Performance is tower dependent ??

V

VMS

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I have just moved from Edleen Kempton Park to Midstream Estates between Midrand and Centurion.

With the antenna in Edleen My GPRS went from 2-3 bars to 3-4 bars and became more stable. I even got 3G at 2 bars in certain locations around the house. The 3G often bombed out but allowed enough time to make a quick Skype call or do a critical download.

Now at the new house I have a whole new set of problems to content with. GPRS without antenna gives me 4 bars and 5 with the antenna. Great, so more bars more stability? Not ! After a short while or a few hundred bytes the link is still there but I can see that the laptop is just transmitting data and receiving nothing back. BTW, also no 3G at all. There is 3G available in the open field about 1km up the road but nothing here.

When the link stops I have to disconnect and reconnect. Doing this only gives me a slim chance of reconnection. Normally I have to kill the dash, kill VMConnect manually, remove and reinsert my card and do everything from scratch. In very bad cases I have to restart Windows.

Last time I spoke to the Vodacom techy I asked him if they would be prepared to send someone out to sort this out at my house, and he said yes. I will now take up that offer and ask them to send someone out, because testing it at Vodaworld again is not going to help.


VMS
 
Some TCP/IQ results

Last 24 hours Last 7 days
Number of tests 1 1
Download speed 42.73 KBits/sec
5.34 KBytes/sec 42.73 KBits/sec
5.34 KBytes/sec
Upload speed 20.48 KBits/sec
2.56 KBytes/sec 20.48 KBits/sec
2.56 KBytes/sec
DNS Speed 1781.00 mSec 1781.00 mSec
Latency 807.00 mSec 807.00 mSec


There is nothing really bad about the results, just staying connected. There are also long delays between transfers and then it just bursts.

VMS
 
90% of my connection problems were the dash, which I dont use anymore. GPRS seems to be very slow and I have also lost the link with it (last week when 3G went down).
IMO GPRS is less stable than 3G.
 
Rabbiddog


How do you connect without the dash? I seem to have problems doing it.

VMS
 
Wait for your 64k sim card.This card will improve your connection to the 3G network
 
Now it is bad. A few minutes on and then the same problem- no data coming back. Sometimes disconnecting (that can take several minutes) and reconnecting solves the problems. But like now I have to unplug the 3G card and reinsert it. Very strange.

This sometimes happens as soon as I send/receive greater than idle speed data, like downloading email.

I have also unplugged the antenna with no change.

Maybe it is heat? That may be the reason why it works after I take it out for a while? I am going to put a fan on this side of my laptop and then check how long it takes to crash. This won't be good news if this is the case.

VMS
 
VMS,

Like deja vu reading your posts. When the data download stops do you manage to keep your IP address?

Have alook at :
http://www.mybroadband.co.za/vb/showpost.php?p=178751&postcount=1
and
http://www.mybroadband.co.za/vb/showpost.php?p=182368&postcount=13
and
http://www.mybroadband.co.za/vb/showpost.php?p=185467&postcount=14
and finally
http://www.mybroadband.co.za/vb/showpost.php?p=188038&postcount=15
or the complete thread if you like!
http://www.mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php?t=18665

The intervention from the radio techs on the Base station seemed to have cured my problems in Sasolburg.
I have no idea why my connection in Vanderbijlpark suddenly became stable.

I'm no expert but i'm convinced that maybe a visit from Vodacom radio engineers to the BS that you connect to, might help :-).

I phoned 155 as v3g suggested to resolve the problems and i'm curently very happy with my GPRS experience!
 
I have also unplugged the antenna with no change.

Maybe it is heat? That may be the reason why it works after I take it out for a while? I am going to put a fan on this side of my laptop and then check how long it takes to crash. This won't be good news if this is the case.
Click to expand...

Just on a semi side note. I also have a Novatel card and been using it in my laptop + desktop with an adaptor. I must admit i -regularly- [at least once every 2-3 hr session] have to go through the "Kill Dash, Remove and Reinsert card routine". Mostly i seem to loose my 3G/GPRS connection and there's a tendency for things to go wrong in my dash when it's switching from 3G to GPRS. [Also have a tendency not to switch back to 3G even if there is signal].

Now since it happens on both desktop [alot more on the desktop] and laptop i can't imagine it's heat, my desktop sounds like a jet engine with all the cooling devices [the card is cold whenever i take it out]. Imho it's the reception/connection combined with the dash...

All in all it's 'liveable' for me though, because when it do connect the speeds and all that is fine. But i'm becoming weary lately as my 3G signal strength has dropped a bar [both at work and at home]. I dunno if they turned some tower or what, but somewhere i think it can become problematic [one more turn an i will have 0 bars].

PS When i talk about "kill dash" then i mean doing the ctr-alt-delete thing, because my dash loves to hang with a "connecting" or "disconnecting" window floating there for all eternity.

Oh and i'm not using an antenna, asked for one ages ago didn't get one, will query if i actually loose signal.
 
Definitely better when it is cooler. Will have to check again tomorrow.

VMS
 
A weird one. I am standing on the 2nd storey at the opposite side of the house. The laptop is at the window with line of sight to a tower (another one). I get 2 bars 3G.

Guess what ? It is stable. Far beyond my normal time limit and 150k max data(before it crashes).

So now I need to make up an extention cable for my antenna so I can stick it to the window.

So, tower dependent?

VMS
 
Different tower and no problems for 30 minutes. Vodacom, fix your towers!!!!

Send me a PM and I will give you my location.

VMS
 
Weird one again. For a few days I could only get 3G at 2 bars. This was good enough and even downloaded at what seemed like 50kbyte/s. The GPRS sucked big time as it stopped after 50 to 150k of data, or a few minutes.

Now it has swapped. 3G is still there at 2 bars but no comms. GPRS is now as stable as you can get. Ran on GPRS for hours.

The laptop is still standing in exactly the same place. I have tried to move the antenna around but no success with 3G.

I live in Midstream estates near the SA Mint. We have (looks like) 2 towers, one at the SA Mint and one far down the Brakfontein road.

What do you guys think?

VMS
 
I get the 3G-connected no-comms thing from time to time too. I've noticed that when i connect, a certain amount of data is sent and received [1-4kb]. Whenever it's less than 1kb transmitted upon connection, i get the situation where it says i'm connected but yet no communication. But in most cases a dash-kill and card re-insert helped out.

This also happens when i connect when the dash still says "Unknown - Unknown Network" , usually waiting for the dash to display 3G - Vodacom SA and the 2 or so bars gives a 'smooth' connection.
 
Today I am at LIW in Centurion. I showed a few people my 3G setup. They are impressed!!!! 4 bars and a lot of speed. So I assume my laptop setup is fine. Must be the towers at my house.

BTW, just downloaded a 133 MB software package 1 hour and 20 mins. This gives me about 29000 bytes per second +- 28.4 kbyte/s. Not too bad.

If Vodacom fixes the towers in my area to be as stable as this one I will be very happy.

BTW, Vodacom, I have a demo of my 3G, for a doctor that works from home, later tonight. Not that I volunteered but the guy needs internet at home as they email X-rays to his house. His wife asked me to please show her husband this orange thingy on my laptop. Hope it works better from his house. It would be nice for Vodacom if each patient sees this orange thingy on his laptop and also want one for themselves.

Well, I am staying here at LIW for another while to download the rest of my 1GB cap (which currrently sits at 350MB used).

VMS
 
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