Re: Internet Data Speeds in Valley

Hi all!

Basilbop and I will be camping with family and friends in the Valley next week.

Unfortunately, I'm slammed with work.

According to the DNC site, ATT now has 4G available, with strongest signal near the Village (no surprise).

Have any of you tested it? Confirm data rates?

The Lodge is now down to $6/24 hours of internet service, but I wasn't whelmed when I last used their service.

It's either get some work done while camping, or skip some days camping, and I'd rather be out there.

Thanks in advance...

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JustKeepWalking
Hi all!

Basilbop and I will be camping with family and friends in the Valley next week.

Unfortunately, I'm slammed with work.

According to the DNC site, ATT now has 4G available, with strongest signal near the Village (no surprise).

Have any of you tested it? Confirm data rates?

The Lodge is now down to $6/24 hours of internet service, but I wasn't whelmed when I last used their service.

It's either get some work done while camping, or skip some days camping, and I'd rather be out there.

Thanks in advance...

I got a rather weak 4G signal near Watkins two weeks ago, but it was cool to find out the NBA playoff score while the signal lasted. Mobile phone reception has been good from several places, thus have been able to send pictures via "share" feature. Seems to have used up a fairly decent chunk of my monthly data. Last month, I barely used over 100MB (300 MB limit). For the current billing cycle, I'm already at 50MB for the first week (two "share photo" sends this weekend).



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/28/2013 09:47PM by Ohnivy-Drak.

There's free WiFi internet access at the Curry Village Lounge. But it gets slammed in the evening hours and is basically unusable then. But during the morning thru midday, it's usually fine.

For someone not staying at the Yosemite Lodge, the best place to use their WiFi (if paying the $6/day fee) is at their Food Court (including the Food Court's outdoor tables).

The best place in Yosemite Village to do work utilizing AT&T's 4G network is at the outdoor tables by Degnan's Deli.

Also AOL, Earthlink (and I think AT&T) still offer local access phone number dial-up service for Yosemite Valley. The dial-up speed is fine for sending and receiving email, but not much else.

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Anyone know of WiFi access codes for the Ahwahnee Hotel? I know you are supposed to be a guest and login with your name and room number, but someone has to know of a backdoor. So much more comfortable to work there than at Curry.

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BrianHawkins
Anyone know of WiFi access codes for the Ahwahnee Hotel? I know you are supposed to be a guest and login with your name and room number, but someone has to know of a backdoor. So much more comfortable to work there than at Curry.

The lounge at curry is nice. I am pretty sure they use a rotating login that expires after 24 hours. I doubt you'd be able to find a code that was usable.

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hotrod4x5

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BrianHawkins
Anyone know of WiFi access codes for the Ahwahnee Hotel? I know you are supposed to be a guest and login with your name and room number, but someone has to know of a backdoor. So much more comfortable to work there than at Curry.

The lounge at curry is nice. I am pretty sure they use a rotating login that expires after 24 hours. I doubt you'd be able to find a code that was usable.

Last time I was at Yosemite Lodge and paid for access, it was from a list of preprinted access codes. The clerk just wrote down two codes (theoretically only needed one) and crossed them off the list. He said it was just in case I had problems with one and that if they stopped working just come back and get a new code. However, back then it was theoretically for 7 straight days from the first time an access code was used.

We hung around the Yosemite Lodge lobby and nobody said a word that we had to leave. We liked it there since they had no issues if we plugged in.

I doubt there's any backdoor per se. Maybe they might hand out extra codes like I got and someone might volunteer the extra one?

Iphone 4s is not true 4g so I am not surprised you got slow results. I cannot remember back in Jan if my phone was showing 4G LTE or just 4g. There is some speed difference there. But like I said, I tested at 2.1 mbps down way over in Camp 4 in my tent.

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hotrod4x5

But like I said, I tested at 2.1 mbps down way over in Camp 4 in my tent.

But at what time?

I got better results in the evening. But during the day, speed wasn't the only issue, connectivity – even in Yosemite Village – was an issue. I got network time-out errors at times on my iPhone apps even when using AT&T's 4G network in Yosemite Village during the afternoon.

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plawrence

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hotrod4x5

But like I said, I tested at 2.1 mbps down way over in Camp 4 in my tent.

But at what time?

I got better results in the evening. But during the day, speed wasn't the only issue, connectivity – even in Yosemite Village – was an issue. I got network time-out errors at times on my iPhone apps even when using AT&T's 4G network in Yosemite Village during the afternoon.

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Yeah, it was evening, I was in my tent after hiking and then having dinner, so it was probably after 8 pm.

Thanks all for your comments and suggestions as to where the various signals are strongest - very helpful!

I've done more research and it'll cost me $90+ to get the data plan with tethering I need to feed my notebook. My work involves Remote Desktop'ing into servers and some other things that are not as light-weight as email... worth it if the speed is good. Not worth the time/energy/cost if speed is bad.

