Whats Going On With Cat - Cdma

[loong]

Wow, Halfhead

you certainly seem to know your stuff - and with only half a head !

Yes it looks like my modem is locked to EVDO

RSSI is 96 - I assume that is not particularly good, the lower the number the better - right? Will you see that number change as you swing the antenna? I'm sure that the engineers only used the signal bars when they set it up (on the MC727)

[ThaiLife]

Wow, Halfhead

you certainly seem to know your stuff - and with only half a head !

Yes it looks like my modem is locked to EVDO

RSSI is 96 - I assume that is not particularly good, the lower the number the better - right? Will you see that number change as you swing the antenna? I'm sure that the engineers only used the signal bars when they set it up (on the MC727)

Have a look at Jim's web page

Lot's of interesting tips and info

Optimizing your Mobile Broadband connection - in a fixed location Signal Levels How well you receive data and the speed you get is often related to the strength of the signal from the tower to your modem. A term often used is 'RSSI' which stands for Received Signal Strength Indication.

This is measured in dBm with a practical range for us of -100 to -40. The lower the negative number the stronger your signal is. Here's a chart illustrating this:

If your signal is in the -70's you will likely be getting the maximum EVDO speeds you are capable of, barring any hardware issues you may have. Throwing gobs of money on amplifiers and cables to get it into the -60's range is not going to gain you much, if anything. Cell towers in urban areas are often fed by two or more T-1 lines whereas rural areas are fed by one T-1. A single line will give you a max speed of about 1.4 MB/s (allowing for cell company overhead). Multiple T-1's will give you 2 MB/s plus. In other words if you are out in the middle of nowhere don't expect the kind of speeds our urban brethren are getting.

Optimizing your Mobile Broadband connection - in a fixed location Cell Tower Signal Patterns Getting an idea of how cell towers radiate their signal and how your own antenna receives that signal can help you, if using a directional antenna, install and aim it in the most optimal position.

Cell Tower Signal Patterns

Getting an idea of how cell towers radiate their signal and how your own antenna receives that signal can help you, if using a directional antenna, install and aim it in the most optimal position.

Jim's web page -Link

TL

[loong]

Well, this weekend has been very frustrating - many times I have not been able to connect at all.

This last time, after midnight I must have tried to connect 50 times and just kept getting that the remote computer did not respond.

RSSI was 89 - 91

Then I disconnected the antenna, RSSI increased to 117 and I connected on the first attempt. Without the antenna, the speeds are not great, but not bad and occasionally I will get "searching" or the "Z" that means data session dormant.

If I disconnect and try to reconnect with the antenna, no can do. Unplug the antenna and I can connect again.

Now, as you all probably realise, I'm no expert, but this does sort of suggest that with the antenna connected, the modem will only "talk to" the tower that the antenna is pointed at. Without the antenna the modem locks onto the strongest signal, is that right? Or maybe because when the antenna is connected, the strongest signal is from the tower that the antenna is pointing at, but is it possible that that tower is not "talking to" CAT's main computer?

I was unable to upload the image because I lost the connection, but am now able to connect with the antenna to finish this post (RSSI 100). I am sure that there is a problem with my nearest tower, but when I tell CAT of my suspicions, they do nothing

Edited March 7, 2010 by loong

[loong]

If I am right and without the antenna, the modem receives a better signal from a different tower, would it make more sense to point the antenna in the direction of the other tower?

[cyprean]

I am in Lamai with 1-2bar signal (signal strength very bad -100 to -107.

Which external antenna should I buy?

http://cgi.ebay.com/BLADE-Antenna-w-Laptop...=item53dd26560b

or

http://cgi.ebay.com/15dBi-External-Antenna...=item19b98bb9b6

or

one of these ? http://cgi.ebay.com/15dBi-External-Antenna...=item19b98bb9b6

[cyprean]

Or maybe I just should change floor. I get 2-3 bars on the third floor with signal strentgh being -94 to -97.

But I still think that an external could help with the signal. Do they help much? One of those non-fixed models that are suitable for traveling and fit a in the suit case.

Edited March 18, 2010 by cyprean

[loong]

I am in Lamai with 1-2bar signal (signal strength very bad -100 to -107.

Which external antenna should I buy?

http://cgi.ebay.com/BLADE-Antenna-w-Laptop...=item53dd26560b

or

http://cgi.ebay.com/15dBi-External-Antenna...=item19b98bb9b6

or

one of these ? http://cgi.ebay.com/15dBi-External-Antenna...=item19b98bb9b6

Sorry, unable to comment on antenna suitability, but the 2nd and 3rd link are the same item.

