Intermittent 3g reception in Opua with Vodafone on Ideos u8150

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CWeiser

18 posts

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# 77261 13-Feb-2011 16:11

Hello, Instead of buying a router for our Vodem 3g stick, we bought a low end smart phone that provides a local wifi hotspot, the Ideos U8150. We now can run our two computers using the phone capabilities--we just put the Vodem sim into the phone.

We are on a boat and in a different location than we were previously with just the Vodem. However, we don't seem to be able to keep our 3g connection up without forcing a browser page refresh on the phone. This happens at least 10 times a day and is most noticeable around noon and just after work hours. Am I expecting too much? Sometimes we can't get connected for 5-10 minutes.

johnr

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# 438875 13-Feb-2011 16:17

Are you in fringe coverage?

CWeiser

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# 438879 13-Feb-2011 16:31

The Vodafone coverage map indicates it would be 2 bars out of 4 for 3gX here. Is that considered fringe?

johnr

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# 438883 13-Feb-2011 16:39

CWeiser: The Vodafone coverage map indicates it would be 2 bars out of 4 for 3gX here. Is that considered fringe?

Go by the signal meter on the phone

CWeiser

18 posts

Geek

# 438891 13-Feb-2011 17:06

OK. If there is an embarrassment icon, consider it attached here. So little documentation came with the phone, I don't know what it is telling me. I did find and pull down an android manual recently--so I'll go try to figure it out. Sometimes says 3g, sometimes says H, sometimes flashes them alternately. Sometimes an additional satellite dish looking thing appears. There's two sets of things with bars and I really don't have a clue what they mean. Sometimes one set of bars disappears.

However, with 3G, normal operation with good reception would let it stay connected, wouldn't it? Whether I am actively using it or not?

johnr

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# 438895 13-Feb-2011 17:21

A device flicking between 3G and H is normal and the H is for HSPA

CWeiser

18 posts

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# 438899 13-Feb-2011 17:31

OK, mostly I see 4 bright bars but occasionally 3. The arrows under the flicking 3G/H light up intermittently (I presume with traffic coming or going?). So, I it looks like I am not in a fringe area. Are there any known problems with this phone and Vodafone interactions or whatever? Maybe I need to set something I don't know about?

Peppery

864 posts

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# 439898 15-Feb-2011 16:56

As John said, your phone switching from 3G to H (HSPA) is completely normal. The phone will switch to HSPA if possible when data is being transferred and back to 3G when the connection is idle. Nothing to worry about with that at all.

kyhwana2

2460 posts

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# 439905 15-Feb-2011 17:14

Vodafone, nuff said. ;)

One idea, get connectbot and open a shell and let "ping stuff.co.nz" (or some other host) run in the background, if the pings start to time out, then your 3g connection is dropping, probably nothing you can do about it.
If it's just a lack of activity causing the connection to drop, the ping will keep it open for you.

nakedmolerat

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# 439922 15-Feb-2011 17:56

have u tried leaving the screen switched on at all time? i use my milestone2 for hotspot extensively. once i chuck it in the multimedia dock - the screen will slightly dimmed and showed the clock. if i left it like that, the internet will be stable but as soon as i turn off the screen, it will intermittently slowed down / losing connection. you can download something like 'Calm Read' from the android market to keep the screen switched on

sbiddle

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# 439948 15-Feb-2011 18:50

johnr:
CWeiser: The Vodafone coverage map indicates it would be 2 bars out of 4 for 3gX here. Is that considered fringe?

Go by the signal meter on the phone

You should know as well as anybody John that most signal strength indicators just measure RSSI and that with a WCDMA network RSSI isn't a very accurate measure of signal quality!

CWeiser

18 posts

Geek

# 440204 16-Feb-2011 12:06

Thanks for the info about connectbot and ping.stuff.co.nz.

Losing the connection is not only due to inactivity. In fact, most of the disconnections are in the middle of use. I wouldn't have come to this forum for disconnections after inactivity. There is about 100% correlation with lunch time and just after work hours when we lose connection. Otherwise, we stay connected throughout the day. Usually, there are two computers using the hotspot. At a minimum, it takes 2-4 minutes to reconnect. Sometimes, we just have to give up for an hour or so because even reconnecting it immediately disconnects again. Yesterday, we disconnected 8 times. Today, so far, once. But the day is young.

johnr

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# 440237 16-Feb-2011 13:14

CWeiser: Thanks for the info about connectbot and ping.stuff.co.nz.?

Losing the connection is not only due to inactivity.? In fact, most of the disconnections are in the middle of use.? I wouldn't have come to this forum for disconnections after inactivity.? There is about 100% correlation with lunch time and just after work hours when we lose connection.? Otherwise, we stay connected throughout the day.? Usually, there are two computers using the hotspot.? At a minimum, it takes 2-4 minutes to reconnect.? Sometimes, we just have to give up for an hour or so because even reconnecting it immediately disconnects again.? Yesterday, we disconnected 8 times.? Today, so far, once.? But the day is young.

Did the connection disconnect so you had to click on connect again or did the packet switch traffic stop?

Thanks John

CWeiser

18 posts

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# 440302 16-Feb-2011 15:28

"Did the connection disconnect so you had to click on connect again or did the packet switch traffic stop?"

Since I am using this with the Ideos, I don't know how to tell. On the PCs (with hotspot) everything just stops. On the phone in the browser, I force a page refresh and it tells me the page can't load and then, on occasion I get a box that says I don't have a connection. After multiple retries it reconnects and the page loads and then everything works again on the PCs.

There are times I get the satellite dish icon (which I don't know what that signifies) seeming to beam something. It seems that happens when we're reconnecting after I get the no connection box but I'm not positive about the association.

Only two disconnects today so far--second one around 12:20PM.

Oh, it takes a really long time to figure out that it has no web connection (and I get the box notice). Maybe 45 secs to a minute?

oxnsox

1923 posts

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# 440312 16-Feb-2011 15:59

Try shifting the handset on/within the boat.

Don't know where you have it now or what she's made of but on sailing vessels things tend to be low to the waterline. You won't be getting an optimum signal, and will be getting lots of reflections as tide varies, and the wind waves and current cause you to swing (if you're on a mooring). They'll all have an effect on signal strength and maybe even the cell site you're connected thru.