Sprint ##DATA tuning (changing Home Agent)

ken winston caine · EVDO Newbie Joined: 23 Aug 2007 Posts: 5

Want to correct something I reported earlier today.

After reading all 15 pages of this thread and several other threads in the forum, I learned that by hovering my cursor over the antenna bars in the Sprint Mobile Connection Manager I could see which service I was connected to (EVDO, 1xRTT, etc.).

I indeed am connecting to 1xRTT. Still seems like I should be getting better speeds. I did with Verizon 1xRTT in this same location.

However, once Verizon went REV A here early this year, I could no longer maintain a connection. Kept bouncing between National Access and Broadband (rev A). And Verizon let me out of my contract. So I switched to Sprint.

With Verizon 1xRTT, I was getting downloads in the 17 to 26 KB/sec range. With Sprint, I'm lucky to get 11 and often get much worse: 6, 7, 8KB/sec.

So now I am wondering what tweaks, if any, might improve the 1xRTT connection and speed.

I am using a Wilson 12" magnetic mount omni-directional antenna and a 2-3 watt dual-band amp. With that combo, I usually get a signal in the -84 to -89 dB range. Without the amp (but with the antenna) I get a signal of about -96 dB. Without the antenna and just the PX 500 card, the signal is about -104 to -107 dB.

I tried using my Yagi, which worked well with the Verizon tower 11 miles away and in my line of sight, before rev A. I rotated it a couple degrees at a time 360 degrees, stopping a minute between each rotation and checking signal strength, and could never get better than -104 dB with it. It seemed to want to point almost due north to get that best signal.

On the maps, I can find a Sprint 1xRTT tower in Espanola, almost 45 miles north of me. I am wondering if I was detecting that with the Yagi.

I can't find ANY other 1xRTT or EVDO Sprint towers in New Mexico, other than one at the bottom of the state, by the university in Las Cruces (300 miles south of me).

So I must be picking up my signal via roaming .... or????

When I take the laptop into Santa Fe (25 miles north of me) I get a signal of -78 dB. When I take it to Albuquerque (47 miles southwest of me) I get a signal in the low -80s.

When I call Sprint, they tell me to be happy with the signal I am getting, that I am in a marginal area. When I talk to the people in the Santa Fe Sprint store (who obviously know nothing about this), they tell me that local EVDO users are getting bursts to 1.2 mb/sec. As best I can determine, there IS no Sprint EVDO in northern New Mexico and apparently, even though my card is set to roam, I cannot roam onto Verizon's EVDO signal in Albuquerque and Santa Fe. I'm told Sprint does not have a roaming agreement with Verizon. Only with Alltel in this area and that Alltel does not have EVDO. All very disappointing.

In the meantime, I am waiting for Sprint to tell me my MSL. Expecting to hear back on that tomorrow.

The person I spoke with thinks my home agent is set to Sacramento, Calif., but that may not be right. He wasn't sure what a "home agent" is. Once I get the MSL, I am going to try Kansas City and see if that helps any. Hope so.

But then again, this may apply only to EVDO and not 1xRTT at all.

If you know, tell me.

Or if you know of any 1xRTT tweaks or forums, send me there, please.

Thanks,
kwc

Bigdave · EVDO Addict Joined: 08 Nov 2006 Posts: 1069

Have you looked at the Alltel map? They show EVDO in a lot of the northwest corner of N.M. around Farmington. Also have EVDO in the Gallup area and then down in the southern part of the state around Roswell and Carlsbad. With their map showing that coverage as well as 1xrtt coverage in a lot of other areas in N.M. it wouldn't surprise me if they've turned on more EVDO than their map shows. I know of one area here in south Georgia that jumped from no data coverage to EVDO Rev A a few weeks ago completely skipping 1xrtt and EVDO Rev 0.

They are supposed to have access to a street level mapping tool like Sprint does as early as tomorrow (Friday) according to an Alltel rep on the Alltel board here. Might be worth looking into?

Good luck.

EDIT: Sorry for getting this thread so far off topic mods!!

