KR2 with Novatel U727 experience and questions

drexelh · EVDO Newbie Joined: 02 Apr 2008 Posts: 5 Location: Texas

I just bought a U727 through Sprint. Even in a fringe area of rural Texas, where I've just moved, it does an admirable job -- when plugged into my PC -- connecting to EVDO Rev. A. This is particularly true, since my discovery of the EVDO-Only option in Sprint's Connection manager. I regularly get ~1300Kbps/~350Kbps rates....

HOWEVER, just having received shipment of Kyocera's KR2, yesterday, I'm befuddled as to its performance with the same U727 -- which it quite explicitly claims to support! I tried the "just out of the box" treatment, to find that both a hard-wired ethernet connection and a Wi-Fi connection to the KR2 only got me ~400Kpbs/~25Kbps. I could have lived with the download speed, though it is a factor of three lower. However, I find the sub-dialup upload speed REALLY impacts interactivity on the web. And, in trying Skype, which works great when the U727 is directly connected to my laptop, I find it -- I should say those I "call" do -- almost unusably bad.

The download performance level is sort of Rev. 0, though the upload rate isn't likely even 1xRTT.... It is like the KR2 doesn't know the device it is dealing with and is going for the lowest common denominator, or something....

The best-sounding suggestion, from multiple support calls to Kyocera, was that I alter the "Traffic Shaping" settings under the "Advanced" configuration tab, manually setting expected download and upload rates. This sounded interesting, but had no appreciable effect.

Thoughts? Experiences?

Thanks!

Drexel

firedude · EVDO Junkie Joined: 26 Mar 2007 Posts: 317

Did you get the KR2 and the service from 3 G Store?? Either way I think (not to be sarcastic) your first mistake was calling Kyocera. I had nothing but "inappropriate" dealings with their tech support with my KR1, never again. Give the 3G folks a call or send them a support email. You can't go wrong.

drexelh · EVDO Newbie Joined: 02 Apr 2008 Posts: 5 Location: Texas

In my inexperience -- and my unawareness that this forum was apparently affiliated with 3 G Store -- I simply shopped on price, and ordered from another vendor I won't name, because posting policy prevented a previous reply of mine along these lines. Maybe the other vendor will offer help, but in any event I agree about the sad state of Kyocera's customer service, based on two calls, and way too many minutes of my time....

Meanwhile, I'm hoping that if anyone has helpful configuration information, they won't hold it hostage to the notion that I didn't purchase through the preferred vendor. Wink

Also, does anyone have personal experience, or anecdotal hints that others are having better luck (as in anything like EVDO Rev. A performance) with the U727 and the latest CradlePoint offering? I could ask for a return and change brands....

Thanks!

Alex · Site Admin Joined: 19 Sep 2006 Posts: 1754

Mackieman · EVDO Junkie Joined: 31 Oct 2005 Posts: 440

I'd be willing to bet you get the same performance with the MBR1000 as you do with your KR2. I would be interested to see the RSSI readings in dBm as well as the CDMA channel you're operating on, which I think you can get from the Sprint connection manager.

Essentially, the problem is not with the router, though the suggestions to use traffic shaping were a bit silly. It sounds like you've got an issue where something in the environment is causing your EVDO device to have a poor signal when the router is running. IF you haven't done so already, try positioning the router and the card at the same basic location as the computer you had the card plugged into when you had good results. If you're in a fringe area, it may be a basic LOS issue or something relating to power control.

drexelh · EVDO Newbie Joined: 02 Apr 2008 Posts: 5 Location: Texas

I was first tempted to infer from Alex' experiences and anecdotes, that the MBR1000 rocked, and the KR2 did not. I felt justified in doing so because, among many other experiments, I had tried the KR2 with WiFi disabled, and had gotten similar, abysmal results. And, I'd tried sitting beside the KR2 setup, with my laptop plugged directly into the U727, with great results, as I had enjoyed throughout the house....

Mackieman's comments, however, nagged at me, and I wanted to debunk his line of reasoning. To be more careful, I placed the U727 in a position where, without moving the U727 in any way (with USB extension cable), I could either:

(1) plug it into my laptop directly; or
(2) plug it into the KR2.

The KR2, as I then expected, did NOT rock, rather, it had the same disappointing results recorded above. HOWEVER, when I plugged the device into my laptop directly and tried that approach again, I got similar bad results, too!

After having roamed about the house, today, I find that there are locations in which the KR2 performs almost as well, if not as well as a direct connection to the U727. Mind you, a few inches sometimes makes loads of difference, especially in the uplink rate.

AND, as many will doubtless NOT be surprised, using the 16" (or so) USB extension cable seems to make a significant difference. I'm inferring two things:

A. Location in a house can be very sensitive, especially in the uplink; and
B. Separation of antennae makes an appreciable difference (even perhaps with WiFi disabled).

I'll be looking at an omnidirectional (likely) external antenna, and an optimized location.

Further, I've ordered the CradlePoint MBR1000 today, and will return whichever device works less well to the (same) retailer.

I'll report here on any comparisons between the routers, but given today's progress with the KR2 (prodded only by Mackieman), I suspect that antennae and/or careful house placement of devices, is the big story. If I find, however, that CradlePoint is insensitive to these issues, and the KR2 is not, I'll report that.

In any event, I've found ways and locations to get ~1100Kbps/~250Kbps with the U727 and KR2, which is comparable to what I've often gotten with the U727 directly connected (given my fringe area). I'm leaning toward expecting that the problem is the subtler one of antenna location and interference between antennae classes....

Thanks for the help, and more later....

drexelh · EVDO Newbie Joined: 02 Apr 2008 Posts: 5 Location: Texas

Having had initial problems with the KR2, a Cradlepoint was shipped to me. Upon initial installation of the latter, I noted that Cradlepoint was now on the third FW revision, and had fixed some things that still plague the KR2...no news there, likely....

I noted, however, that the KR2 seemed to have faster uploads, with the U727 in exactly (give or take 1/4" and a few degrees rotation) the same position in the house. Back and forth, the trend seemed repeatable. The Cradlepoint seemed limited to ~100Kbps, while the KR2 had ~400Kbps....

Puzzling over the matter, and quite honestly (and unscientifically) wanting to like the Cradlepoint better, I scanned around in the configurations. I noted that both routers had "Enable Auto Channel Scan" checked, but that the KR2 was on a different channel. I swapped the MBR1000 over to the same channel, and presto: it got the same upload speeds the KR2 had. I swapped channels and routers enough to convince myself that there was a causal relationship, which I don't profess to be able to fully explain.

I'm in a remote area where my own WiFi is the only one around, and my devices support 802.11g, not n. I'm leaning toward testing for the channel that maximizes (especially upload) speeds, and locking that in, instead of allowing the automatic selection.

I would do this with the working theory that perhaps certain WiFi channels use a frequency range that has a potentially interfering harmonic relationship to the frequency the cell modem uses for the uplink (especially).

Other than that "learning" experience, I've found the performance of the two essentially indistinguishable, but I like the reputation of, and the frequent FW updates I see for the Cradlepoint product.

Any more sound theory as to why I might have witnessed what I did regarding WiFi channels and uplink performance?