interesting links, mini-review, and a few photos, see my page at »jldnet.com/sprint/ | |
Anon | reply to Anon
Re: Sprint Not So Highspeed Broadband i signed a 2 year contract with these assholes..i bought it to play games...my 56k works a hell of alot better than this POS! i am very angry at sprint..b4 i bought this the tech told me, "it works for everything, gaming, surfing" as far as im concerned they can stick this 30' pole on my roof up there ass | |
| reply to Anon
Re: Sprint Broadband experience John, just curious but why did you put up a webpage promoting Sprint? I'm thinking of putting one up telling what a piece of crap it is but my connection is too slow for anyone to be able to access a webpage! | |
Anon | reply to Anon
Re: Sprint Not So Highspeed Broadband I'm looking into getting this service. I really have no other choice because neither DSL or cable modem is available where I live. I'm not interested in playing games so surely this service has got to be better than dial-up! I mainly just surf and download so I'm not too concerned about upload speeds. Of course I would prefer 1.5Mbps consistently but
even if the transfer rates vary alot they've got to be better than dial-up. Right? Also you don't tie up the phone line. So although from what I've read here this service has some problems and I would prefer a more reliable cable/DSL connection but beggar's can't be choosy and I'll take any improvement I can get. Also Sprint has a special now that if you get their 7 cents anytime plan you get free installation and $10 off per month on the wireless internet. | |
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