On Wed, 9 Oct 2019 10:32:27 -0300, pjp wrote:
> All I really care about is download speed.
Hi pjp,
Thank you for your information, where it's nice to converse with someone
who has the same or similar WiFi experience as I have, which, we have to
admit, is different from the experience most people have.
For example, we control our modem settings to some extent, whereas, for
most people they likely can't even log in as the administrator, to check or
change a setting, or to upload firmware, or to change the frequency, or
transmit power, or whatever.
As for what you care about most, I agree that download speed is important,
although, for VOIP, jitter is also critical (particularly when it gets over
about 10 ms or so).
Our download speed is often about the same as our uploads - is yours that
way? Out here, most (but not all) the WISP advertises symmetric speeds but
often the upload can be half the download, but just as often, it's more.
Who knows why.
Out here in the mountains, a single tree can encroach into the Fresnel Zone
such that neighbors can have drastically different end results, using the
same equipment.
Interestingly, and sadly, just like with Windows, sometimes we have to
reboot our "modems" (yes, I know they're not modems, but most people
reading this won't know what a transceiver is, nor that it's, essentially,
a modem anyway) - just to get our speeds back.
Why?
o I don't know why.
Maybe someone here who knows more than I do can explain why my speeds jump
when I reboot the modem, where, it's kind of just like Windows, in that
way.
o Why does rebooting the modem instantly "fix" the slow speeds?
> I'm happy when I can download
> 1Gb in approx an hr. Typical 1/2 hr tv rip takes 20 minutes or so for
> 400Kb.
Thanks for your perspective, which, as I noted, most people on cable
wouldn't have the knowledge of, if this conversation weren't public.
Like you, I'm happy with what I can get, over the air, for my WiFi
connection to the Internet - where - I just ran a speedtest (see below),
mine are as follows at the moment (but it changes greatly over time of
course, depending on the weather, the time of day, etc.):
<
https://i.postimg.cc/bNMMZ0Nv/wifi-speed.jpg>
That's about 24/14, which is kind of typical for me, where it can drop to
one tenth that, but rarely get more than double about that speed (which is
pretty pathetic if we compare to typical cable speeds - as the transmission
of the signal over miles takes its toll on lost & jumbled packets).
> I sometimes see as much as 1.3MB/Sec doing occassional torrrent
> download. Way faster than basic package even though price went up 50%,
> speed increase was tenfold so ...
Thank you for that perspective on torrenting, where, when I torrent, I
generally add a VPN to the mix (although truth be told, I'm almost always
on VPN anyway, as a matter of habit), where the VPN takes its toll in speed
penalties.
I don't torrent all that often though, where mostly I watch videos on the
Android phone (or, with emulation, on Windows, where it runs even faster
than on Android due to the memory and CPU advantages of a desktop).
The beauty of watching videos on Android is that, for free (I only use
freeware), we NEVER need a Google Play account (even to subscribe to video
channels on YouTube), and better yet, we never see an inserted
advertisement on YouTube, and we can download any YouTube video, bar none,
at any quality level available, and, better yet, we can strip out the video
so as to listen to the audio (which is what I do most), all offline, so
that we don't have to worry about our bandwidth coming in fits and starts
over the kilometers between our devices and our Internet connection.
The functionality on Android for such things literally wipes iOS off the
face of the earth, where I'll leave it at that, and with this reference:
<
https://newpipe.schabi.org/>
Given we have slow speeds since our ISP is over the air, it would be nice
if this type of freeware existed on the common consumer desktops!
o Have you been able to get NewPipe freeware running yet on Windows?
<
https://groups.google.com/d/msg/comp.mobile.android/rfyVKidB8X8/slOeDAEQAQAJ>
In fact, my cellphone battery was dead where I had to watch a YouTube video
on the iOS-based iPad, where it was appalling that iOs users have to see
ads in YouTube (even though I use "Music Tube" and "Video Tube", which are
'supposed' to suppress the Google ads, which, they do - but they insert
their own, which accomplishes nothing useful overall).
<
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/video-tube-stream-play-watch/id566564331>
<
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/mytube-stream-and-play/id964383263>
As noted, the beauty of Android functionality kills that of iOS, even on
the desktop, where the Android apps run _better_ on the desktop than they
do on Android itself (due to the hardware, of course). (The Mac can't hope
to catch up, as the recent admission by Apple yesterday that Netflix iOS
app will never be on the Mac shows strategically, for the most popular
apps.)
My point is that video speeds ARE a problem for me, as they are for you,
where we just have to be clever about intelligently choosing free apps
which easily download the videos (or strip the audio) without any added
bandwidth of advertisements.
> Almost all my house is hard wired using one router and three switches.
Thank you for that additional information about routers and switches,
where, if I snapped a photo of my setup, you'd likely be appalled at the
number of routers and switches entangled in the rats nest.
