WebService and CF Performance terrible - Settings?

  • Thread starter Thread starter PocketDeveloper
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PocketDeveloper

I created an application where a set of PocketPCs talk to a laptop
using a simple WebService and an 80211b wireless connection.

The PocketPCs only send TINY messages, and request one very small
dataset...only about 1 kilobyte or so.

Two Pocket PCs work fine. But add 5 or 6 more, and EVERYTHING grinds
to a halt for a few of them! It seems random, but some PPC just hang
there when they try to tell the WebService they are there, or ask for
a dataset back.

Even with a few PocketPCs using the service at the same time, it's
useless because some of them hang forever waiting for a response that
never comes back from the WebService.

Suggestions?

Is this just the price to pay for Web Services?
Will it help to turn off security (it's not really needed in this
local environment)?

Any other things I should be checking?
This is a showstopper at this point. But I suspect it can be fixed
with the proper settings. Web Services CAN'T be this bad...CAN THEY?

Any and ALL thoughts are appreciated because I am stuck and not sure
how to proceed here.
 
Do you see similar issues with multiple PPCs talking to your web service
when they are on a wired network connection or over ActiveSync?

David Kline
Microsoft .NET Compact Framework
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David --

I don't know how to connect them on a wired LAN. They all have
wireless cards, but they don't each "belong" to a PC that's on a
network.

They were purchased specifically for this application, which is
planned to involve 32 Pocket-PCs talking to a laptop in a meeting
room, getting a set of survey questions and then sending survey
results back to the laptop.

Everything worked fine with 1 or 2 PPCs. But when all 20 Dell Axims
arrived last week and I tried it with all of them...gridlock!

The WebService must read a database to serve out the datasets. So,
thinking it's a database speed issue, I altered the Webservice to stop
the database accesses and just return a NULL Dataset.

That allowed me to go to about 8 PPCs without gridlock...but it's
still a far cry from the 32 we need.

A well-known PPC software vendor told me today that Web Services on
the Compact Framework were awful as far as performance.

I turned off Windows authentication...and am using no authentication.

I am worried that the project cannot be salvaged. But I am hoping that
someone here who understands what's going on "beneath the covers" in
the Webservice could save the day with some tweaks here and there, or
point out something naive that I am doing.

Thanks for any and all ideas in advance!
 
Hello,
Very interesting....
I have exactly the same problem.
Consuming Xml Web Services from PDA is too slow.
i'm considering several solutions :
--> Add compression soap headers to reduce network trafic.
--> Try SQL CE and Merge replication instead of web
services...
--> Try active Sync to exchange xml files.

so, if you have others ideas ..
bye,
jack
 
Have you tried adding access points to see if RF collision may be the
problem?

Tom

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Hi,

I'm having the same performance issues.
I'm using both SQL CE Replication and WebServices to send data to my Pocket
PC from the cradle or GPRS.
Replication works fine, but webservices take several seconds to execute, up
to 20 or 30, which is unacceptable.Thing is I want to keep webservices...

I'd be very interested in earing from microsoft, or anyone else, about this
one.

bye,
André
 
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