GPRS in practice

[kaspaas]

Hi,

I've been using GPRS to download mail and it worked quite well.

I started the download (PC connecting to cellphone (SE k700i) via bluetooth and then via GPRS to the Internet), and walked away to do ohter things and had my mail 30 minutes later without checking the duration.

Last night I needed to work on my servers in the US via SSH and decided to go home and use GPRS. Very little bandwidth required.

Almost a disaster.

at 21:00 I did a few "ls <enter>" tests. It took up to 5 seconds to respond.

This is not a workable speed for for setting up a server using VI as editor :-(

At 01:00, I tried the test again and it was consistent sub 1 second responses.

Is the Vodacom GPRS network getting badly congested?

[vodacom3g]

There are currently congestion reports on some cells. Please PM me the Cell ID, if you have it and I'll have it checked out.

Regarding GPRS as a bearer, remember any network connection is measured in 2 ways, throughput and latency. Certain protocols are more sensitive to these than others.

For example, downloading mail needs throughput but latency is not an issue due to the one-way nature of the download. Therefore the TCP sliding window can be opened up.

On the other hand, Telnet is a bit like ping, for every packet going up (keystroke) a packet needs to come down (echo). The packets are quite small, so you need very little throughput. However, a long latency, like you're seeing, is going to kill you.

[Deenem]

I use an I-Mate with a Vodacom prepaid card for GPRS access. I don't have any problems connecting except at home.

I live in Bryanston and my CellID is Main Road-1.

When I can connect, I wait ages for a page to load, most of the time it doesn't even get as far as connecting. dialling *99# directly on the phone paused for about a minute and then comes back with a 'failed' message.

I wanted to replace my dial-up internet with GPRS but until I can get reliable access from home it's not going to be worth it.