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Sylas

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Guys I am experiencing some massive pings in WoW at moment using 3g. I am using it in a different location than when I last posted, however this location has the same 3g signal strength(Rondebosch, Cape Town). I am talking about double the latency with spikes of up to 5000ms. Any problems with the tower here. Will this get better at night?
 
Sylas said:
Guys I am experiencing some massive pings in WoW at moment using 3g. I am using it in a different location than when I last posted, however this location has the same 3g signal strength(Rondebosch, Cape Town). I am talking about double the latency with spikes of up to 5000ms. Any problems with the tower here. Will this get better at night?
Click to expand...

Not so much the signal strength, but the signal quality.
 
Sylas said:
What do you mean by signal quality? Packetloss?
Click to expand...
There are essentially 2 types of Signal Strength:
  1. Signal Strength of the radio signal transmitted by a base-station to a modem; AND
  2. Signal Strength of the radio signal transmitted by a modem to the base-station.
both types of Signal Strength will typically be limited by interference from topography and structures [walls, ceilings, windows, etc] that are in the path of the radio signal being transmitted, interference essentially affects Signal Quality, and can result in Internet Protocol packet loss.

Latency will also be affected by packet loss, but the internet is a mass of different links, and when connecting to another IP Host [e.g. an online gaming server etc] packets can be lost anywhere along a route from A to Z where B to Y for example represent the undetermined number of intermediate links inbetween A and Z.

First try several outdoors and indoors on-network speed tests and ping tests:then post the results here.
 
Note that these are the values during the daytime and I am getting disconnected constantly. I am horified of what will happen tonight if the daytime is like this :eek:

Vodacom Mobile Broadband Speed Test

Try 1:
Download: 355
Upload: 50

Try 2:
Download: 532
Upload: 111

Try 3:
Download: 750
Upload: 111

Try 4:
Download: 340
Upload: 55

I couldnt pause long enough on the pings so I just screenshotted a good portion of it
[img=http://img170.imageshack.us/img170/5861/pingsad6.th.jpg]

EDIT: I would like to add that there alot of large trees outside my building which are in direct line of sight from the window I am sitting at
 
Last edited:
Iam3G said:
Not so much the signal strength, but the signal quality.
Click to expand...

Yup

In addition to ic's post, you could have a situation with a strong signal level but interference could cause low quality of the signal. The modem and network will compensate by dropping to lower bit rates and this will be seen as an increase in latency.

I seem to be in a low-level, high-quality environment with speeds of 2.5Mb/s, often with 1 or sometimes ZERO bars on the dash.
 
Sylas, you're not alone!

When I did speed tests today, I got :

Download : 255
Upload : 342

Download : 329
Upload : 349

I've just installed the latest Huawei update (Jan 2008) and wondering if it's not screwing something up.
 
Sylas said:
Note that these are the values during the daytime and I am getting disconnected constantly. I am horified of what will happen tonight if the daytime is like this :eek:

Vodacom Mobile Broadband Speed Test

Try 1:
Download: 355
Upload: 50

Try 2:
Download: 532
Upload: 111

Try 3:
Download: 750
Upload: 111

Try 4:
Download: 340
Upload: 55

I couldnt pause long enough on the pings so I just screenshotted a good portion of it
[img=http://img170.imageshack.us/img170/5861/pingsad6.th.jpg]

EDIT: I would like to add that there alot of large trees outside my building which are in direct line of sight from the window I am sitting at
Click to expand...

Which modem do you use and what are the LED colours when running the test?

Looks like you're dropping down to 3G (if a HSDPA modem), which indicates some radio interference (the trees) or congestion.

Either could explain the long pings.
 
Sorry for taking a while to reply. Was disconnected(again). The colours have been switching between solid blue and light blue but regardless, even if I am on normal 3g(384kbps), it should be more than enough to have decent WoW pings.
 
Sylas said:
Sorry for taking a while to reply. Was disconnected(again). The colours have been switching between solid blue and light blue but regardless, even if I am on normal 3g(384kbps), it should be more than enough to have decent WoW pings.
Click to expand...

On 3G the uplink is only 64Kb/s and if it's switching, the handover process will add a fair amount of latency.
 
Sylas said:
Sorry for taking a while to reply. Was disconnected(again). The colours have been switching between solid blue and light blue but regardless, even if I am on normal 3g(384kbps), it should be more than enough to have decent WoW pings.
Click to expand...

Now it sounds more like Cell Breathing.
 
@Sylas, what dashboard s/w & version are you using to control your E220 modem? - if you have the latest VMC-Lite, you should try the [searchforum]3GOnly[/searchforum] connection profile setting - otherwise see below about ginggs' application.

I recommend that you download [searchforum]ginggs' application[/searchforum] to properly see what is happening as far as indoors & outdoors signal strength is concerned - note that you will only ever be able to see the signal strength from the base-station to your modem and never the signal strength from your modem to the base-station.

PS: as both yourself and v3g have noted, trees are a major pain in the rear where radio transmissions are concerned, but try comparing indoors signal strength to outdoors signal strength - you should notice a significant difference [better signal strength outdoors].
 
I think there is a major problem. I did a speed test now (I'm in Irene) and got :

Download : 196

Upload : 185


Eish.
 
kingrob said:
I think there is a major problem. I did a speed test now (I'm in Irene) and got :

Download : 196

Upload : 185


Eish.
Click to expand...
Are you using the 3GOnly connection profile setting, and what LED colour do you have on you E220?
 
Yes, ic, I'm using 3G only connetion setting and LED is blue on my E220.

I ran a test again :

Download : 643

Upload : 349

Definitely something wrong with my base station, or the Vodacom network. Maybe all the power cuts screwed something up?
 
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