The varying moods of my dongle

[alan_fincher]

At the dongle frequency the wave length is quite short (I think about 12-16")

 

Yep, around 33.4 cms if you are using a service based on a 900 MHz signal.

 

But only about half that (16.7 cms) if you are using a provider based on an 1800 MHZ signal.

 

Not sure which use which, though, without checking.

 

 

The cable length will not affect signal strength.

Wrong, in my view.

 

The USB spec actually requires that cabling (of anything) is kept pretty short, and it's performance degrades as you start to extend it.

 

That's why you can buy "active" cables, (that few people seem to use), to try and counteract those losses.

[Ange]

Thanks for all the informative replies - though I'm afraid some have gone straight over my head as I have very little knowledge of the technology involved. I can get my head round the idea of the signal bouncing around - I just have to figure out a way of catching the bugger!!

 

Pssst!

 

Does your dongle change colour at all? My SWMBO's is blue when connected to sllooowwww GPRS and red, when connected to the much faster 3G.

 

I think that you'll find that a weak 3G signal will provide a faster link compared with a good connection on GPRS.

 

 

Rob

 

I have noticed that the dongle sometimes flashes green and sometimes blue - I have wondered about the significance of the colour.

 

This thread was next to long standing member again in View New Posts and now I'm talking about flashing dongles

[alan_fincher]

I have noticed that the dongle sometimes flashes green and sometimes blue - I have wondered about the significance of the colour.

Almost certainly it depends on the dongle you have.

 

Our Huwaeii E220 on "Three" says it means....

 

Green - Blinking twice every few seconds - Device Initialising / Searching for Network / Awaiting PIN Entry

 

Green - Blinking once every few seconds - Found GPRS Network

Green - Solid - Connected to GPRS Network.

Blue - Blinking once every few seconds - Found 3G Network

Blue - Solid - Connected to 3G Network.

Cyan - Blinking once every few seconds - Found HSDPA Network

Cyan - Solid - Connected to HSDPA Network.

 

You should be able to look it up for any modem, provided you can identify the type, I'd have thought.

[Ange]

Almost certainly it depends on the dongle you have.

 

Our Huwaeii E220 on "Three" says it means....

 

Green - Blinking twice every few seconds - Device Initialising / Searching for Network / Awaiting PIN Entry

 

Green - Blinking once every few seconds - Found GPRS Network

Green - Solid - Connected to GPRS Network.

Blue - Blinking once every few seconds - Found 3G Network

Blue - Solid - Connected to 3G Network.

Cyan - Blinking once every few seconds - Found HSDPA Network

Cyan - Solid - Connected to HSDPA Network.

 

You should be able to look it up for any modem, provided you can identify the type, I'd have thought.

Aha, you're right - I just googled my Huwaei K3565 and it appears to be the same:-

 

- Green Light You are connected to the GPRS/EDGE network (fast)

- Blue Light You are connected to the 3G network (faster)

- Cyan Light You are connected to the HSDPA (fastest)

 

I've only seen green and blue so far

[Chris Pink]

The USB spec actually requires that cabling (of anything) is kept pretty short, and it's performance degrades as you start to extend it.

 

That's why you can buy "active" cables, (that few people seem to use), to try and counteract those losses.

 

Unlikely to make any difference. The speed and error correction of the USB connection is several factors faster than the data rate of 3G

 

a few things of note not mentioned;

 

weather makes a hell of a difference, a rainy day will cut down signal strength enormously - often making GPRS easier to get than 3G

 

The angle of the dongle makes a difference and vertical (intuitive) is not necessarily the best, possibly due to reflections

 

even if you have a good signal vodafone wanders your data around a fair few servers before it gets to you (technogabble: ping times can be incredibly slow)

 

even if you have a good signal someone in the same area as you could be watching BBC HD and sapping all the bandwidth, particularly noticeable between 5 and 8 in the evening. Bandwidth sharing is the biggest single factor in internet speeds (except in marginal reception areas) whether 3G or landline

 

on Vodafone EDGE is rubbish and will slow down page loading drastically

 

as has been said before bad signal 3G is usually faster than good signal GPRS but the latter will be more reliable for smaller pages and especially emails. The vodafone software can turn off 3G (or GPRS) if the 3G is very intermittent.

 

Also HDSPA (theoretically faster) seems to be slower (less reliable) than UTMS (WCDMA) - this is not selectable in the vodafone software (MacOS)

 

The wok is still the best aerial i have used (i since bought £80 worth of directional aerial which is not as good) and I am not sure why Mr Fincher should turn his nose up at it. It would take some mathematics to show how a satellite dish would be a better parabolic collector.