Basically, when I replace a router, I set up the old router as either a
wired repeater or as a wireless repeater, where, interestingly, again, the
stellar difference between iOS and Android shows up in spades, when you
watch them switch between what are the same access point SSIDs, but
obviously quite different BSSIDs.
As you are likely aware, one of the greatest things about having to figure
out how to get our Internet and cellular in a rural area, is that we learn
how to diagnose and debug signal strength, noise levels, and bandwidth
issues.
The utilities available on Android, for example, kill those available on
the desktops, unfortunately ... such as what I have on my Android phone
that I wish were all ported to the desktops (although some are):
<
https://i.postimg.cc/BZrZpDyp/debug-apps.jpg>
Even with free Android emulation on the desktops, the cellphone is better.
o Genymotion tutorial I wrote to help others do what I did on a desktop
<
https://groups.google.com/d/msg/comp.mobile.android/ix9empN-mxg/07ZmH2AWAQAJ>
o Bluestacks tutorial I wrote to help others do what I did on a desktop
<
https://groups.google.com/d/msg/comp.mobile.android/JBRjZ39w4Ok/6Vzu7rtIAQAJ>
o Andyroid tutorial I wrote to help others do what I did on a desktop
<
https://groups.google.com/d/msg/comp.mobile.android/FkZu5vAswYo/wISRtpUUAQAJ>
etc.
It's just sad that this functionality is almost always either non existent,
or far less powerful, or not free, etc., on the Apple platform... sigh.
o It's a fact iOS devices can't even graph Wi-Fi signal strength over time
<
https://groups.google.com/d/msg/comp.mobile.android/IK0TZ3LxGgQ/kwhrUnzoBAAJ>
> Wi-Fi seldom used but works thruout house as some of my pcs have built
> in wireless and not just the laptops. Only pc depends on wireless is
> older Netbook wife uses to display sheet music on piano.
Thank you for that information that you use older desktops, as do I, where
most of mine don't have WiFi built in, but where I just plug a spare
antenna into the Ethernet RJ45 port, and voila - they can pick up signal at
-55 decibels (which is pretty good signal) that is literally coming from 10
kilometers (about 6 miles) away, over the air, line of sight.
Like you, I don't want to depend on wireless (or the cloud); so what I do
for all my devices (iOS, Android, Windows, and Linux anyway), is use them
as USB sticks, which is easy to do for all but iOS but which is also easy
to do on iOS if you know how (which takes a bit of thinking first - but
once you know the trick - any iOS device is turned into a free USB stick in
seconds over USB cable).
Luckily, most of us own all the platforms, so we can switch between them as
we see fit, where a dual boot Linux and Windows, for example, allows us to
use the iOS device as a USB stick, to simultaneously transfer large video
files to and from any device to and from any other device, over USB.
o Simultaneously slide Windows Linux iOS Android files back and forth over USB at 7GB per minute speeds using 100% native devices (no proprietary software needed)
<
https://groups.google.com/d/msg/alt.os.linux/WqIDiVbawRs/pwxzu7LMCAAJ>
Note that almost nobody knows how to do that simple task from the desktop,
for iOS devices, because it requires knowledge of a trick to WRITE to the
entire visible file system of the iOS device - which isn't in the least
intuitive - but which works great once you know that trick (where even the
ad hoc system files on the iOS device are visible to the desktop user that
knows the simple tricks).
In summary, because we have such slow Internet connections, we have to keep
"stuff" off the Internet, where we learn how to be self sufficient
connecting to WiFi access points which are miles away over line of sight,
and working around the need for wifi by using wires inside the house
whenever possible (e.g., USB works great for large video file transfers and
for backups of entire mobile devices to and from networked storage devices,
all without adding anything to the desktop or mobile device by way of
special software).
You just have to know the tricks, such as some of these:
o Do you have a working cross-platform PASSWD database for Windows, Linux, Mac, iOS, & Android on your home LAN?
<
https://groups.google.com/d/msg/alt.os.linux/YEfw5NblnRs/kvn3DUiAEAAJ>
o Can we come up with a free, ad free, cloud-free calendaring system that works with Windows and Linux and mobile devices?
<
https://groups.google.com/d/msg/alt.os.linux/ydQ9sG-8Y08/pBRXk7UEEgAJ>
In summary, if you know the technical tricks, people like us, on very slow
Internet connections, find that there's almost never a need to use the
"cloud" to store our private data (e.g., calendar, photos, backups,
passwords, etc.) and we find tricks for viewing movies without ads and we
find ways to watch movies for free offline without the inevitable hiccups
of fits and starts that would happen over our slow connections were we to
attempt streaming over the air.
Thanks for all your information where it's nice to know what others do when
they are forced to figure out ways to make use of Wi-Fi access points miles
away from their desktops.