Slow. Not Good.

[Caindris]

have you tried updating your PRL? *228 I believe. Updates what towers you can talk to and if you just got the device I'd suspect the default PRL is a bit out of date.

 

[Kendall]

Takeshi, my phone does not "define" me. Please. I was making a point; but it is a little embarrassing when you spend good money, are happy to being showing off your new toys and get blanked. We are kind of a nerdy group. We like this stuff, and like to have fun comparing. No loss of face ... just a bummer really.

Anyway, you make some good points. I never thought about whether a carrier should "guarantee coverage indoors" or not. I would think they should; I mean, we don't live outdoors. So I sort of do expect a guarantee on coverage indoors. I think that would be normal. No?

Getting back on track. Any ideas on how to improve reception by maybe turning off some applications or services? How about turning off some services? Do I need GTalkService ALWAYS on by default?

 

[Kendall]

Caindris, Thanks for the links and stuff. I do not even know what a PRL is ... but I will find out, and update it.

I work about 15 miles from my home; do I have to update my PRL based on which location is "more important" to me?

 

[Caindris]

The PRL - Preferred Roaming List - is a list that is updated to your phone on what towers your phone can contact. What you ask about different locations is honestly something I don't know. I would suspect that updating your PRL would update it for roaming across the country but I've never had any reason to test or debate this as I only travel mostly within the city I live in.

 

[Kendall]

Alright, thanks. I'll look into it.

Wow! ... That was rough. There are some pretty harsh people on this forum. You were a breath of fresh air.

Take care.

 

[orangepeel]

Hey Kendall,

I know a lot of people look at the amount of bars to determine how good the signal is,but really it's the dBm signal that will give you the correct reading on how strong the signal is.So if you both have the same dBm number,then generally you should have the same speed with the browser. The thing about browser speed/signals comes down to if you have a good line of site to the tower,how many people are banging the tower at once,and how many T1 lines the tower has.

 

[Caindris]

Hey Kendall,

I know a lot of people look at the amount of bars to determine how good the signal is,but really it's the dBm signal that will give you the correct reading on how strong the signal is.So if you both have the same dBm number,then generally you should have the same speed with the browser. The thing about browser speed/signals comes down to if you have a good line of site to the tower,how many people are banging the tower at once,and how many T1 lines the tower has.

I'm genuinely curious here. Isn't dBm just the numerical version of the signal strength which is represented by the bar graph? Sure the dBm number would give you a more accurate reading but it seems not worth the hassle for something the bar provides a quick representation to? If you have a more in-depth answer I'd love to hear it. I'm just going off of what a quick google search fed me.

As far the towers - do they have any sort of load balancing between them? And do they all have a separate number of T1s? I suppose it would make more sense to load up the bandwidth on one tower in a heavy population area instead of adding multiple towers. If you have any deeper knowledge into this I'd love to hear it

 

[darreno1]

If you want accurate answers in a friendly tone you should start by providing accurate info also in a friendly tone. The are many 'trolls' that start threads like these to just get people all riled up.

But to comment on your situation, it's simple- you don't have a good signal where you are. It happens. Where I work it's the opposite, Verizon is generally better indoors and out and my coworker's 3gs struggles to keep up. Also for just browsing, I doubt one would be able to tell the difference between the two networks given equal signal levels. Only when downloading a large file would it be obvious.

I had at&t for a year and their 3g was less than stellar coverage wise, a sentiment held by many accross the country so even if it is technically superior, the generally poor coverage erases any real world advantage except in certain situations like when there's an at&t cell tower close by.

Only in rare situations do I need to use wifi with my Droid. When I had my iPhone 3g it was the opposite. Also jumping to the conclusion there's something wrong with the droid is premature and no, stopping services or deleting apps will not help.

 

[orangepeel]

I'm genuinely curious here. Isn't dBm just the numerical version of the signal strength which is represented by the bar graph? Sure the dBm number would give you a more accurate reading but it seems not worth the hassle for something the bar provides a quick representation to? If you have a more in-depth answer I'd love to hear it. I'm just going off of what a quick google search fed me.

As far the towers - do they have any sort of load balancing between them? And do they all have a separate number of T1s? I suppose it would make more sense to load up the bandwidth on one tower in a heavy population area instead of adding multiple towers. If you have any deeper knowledge into this I'd love to hear it

Yeah the bars is much quicker to view on most phones for sure,and is pretty accurate. I guess I was just throwing something out there that should be looked at if you're really getting technical in trying to figure out what network is faster.I have a Storm with an app that makes it easily viewable,and my Sprint data card shows the dBm reading right below the bars when I open up the connection manager.

Caindris, Yes, they do have load balancing,and the more populated areas have more T1 lines,but like in the area I live in the Sprint tower has 1 T1 line,and the Verizon has 2.I know this because of the speeds I get is double on the Verizon tower even though my dBm is lower on the Sprint tower.The odd part is I live in a rural community and I have ZERO idea why Verizon put 2 lines on it,although it could be because it's fairly close to an interstate.

Don't get me wrong I'm no expert at this.What little I've learned was by trial & error,and research. When I moved to this area I could get nothing but dial-up,so I got a data card,well my dBm was way high so I had to get an amp and then a directional antenna/wiring and mount it on my house and point it towards the tower(s). I probably know more than your average person,but I'm not a guru that's worked on towers or anything.....wish I was though.

I learned a lot at a forum called evdoforums.com.When you run your home internet off a data card,you get really anal over your dBm.Man,everything is flying right now,but when the leaves get back on the tree's,and the humidity kicks back up (I'm in the South) things will slow down fast.....not such a big deal for me on a phone though.

 

[Backnblack]

Thanks. I was serious.

Sorry about that....But your first post was troll-ish.....