Mac OS X 10.4.7 vs. VZAccess, Speed Comparisons

Michael

This thread will discuss which is faster, using the built-in EVDO drivers that are part of Mac OS X 10.4.7 or Verizon's VZAccess. You cannot use both
both 10.4.7 and VZAccess - so you can only pick one.

Please post your results to this thread.
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samccormack · EVDO Newbie Joined: 07 Sep 2006 Posts: 3

I find Apple's native drivers to be faster. I did 2 speed tests using speakeasy's tool and got around 700 with VZAccess and 1.5 with Apple's drivers on the same machine. Granted the 1.5 cold have been a burst but just normal web surfing feels much faster with the Apple drivers.

Since you don't get access to the TXT message portion of the V640 card with either driver and I like the Apple interface better I am going to stick with the native drivers unless I have a reason to change. (Note that I can use the TXT message function on the Windows version and the card is at least able to receive txt messages)

Alex · Posted: Thu Sep 21, 2006 12:53 pm Post subject: Apple Drivers faster

Using a MacBook Pro with 2ghz core duo and 2gb ram, I did a fresh install of tiger then did all software upates ending up at latest OS at time of this posting - 10.4.7

I then immediately tested ExpressCard at dslreports.com and got test results of 1030/127.

Installed VZW Access v3.0.1 from CD, restarted the MBP and redid the tests and then only got 762/125 !

Each test result is an average of 3 runs to two different destinations.

It easy to tell that surfing with apple drivers is definitely snappier. The numbers just provide validation.

Scott · Posted: Thu Sep 28, 2006 7:10 pm Post subject:

The last five customers that I have helped had the same experiences.

Ex:

VZAccess Manager (VZAM) = 340 kbps down, 116 kbps up.
Apple support (OS 10.4.7 and later) = 793 kbps down, 97 kbps up.

Other useful info:

Make sure you have good signal before you activate.

Use your Booster Antenna! Good is two-three 'bars' or better, roughly speaking. You'll have a hard time activating with one 'bar'. And note: you have the tower icon and four 'bars'. The little tower icon is NOT a 'bar' (though it does turn red when there is no signal).

Four out of the last nine customer setups I have walked through required that VZAM was loaded FIRST, followed by activating the card, then successfully connecting to/through Verizon's network (actually loading Internet pages).

I have no idea why we were seeing issues, but when customers first tried to use Apple's native support (and successfully activated) they could not connect to the network (authenticate). They would get authentication errors or modem errors.

It could have been something related to the over the air provisioning parameters not loading to the card correctly during first-time activation due to low signal (or the Apple driver support no longer working for first-time activation). Used to work fine. That is how I activated my card (but it did take two tries).