3G Commuter Forums now live

I’ve been thinking about it for a while now, and last night I finally got around to creating the 3G Commuter Forums.

Its all a bit empty at the moment, but hopefully it will start getting some traffic soon.

If you use a 3G dongle, or a laptop with built in 3G, please do sign up, comments and suggestions for new forums, etc, are welcome.

Anyone fancy designing me a logo for the site?

3G Commuting – Southern is better than South West Trains

 

My experiences to date on the SWT route between Havant and London Waterloo have been quite variable, including what seems like problems with hand-offs between network cells, meaning a loss of signal can mean not getting a connection back for some time.

 

This weekend work have moved to an office just around the corner from Victoria station (we were previously down near St James Park), so I figured I would try the Southern service from Victoria tonight.  The train journey is basically 2 hours total, but I don’t have to suffer the underground getting to Waterloo.

 

Initial results are very promising – signal level is generally slightly higher than on the SWT route, but more importantly, hand-offs actually work, as does re-acquisition of a connection after moving out of coverage.

I have basically clicked Connect once, just after leaving Victoria, and left it alone since.  Tunnels, dead-spots, etc, are all dealt with seamlessly.

 

So what is different?

 

The geography / topology of the route and surroundings is flatter, and I guess maybe the Three network coverage is generally better along the route.

That’s about it really.  The train is similar – 12 coaches in length, electric pickup from a 3rd rail, similar construction internally and externally.  Similar number of passengers.

 

Interesting comment from Les, who has found that the diesel powered trains provide a better 3G experience between Woking and Waterloo.  I believe you may have something there.  Construction and power source may well play a part, although I suspect its actually construction more than power plant.  If there was that much interference generated by the electric pickups / motors, nothing RF related would work at all, and the trains would probably be banned!

 

A thought to leave you with – would anyone be interested in a UK 3G Commuter Forum, for exchanging experiences of routes, providers, dongles, etc?  Let me know.

 

Technorati Tags: 3g,three,mobile broadband,commuting

3G Modem – Experiences So Far

Ok, so I’ve been using the Three 3G modem on my commute from Havant to Waterloo for some weeks now.  There follows some random thoughts…

 

Getting (and staying) connected

When it has a 3G or HSDPA connection, it is pretty good.  Unfortunately, getting and maintaining such a connection is often fraught with problems.

I think a lot of the problem is that I’m a moving target, so to speak.  Trying to initiate a connection with one base station, only to move out of its coverage into another one whilst trying to connect, must be quite hard.

I don’t know if there is anything that can be done from a client software end, or even the Three network end, that would improve things?  Maybe there is, but it would adversely affect those users who are not moving?

Once it has a connection, it stays up and running for as long as it has signal coverage.  Sadly that isn’t always very long, although that is largely down to the geography of my route.

 

The Software

The connection history is funny.  For example:

‘Data usage is approximate only.’ – Uh, ok.  Rounded up to the nearest 4GB?!

I’ve stopped bothering to reset the Network option to ‘3G Only’, because I know it doesn’t actually save that setting.  I don’t think it saves any settings, actually.

There don’t seem to be any registry entries relating to any of the settings, so I’m not sure where it is meant to save settings – maybe its because I’m using Vista.

The signal strength meter and signal type shown on the software generally lags behind the indication provided by the LED on the dongle, presumably the software only polls the dongle on a cycle.  Not a big thing, but maybe the polling cycle needs tweaking.

 

Overall

Don’t get me wrong, when it has a 3G or HSDPA connection, its very usable, and if I was standing still, it would probably stay that way.  I think the ‘mobile’ part of mobile broadband needs some work, that’s all.

I’m going to look into an external antenna – not sure whether it will make a massive difference – I’ve tried various orientations of the dongle with the extension cable, without any noticeable improvement in signal strength.  That said, I’m not sure that signal strength is my main problem.

If there is a Beta program for the client software, I’d love to join – I would be using it (or at least trying to) for around 3 hours a day, 4 days a week, on a train, if anyone has a route into Three, please let me know!

Is there anyone out there that travels on South West Trains on my route that uses either a Three or other 3G service, that would like to comment on their experiences?  I generally get the train that arrives into Waterloo at 0830 – one of the white trains, not the cramped blue ones!

 

Technorati Tags: 3g,three,mobile Broadband

3G Modem – The Journey Home

 

Right, so I got the 1745 from Waterloo, forgetting that it routes the exact reverse of the train up this morning, so still haven’t been near Woking.  I’m sure it is lovely.

Anyway…

Nothing more to report really in terms of signal, but some general thoughts.

Signal level, according to the 3Connect utility, never really went above 50%.  This is probably going to be down to the fact that I was sat in a big metal train.  It will also not have helped that the USB dongle is plugged, memory stick style, into the left side of my laptop, so depending on where I sit on the train, the aerial is not getting much of a chance!

I would swap the device to the socket on the other side of the laptop, but 3Connect doesn’t seem to recognise it unless it is in the original socket.  USB / Vista feature, I think.

