Signal Too Good

kurtg · EVDO Fledgling Joined: 12 Jan 2006 Posts: 12

Verizon works great every where except my new place of employment. I have a great signal at 4 bars, but I rarely am able to connect at broadband speeds. Even "National Access" takes me about 10 attempts to connect although I stay connected once I do.

I called Verizon's technical support several times. The first time I talked to the engineer and he figured out that I was configured for a tower that was "over the hill" from my area. He moved me to a new tower and I connected with no issues. That worked for two days.

I called Verizon again but after two weeks, somebody called to let me know that they can't fix my problem because I'm in between 3 towers that all give me perfect reception. Therefore, my packets are distributed among the towers and I can't hold a connection or even connect.

It seems bizarre that EVDO can't handle this. One would think that with multiple good choices that it would just select one and stick with it. Or, even just handled the distributed packets given that this is IP and duplicate packets is just part of the fun.

Any thoughts? I could call Verizon again to hopefully get assigned to a different engineer. Or, I could use a directional antennae to try to lock into one of the towers.

I thought having too good of a signal was like being too rich or too young. There is no such thing.

--Kurt

Jim_in_VA · Posted: Mon May 11, 2009 4:40 pm Post subject:

yup - directional antenna
_________________
evdo-tips.com

kurtg · EVDO Fledgling Joined: 12 Jan 2006 Posts: 12

Luka · EVDO Junkie Joined: 07 Mar 2007 Posts: 171

3Gstore · EVDO Addict Joined: 19 Sep 2006 Posts: 3171

fordrhs41 · EVDO Heavy User Joined: 29 Jan 2007 Posts: 100

[quote="kurtg"]

I'm in between 3 towers that all give me perfect reception. Therefore, my packets are distributed among the towers and I can't hold a connection or even connect.

It appears to me that you should locate the three towers in relation to your location as it seems to me you need an antenna with a narrow beam width you can point at the best selection of the three towers, considering that you are not after gain but selectivity. There are technical specs on each
antenna and beam width at the 3 db points is usually given by the seller.
If you are located between two towers then front to back ratio may come into play. Do your home work and good luck
W5DAZ
After thought, if you have a laptop, drive up to any of the three towers and see if your problem disappears

falsedragon · EVDO User Joined: 13 Oct 2008 Posts: 45

Being close to 3 towers should not be a problem. Your modem should be able to handle that. The problem might be that one of the sectors is not in the neighbor list, therefore causing the noise floor to go out of control.

If you could, read your RSSI and EC/IO.

Also, check your active channel, and PN. See if those change a lot during a connected state.

Keep opening tickets. There is a lot the Engineer can do to fix this.

Adding an antenna isn’t going to help.

kurtg · EVDO Fledgling Joined: 12 Jan 2006 Posts: 12