Tag Archives: nextg

WoW dropouts over a 3G wireless connection

Computer Aid Posted on by

Customer asks me to try to find the cause of World of Warcraft (WoW) dropouts.

The last time I saw him (about 2 years ago), I installed a video card, as the built-in video wasn’t compatible with WoW.

He thinks that the video card might need an upgrade.

Once on site, I see he gets to the internet using a telstra nextG 7.2 USB wireless dongle.

I’m suspecting network dropouts, but I install a more modern video card so I can rule it out.

He still notices some dropouts (less often than before), but they still happen.

I also get to see what he means by dropout: his WoW character will continue to move about, but all other characters stop moving. if he leaves the session and then re-connects, then his character restarts from where the “dropout” happened.

I still suspect that the nextG network is at fault… he gets good signal strength, but I tell him that I have no way of knowing what happens at the wireless network level… it is possible that the occasional WoW network packet is “invisibly” delayed long enough (by the wireless network) to cause a dropout from the WoW server.

I try a ping test (although ping is not a great test), but the pings seem to work perfectly for at least 1 minute.

In the end he is happy to keep the newer video card, and I suggest he take the PC to a friend or relative that has ADSL… This should confirm or deny if the network type is causing the dropouts.

bigpond nextG 7.2 MF636 usb modem doesn’t like an AMD PC

Computer Aid Posted on by

A customer recently got a bigpond MF636 USB modem for her Compaq desktop PS (she can’t get ADSL).

She Installs the modem, and it works for about an hour, and then stops connecting to the internet.

I’ve not seen this model before, and find it works in an iteresting way:

– When you first plug it in, it acts like a USB drive, with the all the driver software automatically installing itself.

– After the driver software installs, it resets itself into USB modem mode (and the USB drive is no longer visible).

In this case, however, the software says that it can see the modem, it detects a signal strength of 4/5 bars, but pressing the connect button will have different effects, depending on which usb port you plug it into.

Mostly, it will appear to be connected, but no browsing, no ping, no email.

At first I thought: its trend thats interfering as usual.

But removing trend and resetting the windows firewall doesn’t fix anything.

I eventually start running out of ideas.

The only thing thats unusual about this PC is that it uses an AMD CPU, and that the USB modem (and the drivers) are probably less than 1 year old.

So its possible that the modem drivers have not been tested much on AMD hardware.

All I can suggest is that the customer returns the modem, and gets a different brand (a few days later, I’m told that the different modem worked correctly).