Slow cell phone connection to HOF?

[bobk]

When cruising, the cell phone/Verizon is sometimes our only link to the internet. It's slow at 19.2 Kbps, but it does work.

My question is why is the HOF VERY slow? It usually takes several minutes for each page to load. Other web sites are slow, but nothing like the HOF site. Any ideas as to why, or better yet if there is a different mode to participate in the forum that is more cell phone friendly? I'm not interested in an air card service because we only need it a few months of the year.

Bob

 

[Pascal]

it shoudln't be slower, pages are fairly small with little graphics. it's been a while since i've used my cel as modem instead of an air card but it wasn't the slowest site around.

 

[Genesis]

I tether using T-Mobile and haven't had that problem. Yes, it can be slow, but heh, its a cell connection.....

 

[bobk]

Pascal, Karl,

I timed it this time. From the moment I clicked on 'reply' to the time the reply screen came up, it was almost exactly 10 MINUTES. That's a lot by any standard. The meter seems to indicate a fairly fast and regular data transmission for the first minute or so, then it bogs down. Do we have an 'expert' on the forum who might advise? I'm using Trend Micro PC-Cillin for antivirus protection. No other site is this slow.

Bob

 

[Genesis]

That sounds like a Verizon problem of some sort - perhaps intentional.

Its definitely provider-specific. I just tried it off T-Mobile and it was fine.

 

[bobk]

Interesting. Verizon has been trying to discourage data calls, and in fact will not support them on newer phones.

I presume T-Mobile will support data calls. How is their coverage through Georgia and the Carolinas along the ICW?

Bob

 

[egaito]

Interesting. Verizon has been trying to discourage data calls, and in fact will not support them on newer phones.

I presume T-Mobile will support data calls. How is their coverage through Georgia and the Carolinas along the ICW?

Bob

I guess this could be said for all, depending on the part of the country you're in, but my experience with T-Mobile was that it worked OK if you were on an interstate corridor, or a major metro area. Otherwise you were roaming, or dropping calls. In building coverage was horrible. I dropped their phone service after just a few months. I found Nextel to be the same.

Sprint and Verizon have been the best overall from a coverage perspective for me over the years.


There's nothing special about the forum that would make it particularly slow. There may be some settings you can tweak, maybe make the MTU setting a bit higher if it's a small number......

 

[Genesis]

I've been all over the US with T-Mobile, and have had zero trouble.

Make sure you have a quad-band phone.

Their data plans EXPLICITLY SUPPORT tethering (e.g. linking a laptop) while Verizon and Cingular do not, and the latter, unless you pay for their "laptop connection" plans, and and will either intentionally interfere with your connections or worse, back-bill you BY THE MEGABYTE for the data!

Verizon and Cingular, along with Sprint, all sell "PC card" connection plans without that problem but they're EXPENSIVE.

T-Mobile's data plan add-on is either $20 or $30, depending on whether you have a blackberry or some other PDA-style device. All support tethering; the only restriction I'm aware of is that they block RTSP streaming (ORB can get around this, but some Nokia phones cannot)

I've been very happy with T-Mobile - where they don't have native service they have very strong roaming support. In the last four years I've been all over the US and Caribbean, and it has "just worked" essentially everywhere.

YMMV of course. Part of the problem with all carriers is that they ALL have "Holes" in their coverage. Also, be aware that T-Mobile does not have 3G service at all yet. They bought a HUGE amount of spectrum in the recent auctions, but that is not yet service - and it probably won't be for a couple of years.

Nonetheless, their GPRS/EDGE data works very well..... I rely on it when travelling.

MTU won't help and diddling it is asking for trouble.

However, the TCP Receive/Send buffers can be enlarged and will help with high-latency links (which cell links are), while having a low risk of screwing things up for you elsewhere.