[tether2]

Hi,

I posted a message about this in another section - I can't see the message, so I don't know if it was removed or if I thought I'd posted but the message didn't actually post. Please tell me if I have the wrong section.

(Powerbook OS 10.4.11 Firefox 2.0.0.15 )

In general things are very slow at times... more specifically:

--- Sometimes I try to load a page and it just goes to a blank page, with the 'Done' message at the bottom - like for example I've been trying to post this message and it's been doing that.

--- Sometimes Gmail takes forever to load - I've tried clearing private data, and I've tried logging in at https://mail.google.com instead of gmail.com

--- When I do manage to get logged in, I'm getting error #102 in Gmail - which is stopping me from actually using my mail.

--- For the past few weeks I've been getting the following message when I go to some sites - Google being one of those sites, but some others too:

Network Error (tcp_error)

A communication error occurred: ""
The Web Server may be down, too busy, or experiencing other problems preventing it from responding to requests. You may wish to try again at a later time.

For assistance, contact your network support team.

Any help on this appreciated.

Thanks.

[Cold Warrior]

What service do you use (cable, DSL) and what brand and model is your router?

[tether2]

Hi,

I have a mobile internet dongle that I plug into my usb - it's a Huawei E220 HSDPA USB Modem.

[ghporter]

So you're on WiFi as your broadband source? What sort of connection speed are you supposed to get? Have you tried checking your connection speed with something like Speedtest.net? If so, what were the results?

[tether2]

It's not wifi - I'm not using Airport - there's no wireless connection straight to my mac - i don't know exactly how it works but something along the same lines as how a cellphone receives a signal - the signal goes to the dongle and that pipes thru my usb.

i just did three tests, each a few minutes apart:
913kb/s download and 320 upload
1176 and 321
1450 and 329

I'm not sure what it should be but my things seem to be working ok-ish at the moment - i'll try when things start not working - though then i might not be able to even get onto the site to try

However, sometimes i have problems with some sites and not others - for example quite often I've had that network error message when i try to go to some sites, such as google, and some others, but other sites have been ok

[ghporter]

If it's "along the same lines as how a cellphone receives a signal" then it's close enough to what I was thinking. I see commercials for Verizon's "get out of the WiFi jail" Express card adapter now and then, and you're probably using the same sort of thing. But this points out some interesting issues that cell providers don't usually mention for obvious reasons. Network issues on the CELL SYSTEM can mess up your data signal because it's carried on the same system. Different radios, different towers even, but the same system, so when everybody and his brother is using that system, it'll get sluggish and even stop responding for some users.

In addition to checking your connection speed when you notice it not working right, note where you are. It could be that you're in a relatively bad spot for this signal when you have the problem. There's not much that can be done about that other than moving to a better location.

The "this site works fine but this other one fails totally" issue may be related to DNS issues. If the Domain Name Server for your service is not working properly for whatever reason, you may have issues with sites you haven't visited but success with those you have because your computer caches your DNS hits to speed things up.

[Cold Warrior]

If it's DNS, you can try changing your DNS servers to something like OpenDNS | Providing A Safer And Faster Internet

[tether2]

thanks, i'll have a look at that link. it seems to be kind of ok at the moment, i'm hoping it continues that way for a while...