Internet Connection Tips From Russia

The view to the lake is lovely.  It also indicates impediments to broadband reception. The hill, the Jerusalem Artichokes, and even the trees may stop some signals.

People in Russia’s rural areas often have no cable Internet available.  They can use dial-up if they have phone lines.  Otherwise the remaining practical choice is USB broadband wireless. 

Cable and dialup are more reliable...

If we did have phone lines in the summertime, I’d consider listening again to eeeee-ooooo-ee, the dial-up crazy bird sound, rather than deal with reception problems of USB broadband. 

Wireless transmission would be stronger if Russian cellular companies shared towers more often.  Business people here don’t seem to think much about the subtle benefits of sometimes cooperating with the competition

In Zaloz’e  it seems every month signals stop because the electric  wires are down, or another transformer has exploded.  Someday, when Next Generation LTE is broadcast to Russia’s vast rural areas,  wireless Internet will be reliable... and not as interesting!

Wireless reception tricky...

St Petersburg cable either works or is flat down, but  our village wireless USB often requires finagling. 

It takes minutes to get on the Internet, and can take more than five minutes to connect to a website.  Still, I’m grateful wireless technology has allowed us to have limited Internet for three summers. 

Mysterious messages...

In Zaloz’e, my laptop has mysterious messages...

•  Problem loading page
• The connection was interrupted,                           
• The connection was reset,
• The connection has timed out,
• Server not found.
• Error connecting 678 The remote computer did not respond
• You can’t connect before (sic) register an available network

I wish they told simple truths, such as...

Please don’t worry.  It isn’t you or your computer.  Our tower isn’t working well, so you can’ t receive an adequate signal.

or

Hey! The signal level is too low.  Fast internet has trouble waiting for our clunky system. 

or

Most likely rain has impeded your signal.   

It’s lugubrious...

Here I am in a village with cows, sheep, and chickens but no phone lines, while Russian cities are switching to the best radio wave system ever! The contrast of  reliability, speed, and capacity is flabbergasting!

Yota Scartel Lab consortium, St Petersburg,  is changing WIMAX  to LTE Advanced.  LTE blankets more territory, has larger capacity, and is capable of astounding speeds.

Some summer research...

I gathered items from my experience and some information found with Google Search.

I  especially appreciate the information and ideas I got from...Peter Wayner, New York Times, ‘With WiMax, Walking on the Wireless Side of Baltimore’, and from Jovoodoo, Nairaland Forum, Nigeria,and My Surf Booster.  Jovoodoo has a lot of information on rigging makeshift signal boosters from kitchen, household, and electronic items.

I hope with this information you can connect better and, by understanding the difficulties, will develop a calmer philosophy about the process... and be less likely to throw things!

Connection Work Arounds and Facts

~ Check the current signal level on your USB modem screen.  If you don’t see one to three yellow bars, no amount of manipulation will connected you.

~ Find hot spots.   Find a room higher up, and sit close to a window.  Don’t have thick walls and hills between you and the cell tower.  Also, low lying areas can present problems. 

  ~ Water.  Trees and tall plants contain a lot of water which can impede  signals.  Rain and snow can reduce reception.

  ~ Always follow the screen advice and Try Again.

  ~ Connect off hours when others are resting. 

  ~ Disconnect and reconnect.  I do this often throughout the day. 

  ~ Start a  new window.  Things seems to work best when just one window is open. 

  ~ Put the USB stick, the dongle, into another port.  Sometimes a port can get worn, dirty, or just stop working.

  ~ Turn off and restart the computer.  Go one step further and Unplug it. This can stop overheating, and sometimes it drops frazzled pathways.

  ~ Understand that brownouts can disconnect.  With our power supply in rural Tversky oblast, surges and dips are expected.   I use a surge protector here and in St Petersburg.

  ~ Get a Clip-on aerial. Some sticks have a place for this.

  ~ Get extension wires so you can place the USB modem stick closer to the best hot spot.  Also, with these cables you can make your wife crazy by building an aluminum pot or strainer reflector dome!

  ~ Walk away.  After 20 minutes sites may start connecting.

Comments? 

Maybe you have another tip for us!

Also, have you had any reception problems with your computer tablet, smartphone, or LTE connected computer?

How is reception different in your country?

Technorati Tags: cable internet,broadband,3G USB,dial-up,cell towers,LTE,WiMax,computer error messages,Yota Lab,signal level,modem,reception hot spot,USB modem stick,dongle.

A Rough Road to Zaloz’e Russia

A locomotive arrives at Peno on its way to St Petersburg, 5 Sep 2010.

