Question for the learned electronics folks

[Ozz]

Where we are now, I get a great response from our Sierra Sprint hot-spot in the mornings, as the day progresses, it gets so slow, I can't use it.
Is it because so many more people use computers, or ???
also, can I improve my system? The thing is just a little square hockey-puck deal.
Thanks!

[Mrs. CountryGuy]

Probably NOT what you wanted to hear, but, we dumped Sprint connectivity unit in Las Cruces New Mexico, went to month to month Verizon, works really great, except, sigh, at our stick built. No surprise, the reason we had Sprint to begin with was because V stunk at the stick built. "V" works very well in most places, and works better by far out west than did "S". Look at the service maps, last time we looked (about a year ago for being transparent and up front about my comments here) "V" was red out west, "S" was not so much.

[Ozz]

Good info. We had 'V' down at Padre, worked good, not at all at the stick house.
I am unhappy only about the late day and evening here at this location, quite happy other-wise, so would not want to change because of that.
I would like to know why. I guess I just have to have this type of information being 'wired' the way I am.
I know someone, or many someones' know the answer.

[NCFischers]

Too many people using up the bandwidth.

[HamRad]

Jim,
As others have indicated..... You just got a tower that gets overloaded from time to time. Complain to Verizon. It won't do you any good in the short term but in long run you may get an improvement. Good luck. Dennis

[Ozz]

Thanks! What I 'suspisioned' got's to get up earlier when everyone is still sleeping..

[pineranch]

Soooo Ozz,
Dennis wants you to complain to Verizon about your Sprint problem. Let us know how you fare with that one.
Mike

[Ozz]

I caught that, but I knew what he meant, a slip of the fingers in a hectic lifestyle, those 'Q' attendees are probably hard at the relaxin and rejoicin .
I bet Verizon would give me a heck of a deal to get me away from Srint... so that may be a great tactic!!!

[DQDick]

When we knew we would be spending some time in the Southwest we looked at coverage and Verizon was best so that's where we got our phones. For internet we use a Cradle point CTR 35 router with Millenicom for the service. Millenicom uses the Verizon network with out the Verizon charges and limits.

[Ozz]

whaddy hesay????
For us carbon-based life forms, what the heck is the thing you use for Internet??

[Mrs. CountryGuy]

Tis an aircard, provider, Millenicom, an internet business, no building to walk into, you deal with them strictly by internet and/or phone. (Google em)

They offer month to month (that be us!!) and you can get Verizon wanna be service or the Sprint wanna be service.

We may change back to Sprint when we go back to the stick built this spring, as we figure we may be there for about 5 months this time. That is too long for this gal to fight snarly service. Course, things change and maybe by the time we get back to SE Michigan "V" will be great.

HAHAHA, well, I can dream right???

[DQDick]

We use our setup as the only access at the stick house, but we have the opposite issue from Carol. We can't get Sprint in the boonies of Kansas. You have to work with what you've got in this area, there is no overal right or wrong.

[Ozz]

Carol, I would do it without the $15.00 and the $50-60 set-up fee, we get good service up to about 11:00 a.m. and real slow service after that, it does work. And it is just across the parking lot for super-fast service in the library...free.
Po people have po ways...

[HamRad]

Well DUH!
So the old brain skipped a beat! Must have been an overloaded SPRINT tower! So, Ozz, instead of calling Verizon you might get better results with Sprint. But maybe you should just go with Verizon. Later, Dennis.

[Mrs. CountryGuy]

Ozz wrote:

"Carol, I would do it without the $15.00 and the $50-60 set-up fee, we get good service up to about 11:00 a.m. and real slow service after that, it does work. And it is just across the parking lot for super-fast service in the library...free.
Po people have po ways..."

I hear ya, we don't have the $$ to toss around either, but, you have to choose what is important in life.

Ask anyone who was around "Q" last year, this gal can conserve water like there is no tomorrow, but, I am a stinkin' power hog, and a good deal of that is cause, I am rather addicted to the net and my blog and my friends at MOC and FB and G+, oh, and if there is time left, a bit of online research thank you very much! LOL

Don't be messing with my connectivity. It gets ugly very fast!

A set up fee is a cheap fix to keep me net happy.

[sapest]

The "little square hockey-puck deal" is creating a WiFi hot spot for you connect to. Is there any security on this connection?
Perhaps someone is 'borrowing' some/most of your bandwidth?
Just a thought to consider.

-Steve

[Champ_49]

Had Sprint (Nextel) when I started fulltiming. Got to Mississippi and lost signal all the way to Jackson MS. We knew this may happen so we never upgraded our plan with Nextel so we didn't have contract to deal with. We went with Verizon in Jackson and been happy with the cell service since. On the other hand, when it came to the internet we went with verizon mifi which was ok, but it didn't have at that time an external antenna hook up, which would not work in MI location where we stay int he summer. Our fix was to pay the disconnect fee of $175.00 thru Verizon on internet and go with Mellinicom. I was paying $80.00 for 10G verizon mifi, went to Mellinicom for $60.00 for 20G of time. I have since recovered my cancellation fee and then some and very happy with Mellinicom without a contract.

Also have the 900 Craddlepoint router with the Wilson truckers antenna, which I don't use very often but am right now where I am at in FL. Also need the antenna in MI.

Dave

[Ozz]

quote:Originally posted by sapest

The "little square hockey-puck deal" is creating a WiFi hot spot for you connect to. Is there any security on this connection?
Perhaps someone is 'borrowing' some/most of your bandwidth?
Just a thought to consider.

-Steve

Steve, it is encrypted, also, it does show how many users are hooked up on it.
I am using it now, it is 'blazing fast' this morning.
I am happy with it, just not so much later in the day. But I will live with it. If it was slow all the time...it would be replaced.

[deadeye]

OZZ:
Got a new suggestion for you. You say it works up until 11:00 AM. Shucks, just sign off at 11 and go to dinner or go have a beer or something else. My son-in-law in K.C. use to work for Sprint and I could tell you a few stories about one of K.C."s largest employers.... but this is no place to do that....JB

[twindman]

Another test you could do is a 'techy' thing. Start up the command prompt (DOS for us old timers). Then enter 'tracert yahoo.com'. You can use any site to test, but a lot don't allow this function, but yahoo does. It times each 'hop' along the way to the final destination. The output is a list of 'IP' addresses (and if available the registered name such as x.y.z.yahoo.com). The times listed are milliseconds and smaller is better.
The first thing listed is your own router. Not sure when you are using a phone connection tho.
Anyway, run this test early in the day and maybe write down the times for the first few hops. Then run it later in the day. When a hop's time goes way up, that is the slow point. If it is the 2nd hop (maybe third), that may be the cell tower or their server located in some office where they have the computers set up.
Maybe this will help. We will turn you into a real Geek soon!!