[Touch Pro2, Tilt 2 Windows Mobile General] d0ugie:
NYC test results

I'm running EnergyROM 28005 on an AT&T Tilt 2 on AT&T's network in NYC (which sucks). I was curious whether these changes were rom specific or at&t specific or both, so not having the stock rom I compared reg edits:

On Energy (the custom non-AT&T rom I'm using) the following three were already the same entries this thing would otherwise have changed:

hklm\software\htc\advancednetwork SupportHSUPA 1

hklm\software\htc\advancednetwork\0 GPRS 0

hklm\software\htc\advancednetwork\1 CSDLineType

hklm\software\oem\ril EnableHSDPAIcon 1

These were changed/added:

hklm\software\htc\advancednetwork HSDPA

hklm\software\htc\advancednetwork SMService

hklm\software\htc\advancednetwork SupportedFunctions 4 (orig 3)

hklm\software\oem\ril DisH 0 (orig 2)

Then I wanted to see if those four changes made a difference for this custom rom on AT&T's crappy Manhattan network near Columbus Circle so I tested using speakeasy.net/speedtest on their Seattle and NYC server tethered on a laptop through wifi using wmwifirouter with a full signal on the phone and laptop. I would call these results inconclusive given how much fluctuation there was on consecutive tests, how slower the network has become since I had the 8525 which could break 2000Kbit/s and given how the network's saturation/throttling could confound the tests even if each repeated seven times during a period of a half hour between 10:30am and 11am but here's what I got:

Without the changes:

577/513 (down/up)

725/621

557/223

536/186

564/166

668/289

603/217

With the changes:

495/561

729/413

733/448

690/200

605/257

483/113

655/533

582/134

Average without: 529/277

Average with: 622/332

Average gain after changes: 93kbs down and 55kbs up or 18%/20% improvement.

In addition to what I did the test would have been better to have run on the stock rom after midnight on a Sunday and by clocking a large download over FTP rather than using the speed test websites as the tests are too short and ISPs have been rumored to burst data on such testing sites to distort results. Some other tips if you want to do this scientifically is to make sure no data is already moving on the phone nor will it during the test (disable activesync and imap and pop cycling, Manila stocks/weather updates etc and do your best to keep everything other than the registry changes (or radio changes) constant throughout the test and do at least several tests each) along with the computer and to check to see if any connections are open on the computer, Start > cmd > netstat -t, which by the way is a good way to see if you have any phone home viruses running. And for good measure after the two tests, undo the changes and test again to make sure there wasn't a coincidental change in the network.

Almost everyone on this thread has gone nuts over making the following changes so while I had the laptop out I figured I'd add them to the mix and fire up another test, but now an hour later than the first. Be advised adding these may disable HSDPA/HSUPA so check Setup > Connections > Advanced Network before proceeding to the tests:

hkcu\software\microsoft\windows\currentversion\internet settings

MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server 32, MaxConnectionsPerServer 16

I never understood why modifying, apparently, just the maximum amount of connections the phone made to the same host would make a difference in throughput on a single connection to a single host (though it could be helpful on websites with lots of pictures on a single page or things like p2p) so I had never bothered but here goes nothing:

671/256

771/245

803/335

857/243

657/535

1009/351

865/181

average with both sets of tweaks 805/306

gain with both from neither set of tweaks 276/29 or 52%/34%

Well how about that. Did not see that coming. I'll go ahead and attach the cab for those changes. But given that I ran this test almost an hour and a half later, I'm still not convinced but I ain't undoing those changes. If anyone's in the mood it would be nice to know if enabling compression on the phone makes any difference and while you're at it how about testing ping latency with not specifying DNS servers versus putting in Level3's 4.2.2.1 and 4.2.2.2, that would be nice.

Hope this was helpful and happy testing people.

Doug