On Oct 26, 2008, at 3:18 PM, Steve Smith wrote:
Robert Holmes wrote:
Charming people but their internet service sucks. My connection
from them is currently running at about 300K instead of the 1.5M
I'm paying for ($70 per month).
I'm on a similar Motorola 600Mhz System run by the San Ildefonso
corporation Tewacom.com and have a similar experience (paying $60/
month). My service varies from 0-1.5M with ~.3M typical. I get
almost total dropouts for minutes at a time. They continue to
insist that my service is symmetric but it is rare that I get more
than 50% of download on upload. I use: http://speakeasy.net/speedtest/
most of the time.
If there is something inherently limited in these systems, I'd like
to understand it. I don't like pestering people trying to do
their job (TewaCom or Grappa) but I also like getting consistent,
expected performance.
Out in La Canada Wireless land, we are blessed with a core of
volunteers who keep the wireless system running. You get DSL to 12MPBS
performance depending on the calls on the pipe at a given time.
However, I've never seen anything above 3MBPS and suffer pauses if not
dropouts upon occasion.
As best I can tell, radio systems suffer two inherent drawbacks:
first, they are shared pipes so performance degrades with use. Second,
they share their channels with other radio-based systems including
your neighbor's home wireless network. That seems to create packet
drops and degrade performance significantly.
Thus, in LCWA's network the line-of-sight to my radio server crosses a
heavily congested area with a number of units on the same channel as
LCWA and I get lots of packet drops. Other users who don't have the
interference don't have the drops and enjoy blazingly fast speeds.
The problem can even sabotage the network. I have friends on LCWA in
the Madrid area. A while back there was an unidentified radio source
in their area that brought their connection down after a few minutes.
It went away when LCWA moved its signal. (This is from memory so don't
quote me on the particulars but it's pointed in the general direction.)
Bottom line: LCWA's volunteers get plenty of exercise figuring out
where the interference is coming from. That assumes the member has the
right equipment and it's properly configured in the first place.
-d-
Also because of the location of their radio towers (Santa Fe ski
basin) their service gets even worse during the winter. Last winter
they ended up giving everyone a rebate on one month's fee, though
personally I'd have rather have the up-time than the cash.
I'm one mile from the TewaCom Xmitter and I get little if any
weather-related problems, but do seem to find dropouts and I seem to
need to reboot the 600Mhz modem somewhere between several times over
a few days to only once in a month.
As soon as my contact expires, I'm transfering to Qwest, who have
just started offering DSL in my neighbourhood.
I switched from 1.5M (nominally down) Satellite WildBlue (56k up)
which was *never* down but averaged .5M down and .05 up with lots of
lag. WildBlue also had monthly quotas (not sliding) which did not
support iTunes-class downloads on a regular basis.
Previously I was on dialup which I rarely got higher than 28K
connection with effective speeds of maybe 50% of that.
I think Wireless on this scale makes most sense only when there are
no other choices. If DSL or Cable come available, I think they are
a better answer.
Robert
On Thu, Oct 23, 2008 at 4:10 PM, peter [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
http://grappawireless.com/about.html
Anyone in the group have any experience or comments on these guys
( : ( : pete
--
Peter Baston
IDEAS
www.ideapete.com
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