If you do get one of these, please keep us posted with your results.

[loong]

My connection with the replacement MC760 modem has been fantastic compared to the old one. I'm still not getting the results anywhere near the speeds of others here, but the connection is so much more stable.

I'm quite happy with the way it is at the moment

[ThaiLife]

Just looking at the CAT web site and saw this .... How to Complain

The Thai Language Link ...

The English Language Link

The Translated Link

[insertcoins]

A friend of mine wants to sell me her CAT CDMA modem. She had a contract for a while but it expired, the modem has kept working for the last months eventhough it was past contract. If I buy the modem from her and take it to the CAT shop, can I just get a new contract then or will I have to clear her bill first?

[ThaiLife]

For Two days now my CAT CDMA connection has been getting slowly worse , until last night I could not open any web pages at all

I just got a page timed out notice . I tried my MC 727 USB modem on both a Windows PC and my iMac , both had the same CAT problem.

On my Mac I use an application called Little Snitch that shows all the internet traffic , The Two screen shots below show the Little Snitch panel , Green indicator shows download and red shows upload , when the problem started the red indicator was constantly flashing , and no green indicator at all. ...

This screen shot below shows the constant red upload traffic ...

and the indicator says ... dns1.idc.cattelecom.com

The screen shot below is the same red upload traffic , but this shows dns2.idc.cattelecom.com

so all I could see was the Little Snitch panel alternating between .. dns1.idc.cattelecom.com and dns2.idc.cattelecom.com

nothing more , and it was not possible to open any web sites at all .

So To day I contacted the CAT office and told them my problem , the reply was ok we will tell the engineers about the problem,

just have to wait .

About an hour later the connection was back working as normal, below is a screen shot of a normal Little Snitch panel , showing only the green downloading I was doing ..

Two questions come to mind

1. what is the dns1.idc.cattelecom.com and dns2.idc.cattelecom.com ?

2. What did CAT do so quickly to put right my problem ?

The thing that also seem's a bit strange is that in the past when ive had a CAT CDMA problem , and I have telephoned the CAT office to outline my problem, and in 99% of the cases the problem was corrected within an hour of my original phone call to the CAT office, it seems like they take my details , and then do some thing to the signal /system in my area . I'm not complaining about the quick speed of the problem being rectified , but it does seem strange , all most like CAT are switching some thing after hearing my complaint

any thoughts on the above Please

TL :jap:

[pjclark1]

Just experienced the dreadful customer care that CAT give.

(Pantrip Plaza, Chiang Mai branch)

After less then 4 months my CAT CDMA dongle has failed (cost 5,900bht + 800bht a month)

I went back to Pantrip Plaza with it, and they told me they would have to return it to Bangkok for repair, the repair would take 2 to 3 MONTHS.

During this time I would be expected to continue to pay 800bht a month for NOTHING.

They could not (or would not)

1) replace the dongle

2) Rent me a new dongle

3) Sell me a new dongle.

I pointed out the "guaranteed 100% satisfaction" for the package on their brochure, they said it was only a brochure.

I left the Dongle with them, telling them I considered our contract terminated by them, and they would get no more money from me.

Disgraceful behavior, buyers beware!

Edited January 27, 2011 by pjclark1

[ThaiLife]

Just experienced the dreadful customer care that CAT give.

(Pantrip Plaza, Chiang Mai branch)

After less then 4 months my CAT CDMA dongle has failed (cost 5,900bht + 800bht a month)

I went back to Pantrip Plaza with it, and they told me they would have to return it to Bangkok for repair, the repair would take 2 to 3 MONTHS.

During this time I would be expected to continue to pay 800bht a month for NOTHING.

They could not (or would not)

1) replace the dongle

2) Rent me a new dongle

3) Sell me a new dongle.

I pointed out the "guaranteed 100% satisfaction" for the package on their brochure, they said it was only a brochure.

I left the Dongle with them, telling them I considered our contract terminated by them, and they would get no more money from me.

Disgraceful behavior, buyers beware!

Its hearing feed back like yours that make me shudder each time I think my MC727 modem is playing up , I'm not looking forward to

a trip back to the CAT office , that I know will one day come

have a looks at post No. 234 in this thread

TL

[Totster]

My connection is pretty rubbish today.. probably at at about 20%-30% normal rate..

Anyone else ?

Totster

[Totster]

My connection is pretty rubbish today.. probably at at about 20%-30% normal rate..

Anyone else ?

Totster

Stopped working all together for 30 mins.. now it's back up to full speed !

Totster

[ThaiLife]

My connection is pretty rubbish today.. probably at at about 20%-30% normal rate..

Anyone else ?

