Noob has some questions on EVDO internet service..

mudpuppy93 · EVDO User Joined: 18 Oct 2007 Posts: 42

Hi all,

I just found out about EVDO internet service over the weekend (when the service started in my area) and I have a few questions that the people over at my local Alltel don't seem to know the answers to. I don't have access to any kind of high speed internet beside satellite in my area, and I am looking to make the change to EVDO for my internet service. How reliable is EVDO internet service? Is it sensitive to weather changes? I live 5.5 miles away from the closest tower with flat ground in between and I have 2 to 3 bars of service on my current Alltel phone (which is not EVDO). Is this going to be enough of a signal to have reliable internet service? I was thinking of going with a tethered phone over a card (I only have a express card slot or USB port in my laptop) and the person at Alltel said I would have slightly less speed using that- what is slightly less? While I was at the store two different times I tried out a laptop hooked up with the Huawei EC360 card and I did a a couple speed tests using speedtest.net. The first time I got a average d/l speed of about 180k/sec (at 6:30 pm clear weather) and the second time (tonight at 6:30 pm with stormy weather) got a average of about 375k/sec d/l speeds- that seems to be a bit lower than the speeds that others are getting on here- what could be the issue with that? The salesperson's response to the varying speed is that you are sharing bandwidth and its going to be slower at peak times of the day- is this true? Since I am going to have to get a new phone I was looking at two different models- the Samsung Hue or the LG AX8600. I was told that the Hue gets better reception, and it seemed to actually have a bar better than the motorolas and the LGs that were in the store, but I haven't been able to find any info on it using it for internet service either good or bad. One thing that I am concerned about is that most of the new phones have internal antennas and no external antenna jack in case I need to get a antenna for better reception. Is there a better phone I should be looking at? Sorry to be so long winded but I am full of questions Very Happy

Any kind of info would really be appreciated..

Thanks!

Matt

suasion · Posted: Fri Oct 19, 2007 6:03 am Post subject:

Best advice is research research research........phones, cards, everything
You have 14 days with Alltel to return items {once into the contract you're stuck}
I have a razr tethering speeds vary it's rare I get as good as the data card
I am 6+ miles from a tower my cell gets better reception than the data card does w/o an antenna.
I use the PC5750 w/ the omni antenna to get service

mwyatt · EVDO Newbie Joined: 21 Dec 2005 Posts: 5

The reduced speed during peak times is true as with any other Internet service. You may find that the EVDO tower by your home may be less utilized than the one downtown by the store. Or your entire region could just be oversubscribed.

I recently had to get a new aircard... The KPC680 didn't work well for me, but I think it was due to the expressCard to PCMCIA adapter that came with the card and my PCMCIA>PCI controller's chipset (Ricoh). If you have the new express card slot, it may work well for you. I wound up with the Huawei as it works flawlessly with the PCMCIA>PCI adapter. The signal strength with the built-in antenna was about the same for both cards from where I live. I'm still trying to find an external antenna adapter for the Huawei though.

Hope you find what information you're looking for. There is a lot of good information in these forums.

mudpuppy93 · EVDO User Joined: 18 Oct 2007 Posts: 42

Thanks for the replies guys! Yeah I have been finding a lot of good info on the forum. I guess I am just hesitant to take the jump and buy all that stuff and find its not what I want. I haven't seen very much info about gaming with EVDO- I am guessing the dial up speed ping times and slower upload speeds limits what you can do- does anyone have any experience with gaming or even using voice chat programs with EVDO?

djheath · Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2007 2:32 pm Post subject:

The wife and I play WOW with our cards, and she also has played EQ II. I have occasionally used it to hold a Skype conversation so it is possible but it also depends on what you want to use it for. I've not tried to play multiplayer Doom or Quake as I feel the latency would be to much for those games to play well.
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Dave...

mudpuppy93 · EVDO User Joined: 18 Oct 2007 Posts: 42

Well you answered my question- if skype works and wow works then it will work for what I want it for. Thanks!