 

Most people have no idea just how empty Russia is.  An expat friend, a former Marine pilot in Vietnam, was amazed at how little he could spot from the air when flying from Turkey to St Petersburg. 

If you come to Russia don’t expect to see many gas stations along rural highways or motels conveniently spaced at modern highway exits.  What you are more likely to see are two lane paved or dirt roads, often poorly constructed and in bad shape.

Leaving our building close to midnight...

The fastest way to St Petersburg’s Moskovsky Station is by autobus and subway.  But at our ages 66 and 69 it’s too difficult to heft seven pieces of luggage on stairs and  escalators.  Our first challenge was to get everything from our 10th floor apartment to the taxi. 

Our son-in-law loaded the elevator and got us to the taxi in the courtyard.  We can count on him at summer’s end to be waiting for us at the train station.

How taxis operate in St Petersburg...

Most taxis are supplied by drivers who need money for car payments and gas.  These unmarked cars usually have GPS, and are linked through a dispatcher.  Larissa gave our cabbie 450 rubles and a 50 ruble tip, close to $13.50.

We arrived 50 minutes early as we had allowed time for a traffic jam, a пробка (pronounced  probka) like the one that had nearly caused us to miss the train in 2011.

The story of the No-ceel-cheek, the Pro-vod-neek... and the Ticket...

Cars were crushed around the front of the station. The cabbie could get no closer than a small paved island near the entrance.  I guarded our things while Larissa found a носильщик, (pronounced no-ceel-chееk), baggage man, who seemed sober and helpful. 

The smart wife negotiated that he would push five bags, and put them in our train compartment. The final payment of 1000 rubles included a 200 ruble tip, for a total of $33. 

The проводник (pronounced pro-vod-neek, conductor, refused to let me board because one of the many numbers on my ticket was wrong. The noceelcheek was waiting to put our bags on board, so he joined the argument and she relented.  A bureaucratic refusal often means a request for extra money, this time unsuccessful.

Night train!

At 1230 our train left and the provodneek brought each of us a package with a sheet, pillow case, and towel.  Larissa made our bunks.  We had lower beds which saved climbing and also our bunks closed over two secure luggage holders.

The conductor brought a glass of water for me, and tea (20 rubles) for Larissa.  We shared the compartment with a woman.  [Travel Safety Tip!] After putting out the lights, I locked the door with a special catch on the frame to the sliding door’s upper left that allows it to stay open an inch for ventilation.

Russian trains are one of my favorite things.  They have extensive routes and, compared to Amtrak, are economical.  We paid 1415.8 rubles each for the trip in an overnight sleeping coupe, a total 2832, or $86.50 for both of us. .Now Russian Rail has cut back this route, and, for the first time,  we had to get off in Ashtashkov, well before Peno.

A dangerous ride from Ostashkov to Peno

Ostashkov is northeast of Peno. The roads connecting the towns are poor, sometimes treacherous.  The necessary taxi route now is Ashtashkov via Peno to Zaloz’e, which cost 1,800 rubles, around $55.

We are used to bad roads from Peno to Zaloz’e, where the driver swerves around potholes, driving on the shoulder at times to maintain what he thinks is necessary speed. 

Now, on the bad section of the Ashtashkov Peno road, he also sometimes drove into the left lane, facing on-coming traffic till the last possible seconds, and then swerving back to our side.  The bumping and fearful driving gave Larissa a headache.

Greetings, Shopping, and a Car Trailer

We stopped in Peno so I could get my USB mobile broadband  connection set up at Beeline while Larissa shopped.  Her cousin Olona, a doctor, always makes us welcome with food, news and a place to rest until we leave for the trip to Zaloz’e. 

From Peno we added another passenger, Olona’s son, as well as tomato seedling flats for her farmer mother. Her son and the seedlings were too delicate to ride in the uncovered trailer, so instead our luggage got the ground-in dirt that resulted.  A good time to accept the situation as it seemed unavoidable.

Ironically the dirt road to Zaloz’e is in good condition... recently graded.  The villages which use the road, as well as a holiday camp, were assessed 1000 rubles a house to fix the bridge and grade the road.

A shortened train and poor roads made for a challenging trip.

It’s wonderful to get out of the city, get away from the White Nights, and be part of a friendly country community.  The fresh air, increased appetite, and coziness of cabin living make the travel effort worthwhile.  Soon I’ll be reading under my favorite apple tree and all will seem right with the world!

Comments Appreciated!

How do the prices for taxis and train compare with the place you live in?

What may be the reasons that Russia has such bad roads?

Have you had experience with a mobile broadband attachment for internet reception?

