Connection Woes

[martinsmith99]

I'm currently experiencing a slow, unusable connection.  It has been happening for a few days and I have been in contact with customer services four times.  They tell me that there is no problem in the area and are baffled as to what the problem may be.  My postcode is BS35 3TE if this helps check the coverage.

Pages can take up to 10 mins to load if they do at all.  I have tried a spare dongle and two different PCs but the problem still exists.

I get 2-3 bars on my 3G indicator but speeds are between 0bps and 12Kbps.  Sometimes disconnection and reconnecting cures the problem and sometimes it fixes itself, only to stop again shortly after.

Please help.

Thanks

[Retired-Reidar]

Hello Martin

I've had a look at your post code and although there are some patchy 3G signal zones it's nothing that should have a drastic effect on your speed.

2-3 bars sounds correct for your immediate area however the speeds are too low; please could you do one of the following;

1. Download a different browser, like Opera or Firefox via a Google search, and then install this to note any performance differences while browsing on the modem.

2. Insert the sim into a mobile phone as this often helps to boost the signal and restore optimum functionality.

I’d also advise that you register for My Account as this will allow you to access online billing, a more accurate way of monitoring your data usage.

Should you wish to provide any feedback on how I have addressed your query for you, then we have a short form to enable you to do that. It just takes a few minutes and any comments are appreciated.

[martinsmith99]

Hello Martin

I've had a look at your post code and although there are some patchy 3G signal zones it's nothing that should have a drastic effect on your speed.

2-3 bars sounds correct for your immediate area however the speeds are too low; please could you do one of the following;

1. Download a different browser, like Opera or Firefox via a Google search, and then install this to note any performance differences while browsing on the modem.

2. Insert the sim into a mobile phone as this often helps to boost the signal and restore optimum functionality.

I’d also advise that you register for My Account as this will allow you to access online billing, a more accurate way of monitoring your data usage.

Should you wish to provide any feedback on how I have addressed your query for you, then we have a short form to enable you to do that. It just takes a few minutes and any comments are appreciated.

Thanks for the reply




I'm currently running IE and Opera but problems persist on both.  When it's bad my emails won't download into IE.  It has been fine for the last couple of hours but now my speeds have dropped to around 50kbps.

I have previously tried inserting the sim into the phone.  Does it have to be there for any amount of time and should I do anything other than try surfing with it?

Thanks again

[techmind]

Are you still getting the blue/turqoise light (3G connection) on your modem? (Green would be a basic 2G connection which is inherently slow).

If you do definitely have a 3G connection (blue or turquoise light)...
While there could be a multitude of reasons for your slow page-viewing, you might want to try browsing this very long thread: http://forum.vodafone.co.uk/index.php?show...0&start=120
and particularly the last half-dozen postings.

As an experiment/diagnostic, try using Proxify and see whether that helps. (I make no claim that's a real or long-term solution)

If the Proxify test does show some improvement, then if you are willing to tinker with your Registry settings, then adding the MaxConnectionsPerServer line with a value of about 10 may offer some more practical partial relief if your problem is similar to the one I experience.


Another issue which could cause the kind of poor performance you describe could be your cell data-throughput being saturated, eg by several other users in your cell doing peer-to-peer filesharing. If this was the case then there's not a lot you can do (except hope that they get a big bill and mend their ways!).
Checking one of the speedtest sites might clarify the situation. http://www.speedtest.net/ or http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest.html

[Retired-Dave]

Hi MartinSmith99,

techmind makes a good point regarding the lights there - which are you getting when you're connected? As Reidar said, you are ijn a slightly patchy area - I can see a couple of close patches where the coverage is outdoor only, so you may occasionally be caught on the edge of this as rthe cell coverage "breathes" according to usage. The lights will give ius a better idea as if the signal is intermittent at times then the lights may not be consistent. In particular, are they the same during standard periods as they are when it runs slowly?

I would be careful befor making schanges to the directory, however - if you are in any way eunsure then don't attempt this yourself. That said, I appreciate you may also be a highly qualified IT technician, in which case it could be seciond nature to you!

With the cell saturation suggestion, can you confirm for me if you suffer slowdown periods in any sort of pattern? For example, does it happen the same time each day, or alternatively the same times/days each week? If so, can you confirm the pattern for me so we can see if there's any sense to it.

Can you also confirm if you've been able to try the dongle in any different areas or on other computers for me? If so, was there any difference to the speeds?

I'm confident we can pin this down for you!

DaveN

eForum Team

[martinsmith99]

Hi MartinSmith99,

techmind makes a good point regarding the lights there - which are you getting when you're connected? As Reidar said, you are ijn a slightly patchy area - I can see a couple of close patches where the coverage is outdoor only, so you may occasionally be caught on the edge of this as rthe cell coverage "breathes" according to usage. The lights will give ius a better idea as if the signal is intermittent at times then the lights may not be consistent. In particular, are they the same during standard periods as they are when it runs slowly?

I would be careful befor making schanges to the directory, however - if you are in any way eunsure then don't attempt this yourself. That said, I appreciate you may also be a highly qualified IT technician, in which case it could be seciond nature to you!

With the cell saturation suggestion, can you confirm for me if you suffer slowdown periods in any sort of pattern? For example, does it happen the same time each day, or alternatively the same times/days each week? If so, can you confirm the pattern for me so we can see if there's any sense to it.

Can you also confirm if you've been able to try the dongle in any different areas or on other computers for me? If so, was there any difference to the speeds?

I'm confident we can pin this down for you!

DaveN

eForum Team

The usual pattern is that it slows down at around 9pm.  I can still get reasonable speed then, but there is a delay when I click a link to anything happening and steaming videos can be problematic if they're large.

I always connect to 3G+.  It's been okay this last week, with only the occasional hiccup when connection is dropped and not available for a few minutes. Connecting now has indicated speeds of 8-16k initially with many pages timing out, then a few mins later I can get 2m+.


It's a shame as I've been happy with the service since Feb.