[clug] wireless broadband in canberra

[Michael Cohen]

On Wed, Oct 24, 2007 at 12:31:39AM +1000, David Adams wrote:
> What's the latency on wireless broadband?

Thats an interesting question - it seems that the HSDPA modem can
operate in 2 modes a slow mode and a fast mode. The slow mode has a blue
light on and the fast mode has a cyan light on. I idles mostly in the
slow mode but then tries to upgrade when it senses some traffic.

So if you arent using it for a while its might have quite high latency
(even 1-2 sec) and then it kicks in with a more reasonable value.

Example right now:
# ping www.google.com
PING www.l.google.com (74.125.19.104) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from cf-in-f104.google.com (74.125.19.104): icmp_seq=1 ttl=235
time=273 ms
64 bytes from cf-in-f104.google.com (74.125.19.104): icmp_seq=2 ttl=235
time=253 ms
64 bytes from cf-in-f104.google.com (74.125.19.104): icmp_seq=3 ttl=237
time=273 ms
64 bytes from cf-in-f104.google.com (74.125.19.104): icmp_seq=4 ttl=237
time=254 ms
64 bytes from cf-in-f104.google.com (74.125.19.104): icmp_seq=5 ttl=235
time=253 ms

So the short answer is its quite variable.

I would get wireless for the convenience of being able to move around -
if you are travelling there is nothing like being able to use the net at
the airport lounge for example without having to worry about wifi
hacking etc. Its not nearly as good as adsl in terms of performance but
its adequate for me (non gamer).

Michael.