Possibility of 250kbps+ with tall trees around my house?

Orion39

I have spent a few hours reading the forums, but have not quelled my concerns yet regarding connection speeds at my location.

I will be able to buy EVDO equipment (router, amp, antenna..) next week, but the anticipation is killing me. Lol. I have been stuck with 128k for a couple years, and at least 10 years before that I had 28k speeds. Sad

I'm very excited with the possibility of getting DSL speeds with EVDO. However, I have concerns with the somewhat dense forest that surrounds my house.

I believe it was Torrey here at 3gstore that informed me that I should see 500kbps-1.0Mbps speeds (with the equipment I ordered and my location relative to the cell tower).

According to coverage map, I am in the "pink" coverage (middle) which I assume is the best signal strength.

However, the trees extend about 20 ft or so over the the roof of my house. I'm completely surrounded by trees. I'm worried that this will prevent me from getting at least 250kbps.

So what do you all think, is this a reasonable expectation (250kbps+) given the trees around my house? Or are trees not really an issue, so long as you have the right equipment, such as an omni antenna?

I've read 2 posts in the success story forum, that describe how people were able to see speeds much higher than this, regardless of trees surrounding their house. However I'm having a hard time being convinced by only 2 posts.

And speaking of that forum, I'm surprised there are not more posts. That leads me to believe either a lot of people are not satisfied with their connection, or many are satisfied but as most people do when they are satisfied with something, they are not motivated to say anything. If there's a problem, people are sure to respond, but if something is working fine, no one wants to say anything. Lol. Well I will certainly be sure to post if I have a positive experience. Smile

Jayson · Posted: Fri Jul 20, 2007 7:53 am Post subject:

I would say youll get a good connection ....I have a simular situation in my area and i am outside the actual coverage area and i still pull a stong 500kbs and around 150 or so upload....I live in a forest and to top that off a valley ....all I did was extended my wilson trucker antenna up off the roof of my house about 10 feet on a peice of metal conduet.....I also have a wilson amp ....but if you order from 3gstore then atleast if it doesnt work for you they will refund your money aslong as its in their return policy date ......As I said though I would almot bet money on it that you will be able to pull a strong signal and will be tickeled with this service after being a 128k customer......I was in the same situation and I love my u720 and connection speeds.......
good luck and let us know what comes of this!!!

CraigCraig · EVDO Heavy User Joined: 15 May 2007 Posts: 120

I have trees around me and over me in my location--not in a valley but it is so dense that I had a challenge finding a location to put my Sirius satellite radio antenna that actually worked without intermittent cut outs from tree branches moving. Laughing

EVDO (Sprint with a Novatel Merlin S720) is great for me here and I get 1200 to 1300 kbps down, 300 to 500 up with a latency range of 120 to 150 (roughly.) My signal is in the range of -78 to -72 without an antenna or amp.

If you are in a good reception area I'd bet good money that shortly after installation of your EVDO equipment that you will be ecstatic about your connection speeds and the trees won't make much of a difference for you. Let us know how it turns out. Inquiring minds want to know.

Orion39 · Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2007 7:30 pm Post subject:

Thanks for the replies!

I got my order today and tried connecting just the router to see what kind of speed I would get. I just plugged in the router and it worked, which was amazing, since my ISDN router was very difficult to install.

Not surprisingly with the router in a corner of my room I got 100kbps. Relocating the router close to and facing the window, I got 250-700kbps! Latency was 150-250ms.

So far I been connected for 4 hours now, 4pm-8pm CST. During this time I'm usually online playing a game with friends (MMORPG), and using a voice over IP program (Ventrilo). With both of these running I still got lag spikes, so it looks like I will definitely need the antenna installed. I'm hoping to get Rev A speeds then, which should be enough.

Still it's far better than what I had with ISDN. Websites load instantly which is great.

Unfortunately installing the antenna looks to be a big project. The roof is extremely tall and irregularly shaped and the 12' cable won't reach the top (I'd need 24' at least). The only option is to drill the antenna mount into the brick siding above my window, which is hardly ideal location.

I'll post my results when I get the antenna installed. Smile

Orion39 · Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2007 8:03 pm Post subject:

I discovered the source of the lag, it's my upload speeds. I'm getting around 700kbps download now but only around 35kbps upload, which is horrible for gaming.

CraigCraig · EVDO Heavy User Joined: 15 May 2007 Posts: 120

Orion, which router do you have?

Orion39 · Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2007 10:06 pm Post subject:

I'm using the Top Global MB6800.

My connection has gotten worse to the point of being totally disconnected for about a minute. This is not looking good for online gaming.

Not sure what is going on because the connection was working just fine. But the long lag spikes (upload dipping to 19-30kbps??) or being disconnected is terrible. My ISDN was slow but it was much more reliable, and a reliable connection is everything in online gaming. :/

Orion39 · Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2007 10:16 pm Post subject:

Just an update. I finally got the antenna installed up on the roof. I was surprised the 12' cable reached up there. I managed to find a rod that I could bracket onto the side of the roof, and then attach the 3 way mount over it. With a little bending I got it to be completely vertical, and then screwed the antenna on top of the mount.

So far for the past 12 hours I have been pulling 1200kbps consistently and around 200kbps upload. My online gameplay has been great. I think it's safe to assume that installing the antenna properly and as high as possible, is the cause of this.

Previously it was installed at a slight angle, and even with it installed on the roof at a slight angle, I noticed I only got around 500kbps and upload was very poor. Apparently it's extremely important to get it perfectly vertical.

CraigCraig · EVDO Heavy User Joined: 15 May 2007 Posts: 120

Cool!! Thanks for letting us know how it turned out.