VPN and EVDO

[Q]

Asking for a friend:
My friend works up in another state, currently just staying at his parents house (free rent obviously). They live out in the boonies kinda so the only internet he gets is through DirecTV, but it is very slow, so it makes it really hard for him to work from there (he works at the home)

What are alternatives to get internet? I know there are those wireless anywhere card things, but he says they aren't any faster, which I don't see how that can be. He can basically purchase whatever would be needed to fix this, since his work would pay for it.

So what are his options? Are there any really fast wireless cards he can get to put in his laptop? Are there any other ways for him to get a faster internet with some other company? (something maybe new or I haven't heard of)?

Thanks!

Update:
After looking around, it seems like it's his satellite internet connection that is causing the big big slowdown on VPN.
He uses Wildblue, and every place I've found on Google says that Wildblue/satellite internet is terrible for VPN. Something about throttling.

So people said that EVDO cards are a MUCH better alternative to get faster speeds via VPN. So he's going to go to Verizon store tomorrow and see if he can 'test' out a EVDO modem.
Any other options besides EVDO? I don't know much about networking.

Also: Looking at Verizon.com, the service is $60 month for 5GB monthly allowance. What exactly is monthly allowance? He will be using this as his primary internet connection, so will this be enough or not?

 

[Fardringle]

The "wireless anywhere" cards you mentioned depend on signals from cell phone providers and if they live far enough out that no other wired options are available, it's pretty likely that he won't be able to get a good data signal on the cell phone network.

Having said that, satellite internet has very high latency (ping times) which is bad for games but the actual throughput should be just fine for most home office work.

 

[Q]

Originally posted by: Fardringle
The "wireless anywhere" cards you mentioned depend on signals from cell phone providers and if they live far enough out that no other wired options are available, it's pretty likely that he won't be able to get a good data signal on the cell phone network.

Having said that, satellite internet has very high latency (ping times) which is bad for games but the actual throughput should be just fine for most home office work.

He doesn't game -- but complains that browsing is very slow.

I just send him some Firefox addons (Firefox Lite and Fasterfox) which should help. Any other suggestions?

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

If he has 3G speeds around where he lives, which I doubt, but still worth a try, he can get a 3G wireless card so he can get around 100-200kbps down and 50kbps up. Around that.

 

[Q]

Originally posted by: ChAoTiCpInOy
If he has 3G speeds around where he lives, which I doubt, but still worth a try, he can get a 3G wireless card so he can get around 100-200kbps down and 50kbps up. Around that.

Any way I can see if he does?

 

[Q]

Actually he is in the 3G area. How much would you guess it'd cost to get 3G card and service? Thanks

PS. Currently he gets 1.5mbps but when he logs into his work's 'server' that's when it drops down to like 80-90kbps he says. Looks like 3G is 1.7mbps, which won't really do anything, so I guess that's out of the picture.

 

[bobdole369]

"I know there are those wireless anywhere card things, but he says they aren't any faster,"

Probably using CDMA network, which is likely to get ISDNlike speeds. It's no faster than the Hughes network (DTV) 500+ms latency. It is also pretty gosh darn latent itself.

VPN adds a ton of overhead - implement a hardware solution on both ends. For a single client it will help. I suspect its latency causing the aforementioned slowness.

 

[videogames101]

Originally posted by: Quintox
Actually he is in the 3G area. How much would you guess it'd cost to get 3G card and service? Thanks

PS. Currently he gets 1.5mbps but when he logs into his work's 'server' that's when it drops down to like 80-90kbps he says. Looks like 3G is 1.7mbps, which won't really do anything, so I guess that's out of the picture.

It's not his connection, it's the server, lol.

 

[Q]

Update:
After looking around, it seems like it's his satellite internet connection that is causing the big big slowdown on VPN.
He uses Wildblue, and every place I've found on Google says that Wildblue/satellite internet is terrible for VPN. Something about throttling.

So people said that EVDO cards are a MUCH better alternative to get faster speeds via VPN. So he's going to go to Verizon store tomorrow and see if he can 'test' out a EVDO modem.
Any other options besides EVDO? I don't know much about networking.

Also: Looking at Verizon.com, the service is $60 month for 5GB monthly allowance. What exactly is monthly allowance? He will be using this as his primary internet connection, so will this be enough or not?

 

[mrSHEiK124]

Originally posted by: Quintox
Update:
After looking around, it seems like it's his satellite internet connection that is causing the big big slowdown on VPN.
He uses Wildblue, and every place I've found on Google says that Wildblue/satellite internet is terrible for VPN. Something about throttling.

So people said that EVDO cards are a MUCH better alternative to get faster speeds via VPN. So he's going to go to Verizon store tomorrow and see if he can 'test' out a EVDO modem.
Any other options besides EVDO? I don't know much about networking.

Also: Looking at Verizon.com, the service is $60 month for 5GB monthly allowance. What exactly is monthly allowance? He will be using this as his primary internet connection, so will this be enough or not?

Make sure you check out Sprint's EVDO and AT&T's HSDPA modems if he is in their coverage area. I used to tether using my BlackJack II on AT&T and consistently had ~1.5/200k, even with little reception (like when my phone would vibrate itself off the desk and onto the floor, dangling from the USB cable). I used to use it for RDP (Remote Desktop) all the time, just without the stupid things like showing me the desktop background of the PC I was connected to.

AT&T should be rolling out 7.2 Mbps HSDPA soon, and some of the equipment they sell already supports it; for example, my BJII supports 3.6 Mbps HSDPA networks. My roommate had a Sprint EVDO card for a while, and other than having to use their stupid Sprint/Pantech software all the damn time to connect with no way to make Windows handle that end of things, it was pretty good too. IIRC, I had better upload, he had better download.

 

[bobdole369]

"Something about throttling. "

Perhaps any port not 80, 443, 25, 110, 21/22 is set to the lowest priority or some such.

Any other options besides EVDO?

Thats about it besides the CDMA stuff. http://www.andybrain.com/extra...ents-and-tethering.htm

After he goes 5GB its charged by the kilobyte.

Hope he doesn't surf porn.

That counts every single bit that goes through the network. Including the VPN and overhead.

It's not even close to enough data per month.

Use the satellite for regular stuff, and the wireless for the VPN apps.

Or tell him to move out of the boonies into the big city and he can enjoy comcasts 250GB cap. WOn't have that slowness thats for sure.

 

[Q]

Originally posted by: bobdole369

It's not even close to enough data per month.

Use the satellite for regular stuff, and the wireless for the VPN apps.
.

That really sucks...too bad there wasn't another provider with an unlimited cap...

 

[JDMnAR1]

I too live in an area where my only choices for connectivity are dial-up, satellite, and wireless. I am on Alltel's EVDO wireless (Kyocera KPC650 PC card with KR1 router) - $59.99/mo (less 15% corp discount) for unlimited access. I can establish VPN connections/RDP sessions with no issues, and speeds are significantly faster than dial-up, occasionally near-DSL. I haven't run any kind of speed tests lately so I can't give you concrete numbers, but IIRC when I first got the service I was consistently getting 750/120, and occasionally as high as 1.5 down. I actually got my hardware in FS/T here, so no contract for me, but if he isn't averse to having a contract Best Buy has frequently been running a Sprint USB modem for free w/2 year committment. He can also check Millenicom and LetsTalk.com for any deals they may have.