vB Easy Archive - 700p EVDO tethering speeds

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700p EVDO tethering speeds – this phone is slow
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Posted by: primags

OK, I am frustrated with the EVDO speeds I am getting with my Treo 700p and tethering to a laptop. I got the device about a month ago and started testing speeds, and am averaging 25 KB/s (200 Kb/s). To test, I have been going to download.com and downloading a file via Internet Explorer to see real world speeds.

I started to think that Sprint just way over stated their EVDO speeds. I have even tested in different cities (Tampa) thinking my small town might have something to do with it, but I got the same speeds in Tampa (tested using Bluetooth connection and USB cable).

A friend just purchased a Sprint EVDO PCMCIA (laptop) card. I asked him to come over to test speeds, so we were sitting in the exact same location with the same number of bars. He received speeds of 60 – 75 KB/s (480 – 600) consistently while I was getting my regular 25 KB/s (200 Kb/s). This was downloading the same exact file from download.com.

What gives? Do newer models of palm smart phones handle EVDO better? Does anyone have a fix / suggestion for this?

Thanks

Posted by: johncase3

Quote:

Originally Posted by primags

OK, I am frustrated with the EVDO speeds I am getting with my Treo 700p...What gives? Do newer models of palm smart phones handle EVDO better? Does anyone have a fix / suggestion for this?Thanks

I read somewhere that because of the Palm OS, EVDO maxes out at about 300kbps. Could explain it.

Posted by: chuckwjk1

Quote:

Originally Posted by primags

OK, I am frustrated with the EVDO speeds I am getting with my Treo 700p and tethering to a laptop. I got the device about a month ago and started testing speeds, and am averaging 25 KB/s (200 Kb/s). To test, I have been going to download.com and downloading a file via Internet Explorer to see real world speeds.

I started to think that Sprint just way over stated their EVDO speeds. I have even tested in different cities (Tampa) thinking my small town might have something to do with it, but I got the same speeds in Tampa (tested using Bluetooth connection and USB cable).

A friend just purchased a Sprint EVDO PCMCIA (laptop) card. I asked him to come over to test speeds, so we were sitting in the exact same location with the same number of bars. He received speeds of 60 – 75 KB/s (480 – 600) consistently while I was getting my regular 25 KB/s (200 Kb/s). This was downloading the same exact file from download.com.

What gives? Do newer models of palm smart phones handle EVDO better? Does anyone have a fix / suggestion for this?

Thanks

I don't know if you are aware...there are problems with the 700p. There are updates on the Palm site but it is not pretty. One of the problems was file transfer times with BT and there were other BT issues as well as a few other things. I would check it out.

Posted by: mhroten77

Yea I have read about the Palm Max out thing, but I believe it does that on the Blazer Browser. Cause when I do speed test on Blazer I only get about 200-250 kb/s.
I currently have my palm 700p hooked up to computer and im getting 700-750 kb/s down and 100 kb/s up. Maybe an area issue?

Posted by: johncase3

Quote:

Originally Posted by mhroten77

Yea I have read about the Palm Max out thing, but I believe it does that on the Blazer Browser. Cause when I do speed test on Blazer I only get about 200-250 kb/s.
I currently have my palm 700p hooked up to computer and im getting 700-750 kb/s down and 100 kb/s up. Maybe an area issue?

Hmm... Good news! Thanks for the info.

What did you tether with? PDANet?

Posted by: mhroten77

Yes I am using a free copy of PDAnet. Works well. I use it on my desktop

Posted by: johncase3

Quote:

Originally Posted by mhroten77

Yes I am using a free copy of PDAnet. Works well. I use it on my desktop

I have PDANet also (paid for). I have never gotten anywhere near 700kbps, but then, I have yet to camp or hotel near a really good signal. (Where I live, the signal is crap.)

Posted by: uli2000

USB connection has a max of 230kb/sec (thats the limit of the usb connection). I cant remember where or how, but theres a way to increase that connecton speed. Otherwise, buy a bluetooth dongle and do it over bluetooth.

Posted by: mhroten77

Theres a limit on USB? Cause I just ran another test and it showed 695 down and 122 up.
Unless something on my desktop is already set to something.

Posted by: AlexKidd1977

Quote:

Originally Posted by uli2000

USB connection has a max of 230kb/sec (thats the limit of the usb connection). I cant remember where or how, but theres a way to increase that connecton speed. Otherwise, buy a bluetooth dongle and do it over bluetooth.

That's most certainly not a limit of USB - the speed limit is 11 Megabit per second even on the oldest version of USB. That would be around 700 KiloBYTES per second. He's reporting 230 KiloBITS per second.

It may very well be a bug, or even a restriction placed on the specific USB port of that model Palm. I've seen BlackBerries tethered on Verizon kick serious butt on a USB connection - over 500 Kilobits per second which is plenty fast for anything you should be wanting to do on a mobile connection.

--Kidd

Posted by: mhroten77

Oh okay. I didn't think there was a limit. I just hope that I don't end up with like a huge fee for using PDAnet.

Posted by: johncase3

I am staying SW of Clarksville TN for the holiday week. Getting 128kbps/68kbps on a 1X connection (roaming) via PDANet.

Even though I am WAY out in the sticks, signal here is MUCH better than back home in NJ.

Posted by: primags

I did some more testing, and found the phone actually has better speeds than I was experiencing previously - maybe some kind of connection problem the day I was testing.

Using the USB cable, I tested again and the speeds were about 500kbps.
I tested using bluetooth and was only able to get 250kbps.

So, if you are testing your speeds on your computer, remember to use usb cable to get real world results.

Posted by: AlexKidd1977

Quote:

Originally Posted by primags

I did some more testing, and found the phone actually has better speeds than I was experiencing previously - maybe some kind of connection problem the day I was testing.

Using the USB cable, I tested again and the speeds were about 500kbps.
I tested using bluetooth and was only able to get 250kbps.

So, if you are testing your speeds on your computer, remember to use usb cable to get real world results.

I always prefer the USB cable to tether. Gives a more reliable/faster connection and charges the battery at the same time.

--Kidd