Cat - Cdma Speeds Vs Signal Strength

[nikster]

Update: CAT has fixed the connection in Pai. Within an hour, as promised. Amazing CAT.

[ThaiLife]

Update: CAT has fixed the connection in Pai. Within an hour, as promised. Amazing CAT.

Does that mean your speeds have got better ?

[loong]

They came back and fitted the antenna, but it has made little or no difference at all

They have said that the antenna needs to go higher, they were here until 9PM and will be coming back with a longer rod.

Yes, they used 50 ohm cable.

This is my second attempt to post this as when I tried before, uploading an image took forever and then the connection dropped and I couldn't reconnect.

Apart from my difficulty with getting a good signal, there really is a problem with the network here.

Earlier speedtests showed no difference with or without the external antenna, but I'm having real difficulty trying to upload the image files.

In fact, it's impossible to upload files to Thaivisa, although that could be a problem with the Thaivisa server.

I've just done a test to Singapore and result was 190Kbs down 10Kbs up

[nikster]

Update: CAT has fixed the connection in Pai. Within an hour, as promised. Amazing CAT.

Does that mean your speeds have got better ?

My speeds have always been pretty good. I had the disconnection problem for a while, but not since yesterday night.

I am getting pretty much the advertised 1500Kbps or about 180KB/s max speeds, and even when its slow its still usually over 100KB/s. For YouTube, it's an acceptable 60KB/s. TOT throttles YouTube to an unwatchable 5KB/s even if the DSL happens to be fast (early mornings).

[loong]

I would be over the moon if I could get speed the same as you Nikster

[loong]

I couldn't manage to upload images in the early hours

This is one test result

Not good at all is it?

This is quite normal with the external antenna connected

and this without

This one to London server

and this to Singapore

It's been a bit better this morning, I have the USB modem connected to a router, LAN connection to Desktop and wireless to laptop, but its still not fantastic. Sometimes ok sometimes abysmal. I just hope that the engineers can get the antenna working properly so that I can enjoy some of the speeds I see others getting.

It's so bad at the moment that I just hope to be able to upload this. This is the 3rd time I've tried

[Gary A]

CAT EVDO has been up and down for several weeks. The service has definitely deteriorated. The frequent disconnects are the most irritating thing.

Since I had Ipstar for so long, I'm used to and well conditioned to VERY poor service.

[ThaiLife]

They came back and fitted the antenna, but it has made little or no difference at all

They have said that the antenna needs to go higher, they were here until 9PM and will be coming back with a longer rod.

Yes, they used 50 ohm cable.

This is my second attempt to post this as when I tried before, uploading an image took forever and then the connection dropped and I couldn't reconnect.

Apart from my difficulty with getting a good signal, there really is a problem with the network here.

Earlier speedtests showed no difference with or without the external antenna, but I'm having real difficulty trying to upload the image files.

In fact, it's impossible to upload files to Thaivisa, although that could be a problem with the Thaivisa server.

I've just done a test to Singapore and result was 190Kbs down 10Kbs up

Just out of interest do you know where your nearest CAT tower is situated ?, the reason I ask is I was told by my local CAT office where my nearest CAT tower was situated , so I went and had a look , took a comapss with me to try and get a bearing , relative to my house, then I set the roof antenna direction up with the compass bearing to start with

then I took my netbook up onto the roof , connected the antenna to the MC727 , and used the MobiLink desktop signal bar display to move the antenna to the best reception position , which was a bit off from the compass direction , but gave the best ( full ) signal reception . I also used Google Earth to track down the CAT antenna and my house , just to see the relative positions .

[FarangLaoInter]

Most usb hubs are powered, but don't come with the power adapter/brick to save on costs. If/when you do buy one, make sure it comes with the power adapter/brick.

Looking through this thread and other, I'm thinking I may go with CAT CDMA (cause no dsl availablilty and using the cell phone sux), but those latency scores scare the hel_l outta me. Any way to get the latency down to the 300-400 range (or lower), or it it limited by the technology? I can't see using it for Skype/voice/video with it being so high.

Edited April 22, 2009 by FarangLaoInter

[nikster]

Any way to get the latency down to the 300-400 range (or lower), or it it limited by the technology? I can't see using it for Skype/voice/video with it being so high.

My latency with CAT router -> MC727 -> openwrt-router -> laptop is normally between 100-150ms.

