Signal Strength Lower Latency lower

newklear

newklear

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I drop down from usual 3-4 bars signal strength to 2-3 bars signal strength today, I get a little worried and fiddle with the antenna, signal doesn't get better so I browse a few sites, seems a little more responsive. I do a speed test: http://www.speedtest.net/result/319406822.png (Neo-Connect Lite Unlimited) speeds im not to worried about, but wow the ping is better than before, its basically half of what it used to be. I have since then done a few tests, all basically the same. My mmorpg games are running better than before somehow someone's telling fibs when it comes to crunching numbers, it is certainly not me :)

How does lower signal strength on the device give you better ping? Does anyone know what is going on ? Anyone with the same experience, doesn't matter on what package.
 
Kasbah said:
I drop down from usual 3-4 bars signal strength to 2-3 bars signal strength today, I get a little worried and fiddle with the antenna, signal doesn't get better so I browse a few sites, seems a little more responsive. I do a speed test: http://www.speedtest.net/result/319406822.png (Neo-Connect Lite Unlimited) speeds im not to worried about, but wow the ping is better than before, its basically half of what it used to be. I have since then done a few tests, all basically the same. My mmorpg games are running better than before somehow someone's telling fibs when it comes to crunching numbers, it is certainly not me :)

How does lower signal strength on the device give you better ping? Does anyone know what is going on ? Anyone with the same experience, doesn't matter on what package.
Click to expand...


This has happened to me a few times.
The signal strength is 3-4 bars but the latency is awful, 1k+ with a few packets getting lost.
Upon moving my modem a bit having 2 bars signal my latency is normal.
 
Yup, signal clarity is muchos more important than signal strength.
The 3-4 bars probably was the result of reflected radio waves, resulting in an echo-echo-echo like response.
They probably shifted the dish to stop the echo.
 
ahh thanx stoke, that makes more sense
latency for me seems to be getting better day by day so that is definately good news.
 
I've also noticed improvement in latency lately, just the delay for international sites is still bugging me.. Like google will take on average 30 seconds to load :(

I am getting around 92 ms - 130 ms on average depending on the time of day.
 
Looks like I spoke to soon:
http://www.speedtest.net/result/319704417.png
Ping @ 1015 ms, was the best I could get all day on 3 bars lol. Please Neotel give me my 2 bars back with halved ping and I'm Happy. I will raise the "echo-echo-echo" query with Neotel

I will give Neotel until tomorrow before I bear my wrath on the call centre *puts halo back on for now*
 
Last edited:
Kasbah said:
Looks like I spoke to soon:
http://www.speedtest.net/result/319704417.png
Ping @ 1015 ms, was the best I could get all day on 3 bars lol. Please Neotel give me my 2 bars back with halved ping and I'm Happy. I will raise the "echo-echo-echo" query with Neotel

I will give Neotel until tomorrow before I bear my wrath on the call centre *puts halo back on for now*
Click to expand...

its wireless , you should expect high pings but atleast they are trying to sort it out
 
Kasbah said:
Looks like I spoke to soon:
http://www.speedtest.net/result/319704417.png
Ping @ 1015 ms, was the best I could get all day on 3 bars lol. Please Neotel give me my 2 bars back with halved ping and I'm Happy. I will raise the "echo-echo-echo" query with Neotel

I will give Neotel until tomorrow before I bear my wrath on the call centre *puts halo back on for now*
Click to expand...


Do you perhaps know how far the NeoConnect base station is from you ?
Do you've line of sight of the base station?

I have just done a speedtest.. I am having no issues only yesterday, I did experience issues.
Download Speed: 2046 kbps (255.8 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 56 kbps (7 KB/sec transfer rate)
 
RichardG said:
Do you perhaps know how far the NeoConnect base station is from you ?
Do you've line of sight of the base station?

I have just done a speedtest.. I am having no issues only yesterday, I did experience issues.
Download Speed: 2046 kbps (255.8 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 56 kbps (7 KB/sec transfer rate)
Click to expand...

