VC GPRS now slower than my pathetic Telkom dial-up!

[Zax]

Yup - it has finally happened - my VC GPRS service is now much slower than my old Telkom dial-up! I gave up the dial-up last year and moved to VC with great results (and glee) - my max 22k connection on 10km of copper, lightening, rain and other noise were behind me and I had a really acceptable service! But this year things have been getting worse month by month - even had the techies out here earlier this year without any real results. Then 3G arrived and GPRS got even worse. If I get 10k now it is a lot. Here is a summary of the last few days:

Vodacom GPRS speed tests http://speed.vodacom.co.za/test/
09-Sep-06 20:30 10kbps dn 35kbps up
10-Sep-06 17:40 6kbps dn 20 mins connection dropped
10-Sep-06 17:59 13kbps dn 32kbps up
10-Sep-06 20:14 10kbps dn 28kbps up
11-Sep-06 21:30 Test license expired. Tried Vodacom 3G test. Gave up waiting for it to load 1st screen - 20 mins. 30 mins connection stalled. 32 mins - connection started again. 35 mins connection dropped. Total traffic 1.5mb down = .7 kbps
....So I switched to manual 100k download test - can't stay awake for more!
11-Sep-06 22:00 8kbps dn
12-Sep-06 20:05 4kbps dn

I originally thought the problem might be radio path related because I am some distance away from the nearest tower (10km maybe), but I have had much better that this and interestingly I get a reasonable upload speed on the test (30 odd k).

I am getting disillusioned with this whole business. This is like being drunk in a sleazy bar - that Telkom dial-up is starting to look attractive!!! Save me from this nightmare!!!

 

[Amckenzie]

Whats so bad about dial up? Its not great for downloading yes but for browsing the web and e-mail it works fine.....even when I lived in canada where broadband is cheap I didnt have it.....If I do want to download something I just use my phone as a 3G modem.....that said the GPRS should be faster than Dial Up although no EDGE in gauteng is a problem especially since Gauteng is where it all 'Susposedly' happens....even the 3G coverage is patchy in JHB, I assume that with time it will get better though.

 

[mancombseepgood]

Uh...

Whats so bad about dial up? Its not great for downloading yes but for browsing the web and e-mail it works fine.....even when I lived in canada where broadband is cheap I didnt have it.....If I do want to download something I just use my phone as a 3G modem.....that said the GPRS should be faster than Dial Up although no EDGE in gauteng is a problem especially since Gauteng is where it all 'Susposedly' happens....even the 3G coverage is patchy in JHB, I assume that with time it will get better though.

You lived in Canada where it is cheaper to dial-up. I had a client who had a faulty modem and a R30000 phone bill to prove it - all on local calls.
Carp!

 

[Terencek]

Just had a callback from Voda, explaining there has been a general GPRS problem over the past 24 hours, which could explain some of the slow speeds reported in this forum. Living out in the bush where Voda GPRS is now crawling, I'm beginning to wonder whether a messenger with a cleft stick might be faster.... Now where did I put my backup MTN SIM?

 

[MyDraadloos]

Just had a callback from Voda, explaining there has been a general GPRS problem over the past 24 hours, which could explain some of the slow speeds reported in this forum. Living out in the bush where Voda GPRS is now crawling, I'm beginning to wonder whether a messenger with a cleft stick might be faster.... Now where did I put my backup MTN SIM?

Ek dink 'n apie op 'n driewiel fiets met a gros stiffies sal vinniger wees.

 

[bwana]

Whats so bad about dial up?

For one thing you're paying per minute rather then per mb.

 

[Pico_Train]

Yup, been using dial again for 3.5 days until last night.

Seems the GPRS/Edge is only good after the "normal" non-techies start going to bed, ie, 9-10 pm ...

Great...I love doing my work late at night...

 

[Amckenzie]

Quote:
Whats so bad about dial up?

For one thing you're paying per minute rather then per mb.

Not Me lol 7 rand after 7 and Weekends stay connected for as long as you want, which is adequate for internet at home, I understand the need for broadband if you have a business or work from home though....

 

[MrG]

Not Me lol 7 rand after 7 and Weekends stay connected for as long as you want, which is adequate for internet at home, I understand the need for broadband if you have a business or work from home though....

and if you are a gamer like myself... dialup wont work.
Dialup is also very very old technology that cannot handle streaming etc.

WoW Radio streams at 56kbps (8kb per second), now dialup doesnt even get there, how am I suppose to listen to online radio such as that.

 

[Amckenzie]

Dialup works fine with battle for middle earth and WOW (that and the dial up never disconnects and you can always connect)...Me and many of my friends use dialup for online gaming its fine....as for the radio oh well, I listen to algoa fm on the internet..its fine. When I can pay 200 rand per month for an uncapped cable internet or DSL connection as the rest of the world does, then I might switch, until then there are much better things that I can spend my money on...

