Excessive Dormant State with Verizon NationalAccess

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Roy C. Leggitt - 30 Oct 2003 00:03 GMT

I am sending this to both the InternetByCellPhone@Yahoogroups.com group and the
alt.cellular.verizon news group. Hopefully someone can help me resolve my
problem.

I have been using Verizon NationalAccess (old Express Network) since last May.
For the last two months, beginning in NW Oregon and now in southern CA, I have
been experiencing excessive delays on accessing web pages.

Last month I sent a trouble report to Sierra Wireless about the This Page Cannot
be Displayed problem:

Description:
If there has been no activity for a few minutes, the first attempt to go
to a web page results in "This page cannot be displayed." However, a
second attempt nearly always succeeds. This is a minor inconvenience for
me, but computer generated update requests usually fail.

I received the following:

Description:
Entered on 09/26/2003 at 11:54:51 by Jon Firor:
What is happening is that the network puts your card into what is
called dormancy when it is inactive. The card is in essence still
connected but the airlink is not active. As soon as traffic is
generated teh airlink is brought back up but what happens is taht
the browser times out before the response comes.

Yesterday someone provided the password to the AirCard 555 Watcher debugging
tool. I was able to run some tests and determined that the AirCard went into the
dormant state as little as 20 seconds after the last activity. I ran five tests
that ranged from 20 to 45 seconds.

Does anyone have any idea of how to change this timeout parameter? Even using
the mail program or Nortons Keep Awake feature only sends out something on one
minute intervals.

My configuration is a Compaq Presario laptop with Windows XP Home and the
Verizon Sierra AirCard 555. The AirCard 555 Watcher software is version 1.3.5.1.
My Venturi Client 2.1 software is file version 1.0.0.1 dated 9/4/2003.

Roy and Darlene Leggitt, full-time RVers.
Spending a few days at the Palm Springs Thousand Trails Preserve.
Driving our 2002 41' Monaco Windsor towing our 2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland.
Visit us at http://members1.clubphoto.com/roy28255

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The Watcher - 30 Oct 2003 01:20 GMT

All you need to do is go into the watcher program and turn off the and then
go into TOOLKIT. Then inside TOOLKIT uncheck the SLEEP or STANDBY Box (I
dont Have it near me I am at work and it is on another machine. It also will
let you change how long before it goes into the standby or sleep mode by
increasing/decreasing the time.
Also i would love to have that debug code you mentioned if you could post
that password. Thanks and I hope that helps

> I am sending this to both the InternetByCellPhone@Yahoogroups.com group and the
> alt.cellular.verizon news group. Hopefully someone can help me resolve my
[quoted text clipped - 40 lines]
> Driving our 2002 41' Monaco Windsor towing our 2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland.
> Visit us at http://members1.clubphoto.com/roy28255

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Richard Ness - 30 Oct 2003 03:55 GMT

Here are the password for CTRL-D:

##debug (normal debug menu)
##swidebug (extended debug menu)
##restore (Restore configuration back to factory settings).

> All you need to do is go into the watcher program and turn off the and then
> go into TOOLKIT. Then inside TOOLKIT uncheck the SLEEP or STANDBY Box (I
[quoted text clipped - 59 lines]
> Overland.
> > Visit us at http://members1.clubphoto.com/roy28255

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Roy C. Leggitt - 30 Oct 2003 22:40 GMT

>All you need to do is go into the watcher program and turn off the and then
>go into TOOLKIT. Then inside TOOLKIT uncheck the SLEEP or STANDBY Box (I
>dont Have it near me I am at work and it is on another machine. It also will
>let you change how long before it goes into the standby or sleep mode by
>increasing/decreasing the time.

Thanks for the reply; however, you left out a word in the first sentence. "...
turn of the ____ and then go into TOOLKIT."

>Also i would love to have that debug code you mentioned if you could post
>that password. Thanks and I hope that helps

I see that Richard has already posted the passwords. I only used the following:

All I did was Ctrl-D, ##debug,
Advanced, Protocol Statistics, Network, and watch Field Dormant state Value
change from off to on and timed it.

An easy way to time it is to select the above settings before you connect. Then
click on Connect and watch the Field Dormant state and the Value. When it
changes from off to on, note the Time displayed by the Watcher. (I'm retired and
don't have a watch!)

Roy and Darlene Leggitt, full-time RVers.
Spending a few days at the Palm Springs Thousand Trails Preserve.
Driving our 2002 41' Monaco Windsor towing our 2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland.
Visit us at http://members1.clubphoto.com/roy28255

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Dapper Dave - 30 Oct 2003 14:28 GMT

>Roy C. Leggitt <royc@cts.com> wrote:

>Yesterday someone provided the password to the AirCard 555 Watcher debugging
>tool. I was able to run some tests and determined that the AirCard went into the
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
>the mail program or Nortons Keep Awake feature only sends out something on one
>minute intervals.

Somebody posted a simple solution a day or two ago. Start a continuous ping in a
DOS window. For example, "ping -t www.apple.com" It uses very little bandwidth.

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Mark Allread - 31 Oct 2003 02:38 GMT

> Somebody posted a simple solution a day or two ago. Start a continuous
> ping in a
> DOS window. For example, "ping -t www.apple.com" It uses very little
> bandwidth.

Except don't bother Apple with this. "ping -t www.vzw.com" would be more
appropriate.

Signature

Mark

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Dapper Dave - 31 Oct 2003 16:10 GMT

>Mark Allread <mallread@flatsurface.com> wrote:

>> Somebody posted a simple solution a day or two ago. Start a continuous
>> ping in a
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
>Except don't bother Apple with this. "ping -t www.vzw.com" would be more
>appropriate.

I have used Apple for pings for many years because it is always up, but your
point is well taken.

I am now using www.vzw.com for my ping, and it sure can't be bothering them much
because the request times out every single time. So I changed my ping to "ping
www.vzw.com -t -w 10000" so it pings only once every 10 seconds. That ought to
conserve phone battery capacity as well.

Thanks for the suggestion.

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