Wow RichardG I am very happy with your speed results, can I move in ? lol
I live about 600 metres away from the NeoConnect Base station, maybe a little less, it's just 1 block away from me. I am on top of a hill so I would say my line of sight is probably about 20metres above the NeoConnect Base Station. I have a laptop and have tested all over my house for the clearest signal strength, even been in the backgarden, Today Best I can get is 3 bars, yesterday was 2-3 bars but was better than today lol
It's been very satisfactory for me over the past week, just not today, but I guess it's all part of their trial and error of a new ISP in town, Neotel are lucky I am patient as I have tremendous faith in them.
Hopefully the ping gets back to 500 ms soon :)
 
Kasbah said:
Wow RichardG I am very happy with your speed results, can I move in ? lol
I live about 600 metres away from the NeoConnect Base station, maybe a little less, it's just 1 block away from me. I am on top of a hill so I would say my line of sight is probably about 20metres above the NeoConnect Base Station. I have a laptop and have tested all over my house for the clearest signal strength, even been in the backgarden, Today Best I can get is 3 bars, yesterday was 2-3 bars but was better than today lol
It's been very satisfactory for me over the past week, just not today, but I guess it's all part of their trial and error of a new ISP in town, Neotel are lucky I am patient as I have tremendous faith in them.
Hopefully the ping gets back to 500 ms soon :)
Click to expand...

Certainly you can move in but their is one catch: Pay my electricity and water, feed my dogs, make sure my bedroom is tidy, make my bed in the morning & pay for the groceries

Back to topic: What Operating system are you using with Neotel Lite device ?
Did you've problem like this when you first got Neotel?
 
A quick lesson in CDMA, and one which we'll probably add to the FAQ some time:

The signal strength you see on the meter is the total received signal. Unlike FDMA (WiMAX) or TDM (GSM), CDMA separates each signal by using different, orthogonal codes - creating a set of overlapping spread spectrum (wideband) signals, each with its own unique code. This is the secret of CDMA's efficiency - you can pack many such signals into the same spectrum, and all that you see is the total power rising (what you see on the meter). It also means that CDMA systems can use a frequency re-use factor of 1:1 (i.e. all the sites are using the same spread spectrum channel), whilst maintaining maximum spectral efficiency, and that handover between cells or sectors is seamless and very reliable (soft handover).

As a result, one must be careful not to assume that a high signal level (lots of bars) means good performance with CDMA - it just means that you are receiving higher power, and that can simply be because you are receiving signals from multiple sites. The best actual measure of performance is the speed you get on a speed test. We optimise the network continually as we add sites to keep the best balance, and keep the overlap down, but you will obviously get overlap.

The most likely reason for the improved performance with lower signal is that you're reducing the noise (an adjacent site), with the nearer site signal remaining high, hence improving the signal to noise ratio, and thus the performance. CDMA does also continually adapt the modulation scheme to the conditions, but you should get fairly consistent performance at a fixed location, depending on the overall load on the site.

(Note that all of the above theory applies to UMTS/HSDPA W-CDMA as well, so you'll see some of these effects on other networks as well.)
 
RichardG said:
Certainly you can move in but their is one catch: Pay my electricity and water, feed my dogs, make sure my bedroom is tidy, make my bed in the morning & pay for the groceries

Back to topic: What Operating system are you using with Neotel Lite device ?
Did you've problem like this when you first got Neotel?
Click to expand...

I have tested on 2 different operating system, first was Vista then XP, I am using XP now as I use ICS. Nope when I first got Neotel all was great except for that spurt of a few days a week or two ago that when were all battling with connection/disconnections.

/msg RichardG Ping is actually a little better now all of a sudden, murpheys law I have no complaints lol- just probably means that Mr.Neotel is watching our threads and cracking the whip on the technicians.
 
Neotel said:
A quick lesson in CDMA, and one which we'll probably add to the FAQ some time:

The signal strength you see on the meter is the total received signal. Unlike FDMA (WiMAX) or TDM (GSM), CDMA separates each signal by using different, orthogonal codes - creating a set of overlapping spread spectrum (wideband) signals, each with its own unique code. This is the secret of CDMA's efficiency - you can pack many such signals into the same spectrum, and all that you see is the total power rising (what you see on the meter). It also means that CDMA systems can use a frequency re-use factor of 1:1 (i.e. all the sites are using the same spread spectrum channel), whilst maintaining maximum spectral efficiency, and that handover between cells or sectors is seamless and very reliable (soft handover).

As a result, one must be careful not to assume that a high signal level (lots of bars) means good performance with CDMA - it just means that you are receiving higher power, and that can simply be because you are receiving signals from multiple sites. The best actual measure of performance is the speed you get on a speed test. We optimise the network continually as we add sites to keep the best balance, and keep the overlap down, but you will obviously get overlap.

The most likely reason for the improved performance with lower signal is that you're reducing the noise (an adjacent site), with the nearer site signal remaining high, hence improving the signal to noise ratio, and thus the performance. CDMA does also continually adapt the modulation scheme to the conditions, but you should get fairly consistent performance at a fixed location, depending on the overall load on the site.

(Note that all of the above theory applies to UMTS/HSDPA W-CDMA as well, so you'll see some of these effects on other networks as well.)
Click to expand...

Thank you Neotel thats a comforting explanation
 
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