Arsalan · EVDO Newbie Joined: 17 Sep 2007 Posts: 1

I'm sorry if this is painfully obvious but I'm not the most computer literate person around. My speeds aren't that great at all for the signal strength I'm getting with my Novatel Ovation U720, so I thought it'd be great to try this trick as my provider is Sprint. However, no matter what I try I can't get the ##DATA window to even pop up! I'm running Windows Vista and the latest version of the Sprint connection manager. When it says let the cursor hover over the go box, you're referring to "go automatically when ready" checkbox? Because that the best option I can see from the options presented. I leave my mouse hovering over the checkbox and type ##DATA and nothing happens. I've tried it a bunch of different ways too. Online (EVDO and 1xRTT), offline connected to 1xRTT, no NDIS, with NDIS, etc. I hate to ask someone to spell this out for me, but I really want to try this.

JGZinv · Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2007 12:47 am Post subject:

No - the "go" that is being discussed is the "Go" button that has to be pressed on the Sprint Connection Manager in order for the device to connect. It's on the front silver faceplate on the manager itself... on the right hand side. You have to be disconnected, in order for it to display "Go" on the button. It's not buried in the settings menu.

You leave the mouse pointer over the go button, then press the shift key and hit number 3 two times, this gives you your ## symbols. While still holding shift, type DATA and a menu with your other settings should appear.

When I do it there's a "dong" noise for each correct key press.

xenophon · EVDO Addict Joined: 30 Aug 2005 Posts: 2001

BTW, something might be wrong with area5 in Texas or Georgia. I noticed it consistently shows slow here, for tests on phones..

http://www.dslreports.com/mspeed?domains=1

And on this list for cards, only a handful in area5 get over 600Kbps out of over 1000 tests in last month...
http://www.dslreports.com/archive/spcsdns.net?zip=&1=1&p=1

Sprint, if you're reading this, better check it out. And if anyone is set to area5, you might want to try another HA (see first post for areas).

shooter64738 · EVDO User Joined: 07 Sep 2007 Posts: 41

Does anyone know of a reference for some of the settings that could be changed with the ##DATA mode? I'm sure there are a few things in there that would affect connection speed, but it's hard to tell with some many acronyms, and values. If there was an explanation of some of these, that would be great.

xenophon · EVDO Addict Joined: 30 Aug 2005 Posts: 2001

^I haven't found any others that affect performance. But the ##DATA screen is more robust for Sierra cards than the others. Not sure what's all on Sierra settings.

The Novatel cards don't have many other settings in ##DATA. There is a ##MSL for Novatel that allows you to change the RevA setting and other related to the MAC protocol, but I didn't see anything that could relate to performance tuning. There is also a ##RTN that shows usage info. Be careful not to click on Reset, as some has said it wiped out their card info.

You can also go into ##DEBUG and found out lots of neat things like the SID you may be roaming on and nearby sites.

jiggajoe80 · EVDO Newbie Joined: 20 Sep 2007 Posts: 2

Hello All,

I run winXP SP2 and am using a px-500 on a toshiba laptop.

My question is how to change home agent on the px-500?
(Specific Directions.)

Thanks[/i]

CraigCraig · EVDO Heavy User Joined: 15 May 2007 Posts: 141

jiggajoe80 · EVDO Newbie Joined: 20 Sep 2007 Posts: 2

I've read all 16 pages...the 1st post speaks of the novatel card. I am looking for info to do it to my px-500.

Please help? Question

CraigCraig · EVDO Heavy User Joined: 15 May 2007 Posts: 141

JRocksIllini · EVDO User Joined: 06 Sep 2007 Posts: 29

Long thread to search through....still on the first few pages.

Since I don't have the Sprint Connection Manager installed on my PC (I'm connected through a Linksys Router), am I still able to do this? I feel I'm getting slower speeds than what I should be getting.

CraigCraig · EVDO Heavy User Joined: 15 May 2007 Posts: 141

kyuubi · EVDO Newbie Joined: 16 Sep 2007 Posts: 6

Is there a HA for Puerto Rico?? Cool

or maybe a close one? PLZZ my speed is about as slow as dial-up Crying or Very sad

LouV · Posted: Fri Nov 02, 2007 2:11 pm Post subject:

Interesting that Sprint shows a home agent in Roachdale, IN.

68.28.153.76 Roachdale, IN Area 4
68.28.153.77 Roachdale, IN Area 4

According to the service maps, Roachdale isn't even serviced by Sprint.

hmmmmmm

Lou