 

 

Technorati Tags: Russian roads,St Petersburg taxis,пробка,носильщикь,проводник,Ostashkov,Peno,Zaloz'e USB mobile broadband.

My Rocky Russian Road to a Better Internet Connection

The Modem Works With No Phone Lines

Petersburg dial-up challenging...


We arrived clueless in 2000 about connecting our Compaq laptop to the internet.  An old boss of Larissa’s invited us to see how dial-up worked in St Petersburg.  Like a child that won’t talk when you want it to, he had trouble connecting.  But he still recommended Comsat as he had good experience with their dial-up system.


So ignorant we lugged our computer to the dial-up office!

We took our computer to Comsat to set up their dial-up card.  On our second trip, the helpful employee Alexei suggested we could buy the card anywhere, and I could leave the computer home. 
I stayed with Comsat a few years, and then got adventurous... pricing cards for the best deal.


Cable in St Petersburg spreads building by building...

Why dial-up?  Easy.  There were no cable companies operating in our building.  Now we have three... Matrix, Eltel, and Inter-Zet.  My daughter-in-law in the next building has Inter-Zet, with WI-FI.


Phone lines rationed, not promoted...

We were still in America when once we were talking about how people can monopolize the phone. 

I said to Larissa, “If you and your daughter had problems sharing a line, why didn’t you get another for her use?” 

  Larissa replied, “It doesn’t work that way in Russia.  If you are relatives sharing an apartment the phone company will not give you a second line.  They are providing phone service to capacity and see no incentive in providing extra lines.”

In New Jersey it’s easy to get a line just for your computer.  In SPb, Larissa and I had to share one line, checking with each other if if was an OK time to make a phone call or dial-up to the WWW. 


It’s hard to keep a good woman off the phone!

People in St Petersburg love to chat on the phone for hours.   Until recently there was no possibility of extra charges no matter how long you talked.  We have a joke about this...

A Russian man said to another, “My wife spends hours in the kitchen.”  The other said, “So, your wife loves to cook?”  The first replied, “No, that’s where the telephone is.”


 Cell Phone Internet

Last summer a few people in the village had rough reception of the internet by plugging a wire to their cell phone and computer.  This system is hardly worth the trouble as sites take so long to load.


Internet modems new to Russia 2010...


The TV this summer has ads introducing the internet modem, seeking the youth market.   This system is  slower than broadband, less reliable, and  expensive.


But cable or even dialup is still not available in a large part of Russia. Little villages such as ours do not have a phone system, so there is no way to use dialup.


Three major cell phone companies... Beeline, MTS, and Megafon... have put their brand on modems from Huawei or ZTE, China. Typical of Russia, each modem will only accept that company’s transmissions.  Once you buy the modem for around $30, you are less likely to switch to another company. 



In Zaloza, Beeline has excellent tower placement, but MTS is a problem for our neighbor.   He can only get reception if he takes his laptop out of the house.


Being the first year in Russia, the instructions on the web and in the manual are difficult to follow.  It appears that the writer is unfamiliar with modems, can't write clearly, and doesn’t include the small important tips that make the service easy to use.




Trouble In Paradise!


Sasha, a Zaloza friend, said last summer that this technology would be in Russia  by 2010.  I always took a summer break from the internet, but decided that since we planned to be away longer this year I would bring the computer and try to connect.


In Russia, you need to show your passport to buy cellular time.  Larissa purchased the Beeline modem and cellular plan.


OK plan, but wrong personality...


The literature and online instructions talked about megabytes and gigabytes which, along with the Russian, got me confused.  The plan which I figured would last a month I brought down to zero in 10 days!


We buy a new plan I can’t burn up...


Larissa in Peno bought an unadvertised Without Limit Plan from Beeline for the same monthly cost as our cable plan at home, 399 rubles.


I renew the Without Limit Plan with help...


This is a carefree plan that I recommend.  I went to the Beeline office, inside a children’s clothing store, to renew.  Katya runs the one person office, alternating with Marina.  She closed the office so she could show me where to pay.

A teenager sits by the bread in a producti, food store, and takes payments for all the cell phone companies.  She didn’t understand my Russian, so I returned to Katya.  She again closed her store, and accompanied me to the producti, took my money, paid for the renewal.   Now, that’s good service!


My modem stops blinking on July 1! 



I had connection problems before but by hacking and doing work-arounds I was able to use Beeline up to then.  My second plan was to expire July 3, but it seemed  curious that it was turned off with a Connection Terminated announcement on July 1.

We discover that Beeline has the old “try and get your money back” attitude still found in much of Russia.


