Ok Sprint Merlin S620 Mac OSX 10.4.3 but....

dfphoto · EVDO User Joined: 11 Nov 2005 Posts: 26

Hi I finally got the card working major pain due to the modem set up
got it working and the download speed is good but my upload speed is so slow it is not worth having it for my needs.

I am receiving between 4.4k-15k which is 1/4 of dial up so what could the issue be? I have the antenna installed and as I said am receving about 2mb download speeds I am using Transmit for my upload and initially it says a high number but 4.4-10k is average for a 12mb file....

Help would be appreciated...

David dfcarsearch@earthlink.net

Michael · Posted: Mon Nov 21, 2005 9:41 pm Post subject:

Keep in mind, that the average speeds are:

EVDO = 400Kb - 700K download, 50K -100K upload
1XRTT = 50K - 100K download and upload speeds

It is best to benchmark with a site such as http://www.DSLreports.com/stest and report the speeds here.
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dfphoto · EVDO User Joined: 11 Nov 2005 Posts: 26

Hi Michael, I was speaking with Wendy today about this but anyway, I am averaging 5.5kb/sec upload and 5.9 download

I don't understand how this can equate to 50k upload my cable modem is also slow at 48kb/sec when their website said I was getting 384 upload but I know it is wrong as a 1.1 meg jpg took over a minute 30 to upload on my cable modem and more than 3 minutes on your card.

Also, I was a little unhappy to find out today that although I spent the 50.00 to have you prep my Merlin Card I will be unable to do that as I travel around the country unless I find someone with a PC to upgrade me in every city or town.

Had I known that upfront I would not have bought the card, the service, or the antenna. I'm really unhappy about all of this as the download speeds are great not at the moment but earlier today it was awesome, but this upload speed kills me, since I'm a photographer and I can't wait 3-4 minutes per meg. to upload anything. I honestly think you should put something upfront about the card update issue as many Mac people like myself will not be very happy to find this information out... I mean what's the point of having a MAC card that you will never be able to upgrade without a PC laptop?

dfphoto · EVDO User Joined: 11 Nov 2005 Posts: 26

Michael, I'm a little confused about the terminal hack I noticed on your site, is this a way I can update the card in different cities? Also, I read about the Kyocera Router the KR-1 I think would this router allow Merlin Card to display status information like the kyocera card does with Verizon? I am on Sprint and trying to figure out what to do... today I tried taking my laptop to Santa Monica where I thought Sprint had serivce but I couldn't get anything.

I then came home and thought I should try outside so althought I had service it was so slow I couldn't run the speed test on the dsl site you gave me yesterday. Apparently, Sprint is not up to speed yet although I was getting 8-10kbs upload vs 4kbs yesterday. So what do you think about this?

Best David

Michael

Jazzer · EVDO Fledgling Joined: 23 Nov 2005 Posts: 13

Michael · Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2005 4:56 pm Post subject:

I don't have a timetable - I just have a comment from a VP @ Sprint, who told me they will be supporting Mac.
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dfphoto · EVDO User Joined: 11 Nov 2005 Posts: 26

Michael wrote: This is clearly stated in many places all over our web sites. You don't have to insert your card in a PC when you travel to a new city. Your card will work just fine. Until Sprint officially supports Mac (and they will), you have zero choices with Sprint and one choice with Verizon (KPC650).

Regarding upload speed. This is also stated all over the place. The upload speed is on the average 50K - 100K, the download speed is 400K - 700K on the average.

The terminal hack is similar to the free drivers that is available on the web site.

Hey Michael I'm not here to bash you or your company, I'm just trying to get enough upload speed for my clients and myself to upload images (photography) for clients in other parts of the country to review as we shoot.

You have a great site but it is not organized at all for ease to understand, I'm not an IT person so excuse me if I'm ignorant here, the way information for Sprint and Mac is presented it is not easy to understand or find. The terminal hack reads like a smart person can use the Terminal app to program the card. It states: if you are in a EVDO or non-EVDO area, and you will not be able to update the PRL of the card (needed to see new EVDO towers). Then on another page you wrote: To update the PRL, hold down the Option Key and select the signal bars from the menu and select Activate Card

You can also update the PRL on Verizon or Sprint, by dialing a *22899 from your phone or PC Card.

So does this mean I can update the PRL by this rather than using someone's PC laptop? Can you clarify the kb/s ratings as my ftp shows 4.4-15kp/s but on the dsl test site you mentioned above it shows two sets of numbers. one kbp/s as higher than the kb/s that I get but regardless of that I go with real world numbers buy uploading a tiff or jpg and seeing how long it takes so far i've gotten from zero upload to a max of 15.5kb/s in a different part of town.

I understand it will vary and should get better meaning more sites but is the best I'll get? Meaning is this 50k upload? 2-3 minutes per meg upload seems slower than the numbers you mention of 50-100k but I am not an expert please clarify if you can, thanks David

dfphoto · EVDO User Joined: 11 Nov 2005 Posts: 26

Hi group, I was down on the Merlin card but recently had a much better download and upload speed by going outside and moving to the left about 3 feet I got up to 900k download which was a lot better than the crap inside my house.

I've decided to keep the unit and hope to add the KR1 whenever it is available. I hope Sprint and Verizon add bandwidth to this system as it is a bit slow ESPECIALLY THE UPLOAD SPEED...

I recommend you sprint users to buy via EVDO as Sprint is useless...

xenophon · EVDO Addict Joined: 30 Aug 2005 Posts: 2004

dfphoto · EVDO User Joined: 11 Nov 2005 Posts: 26

Hi group I forgot to word this correctly, if anyone from the list is thinking of needing or using the Sprint card in your laptop, I recommend buying the service and the card from EVDO forum or Booster Antenna because they are the only people in the country that I know of that support the Sprint Mac connection.

BTW the antenna doubled my speed outside my house so I use it all the time it comes in 2 pieces so it fits in my computer bag easily... I might need a more powerful one in my house but for travel it is good....