HELP new to EVDo - what should I know? (speed seems slow)

rojoyinc · EVDO Fledgling Joined: 24 Oct 2006 Posts: 13

I had cable at old house - loved it... moved to where Cable will not install to me. Forced to use factional T1 (slower than cable - but costs me 325.00 a month! OUCH.

Anyway - looking for an alternative after a year of those rates...

Alltel told me they have EVDO broad band in our area now (just got it) I purchased their Kyocera air card and a router (around 400.00 for all) and got it working. I don't want to go mobile - I just want it in my home for less than 325.00 a month (at current fractional T1 speed or better would be nice) My fractional is about 1/2 the speed of my old Cable I'd say.

Anyway - I have 14 day trial before I have to return all this to get a refund, Else I'm into it for a 2 year contract. At this point (just got it working today) but current speed is about like dialup! HORRIBLE.

My dealer said to call support and tell them to up me to broad band, that they just added the high speed here. (so on the phone as I type this).
anything I should know or do?

Guy on phone... says "we don't have EVDO yet - calls it 1X and says should have EVDO by end of Jan. " Not what my dealer told me - I had been waiting a year for broadband speeds and they called and said it's ready... so some phone calls to make. Anyway I'm in Grand Rapids, MI if that helps at all - I know nothing of this - just want decent speed at decent price.
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rojoyinc · EVDO Fledgling Joined: 24 Oct 2006 Posts: 13

I've now had a couple hours of experience... here's what I've learned so far.

I had 4 bars on a scale of 1-10 for signal in the basement. My speed was testing at about 20-40kbs (OUCH) like a dial up modem.

I move the router and card upstairs - got 7 of 10 bars, ran the speed test and was around 380kbs ! NOW THATS TOLERABLE. Shortly later the signal dropped down to 5 bars and I'm at about 60kbs again = (

Seems like SIGNAL IS IMPORANT? - What can I do to max signal Are those add on antenna any good?

I have a card that has a little clip on the back that opens and I read somewhere that there is a RF connector in there or something? Is this for a add on antenna? if I can get 7-to-10 bars I should be in good shape until broadband is working in my area which I'm now told is Jan.
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cherokee · EVDO User Joined: 23 Mar 2006 Posts: 59

Someone else can chime in if I am correct but can you not roam on sprint at no charge? I just drove thru grand rapids last week and had broadband while in grand rapids area unless you are getting a very bad signal or out to far.
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Jeff

rojoyinc · EVDO Fledgling Joined: 24 Oct 2006 Posts: 13

I appreciate the reply - but what do you mean? Roam for free?

I'm using Alltel and am stationary at my home.
I'm not sure if I'm at 1X or on EVDO - my speed in the basement was only 40kbs, the AllTel tech at the support number said they don't have EVDO in my town yet and will in Jan.

Though my sales person at the store said we do have EVDO.

So which is it? - I moved my router and 650 card upstairs and now I get 7 bars out of 10 - (downstairs I had 4 out of 10) At 7 bars I get about 430kbs. I read on here that 1X is only 50-100kbs - so does this mean that I am on EVDO? How come the tech at their 800 number doesn't know we have it here? Does signal strength really vary the bandwidth throughput that much? It must. So I wonder - if I get a better antenna and get to 8, 9 or 10 bars will it be even faster? And if we're not gonna have EVDO until Jan, will it then be 3X faster then?

It's all rather confusing to me.
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cherokee · EVDO User Joined: 23 Mar 2006 Posts: 59

you are definately getting evdo upstairs. do you know what your decibal reading is when you hold the mouse over the area where the antenna shows in the connection manager? The antenna might get you up over a 1,000 but I am not positive on that.
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Jeff

jackrodgers · EVDO Addict Joined: 23 Mar 2006 Posts: 1127

rojoyinc · EVDO Fledgling Joined: 24 Oct 2006 Posts: 13

Thanks for the replies - now I'm glad I didn't ream out the sales person who said we have EVDO now in town. STRANGE that the national tech line doesn't know where they have service and said there is no EVDO here unti Jan.

anyway - for the first time I now see 8 bars tonight - did a test and got this.

. testmy.net test results ..:::
Download Connection is:: 561 Kbps about 0.56 Mbps (tested with 579 kB)
Download Speed is:: 68 kB/s
Upload Connection is:: 108 Kbps about 0.1 Mbps (tested with 386 kB)
Upload Speed is:: 13 kB/s

So fastest so far - 561 Kbps

I'm liking it - but how come it fluctuates so much - at time I can drop to 3 bars for 5 seconds or so - then back to 8 bars - So much that it can kill my download or upload. I wonder if it has to do with the routers best place so far is on the desk in front of me and seems to fade when I lean forward like I'm blocking it. Is there any way to know/tell where the tower is - which direction? so I can try and get the antenna on that side of the house etc... to maximize stability.