Totster

Stopped working all together for 30 mins.. now it's back up to full speed !

Totster

For some days now my CDMA speeds have been not normal, so I thought I would drive to the CAT CDMA tower I am using and see what the speeds were like there , so I sat in my vehicle with my netbook and my MC727 CDMA modem plugged in, and did some speed tests , here below are the results ..

( shots taken with a camera )

( the speed tests were taken with a full signal showing )

as I was sat there in my vehicle I noticed a pickup with a CAT logo pull up at the tower and Two guy's got out and went into the towers small cabin control room, so I thought now's the time to go and ask them about the poor speed test results . I pulled up next to the CAT pickup and got out holding my netbook still connected to the CAT CDMA , as I walked to the tower the Two guy's came out to see who had arrived , and when they saw me holding a netbook with a MC727 modem , the both stopped and the look on their faces was one of

I told them that I was getting poor results and had come to see what the results were like right next to the CAT tower, their first

comment was ,there should be no problem as no one had contacted the 1322 customer service center and complained about poor speeds

in the towers area . ( which is not true as I had called the 1322 customer service center my self )

Then I did a speed test right in front of there eyes using my netbook, ( the results shown above ) they looked at the results and said , do them again, so I did and the results were once more about the same .

Then one of the CAT engineers went and got an old Dell laptop and to my amazement it had the same MC727 CDMA USB modem plugged in ,

so he did the same speed tests using the same speed test web site and he got the same poor speed results

Once the engineer had got the same speed test results on his lap top , there was no disputing the evidence , he then called some one on his mobile phone , and said that the main control were now doing some tests and would ring back in a few minuets, while we were waiting for the call back, the engineer started to play about with his laptop , and he brought on screen a panel showing a large amounts of numbers , I asked him what this panel was, and he said its the CDMA Debugging panel , he said he was checking the RSSI and some thing else, I asked him to show me how I can get this Debugging panel to show on my notebook(running Windows XP)

he showed me and now I can get this to come on to my netbook screen , there's a lot of numbers which most of them I don't understand , so its some thing I am going to look into later.

The engineer commented that the RSSI number was Ok, then he got the call back from the CAT main control , the answer - there was some thing wrong with the quality of the signal and not the strength ( I had a full signal showing ) .

The engineers said they needed to go back into the towers cabin and check out the system and I should try the speed tests later in the day , now from past experience of service engineers I know whats said is not necessarily whats going to happen

So I asked if once they had found the problem and sorted it out could they telephone me and let me know , so I gave one of the engineers my mobile phone number , which he put into his phone , and then called my phone to make sure he had got the right number, ( and gave me his mobile number )

I did ask the engineers why they had called at the tower in the first place , and they said that there was a problem with some lighting inside the cabin, I did all so ask them if they knew how many other CAT CDMA users were in the towers area , they said 4 .

So I left the tower not expecting too much and went on my way, that day I had to travel 300 km to go and see a friend , about One hour had passed when I got a call from the CAT engineer ( not the one who took my number but his assistant who was all so at the tower ) he said that a faulty circuit board had been found and the problem had been rectified . ( Now I have both the CAT engineers mobile phone number ) .

I returned home late and checked what the CAT CDMA connection was like, and it seems to be back to normal , when I get time I am going to park next to the CAT tower once more and do some speed tests , just to see

Below are photos of the CAT tower in question ..

Totster - sorry this may not help your current problem but I thought I would post my experiences .

TL

Edited January 29, 2011 by ThaiLife

[ThaiLife]

Over the past 4 days my CAT CDMA connection has been playing up, with web pages not being able to be loaded and when eventually loading , very slow or some times just stopping mid stream.

I contacted the CAT help line ( Tel 1322 ) they checked out my location and pronounced that every thing looked to be fully working .

I tried my MC727 USB modem in 3 different computers at home ( 1 Mac and 2 Windows machines ) and the poor results were exactly the same .

I then drove to my nearest CAT Tower and again tried out the MC727 modem, again the poor results were the same , and even worse with the dreaded this page cannot be displayed .

Finally after trying to connect while sat under the CAT Tower with my laptop , I managed to get a connection and this was the speed test result ...

Showing a Full signal

Speed test result

I only managed one speed test then the connection just stopped .

Just out of curiosity I plugged in my USB Aircard that has an AIS 3G SIM card in it , and did a speed test on that ..

The AIS 3G speed test

The last time I had problems with my CAT CDMA connection , the CAT engineer told me how to access the on screen CAT De-Bug panel shown below

Ive no idea how to interoperate the numbers , does any one know ?

Its taken me several attempts to post this

So currently how's your CAT CDMA connection