 

I have signal strength software which relies on signal from the dongle but i don't think the dongle's signal measurement is particularly accurate.

Edited January 31, 2010 by Chris Pink

[Guest]

Unlikely to make any difference. The speed and error correction of the USB connection is several factors faster than the data rate of 3G

 

a few things of note not mentioned;

 

weather makes a hell of a difference, a rainy day will cut down signal strength enormously - often making GPRS easier to get than 3G

 

The angle of the dongle makes a difference and vertical (intuitive) is not necessarily the best, possibly due to reflections

 

even if you have a good signal vodafone wanders your data around a fair few servers before it gets to you (technogabble: ping times can be incredibly slow)

 

even if you have a good signal someone in the same area as you could be watching BBC HD and sapping all the bandwidth, particularly noticeable between 5 and 8 in the evening. Bandwidth sharing is the biggest single factor in internet speeds (except in marginal reception areas) whether 3G or landline

 

on Vodafone EDGE is rubbish and will slow down page loading drastically

 

as has been said before bad signal 3G is usually faster than good signal GPRS but the latter will be more reliable for smaller pages and especially emails. The vodafone software can turn off 3G (or GPRS) if the 3G is very intermittent.

 

Also HDSPA (theoretically faster) seems to be slower (less reliable) than UTMS (WCDMA) - this is not selectable in the vodafone software (MacOS)

 

The wok is still the best aerial i have used (i since bought £80 worth of directional aerial which is not as good) and I am not sure why Mr Fincher should turn his nose up at it. It would take some mathematics to show how a satellite dish would be a better parabolic collector.

 

I have signal strength software which relies on signal from the dongle but i don't think the dongle's signal measurement is particularly accurate.

 

That's a helpful post Chris - cheers.

[nb Innisfree]

Google says our Huawei 156g is green for GPRS, blue for 3g and cyan for HDSPA but blue beats them all every time, cyan seems to act like a mid way between the two.

[alan_fincher]

The wok is still the best aerial i have used (i since bought £80 worth of directional aerial which is not as good) and I am not sure why Mr Fincher should turn his nose up at it. It would take some mathematics to show how a satellite dish would be a better parabolic collector.

I'm not sure I did, did I ?

 

We sometimes have a satellite dish on board, but don't have an on-board wok, so the former would be my first choice, if I were desperate.

 

No criticism of what works for others was intended!

 

I think HSDPA is very much about regions where it is readily available - if we can get it on a good signal, it's heaps faster than anything else. But from our travels so far, you don't have to go very far north before it's not available.

 

Surprisingly, (on 3, at least), being in an area of high population seems to be no guarantee of a better success rate. On the Lee, for example we struggled at maybe 50% of overnight moorings to get any usable connection on 3, (by any method).

[Guest]

We sometimes have a satellite dish on board, but don't have an on-board wok, so the former would be my first choice, if I were desperate.

 

 

Egg fried rice done in a satellite dish - yummy!!

[nb Innisfree]

We sometimes have a satellite dish on board, but don't have an on-board wok, so the former would be my first choice, if I were desperate.

 

A wok will pull in very good Chinese satellite TV

[Byeckerslike]

The angle of the dongle makes a difference and vertical (intuitive) is not necessarily the best, possibly due to reflections

 

Are you not confusing this with the angle of the dangle? (See posts on long standing member)?

Edited January 31, 2010 by Byeckerslike

[AjW]

Got my dangler stuck at the top of a two foot pole on the roof and rarely have speeds below 500kbps, and usually above the 1Mbps mark. I'm in a very rural area with no masts in line of sight. Works best with the dongle horizontal but a rain cover means it is usually hanging vertical. And slightly to the left

 

I'm on T-mobile and the software allows me to lock the dongle to either 2G or 3G which makes a helluva difference to maintaining a connection (Tools->Options->Network) especially with email clients.

 

Low signal strength on 3G/HSDPA will usually give slower internet speeds than high signal strength on 2G, but I've locked my dongle to 3G and it copes fine.

 

The light on dongles will change between 3G and HSDPA depending on what you're downloading or the data requirements so don't use the colour of the light as an indication of signal strength.

 

When your choosing a provider do some research on the local masts etc because providers share masts and networks so switching between them won't always solve the problem! Most providers have coverage maps on their networks and of the 3 dongles I've tried the software allowed me to view all the available networks.