Any of you have any actual speed test numbers for the ATT 4G? I might take a chance as I've been less than whelmed with the Lodge and Curry in the past...

If you have a recent 4G ATT phone, iPhone or Android, have you tried the speedtest.net app recently from a strong signal location? If I can pull over 3 Mbs/down, I should be okay.

Need to hit an ATT store in the next couple of days, if I'm gonna do this.

(We're with Verizon, and that's usually excellent most places we go except for data speeds in the Valley - and I usually don't care while hiking at all... No VZW LTE in Valley and their 3G is good enough to sip emails, not for anything else I'm doing/hoping to do.)

Thanks again!!!

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JustKeepWalking

Any of you have any actual speed test numbers for the ATT 4G?

Experienced --- v...e...r...y --- s...l...o...w --- speeds at Ahwahnee last month - these are via WiFi, taken from Library Suite on 6th floor. I think dialup used to be faster.






Didn't try wifi from public areas, and I think I had better speeds with ATT in Yose Village. Other valley areas had no service.

My home Comcast broadband is 14ms ping and 35Mbps download, almost 1,000 times faster. Didn't try speedtest app with iPhone - focused on sites, not screens, while enjoying the Valley!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/29/2013 04:37PM by vdrummer.

Yup, those speeds are useless to me. Cross the lovely Ahwahnee off my list... I won't be able to do much...

I have Comcast business at home and am royally spoiled, too.

And YES, I would much prefer to spend all my time unplugged and hiking, which is USUALLY how it goes, but I'm trying to get something launched and when the developers can get on it, I have to be there, not much control over it this time.. sigh... but I'll still get hikes in! At this point, it might be looong hikes with a work day in between... life could be worse. I'll still be sleeping in the Valley. I forgot how lovely that is until a few years ago when we started car camping again.

I tested my 4g connection this past Jan in Camp 4, but hell if I can remember how fast it was. So here is the thread I posted about it http://yosemitenews.info/forum/read.php?3,63303,63303#msg-63303



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/29/2013 09:33PM by hotrod4x5.

Thanks oodles! 2 Mbps.. From Camp 4. That's waay better than sub 1 Mbps. Hm. Decision time.

Easier decision if someone can confirm >3Mbps!

I can confirm it will most likely be LESS than 3Mbps. While I didn't run any speed tests that last time I was in Yosemite Valley (March 2013), I got the best performance (less webpage lag, more responsive iPhone apps performance, faster photo uploads) on Yosemite Lodge's WiFi network than on AT&T's 4G network (and every time in the past I've run a speed test on the Yosemite Lodge WiFi network, I got results usually ranging from 250Kbps to as high as 900Kbps).

If you ever tried to use AT&T 4G network in the Bay Area, you'll note that it can get capacity constrained anywhere where there's a crowd of people. Even in March (when Yosemite Village wasn't that crowded), I got only so-so data network performance trying to run iPhone apps (like the Facebook app) using my iPhone 4s on AT&T 4G network. Yosemite Village will be far more crowded in June so I wouldn't be confident that you could get consistent speeds of 3Mbps (or more) as you seek. The performance of AT&T 4G network did improve at night (when there were far less people inside Yosemite Valley than during the day).

But I'm wondering why do you need such a fast data network connection for your work?

For most of my work needs, including downloading PDF files, connecting thru VPN to the company's internal network, and administering Unix servers and Oracle databases, even a consistent data network speed of only 300Kbps is usually sufficient.

Do you need a lot more bandwidth for video conferencing or cloud apps?

At home, I want a much faster data network connection simply because I stream a lot more video than I do while at work and also because it improves the call quality of my VOIP phones.

.

Thanks! Decision made!

Clever! Yes, vid conference is involved with my work...

And large file transfers...not ideal.. Gaaak and a few cloud apps I have never tried to use over constrained connections... Ugh.

But I've been scheming and trying to figure out what other bits I can focus on without decent connectivity... 3 more days to button things down enough to get by.

Yos Lodge would vary from surf a little to useless when we were there over Thanksgiving, but if that's my best bet, so be it. (That was a full vacation! No work!)

And I've been with Verizon since the GTE Wireless days... But I keep an eye on ATT... Just not worth switching for my needs and general use cases.

Thank you!!!

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JustKeepWalking

Yos Lodge would vary from surf a little to useless when we were there over Thanksgiving, but if that's my best bet, so be it. (That was a full vacation! No work!)

As I said in a previous post, I've gotten the best performance on the Lodge's WiFi when I've sat in (or just outside) the Lodge's Food Court. So if you need to connect to the Lodge's WiFi network, I would recommend sitting in the Food Court (or just outside the Food Court, at their outdoor tables, when the Food Court is closed). It's been a better connection in my experience than the WiFI at the Lodge's Mountain Room Lounge or inside the Lodge's lobby.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/30/2013 11:52AM by plawrence.

Thank you very much for the tips! They'll save me time, which will get me back to my family and friends faster!

Happy Trails!