[Novalug] EVDO, EVDO3G, other "broadband" types & sources : advice, please!

Miles D. Oliver miles.d.oliver@gmail.com
Sat Feb 28 16:57:36 EST 2009


EVDO / EVDO3G is the same technology (Ntelos is probably rebadged
Sprint or Verizon anyway using their towers) .  It's the only network
connection I can get here in WInchester.   (The crappy local WISP
isn't worth speaking of) I have an external antenna on the roof and
its been great.

I had to have a Wilson amp inline for a while but then the closest
tower got upgraded to EVDO RevA and I can pull in the signal i yanked
the amp.  I can even just use the card in the laptop and get a decent
signal now but keep the antenna so I can share the connection to all
the stuff in the house. I actually have 2 Sprint EVDO cards. One for
home, one for business. I plug the EVDO card into a PCMCIA card slot
and run a hacked version of 'smoothwall' on a mini-itx box. Works
well.

Sprints signal along I-81 is good and getting better,  Blacksburg is
in the EVDO RevA coverage area

The big drawback to wireless broadband now is the 5GB a month cap.
All the carriers are doing it. Mainly because of saturation. The
thought behind it is too many people constantly moving bits slows it
down for everybody so limit the usage so everybody can play (Hate this
idea and Sprint and others have lost customers over it).

And I know very well of the "Sprint Sucks" chants..  In all actuality
their customer service IS getting better.  They are realizing
"Its the customer service stupid" so I guess you could say they are
beginning to  "SUCK LESS"...

The technology works and works well.. Its when you involve the PEOPLE
is when the problems arise.


On Sat, Feb 28, 2009 at 2:07 PM, John Franklin <franklin@elfie.org> wrote:
> When I moved from the 'burg to Raleigh, I changed my mobile service from GTE
> to Sprint.  After that, anytime I went back to the 'burg to visit I would
> have spotty service.  My primary crash space was a townhouse in Haymarket
> Square -- walking distance from the Food Lion off Prices Fork Rd.  Upstairs
> I had maybe a bar of service, maybe no-bar signal.  In the basement I was
> roaming.
> Sprint screwed me out of a $150 rebate on a phone upgrade. The details are
> not relevant to this conversation, suffice it to say I'm not inclined to
> return to them, even though their service and coverage outside of Blacksburg
> was rock solid.
> Beartooth, my understanding is that you are even a bit further out than
> that.  Satellite may be your best option, although satellite plans are
> rather expensive.  The other thing you can do is ask the Blacksburg Town
> Council and/or Montgomery County Muckity-Mucks if they intend to pursue
> rural broadband stimulus money and what they plan to do with it.
> jf
> On Feb 28, 2009, at 12:35 PM, Beartooth wrote:
>
> Down here in SW Virginia, I've been getting "wireless
> broadband" from the telephone co-op in the next county East, and
> it has been distinctly better and faster than any DSL (in other
> houses) or cable I've ever had.
>
> It's *not* cell-phone-based. I have a kind of transceiver
> thingy (Netgear "router manager" / Mobile Broadband Router
> MBR814, sold only to providers). That sits in a window above a
> door, with a card that I'm told I *could* take out and stick into
> a laptop to make it connect all over town -- at the cost of
> cutting off the house.
>
> The MBR814 talks to its opposite number up on a water
> tower about a mile away. An ethernet cable leads from the MBR814
> to a D-Link DSS-8+ 8-port 10/100 Fast Ethernet Switch on my desk,
> and thence to all our wired computers; I can also browse into the
> MBR814 to turn wireless from it on and off, configure wireless
> security, etc.
>
> I hope that identifies the technology for the clueful.
>
> Now the co-op tells me it's getting out of that business,
> and I have to find another local access provider.
>
> I detested cable, which was admittedly Adelphia the
> Eternally Accursed when I had it and is now Comcast; I hear its
> service has gotten less atrociously bad, but they left an
> "emergency" cable lying across our back yard for months -- until
> we told them our spring tree work might cut it, and they finally
> replaced the bad stretch properly. At any rate, in a town full of
> engineers, and a neighborhood with typically 6 or 8 computers per
> house, cable has long stretches of cold molasses mode.
>
> Attempts (several) to get DSL from Verizon were even
> worse than my other experience with Verizon. They kept promising
> it and never delivering -- one time even sending me the modem to
> set up, and then doing nothing whatever for a year, until they
> sent a demand for it back.
>
> Once at some ungodly hour, I managed to talk my way to a
> competent tech who was bored enough to make an effort; he told me
> we were a little too far from whatever the gadget is called --
> something any order taker should have checked. So I detest
> Verizon, too.
>
> One other choice seems to be satellite. (WildBlue and
> Hughesnet are on the co-op's list.) I haven't had satellite --
> but I've considered it, and heard plenty about latency. And we
> have lots of big trees to the SW.
>
> Or we may be able to get EVDO from Ntelos, or EVDO3G from
> Sprint; that looks likely to turn out the real choice.
>
> I've seen that first acronym, and that's all; I haven't
> even seen the second one. Nor have I ever done any business with
> either Ntelos nor Sprint.
>
> All ideas, info, and advice welcome. (Remember I'm in
> Blacksburg now, not NoVa.)
>
> --
> Beartooth Staffwright, Not Quite Clueless Power User
> Remember I know little (precious little!) of where up is.
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