Strange 3G/HSPDA Behavior

Last fall I decided to see if the newly implemented 3G/HSPDA service
(Sierra Wireless Air Card 860) would be an improved replacement for my
GPRS/EDGE service (Nokia 6230).
As I reported earlier it worked well in most locations but did not work
well in my home so I cancelled service. Recent tower and infrastructure
improvements made me try once again.

Works better but behavior is confusing. It works very well on some
websites but not at all on others. The strange thing is that it is
always the same sites...they can be accessed or they
can't...previously performance was random and depended on location
(signal quality ?). Now it is not random. A good example is Google....I
can do a search and get pages of response but attempting to access most
of the links referenced results in failure. Likewise I can access the
Cingular site and browse effectively but an attempt to follow some
links (to Sierra Wireless for example) results in failure. For example,
I get 100% failure on attempts to access Microsoft sites but 100%
success accessing Yahoo sites. About 60% of the sites in my IE
favorites list don't work while on HSPDA, all work fine from the
Nokia (EDGE/GPRS) connection.

100% success connecting to my EarthLink email account. Able to
reliably download a 15M file from a variety of locations....but any
attempt to access certain sites has IE reporting the usual "page
cannot be displayed" error sequence

Web site found, waiting for reply...then after a length of time.....
The page cannot be displayed
The page you are looking for is currently unavailable. The Web site
might be experiencing technical difficulties, or you may need to adjust
your browser settings.

Clues ???

jlp

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› See More: Strange 3G/HSPDA Behavior

"jlp" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Last fall I decided to see if the newly implemented 3G/HSPDA service
> (Sierra Wireless Air Card 860) would be an improved replacement for my
> GPRS/EDGE service (Nokia 6230).
> As I reported earlier it worked well in most locations but did not work
> well in my home so I cancelled service. Recent tower and infrastructure
> improvements made me try once again.
>
> Works better but behavior is confusing. It works very well on some
> websites but not at all on others. The strange thing is that it is
> always the same sites...they can be accessed or they
> can't...previously performance was random and depended on location
> (signal quality ?). Now it is not random. A good example is Google....I
> can do a search and get pages of response but attempting to access most
> of the links referenced results in failure. Likewise I can access the
> Cingular site and browse effectively but an attempt to follow some
> links (to Sierra Wireless for example) results in failure. For example,
> I get 100% failure on attempts to access Microsoft sites but 100%
> success accessing Yahoo sites. About 60% of the sites in my IE
> favorites list don't work while on HSPDA, all work fine from the
> Nokia (EDGE/GPRS) connection.
>
> 100% success connecting to my EarthLink email account. Able to
> reliably download a 15M file from a variety of locations....but any
> attempt to access certain sites has IE reporting the usual "page
> cannot be displayed" error sequence
>
> Web site found, waiting for reply...then after a length of time.....
> The page cannot be displayed
> The page you are looking for is currently unavailable. The Web site
> might be experiencing technical difficulties, or you may need to adjust
> your browser settings.
>
> Clues ???
>
> jlp
>

Well - I would guess that this is an obvious attempt by Cingular to take
over the world and create their own version of the internet wherein you are
limited to view certain sites and are restricted from going to other site
that may offer a different reference to the internet. Like Microsoft sites
as an example. You are kept from going there because you may download some
software that would allow you to view the entire internet rather than a
selected portion of it.

But seriously, there should be no reason that the connection would allow
some sites but not others. The connection is just that. A connection. How
about trying with a different browser and seeing if you get the same
response and let us know.

Just spent 3 hours with Cingular technical support, while I can't say
the
problem is fixed they were pleasant and appeared to be making every
attempt
at isolating the problem....seemed to be as confused as I am. Going to
work
on it offline and get back to me. (I hope)

A good example of what happens is I have several "groups" on both
google and
yahoo that I pay attention to (inculding this one). On yahoo I can log
in and go
anywhere amongst the groups, read any message...on google I get the log
in page but beyond that I'm screwed. When I access the same account
through
my cingular GPRS/EDGE data account (via cell phone) as I am now
everything is fine.

Down loaded Sierra wireless "Watcher" software and latest firmware...no
improvement.

