Gprs - Best Wireless Connection

[bdenner]

The olde whipping horse. We have had numerous threads about the GPRS technology, here’s another.

I, for one, cannot really complain about the GPRS hook-up, the odd outage but manageable. It’s a d@mn site better than a 34km drive to the “Internet Shoppe” with 10 obsolete computers, 15 screaming kids and one overworked land line.

After 4 months on GPRS using a Nokia 8910i phone I find the IR wireless connection much more reliable than Bluetooth. Even though my Bluetooth hardware is supposed to be good for 100 metres I keep the phone about a metre from the computer. Certain electrical appliances being used thru out the household corrupts the signal? --- GPRS connection is lost.

They both connect at 115.2 kbs so that’s fine for a GPRS interface which I guess runs between 28 kbs and 56 kbs on a really good day.

Odd thing though!! When I’m using the Nokia supplied software to talk to the phone (data base backup etc.) over Bluetooth I never get a connection problem???

Any opinions?

Edited June 2, 2005 by bdenner

[stumonster]

I use BT for the connection between my pocketpc or laptop to mobile phone for GPRS connection and I have never had a problem with the BT.

and 100metres maybe the BT dongle , but its not the phones range.

[Ken]

I also have been and still am using BT to mobile phone for my GPRS internet connection (no phone lines in the village). Use it both on my laptop and my desktop. No problem whatsoever with the BT (other than at the start, figuring out how to set it up on the computers).

[Crushdepth]

Lots of things can intefere with Bluetooth. Are you using a dongle ? Try putting it on a USB cable and putting it as far away from your monitor / and other electrical stuff as you can. Also, if your computer is jammed into a corner between 2 concrete walls with that metal reinforcing stuff, and a whole bunch of other junk around it might mess up the signal (our computer engineer at work recently set up our wifi access point in a concrete wall corner on top of a metal filing cabinet surrounded by bookshelves. It didn't work).

I find I get a lot more drop outs when 'wearing' a bluetooth phone on a belt clip or in a pocket than I do if I stick it on a table or leave it in a bag nearby. I guess this is the water in my body (or beer, as the case may be) absorbing a lot of the signal.

[ProThaiExpat]

I use a Sierra Wireless Aircard in my laptop and connecting to GPRS is never a probem. Once I get there, however, I suffer, like most, with the slow uploads and downloads provided by the ISPs affiliated with AIS who is my sim card provider.

I explored, this week, the advisability of getting a PC replacement for my fast aging laptop, and was advised by all that Bluetooth enabled mobile phone was the only way possible to get GPRS to a PC.

There are port devices available outside of Thailand that enable a PC to receive an Aircard, but locals say no way in Thailand. If I ordered one through the net and had the locals install it as part of a from scratch PC buildup, it probably would work fine.

[monty]

Bluetooth works roughly on the same frequency as Wifi (2.45Ghz).

This is in the microwave range and as such gets absorbed by most solid objects and especially water (or beer )....

Since bluetooth transmitters are less powerfull compared to their wifi brothers, they are more sensitive to interference. Most obvious sources of interference are other devices working in the same frequency range. Wireless phones (not gsm's but the cheap wireless units you hook up to your landline), microwave ovens, or even a wifi access point nearby can seriously degrade bluetooth performance/ reliability...

[Crushdepth]

You could connect your pc to the mobile/gprs by infrared, if your phone has IR (a usb ir dongle is about 800 baht I think). You can probably also connect via cable, if one is available for your phone. All options work pretty well.

[lampard10]

As you most probably have read on numerous occaisions, I use AXEN GPRS through DTAC formylap-top. OK in trains,cars. NP's. Iuse IP star for my desk tops.

[bdenner]

Lots of things can intefere with Bluetooth. Are you using a dongle ? Try putting it on a USB cable and putting it as far away from your monitor / and other electrical stuff as you can. Also, if your computer is jammed into a corner between 2 concrete walls with that metal reinforcing stuff, and a whole bunch of other junk around it might mess up the signal (our computer engineer at work recently set up our wifi access point in a concrete wall corner on top of a metal filing cabinet surrounded by bookshelves. It didn't work).

I find I get a lot more drop outs when 'wearing' a bluetooth phone on a belt clip or in a pocket than I do if I stick it on a table or leave it in a bag nearby. I guess this is the water in my body (or beer, as the case may be) absorbing a lot of the signal.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thanks to all of you for your input.

I am using a dongle on a USB extn cable connected to my notebook so interference should not be a problem. As i said there is no problem when backing up the phone data base to computer.

For now I will stick to the IR connection when on GPRS just keep BT as a redundant system.

[Khutan]

Thats interesting you are getting better performance with I/R rather than Bluetooth. I have it the other way, where the I/R is a bit dodgy and have been told the drivers for I/R for some Nokia Phines aren't perfect.

So good luck, if I/R works for you then use it.

The other thing is the practical limit of Bluetooth is 700kb/s whick is far slower than I/R and WiFi.

[mickmac]

At the moment I am using a GC83 EDGE/GPRS PC card from Sony Ericsson with my Laptop. I got sick of the 1222 number continually in use and then the other ISP's dropping out continually. I managed to get a contract with DTAC, the girlfriend sorted it out for me. The system workd well, a little slowere than the ADSL on daughters desktop but about the same or fatser than the dial up and much more reliable. The GC83 pc card cost 6000 Bt.

[Plus+]

The theoretical maximum speed shouldn't be an issue - it's measured in Mbps. Real life speed is usually a lot less than that and each device has it's own limit if you read all the specs.

I had several phones and notebooks and IR dongles and it has always been a real pain. At the moment my Siemens phone can receive staff from my IBM (with built-in IR), but can't send anything and I don't know why. It works more or less ok with the desktop's IR dongle, albeit very slowly. Nokia I had before was the most capricious, Sony Eriscsson was the most reliable, then the IR dongle I have works better on some computers and refuses to work on others.

Bluetooth dongle has never, ever, given me any problems, on the other hand.

I guess if your particular set of devices works ok, enjoy it while it lasts.