In fairness, return procedures in St Petersburg in the large stores are much easier to fulfill.  In all stores, you must have a receipt (often small and easily lost, sometimes with no company name).  No one will apologize for your inconvenience... Customer satisfaction only goes just so far.


Sasha crosschecked our modems on both computers.  My modem wasn’t working.  We sent a package by returning taxi to eventually get to the Beeline office.


 Hurdle 1.  Larissa got a ride into town to get a new working modem.  First they checked my modem, and yes, it was dead.   Then Marina asked for numbers from the original box.


Hurdle 2.  Now, I hate to keep empty boxes... which is the opposite of the Russian personality.  I used sissors  to clip the relevant information and burned the rest of the box.  Luckily, just recently, I found a small sticker in my papers with two long numbers.  This had the numbers Larissa needed. 
 
Are they making up things as they go along?  They also said they wanted the box.  There is nothing that says that the guarantee requires the original uncut box.


Hurdle 3. The Beeline Office начальника , nachnika, or boss, on a routine trip to the Tver office would ask approval to give a new modem.  Only then would we get a replacement.    On hearing this further requirement, Larissa followed my instructions and said, “Forget it...  Just sell me a new one.” 

The reply, “Oh, no.  You can’t do that because then we can’t use the pin number again!”  Notice the first concern was their administrative needs, not customer centered service.


I insisted we follow my old insurance boss’ advice to not waste time with the lower echelon, but go to the top.  We asked Katya for the boss’s phone number, and to my surprise, she gave us number and name.  In Russia employees are usually instructed to never give such information.


The local Beeline boss sounded scary, but was helpful...


He agreed to my suggestion to sell us a new modem, and if they ruled in our favor, to return our money for the defective modem.  In the meantime they took money for a new modem, but gave us a used one from their office.


A week later the Tver office said to go ahead and give us a new modem.  We were refunded our recent payment and the original card was now at home in it’s third modem.  It was delivered to us unwrapped, just as was the used one.



After 30 minutes it began to work.  Except half a month lost on card for the month, we lost no money.


No apology necessary...


But none of the three employees apologized for the dead modem and resulting inconvenience.  A customer sold a defective product deserves considerate care, not cross examination.  How could anybody profit by returning a dead modem?


If they applied common sense they would see that there is no way to scam Beeline by returning dead modems and that criminals have not found a new way to get rich.


I understand the Beeline modem better.  I’m grateful  the system is working well.  Knock on wood that it will continue to work until we leave the village in September! 


<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Technorati Tags: Russian internet connection, dialup, cable internet, Wi-Fi, phone lines rationed, Russian telephone joke, internet modem, cellular towers, cell phone card sales restrictions in Russia, Russian commerce, customer service.

Some questions...

How’s your experience with connecting to the internet? 

Is it always easy in the USA?

 

When were modems introduced in your country?

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StumbleUpon and Winter Enthusiasm!

A little news from the St Petersburg Curmudgeon...

We  had a power failure throughout our apartment complex right before New Year's struck in.  So, 2010 left us in the dark for its first hour... a sign of things to come?  St Petersburg has had more snow accumulation than during the Blockade, amid talk of Global Warming.  The snow and subzero weather has made this the most beautiful Christmas since we arrived in 2000.

StumbleUpon unique...

I was astonished when an American Russia Observations post was viewed hundreds of times on StumbleUpon!  This megasite is one of the best places for surfing, searching, and meeting an online community of inquisitive intelligent people.

I've found some intriguing Russia sites with Stumble Upon.  There are many areas I want to know more about, so a visit to SU often gives me the happiness of finding something new!  I was randomly surfing a year ago when I found Book Mooch, wonderful people who swap books worldwide.

A toolbar at the top of your screen...

You can sign up for free and download the SU toolbar.  First click Stumble  .  With the toolbar, you never need to sign in, and it will take you to random sites or your requested category.  My SU Nickname is RobbieMac0... that's zero, not letter O... which confusion indicates that I could have been smarter in a choice that I now can not change.

StumbleUpon has no ad clutter.  Some people pay to have content placed unobtrusively, but usually only 2% of viewed selections are paid-for.

How to recommend a site to StumbleUpon...

If you care to recommend our blog, or another, just Click on in the upper left of this page.  Then Fill in the address...  http://www.amrusob.blogspot.com/  for this site... and Click 'Add a review'.  First, it's vital to add a Topic... Russia for amrusob... then Write around three sentences on who, what, why, and Click Submit.