The device comes with a USB extension lead.  At the risk of getting funny looks, I will do a bit of an experiment over the next couple of days, involving using the extension, and maybe some blu-tac.  I’m never sure how much difference a few inches makes with the kind of frequencies these things work at, but getting the device up towards the top of the laptop screen will at least put it in view of the window.

Longer term, maybe a bit of sticky back plastic velcro on the USB connector and the laptop lid…

That said, the E160G has a socket for an external antenna.  Or perhaps that’s taking things a little too far.

The whole 2G / 3G Orange roaming thing is interesting.  Orange 3G worked fine, but Orange 2G would work if it was connected to 3G already then downgraded to 2G, but making a ‘cold’ connection to Orange 2G didn’t seem to work.

I also noticed that in the event of a loss of signal, it didn’t seem to find a new signal for ages, yet if I closed and reopened 3Connect, it often found something straight away.  Likely to be due, again, to being in a train, moving at speed through network cells.

 

Technorati Tags: 3G,Mobile Broadband,Three,E160G

3G Modem – The first trip

Ok, so the train journey from Havant to London Waterloo.

It took me almost until Rowlands Castle to boot Vista and get the dongle plugged in and active.

Almost as soon as I got a 3G connection, we went into a dead spot.

Picked up 3G then HSDPA around Petersfield, which lasted about 5 minutes.

Total dead spot through Liss / Liphook, with an option to roam onto Orange 2G just after Liphook.

Nothing from Haslemere until around Witley, where the Orange 2G roaming option came back….. and then went again.

Plenty of Orange 2G around Godalming, except actually in the station.  Nothing at all there.

Passing Farncombe, some 3G coverage, at last, then HSDPA as well!

Good HSDPA coverage around Guildford, but this train goes up the scenic route via Guildford London Road, so we miss out Woking, then rejoin the main line at Surbiton.

Hmm, lost the lot just past Guildford London Road, but 3G coverage came back within a couple of minutes… then went again.

HSDPA came back a couple of minutes later and stayed almost until Oxshott, then dropped down to 3G.

Joining the main line near Surbiton, it was switching between Orange 3G and 2G.

Back to Three 3G by New Malden.

HSDPA kicked back in at Wimbledon.

Bit of a dead spot just before Clapham Junction.

Between Clapham and Waterloo, I took the opportunity to do a SpeedTest.  Getting about 260kbps down and 45kbps up on Three 3G.

 

The journey home tonight will most likely be a train that goes via Woking, so will update later.

 

Technorati Tags: 3G,Mobile Broadband,Three,HSDPA

New Toy: I just bought myself a 3G modem

 

I’ve been deliberating for some time about getting a 3G connection to use on the train between Havant and London Waterloo.  I have a three hour round trip that I do four days of most weeks.

I know from my own Orange phone and the work O2 one that there are various dead spots along the route some of which last for a few miles, so I didn’t really fancy signing up to a contract for 3G.  Instead I have gone the PAYG route.

I wandered into our local Three store today, and came out with a 3Gb Mobile Broadband Starter Kit.

Hardware

I had a choice of three different modems, all made by Huawei.  The E220 ’soap on a rope’, the E160G or the E169G, both USB sticks.  I went for the E160G in black (like the colour makes a difference!).

All of the offered modems are capable of 3.6Mbps speeds, although the Three network only goes up to 2.8Mbps at best, if you can find HSDPA coverage.  The E220 has been around for a couple of years, and depending on what you read, it is not capable of 7.2Mbps speeds, but the E160G and E169G will be.

The 160 has the added advantage that it has a MicroSD slot, so I could add in up to 4Gb of storage.  As it stands, it has a built in storage partition containing the install media, including the drivers and the 3Connect utility.

Data

As you might expect from the package name, I get 3Gb of data allowance included, which is valid for 90 days from first use.  I can then add 1Gb for £10, 3Gb for £15, or 7Gb for £25.  These topups need to be converted to ‘Add-ons’, which are valid for 30 days.  This can all be done from the My3 section of the Three website.

Initial Setup

Setup is about as plug and play as anything can be – the install media is held on the device itself, and autoruns when plugged in.  No reboot required.

My3 Registration

At this point I registered on the My3 section of the Three site.  It sent a text message to the device, which was meant to include my password for My3, but it was all in Chinese characters?!  More on that later.

2nd Setup

I went looking for a ‘check for updates’ option or similar, without success.  I needn’t have worried – it was evidently already on the case (using my existing WiFi connection – I’d not hit the ‘Connect’ button yet), because it told me there was a mandatory update available.  That took a few minutes to download, then when I ran it, took a few minutes more to remove the initial install, reboot, then install the updated version.

It would  be very cool if that had updated the on-device storage with the updated install, but I doubt it.

I then did the ‘forgotten password’ option on My3, and this time, I got a text message in English.

Where from here?

Public holiday here in the UK, but off to London tomorrow, so will get to try out the modem in anger.

My initial testing at home was on 3G, but with low signal, giving a rather rubbish 60kbps, according to SpeedTest.

I also found that the device itself got very warm in the 10 minutes or so that I was testing it.  Will have to keep an eye on that.

 

Technorati Tags: 3G,Mobile Broadband,Three