Cherokee - I don't seem to have a connection manager on this machine. ( think I know what you mean - I have one on my wireless machines) but this one is hard wired to the kyocera router with the air card. So there isn't any antenna icon - (or do you mean something else)? I don't see a "wireless antenna" anywhere - In the local area connection status window - I see "Connected, direction 12: 02:21 100.0Mbps speed - I think this is the locla network though?

Packets sent 41,333 - Recieved 45,454

thanks for the info - hope it doesn't get unusable in the summer we have massive tree's all around us. I'm having fractional T1 removed as I plan on using this - if I loose this in the fall- will be NASTY for sure.
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jcgrahs · EVDO Newbie Joined: 31 May 2005 Posts: 10

EVDO was just recently activated in Grand Rapids, which is probably why the national tech didn't know (the coverage maps on Alltel.com haven't been updated yet).

I'm just north of GR, and have had a similar experience in regards to wild fluctuations in speed. I've had the best luck with an external antenna, and it works much better on one site of my house than another (naturally the less convenient side). But that's where the router has come in handy.

At work, also north of GR, there's a better signal and I'm getting almost 1MB on the download side.

I've also been playing with some of the "speed tweaks" from a thread on this site, and that's helped the download speed noticeably.

Here's a link to the antenna I purchased, and the speed tweaks referenced above:

Antenna:
http://booster-antenna.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=14&products_id=24

Speed Tweaks:
http://www.evdoforums.com/thread504.html

breethon · EVDO Fledgling Joined: 26 Sep 2006 Posts: 12

What kind of upload speeds are you seeing in GR? I live in Vermontville and am considering EVDO. We barely even get Dial up out here.

jcgrahs · EVDO Newbie Joined: 31 May 2005 Posts: 10

rojoyinc · EVDO Fledgling Joined: 24 Oct 2006 Posts: 13

Thanks for all the info guyz - I'm slowly making progress... still signal in kitchen at 7 bars USUALLY - but it can drop to 2-3 bars for 10 seconds or so and then pop back up again. (weird). My problem was I had my wireless network so far away from the machines, I was getting drop outs from the network too. PIcked up a expander and that helped. Also - hooked up the Linksys wireless router a along side the Kyocera and turned the radio off in the Kyocera as the Linksys is stronger and the linksys extender likes the linksys better as well. The extender is above the down stairs computer room on the opposite side of the house - so its solved my wireless network problem. Now just wanna make sure I can get 7-10 bars and hopefully not fluctuate so much. Anyone know where the tower would be? I get a stronger signal from my sons ALLTEL phone on the front porch than the back porch. I'm West of G.R - on the Ottawa county line (WILSON AVE area) so the phone signal seems to tell me that the tower is SOUTH of us (S of West GR/WALKER/Standale). Would help if I knew if it was E or W side of the house as well. My external antenna will be on the EAST side of the house. so it the tower is SE of me - that would be ideal.

Aren't there issues with the length of the cable that connects the antenna? JAGRAHS ? - that antenna - you put it outdoors? I read about that antenna you have and the dealer said it's not good if you're already getting over 3-4 bars... that it will boost someone at 0-1-2 bars up to 3-4 bars. I was thinking of getting this one - was looking in here for comments/review.

http://booster-antenna.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=155

Comments? (Does Booster Antenna.com take them back if they don't do us any good?

Best speed I've gottan was a bit over 600k download, a bit over 100k upload. USUALLY I'm at about 320k download. Which is about what my factional T1 did - but at MUCH LESS COST. I was paying 320 a month for lousy T1 Frac. Get this - CABLE is 2 houses from me - E and 2 houses from me W - and won't bring it to my house - I even said I'd pay them 2-3 thousand for the trouble and sign a 10 year contract - and take cable TV as well as broadband. (nope - no can do - to much work I guess).
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jcgrahs · EVDO Newbie Joined: 31 May 2005 Posts: 10

Oops! Reading my comment, I can see where you thought I had an outdoor antenna; by "external", I meant that I wasn't using the built-in one. I'm using the Arc Freedom Antenna, referenced by the link in my post above. It's on about a 3-foot cable (when combined with the adapter).

lordmoto68 · EVDO User Joined: 10 Dec 2006 Posts: 59

just got my service on friday ... kpc650 and kr1 router

signal fluctuates wildly here also ... booster antenna on order (same one mentioned in above posts)

current performance in the 300k to 500k range with good signal ... hope antenna will help

kr1 seems to reboot itself ALOT ... thinkin it just signal loss

Alex · Site Admin Joined: 19 Sep 2006 Posts: 1893

lordmoto68 · EVDO User Joined: 10 Dec 2006 Posts: 59

Just to update my post above ...

signal fluctuation tamed with arc freedom antenna in basement window

http://booster-antenna.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=14&products_id=24

signal strength better yet with wilson trucker antenna outside

http://booster-antenna.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=14&products_id=155

reboot issue is a problem with my KR1 router

http://www.evdoforums.com/thread3460.html

http://www.evdoforums.com/thread2341.html

performance has improved to 500k/80k range for Dorr, MI ... now we tweak tcp/ip Smile