Constant 3G Drop Outs

[zephism]

Hi all,

I live in Glenorchy, Tasmania and recently purchased a Telstra Wi-Fi 4G modem. The salesperson assured me that I was within the 4G service area, which the coverage map says I am.

Instead of connecting as 4G it has been connecting as DC-HSPA instead - this is fine. I always have 4-5 bars of reception, it never goes below 4 bars. When the connection is working it's great, low latency in World of Warcraft and loads pages fast. HOWEVER, every single five to ten minutes (or more often) the connection completely dies. I am still showing 4-5 bars of reception, the status page for the modem still shows it as connected, however I can't even get a ping response from www.google.com.au. I know the usual woes about congestion, blah blah blah, but this is constant all day and night, no matter what hour. See attached screenshot to see what happens; internet will be working fine, then will completely die - after a few seconds or minutes depending on what mood it's in, it'll start working again.

It is utterly ridiculous that I'm paying for a service that does not function as advertised. In its current state it is practically less than usable.

Does anybody else have similar problems in this area and is there anything I can try and do to make the disconnections less frequent/not happen at all?

[Ben_F]

I've found that with the Telstra Pre-Paid WiFi 4G Modem the connection got a bit spotty when the battery started running out. Could this be the case with yours?

B.

[lein · Accepted solution]

I've been having tons of trouble with the telstra DNS. I've been changing to google's public DNS 8.8.8.8/8.8.4.4 to get around the issue. But you don't get unmetered content because you're bypassing telstra.

[zephism]

Hi Ben_F,

4G modem is plugged into wall socket constantly, so most likely not. Thanks for the suggestion though.

[zephism]

Cheers lein, I've just added a new APN with the DNS settings you suggested - I'll see if I have any more luck. Unmetered content doesn't matter to me one bit.

[zephism]

Thanks again lein, your solution worked great! I no longer have massive constant dropouts, only the occasional lag spike which I guess is just network congestion. Thanks once again!

[lein]

Just as an update changing the DNS does not affect your unmetered usage. I have been using the Google DNS and OpenDNS settings for over three months now and enjoying BP movies and MOG for music and it all goes to unmetered usage. So there is nothing to worry about there.

[k-bailes]

I can't assist but i have had a belly full of constabt dropouts in the middle of Sydney! Pathetic!