 

[mancombseepgood]

ADSL is worse than Dial-up for shaped services - esp. VoIP. I have tested Dial-up and ADSL head to head with Skype and Dial-up performed better to the US with Skype out. Verizon unshaped was the best DSL in my test with the VoIP tests. Regular DSL sucks.

 

[Darth Garth]

Kromdraai must in the middle of the bungu's.

 

[Zax]

Kromdraai must in the middle of the bungu's.

Just about, I mean the name just about says it all... Heard of the Cradle of Humankind? - In the middle of it - probably just on the edge (not that EDGE unfortunately) of civilisation as we know it! I think I may well have to take Terencek's suggestion and fall back on Mrs Ples' cleft stick!

R7 call, closer internet bundles and other such things may be OK as long as your dial-up actually works. With 10 kms of copper on poles and summer approaching, the merest suggestion of a thunder storm within a radius of 50km creates very modem unfriendly noise on the line. After many attempts you are lucky to get any sort of connection. Then of course there is always the odd stray lightening bolt that takes out everything remotely near to the phone line. Oh yes there is also the Rhino and Lion park's electric fence that insists on pinging continuously through all of this! Yup, I am busy talking myself out of this one already - logically thinking wireless is really the way to go - if it works! Let's hope they get this all sorted out!

 

[Zax]

Well I suddenly thought things were coming right - Ran my speed.vodacom.co.za 100k download and got a very respectable (shows you how easily we are pleased!) 32kbps at around 18h00. However things only went downhill from there - ran the same 100k download at 21h30 - got a mindblowing 4kbps!

You know, the more I think about this, the more convinced I am that all of our problems are very simply a case of overselling of bandwidth! There just isn't enough capacity on the Vodacom backbone to support all the users - how else do you explain a 100k download at 4kbps from a server that must be sitting on Vodacom's backbone?

Tracing route to speed.vodacom.co.za [196.207.32.68]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 1117 ms 699 ms 558 ms 10.113.238.162
2 766 ms 618 ms 562 ms 10.113.238.162
3 1019 ms 659 ms 641 ms 10.113.46.1
4 912 ms 601 ms 598 ms vc-196-207-32-68.3g.vodacom.co.za [196.207.32.68]

Is this too far to travel? Bull!! Good old congestion, I say!!!

 

[vodacom3g]

Zax, won't you PM me all your details as per the sticky? I'll pick this up the local radio guys. Make sure to include an e-mail, I'll keep you on the mail trail.

 

[mancombseepgood]

Hmmm

Just about, I mean the name just about says it all... Heard of the Cradle of Humankind? - In the middle of it - probably just on the edge (not that EDGE unfortunately) of civilisation as we know it! I think I may well have to take Terencek's suggestion and fall back on Mrs Ples' cleft stick!

R7 call, closer internet bundles and other such things may be OK as long as your dial-up actually works. With 10 kms of copper on poles and summer approaching, the merest suggestion of a thunder storm within a radius of 50km creates very modem unfriendly noise on the line. After many attempts you are lucky to get any sort of connection. Then of course there is always the odd stray lightening bolt that takes out everything remotely near to the phone line. Oh yes there is also the Rhino and Lion park's electric fence that insists on pinging continuously through all of this! Yup, I am busy talking myself out of this one already - logically thinking wireless is really the way to go - if it works! Let's hope they get this all sorted out!

Maybe we should swap houses

 

[ld13]

I’ve went through the Telkom R7 call(InfinitCall)…then the ‘line noise’ monster ate my line! I was crawling @ 14kbps and LOWER!! That was really bad. Got it fixed after Telkom did in fact decide it was time to come and fix it.

Got my VC GPRS and must say, even when the DU connected at 48, my gprs was faster that it, although GPRS connects at 43k, right?

That has changed since then. Not dramatically, its had its up’s and down’s in between. After 3G/HSPDA a drop in speed was clearly visible.

 

[Zax]

Zax, won't you PM me all your details as per the sticky? I'll pick this up the local radio guys. Make sure to include an e-mail, I'll keep you on the mail trail.

Done. Thanks vodacom3g

Maybe we should swap houses

Thanks for the offer, but Not likely! If poor comms is the price one has to pay for living out here, then so be it! Doesn't stop one from complaining about it though.....

Got my VC GPRS and must say, even when the DU connected at 48, my gprs was faster that it, although GPRS connects at 43k, right?

As I understand, it should usually run at 115k, but is dependent on what coding schemes are installed on the tower!

 

[ld13]

As I understand, it should usually run at 115k, but is dependent on what coding schemes are installed on the tower!

Jip,

The theoretical limit for packet switched data is 171.2 kbit/s (using 8 time slots and CS-4 coding)

But VC limits you to x number of slots.I'll post the link where i saw the 43k limit as soon as i find it.

 

[ld13]

Well my phone is a Class 10 (4+1/ 3+2 slots) GPRS phone.
With 4+1 you get 80k download.
With 3+2 you get 60k download.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPRS

dont ask where i got that 43k figure from...