Telstra pre-paid Mobile Wi-Fi MF30

I have been having the usual hassles with my satellite Internet connection cutting out, so yesterday I "took the day off" and went to Perth -- and bought one of these:

http://bkhome.org/archive/blog2/201101/telstra-pre-paid-wifi-mf30.html

When I got home, I had to telephone Telstra to active it. I spoke with a lady who identified herself as "Anne" (yeah, right) and 10 minutes later we were done. But, there was one funny moment, when she asked me what operating system I was using, and she rattled off a list "Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP...." and I replied "none of those, I use Linux". There was a pause, and then she repeated the question, rattling off the same list of operating systems. I realised that she was doing it all by rote, so I told her to put down Windows XP. Actually, these MF30 devices are operating system independent, as they have their own inbuilt DHCP server and web interface.

I had been warned on the whirlpool.com.au forum to wait 4-5 hours after activation before using it, so I had an afternoon snooze. Then I came to my desk with anticipation, only to find that the MF30 was dead, no lights when I press the on/off button. Charger plugged in? ..yep. I opened it up, took out the battery, put the battery back in, then it worked!!! Hmmm...

Speed test
Anyway, here I am now, using the MF30 and I went to http://www.speedtest.net/ and got these results, communicating with a server in Adelaide:

Ping (latency): 192ms
Download speed: 2.62Mbps
Upload speed: 0.24Mbps

Ahhh! Now we have a decent download speed! Upload is no better than my satellite Internet. However, my satellite download was only about 550Kbps.

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Comments

Speed test
Username: FeodorF
I went to http://www.speedtest.net/ and gave it a try. Works very well over here in Europe: Ping (latency): 60ms Download speed: 4.45Mbps Upload speed: 0.52Mbps According to speedtest.net the average was three times higher then my line. :cry:

speedtest
Username: gcmartin
"I don't remember where, maybe "DSL reports site". They provide a tool that allows running a speedtest and will combine your findings in a database that anyone can review at anytime. This is a very good approach to getting an overall view of all/any ISP's performance for its community. there are only a few items which will affect operations and measurement: your location ISP access your equipment internet loads at the time you are measuring your PC's load This is not as "cloudy" as one might think. [b]And, [/b]its good to have a "baseline" to use as your reference no matter where your laptop may take you. Hope this helps

Tags: general