If you have a blog or other website, it's wise to have someone else submit your site... and not by the same someone-else too often!  Stumbleupon uses algorithms to de-emphasize self-serving participants.  I have studied how SU works, and I am happy to help you the Reader, if you would like to submit one of your blog posts or articles.

What to do after fireworks...

Fireworks can interrupt sleep this time of year in St Petersburg. If awoken in the wee hours, I'll check StumbleUpon.  The New Year's season may be a good time for you to do so, too!

StumbleUpon, global warming, winter 2009-10

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American Expatriate takes on a Russian computer...who will win?

Russian Vista Adventures

Part 1
the search!

Leaving America, we bought a Compaq Presario laptop at Flemington Staples. It lasted from May 2000 to September 2008... not bad. It's wiring gave up the ghost, and we began shopping for another. The only category of shopping items much more expensive here than in the states is technological, such as computers... which are cheaper than in 2000, but still my purchase set us back around $750.00.

My list of must haves included webcam, Microsoft platform, and English operating system.

A trusted friend said to stay away from Samsung, and be sure to buy an English operating system. Easier said than done! We shopped Mediamart (expensive), Kay (better prices) and Techno Cila (best prices for the best selection... with tricky rebate card).

We studied the advertising circulars, made phone calls, talked to people. The result? We couldn't find any English speaking laptop for sale in all of St Petersburg!

I was eager to connect to the internet after being away at the village and having problems with the old computer before and after the summer. One option was to get a laptop shipped from America, another to have an English operating system loaded by download or disc. These options were chancy as a shipment could be damaged or stolen, and a new program a corrupted or pirated one.

Finally I decided to buy the computer with all the features I wanted, except language. After all, I had been reading Russian for nine years, and have an intelligent Russian wife. With this path the computer would be in our home and working within a day or two... and my technical Russian was bound to improve!

Russian Vista Adventures...
Part 2
the keyboard

Back in New Jersey in early 2000 I had the both sinking and exhilerating feeling that soon we would have to leave everything behind and fly to Russia. I liked visiting the Russian section of Brooklyn, and one night there we bought a Russian keyboard.

Looking back it should have been obvious that the keyboard would be imperfect as people love to swindle there, but it was good enough for learning how to type a little in Russki. I used it in St Petersburg until I found it was easier to switch languages and follow the smaller letters on the Compaq keyboard.

While typing a Russian English computer glossary, I have noticed how very different the keyboard layout is for Russian. Why? It goes all the way back to the several inventions of the typewriter in the 1870s.

Mechanical typewriters often get keys stuck, and the QWERTY keyboard... an acronym for the first five letters on the top row... was designed so frequent stroke keys were unlikely to hit near each other and jam. Cyrillic typewriters were designed later when jamming was less of a problem, so the Russian keyboard has frequently used letters in the center. Cyrillic has 34 letters, English 26, so some of the infrequent Cyrillic symbols are located on the same keys that carry punctuation marks.

Recently I was grumbling it would be much easier to type Russian if all the English and Russian letters matched, instead of just the soft c. But a letter may be used less in Russian, or the other way around. Remember, some letters have different values, or pronunciation, and are used in different ways. When typing Russian I try to think of this layout as sensible and push away memories of the Latin QUERTY keyboard.

Russian Vista Adventures...
Part 3
surviving with some help from Google

The first few weeks with a Russian operating system were difficult, especially for my wife Larisssa. I had experience with computers, she with Russian, but the application of Russian with computers often veers off from standard usage... so we were often at an inpass with the commands and explanations. My salvation was using Google!

By entering well phrased questions as to what I wanted to do on the computer, I was able to get some clear answers from English internet computer help blogs which I then followed, sometimes guessing at the Russian on my computer.

I hate the automatic cursor which clicks, deletes, and travels where you don't want to go. This innovation is a blessing for some users but a curse for me. I want a cursor that only does what I mechanically click it to do!

Solving the Automatic Cursor Curse has taken months but finally I think I have killed it! With commands and explanations in another language, you have two hurdles to clear instead of one. It's hard enough for a 66 year old to compute, without having to first, and often simultaneously, translate the ersatz Russian of computer speak!

I have six cards for компьютерная помощь на дому, computer help in your home, collected from bulletin boards, shops, and the metro. Instead of getting some help, I fix the problems myself as I used to do with my taxes. I realized it would take a long time trying to explain my computer problems from English to Russian, and the fix might not be what I needed.

So, what is the best way to deal with foreign computers? My best advice is to get a computer in your own first language. A foreign operating system works for me only because I have the time, interest, and perseverance to figure out with Google's help the commands and problems of my Russki computer.

Plan ahead and arrange to have an English speaking computer from the get go!