If my speed is slow will it always be that speed?

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

Hi I'm sorry to ask a stupid question but if my Sprint download speed is on the slower end of the range 400k at my house will it most likely always be slower there? I don't quite understand what creates the speed is the distance to the tower or something else?

Thank you very much, David

xenophon · EVDO Addict Joined: 30 Aug 2005 Posts: 1969

If I understand your question the answer is yes, the speed will probably maintain that level. If outside, does it speed up? Obstructions, especially concrete, and distance from tower will impact performance. The closer to a window facing a tower, the more likely better performance. Line-of-site with no obstructions to a tower would likely give optimal performance, assuming the tower isn't dealing with a heavy load.

Are you on a smartphone or laptop card? If the latter, you could use a booster antenna and it may help performance in the house. I bought one from this site and about 60-80% of the time, I get a 200K or more performance boost (if not already at 5 bars). It depends on tower load and how much/type of obstruction to tower you have at the location though.

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

Hi I am in a home, I do have the booster antenna on, I am near a window, the first day I tried it I was getting up to 2mb download for 15 minutes then it just went away, and since 4-5 days it's been consistently 400-469 kb/s in the same spot. I've taken it in my car to see what would happen but here 90503 zip code La by the beach... it went up a little but mostly on the upload which is my main concern but only 15kb/s upload at the best usually it is 8kb/s

This has been my concern since I bought it, I have 4 days left to return and I'm on the fence about it. When I go to the dsl test site Michael pointed me to I see other people getting 1.5mb download and it makes me so jeolous I barely get the minimum and it makes it so expensive for so little performance.

I say that with reserves because as we all know something is better than nothing, yet when compared to so many others I feel like I'm getting screwed, and it makes not improvement having the antenna on or off. also not sure if this is normal but my antenna keeps disconnecting from the card as if the port and the antenna adapter don't quite fit...

xenophon · EVDO Addict Joined: 30 Aug 2005 Posts: 1969

If you have taken the laptop to many locations around town and can't get over 500Kbits, it may be the card or laptop. Then again, Sprint and Verizon only spec EVDO at 300-500K/sec. You should be getting around 30-100Kb/sec uploads so something may be up with your card maybe or laptop config. 8Kb/sec is definitely not common, especially if at multiple towers around town.

Try plugging in your zipcode (or nearby one) into this and see if others in your area are getting better performance...

http://www.dslreports.com/archive/spcsdns.net

Also try this speedtest site...
http://speedtest.frontiernet.net/

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

Hi thanks for the quick response, I'm a on a newer mac laptop G4 1.5 max ram 2gb osx 10.4.3 I had Michael's company do the PRL and since I cannot tell what my db rating is it is hard to tell, according to the sprint maps I am in a limited coverage area at the moment meaning I am on the edge of the service, well actually can't tell for sure if I am on the edge but they list my city in their search and the city only a few blocks away is not listed.

Michael said my 8kb/s is actually 40kb according the spec sheet but in real world it does not seem so to me (Transmit my ftp program).

How can I tell if the card is actually ok?

xenophon · EVDO Addict Joined: 30 Aug 2005 Posts: 1969

Ah, do you mean 8Kbytes or bits? Try this speed test and post the results in bits.

http://speedtest.frontiernet.net/

I've configured a friend's Mac on Sprint Merlin card and he gets 1Mb/sec often. Unfortunately it's not possible to do diag on a Mac but if you have a Windows laptop around, you could load the drivers and see what the Connection Manager says about the card as well as do performance testing from Windows. The Windows Connection Manager can be downloaded on the Net.

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

Welcome to BBR! Run more tests! see forums
2005-12-01 17:45:15 EST: 12 / 8
Your download speed : 12 kbps or 1.5 KB/sec.
Your upload speed : 8 kbps or 1 KB/sec.

this is pretty bad...

xenophon · EVDO Addict Joined: 30 Aug 2005 Posts: 1969

Yowza, that's not even 1xRTT speeds. Do you have access to anyone's Windows laptop to test on?

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

No I don't have any laptops availabe to me that are Windows...

on dsl speed test it says no upload speed can be detected and it is sunny here....

so should I return the whole kit?

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

Welcome to BBR! Run more tests! see forums
2005-12-01 17:56:58 EST: 358 / 34
Your download speed : 358 kbps or 44.7 KB/sec.
Your upload speed : 34 kbps or 4.2 KB/sec.

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

I don't get the upload speed though.... I don't know what to do I feel like tossing it back...

It's so lame most of the time

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

Welcome to BBR! Run more tests! see forums
2005-12-01 18:01:36 EST: 465 / 39
Your download speed : 465 kbps or 58.2 KB/sec.
Your upload speed : 39 kbps or 4.9 KB/sec.

this time I ejected the card and restarted the connection..

download is R1 speed isn't it?

Wendy · Posted: Thu Dec 01, 2005 5:17 pm Post subject: Re: one last test

bzboy · EVDO Fledgling Joined: 15 Nov 2005 Posts: 16

this might be worth a try. a friend of mine had consistently low upload speeds. he deleted the bytemobile program that came with the sprint install cd and his speed increased. worth a try.

btinc · EVDO User Joined: 03 Nov 2005 Posts: 41

Welcome to BBR! Run more tests! see forums
2005-12-01 19:54:06 EST: 1418 / 101
Your download speed : 1418 kbps or 177.2 KB/sec.
Your upload speed : 101 kbps or 12.7 KB/sec.

I just ran the test, i'm in the same area code although i'm in my car and with a windows laptop.