Hate to give up on it because on the sites it does work on it is
reasonably
fast. One more day on my 3 day no cost trial....hopefully get it
resolved.
Got good speed downloading 10M - 15M files.

jlp

"jlp" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Just spent 3 hours with Cingular technical support, while I can't say
> the
> problem is fixed they were pleasant and appeared to be making every
> attempt
> at isolating the problem....seemed to be as confused as I am. Going to
> work
> on it offline and get back to me. (I hope)
>
> A good example of what happens is I have several "groups" on both
> google and
> yahoo that I pay attention to (inculding this one). On yahoo I can log
> in and go
> anywhere amongst the groups, read any message...on google I get the log
> in page but beyond that I'm screwed. When I access the same account
> through
> my cingular GPRS/EDGE data account (via cell phone) as I am now
> everything is fine.
>
> Down loaded Sierra wireless "Watcher" software and latest firmware...no
> improvement.
>
> Hate to give up on it because on the sites it does work on it is
> reasonably
> fast. One more day on my 3 day no cost trial....hopefully get it
> resolved.
> Got good speed downloading 10M - 15M files.
>
> jlp
>

Well it turns out that I was wrong as can be here.

It appears as though there actually IS an issue with going to certain sites
when connected via the GPRS network. Seems as though (from what I am told)
there are a couple of DNS Servers that are screwed up. And if this is the
case then it would certainly explain the issue as described.

No info on resolution time

My guess would be that their DNS is not setup correctly. Resultng in
these random failures.

It doesn't seem like a HSPDA issue. Something to do with there
infrastructure setup.

--
EventStudio System Designer 2.5 - http://www.EventHelix.com/EventStudio
Telecom Systems Engineering and Call Flow Design Tool

jlp wrote:

> Last fall I decided to see if the newly implemented 3G/HSPDA
> service (Sierra Wireless Air Card 860) would be an improved
> replacement for my GPRS/EDGE service (Nokia 6230).
> As I reported earlier it worked well in most locations but did
> not work well in my home so I cancelled service. Recent tower
> and infrastructure improvements made me try once again.
>
> Works better but behavior is confusing. It works very well on
> some websites but not at all on others. The strange thing is
> that it is always the same sites...they can be accessed or
> they can't...previously performance was random and depended on
> location (signal quality ?). Now it is not random. A good
> example is Google....I can do a search and get pages of
> response but attempting to access most of the links referenced
> results in failure. Likewise I can access the Cingular site
> and browse effectively but an attempt to follow some links (to
> Sierra Wireless for example) results in failure. For example,
> I get 100% failure on attempts to access Microsoft sites but
> 100% success accessing Yahoo sites. About 60% of the sites in
> my IE favorites list don't work while on HSPDA, all work fine
> from the Nokia (EDGE/GPRS) connection.
>
> 100% success connecting to my EarthLink email account. Able
> to reliably download a 15M file from a variety of
> locations....but any attempt to access certain sites has IE
> reporting the usual "page cannot be displayed" error sequence
>
> Web site found, waiting for reply...then after a length of
> time..... The page cannot be displayed
> The page you are looking for is currently unavailable. The Web
> site might be experiencing technical difficulties, or you may
> need to adjust your browser settings.
>
> Clues ???

One possibility is a failure somewhere to negotiate maximum
packet size (MTU - maximum transmission unit) successfully.
This would make certain sites consistently inaccessible.

John

All is well now, beagn working yesterday afternoon.
My guess is a DNS problem.

Performance is good, get 300K - 700K + speeds depending upon test
method.

jlp

Cliff wrote:
> Well - I would guess that this is an obvious attempt by Cingular to take
> over the world and create their own version of the internet wherein you are
> limited to view certain sites and are restricted from going to other site
> that may offer a different reference to the internet.

OMG...I am seeing visions of Cingular with the Windows logo.

On Sun, 12 Mar 2006 00:53:45 +1100, John Henderson wrote:
>
> One possibility is a failure somewhere to negotiate maximum
> packet size (MTU - maximum transmission unit) successfully.
> This would make certain sites consistently inaccessible.
>


Ah, good point!

I recently got the Unlimited Data Connect, and have been tethering my
iBook over an LG CU320. While at work things worked great (well, UMTS w/o
HSPDA is a little disappointing), at home things have been weird. The
first day everything was great. Day two, I couldn't reach some sites
(though, oddly I could ping some).

Third day, I reached most sites again. However, though I could reach my
co-lo server on port 80, port 22 (SSH) wouldn't work. I could get one
packet back (with the SSH banner), but that's it. Pings still came back
fine.

Since then things have been better, but still some hiccups now and then.

I called tech support and they too said "there's no reason for that
behavior". Well. obviously there _was_ some reason for the behavior,
because I _experienced_ the behavior. And the only variable was location,
not my equipment.

None of this speaks to my 320. Bluetooth tethering is buggy. Recently
I have had to power-cycle the phone, otherwise PPP connections hang. This
is with two different bluetooth dongles, and with Mac OS X and Windows XP
(in different locations, too, so don't think bluetooth connection is
being buggered by interference).

But, I suppose I'm in it for the long haul. The simultaneous
voice+data is priceless. Anybody have any idea when HSPDA handsets will
come out?

- Bill