Introduction

In Part 1, I described the options I've tried for "convenient" Internet access away from the office and my decision to switch from using prepaid 802.11 access to trying Verizon Wireless' EVDO service. Part 2 then described how to set up a Mac laptop to connect to Verizon's BroadbandAccess service through a Treo 700p.

I'll now conclude the series by presenting connection speed results for:

1. Bluetooth EVDO access (laptop connects to Treo 700p using Bluetooth)
2. USB EVDO access (laptop connects to the Treo 700p using USB)
3. 802.11 access (laptop uses 802.11a/g to connect to the Internet)

To measure speed, I used the tests available through Speakeasy.net because of the site's convenience and test presentation. To run a speed test against a connection, all I needed to do was point a Web browser to http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest and choose one of the eight servers, which are labeled by the test location.

For example, to run a speed test in Chicago, click the CHICAGO, IL option under CHOOSE A SERVER. The test starts automatically after your selection, measuring the download speed first, and then, the upload speed.

Figure 1 shows the Speakeasy screen with a choice of eight server locations for running a test.

Figure 1: Speakeasy.net's Speed Test Starting Screen

After the test completed, I recorded the Kilobytes per second (KB/sec) data points. Figure 2 shows some data point examples (located in the screen's lower left corner under Last Result).

Figure 2: Speakeasy.net Speed Test Output

Tags: 3G, EVDO, How To, Verizon,

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