To where? This seems ridiculously good. I was happy about 350ms - 450ms to the USA. It's pretty far physically so I am pretty sure 100ms is not possible. Not even with laser beams

As for CAT speed it seems to depend on the BS much more than anything else. The service worked for me in Samui but it was very slow at most times. Up here in the north, it's always pretty fast.

[FarangLaoInter]

Ah the ol' pringles can trick! I remember doing that back in the day with older linksys wifi routers.

Edited April 22, 2009 by FarangLaoInter

[Gary A]

I don't know where my EVDO tower is. I do have a full signal but the speed lately is much worse than usual. Every Internet service I have ever had in Thailand starts off very good, then it turns to crap.

Last Result:

Download Speed: 266 kbps (33.3 KB/sec transfer rate)

Upload Speed: 118 kbps (14.8 KB/sec transfer rate)

Latency: 459 ms

Wednesday, April 22, 2009 2:36:27 PM

[loong]

They came back and fitted the antenna, but it has made little or no difference at all

They have said that the antenna needs to go higher, they were here until 9PM and will be coming back with a longer rod.

Yes, they used 50 ohm cable.

This is my second attempt to post this as when I tried before, uploading an image took forever and then the connection dropped and I couldn't reconnect.

Apart from my difficulty with getting a good signal, there really is a problem with the network here.

Earlier speedtests showed no difference with or without the external antenna, but I'm having real difficulty trying to upload the image files.

In fact, it's impossible to upload files to Thaivisa, although that could be a problem with the Thaivisa server.

I've just done a test to Singapore and result was 190Kbs down 10Kbs up

Just out of interest do you know where your nearest CAT tower is situated ?, the reason I ask is I was told by my local CAT office where my nearest CAT tower was situated , so I went and had a look , took a comapss with me to try and get a bearing , relative to my house, then I set the roof antenna direction up with the compass bearing to start with

then I took my netbook up onto the roof , connected the antenna to the MC727 , and used the MobiLink desktop signal bar display to move the antenna to the best reception position , which was a bit off from the compass direction , but gave the best ( full ) signal reception . I also used Google Earth to track down the CAT antenna and my house , just to see the relative positions .

The nearest tower is about 4 Km away, there's another at about 12Km.

I have a suspicion that the nearest tower is not always in service and that's when the signal drops as I connect to the tower further away.

Although you may drive somewhere, it's not always easy to be sure of the actual direction from your home because of twists and turns in the road. But looking at the antenna in daylight, I would say the odds are that it is pointing to the tower further away.

When they fitted the antenna last night, one was on the roof adjusting while another was looking at the signal strength. Of course if the nearest tower was out of commission at the time, they could only pick up a signal from the further tower.

It has been an absolute nightmare today. I've hardly been able to connect at all. To be honest, I'm at my wits end, I just don't have the knowledge - I'm the same as a car driver that has no idea what goes on under the bonnet (hood).

Using the router and desktop, it works fine, then I get the message that it has "Limited or no connectivity". I click on repair and it tells me that it couldn't repair because it didn't assign an IP address. Sometimes I just feel like taking a hammer and smashing everything to pieces. It is sooooo frustrating!

I'm on the laptop now with the modem connected directly, not using the router and it is working reasonably well. But when I tried the same earlier - nothing, wouldn't connect or if connected, very slow.

When this CAT connection is working at 500 Kbps down, I'm quite happy. I've only had it for 2 or 3 weeks and it just seems to get worse and worse.

[loong]

The CAT technicians came back yesterday evening. They re sited the antenna on a higher pole and were definitely puzzled at the bad signal.

They finally decided that there was a problem at the nearest tower and went away to check.

Eventually they sorted everything out, but told me that as the house is in a low area, I cannot get a perfect signal.

Test to UK server

Occasionally I'm getting just over 1Mbs download, but at the moment 800 is the norm even when testing with a UK or USA host

This is using the modem connected to the rear USB on my desktop. Before I couldn't get any useable connection on the destop and had to use the laptop.

They've taken the router away as it just didn't work very well.

If things stay like this, I'll be satisfied.

I think that the CAT technicians did a good job and were very helpful. They also came here on their own time after they'd finished work. They are very busy and I would have had to have waited for weeks.

Obviously, any profit from the antenna installation went into their own pockets, fair enough as they were working in their own time and the CAT office had told me that they would sell me the antenna, but had nobody available to fit it.

The antenna, cable and fitting totalled 4,500 Baht and I rounded it up to 5,000. They seemed happy with that.