New EVDO card owner - i have a few questions

dmaul3300 · EVDO Newbie Joined: 26 Feb 2006 Posts: 10

I just pickeed up a merlin S620 card last week and hooked it up to my laptop. I have been reading several posts and have found some useful information and have learned quite a bit BUT i still have a lot to learn.

Ive been having trouble with speeds. they claim speeds of 400-700kb.When I goto dslreports.com and do a speed test, i average 120kb/sec down and 18kb up. I have tried at work, at my house, the bowling alley, at a friends house and a few other places. I get about the same speed results.I have the latest version of sprint connection manager and prl update. I have read posts about forcing it to EVDO only.i tried this and was able to get to 200kb one time.. i tried this tonight and tomorrow before i goto sprint, i will take tests at various locations and see what results i get. I have tried enabling NDIS. i looked at the settings to make sure compression wasnt checked as mentioned in another post. I was glad to learn about some of these options. with my mediacom connection i get 550kb down and 30kb

i have an hp pavillion ze5300 laptop. 2.66gzh pentium 4 processor, 1 gig ram, 60 gig hard drive. I have sprint as my carrier and live in an area which EVDO was deployed late last year.

I have a few questions:
1. looking through my settings, it mentions my signal is -82dBm.. is this good? what is average?
2. what does NDIS do? should i have it enabled. i tried it once, ran a couple of speed tests but got about the same results.
3. are there any other settings i need to make or might have missed. i installed the disk sprint gave me, plugged in my card and then opened up connection manager and hit go - to connect.
4. could my card be bad? i have seen a low test of 79kb upload and 8kb download and a high of 203kb down and 18kb upload. i still have about a week left(14 day period).. im going to the sprint store tomorrow after work and will bring my laptop and run some tests so they can see the results.
5. should i get another merlin or go for the 5740. that was the other card they had in stock. i noticed on sprints website it is $20 cheaper then the merlin or sierra(which sprint doesnt have in the store i goto). what is the difference between the merlin and the 5740. reading many of the posts(i still have alot to read) merlin sounds like a good card.

thanks in advance for the input. there is alot of good information in this forum.

xenophon · EVDO Addict Joined: 30 Aug 2005 Posts: 2003

1. looking through my settings, it mentions my signal is -82dBm.. is this good? what is average?

That is a decent signal. If this is happening at various locations with known EVDO, that's probably not your problem. The issue is likely the card, software install or conflict/compatibility with laptop.

If you go to Menu->Device Diag, does it show an actual EVDO connection or 1xRTT?

2. what does NDIS do? should i have it enabled. i tried it once, ran a couple of speed tests but got about the same results.

It creates a Windows network device driver rather than a dialup modem driver. It keeps the device in always on mode when plugged in. Also nice to use with network access managers. Not related to your issue.

3. are there any other settings i need to make or might have missed. i installed the disk sprint gave me, plugged in my card and then opened up connection manager and hit go - to connect.

Did you check if there are updated system drivers for your laptop from HP? Are you on WinXP Service Pack 2? Did you try removing Connection Manager and installing the software from installation CD?

4. could my card be bad? i have seen a low test of 79kb upload and 8kb download and a high of 203kb down and 18kb upload. i still have about a week left(14 day period).. im going to the sprint store tomorrow after work and will bring my laptop and run some tests so they can see the results.

Could be a bad card or could be that S620 is not compatible with your laptop. S620 is generally considered a better card but the Sierra 580 card is considered to be more compatible with wider range of laptops. Not sure about 5740.

Do you have access to another laptop that you can test the card on? Would tell you if you card or your specific laptop.

5. should i get another merlin or go for the 5740. that was the other card they had in stock. i noticed on sprints website it is $20 cheaper then the merlin or sierra(which sprint doesnt have in the store i goto). what is the difference between the merlin and the 5740. reading many of the posts(i still have alot to read) merlin sounds like a good card.

I'll let someone else explain the differences. I have no experience with the 5740.

xenophon · EVDO Addict Joined: 30 Aug 2005 Posts: 2003