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RamJet
09-17-2010, 07:02 PM
I bought an internet air card at Best Buy in Portsmouth and was surprised how well it did throughout most of the lake. I used my laptop on my boat to keep an eye on the weather.

I bet it would work well on some of the islands with a laptop.

fpartri497
09-17-2010, 08:28 PM
I use verizons air card on my laptop at the lake and It is extremely slow sometimes 4-min. for ma page to open.:eek:

rick35
09-17-2010, 09:53 PM
I tether my verizon blackberry to my laptop when at the lake. Response time this summer is terrible. I don't remember it being this bad other years. Even phone calls sometimes don't go through right away. Service used to be excellent. Its about as slow as a dial up. I'll have to check it with speed checker.

rick35
09-17-2010, 11:16 PM
I ran performance tests for my tethered blackberry using dslreports.com and toast.net and the average download speed is around 115kbs. I'm told that the tether gets about the same performance as an air card.

trfour
09-18-2010, 03:04 AM
Charge us more, give us Less! :look:

I know all about that our Government seems to care'Less about US these days...

Old school ain't doing US right, over here!

Terry
_______________________________

Lakesrider
09-18-2010, 07:52 AM
More and more cell phones and mobile broadband users are tying up service. I have a friend that works for Verizon and he says it is only going to get worse, unless we go to some new technology that is a few years out right now.
Go to Japan. You blink and your online. I had never seen anything so fast in my life and everyone on the island has a cell phone. I saw a guy in the mountain rice paddies with a blackberry looking phone....geesh. And the USA is supposed to be the Best.....:rolleye2:

RamJet
09-18-2010, 08:51 AM
I don"t know about Verizon. My air card is some new AT&T technology that maybe Verizon does not have. The sales guy at Best Buy told me about it.

ishoot308
09-19-2010, 07:23 AM
I have a 5 gb. Verizon mobile broadband card that I use on Welch and many other places around the lake and it works great. It's plenty fast and I have had no issues whatsoever.

Dan

Island Girl
09-19-2010, 08:38 AM
I have been using Verizon wireless cards for 8+ years on Rattlesnake. The current speeds are terrible compared to what we had when EVDO went live about 3 years ago. Before EVDO we had much slower speeds, but the would beat 24k from the phone line which was the standard a few years ago.

The line drops and slow speeds are very frustrating. I will support any effort to get higher speeds. here.

That being said, once in a while the speeds are acceptable and just fine. It is very variable.

IG

ishoot308
09-19-2010, 08:53 AM
I ran performance tests for my tethered blackberry using dslreports.com and toast.net and the average download speed is around 115kbs. I'm told that the tether gets about the same performance as an air card.

I just tried the test at toast.net and my Verizon air card on Welch island did 500 K.

Is this good??

Dan

Lucky1
09-19-2010, 08:54 AM
I have a 5 gb. Verizon mobile broadband card that I use on Welch and many other places around the lake and it works great. It's plenty fast and I have had no issues whatsoever.

Dan

I have the Verizon stick that you put in the USB port and it works well almost everywhere in the country!

rick35
09-19-2010, 08:55 AM
I agree about Verizon. My blackberry bars go from 5 to zero and back all the time on Bear. I've never seen that anywhere else.

rick35
09-19-2010, 09:00 AM
I just tried the test at toast.net and my Verizon air card on Welch island did 500 K.

Is this good??

Dan

I think that's very good. Could be the tower I'm connecting to or it could be my blackberry.

brk-lnt
09-19-2010, 10:15 AM
I just tried the test at toast.net and my Verizon air card on Welch island did 500 K.

Is this good??

Dan

It's good for the area.

upthesaukee
09-19-2010, 11:18 AM
...is www.speedtest.net (http://www.speedtest.net) . I use it often to check Metrocast. I have 7MB service with them, and run around 6.8 MB on the download speeds. that is out of the Portland site.

ishoot308
09-19-2010, 11:44 AM
...is www.speedtest.net (http://www.speedtest.net) . I use it often to check Metrocast. I have 7MB service with them, and run around 6.8 MB on the download speeds. that is out of the Portland site.

I just tried that site and had 1.12 MB/S download and .57 MB/S upload and 168 MS ping with Verizon air card on Welch, whatever that all means!!?? :confused:

Dan

upthesaukee
09-19-2010, 05:46 PM
The download speed is pretty important because that is the rate that you are downloading at (x # of MB's per second.). the upload speed isn't so critical unless you are uploading large files. Most of our uploading is in the form of small bits of info asking to go to this website or that website. The MS is a latency test that I believe is more like an indication of the amount of time to connect to the site, kinda like the old "handshake" with dial up modems. At least that is how all this was explained to me. Someone a lot smarter and/or techier than I may have better or more accurate info.:)

rick35
09-19-2010, 10:14 PM
I just tried that site and had 1.12 MB/S download and .57 MB/S upload and 168 MS ping with Verizon air card on Welch, whatever that all means!!?? :confused:

Dan

I could live with that! That's excellent! I must have a problem with my equipment. That's the kind of performance I used to get with my old blackberry when tethered. We must be connecting to the same towers as I don't think I'm far from you from where I am on south Bear.

upthesaukee
09-20-2010, 05:53 AM
I would guess that both you and Ishoot308 are hitting the Gunstock tower, and I would think you would be at least another mile from the tower. Using Google earth, it is about 5 miles from Gunstock to Welch's, and about 7 miles to the southern tip of Bear. Or you could both be off of other towers in the area. Hard to tell.

Lakepilot
09-20-2010, 06:45 AM
We're in South Wolfeboro.

With a Metrocast connections speeds were:

6.77 down
.48 up

With a Verizon MIFI card:

1.37 down
.42 up

All with speedtest.net off Portland.

This morning, Metrocast is quick, but about half the time in the morning it slows to a crawl.

rick35
10-16-2010, 01:59 PM
I think the problem I was having on Bear is that I didn't have an EV broadband connection. I had a digital cell connection which is identified by the 1X that appears on the display and i was connecting at the slower cellular speed. Of course I figured that out on the day we closed up for the season. As we were leaving I noticed I had EV service just off the shoreline. Next season maybe if I sit close enough to the front slider I'll get service. Kind of like our cell service at home.