Wifi on the bus and Sounder – Not Shabby!

Greetings from Metro Route 212. It’s around 5:16pm and I’m on my way home from work at Eastgate Park and Ride. I must say that besides traffic sucking it’s usual self, this internet is pretty damn fast!

Also, mybus is a godsend. I never used it until now and even though it doesn’t work on my T-Mobile Stripe, the website is good enough considering I’m a 5 minute walk to the campus.

Now if only Metro would install 110volt outlets, I’d be a very happy camper.

Wonder how it is on Sounder…

Guess we’ll find out at 5:55pm =)

Update: 5:22pm Were on I-90 in the HOV lane and traffic is completely stopped on I-90 Westbound. Sucks that this lane doesn’t go into the reversible lanes… I have a feeling I’m going to miss my train now =(

Update: 5:25pm Ok, so we passed the small accident and cruising at 60mph and going through the Mt. Baker Tunnel. Ran a speed test in the tunnel and the connection held! Kick ass!

Last Result:
Download Speed: 391 kbps (48.9 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 109 kbps (13.6 KB/sec transfer rate)

Update 5:31pm I redid the test in the open land. Didn’t really change much at all. Just left I-90 and Rainier Ave Freeway Station. Looks like the interchange for I-5 is jammed in it’s usual affair.

I’ll be back when I walk over to King Street Station.

Update 5:51pm: Onboard Sounder 1511 to Tacoma (Well Kent Station for me) and the wifi is pretty good onboard. Can’t get a speed test though from Speakeasy. Seems about as fast as Metro.

Update: Departed ontime from KSS, this was the only speed test I was able to get.

Last Result:
Download Speed: 43 kbps (5.4 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 138 kbps (17.3 KB/sec transfer rate)

Odd….

Update 6:46pm: I’m now at home… It sucks that the 166 departs 2 minutes before Sounder arrives (Bus leaves at 6:15pm, train arrives at 6:17pm) so I ended up taking the Route 183 home instead of the 166.

Just a comparison to home internet – We use Qwest DSL only cause we got suckered into a 2 year contract…ugh.

Last Result:
Download Speed: 1305 kbps (163.1 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 617 kbps (77.1 KB/sec transfer rate)

After asking a few friends of mine, it seems that ST and Metro both use the same carrier. I think I am going to try it again in the morning if I get a chance. I found a rather addicting game online and been itching to kill time with it!

Just for those wondering, I cleaned this post up a bit. It was kinda sloppy since I didn’t know if the connection would actually hold as well but yes, it does appear that Sounder is pretty slow for wireless internet while Metro (not sure on ST buses yet) are decent. I had no problems surfing the internet and posting the blogs on Metro but on Sounder it timed out a few times while doing Google searches.