Air card and wireless laptop questions.

[NJTomatoguy]

I am looking at getting away from comcast. I live in a heavily populated area,
near Philadelphia pa, and am looking to go completely wireless.
Does anyone have any experience with the air card type services?

 

[mattmcl]

I work in the industry, and everyone says they work great, provided you get unlimited minutes. You can also tether Blackberrys and other smart phones, which apparently works well too. Latency can be high though, so if you play Warcraft or anything you might want to check into it.

 

[dataz722]

The connection will certainly not come close to true broadband and at least with Verizon you only get 5GB's per month. Over that and they charge the hell out of you. They are great on the road but I would not want to use it to replace a land based internet connection. Can you get Verizon DSL or FIOS? I know that quite a bit of delaware has been wired for FIOS but I dont know about the land across the bridge.

 

[NJTomatoguy]

The connection will certainly not come close to true broadband and at least with Verizon you only get 5GB's per month. Over that and they charge the hell out of you. They are great on the road but I would not want to use it to replace a land based internet connection. Can you get Verizon DSL or FIOS? I know that quite a bit of delaware has been wired for FIOS but I dont know about the land across the bridge.

I figured they would find a way to "charge the hell out of you", but only went as far as looking at the plans on the site. They want a 2 yr committment on something that may not work for what I need it to do.
Fios is not available here, yet.

DSL is available here.
I will probably just stay with what I have. I was specifically looking for the aircard to work at the marina, for long weekends. If I can wangle the new position, I would be able to work from away(home/Boat/travel).

Thanks for the help.

 

[dataz722]

Well it is great for when you would be on the boat and whatnot. One thing that I am about to do is tether through a blackberry. I just bought a blackberry last week and it does add an additional $30 to my plan a month for the data package on it. They charge and additional 30 more to be able to tether but there is a couple programs out that can do it for just a one time fee of 50.

 

[EdWort]

Get a 3G phone with unlimited Data plan, then tether it to your PC. I have the T-Mobile G1 Google phone and I tether it to my netbook and it works great. I can tether it to my home network in case the cable goes down. My unlimited calling and data plan only costs $75 a month from T-Mobile.

Here's the software for tethering G3 phones.

June Fabrics PDA Technology Group

 

[dataz722]

With t-mobile is it really unlimited? Verizon says theirs is unlimited and I even asked the sales guy and he said it was but if you read the fine print you really only get 5gb's per month.

 

[marubozo]

I have a card that I was given for my work laptop and while it's nice when you're really without any other options, I avoid using it at all costs. Even on a 3G network it isn't good for much more than checking email and light web surfing.

 

[EdWort]

I have a card that I was given for my work laptop and while it's nice when you're really without any other options.

Beats dial up by a country mile.

 

[EdWort]

With t-mobile is it really unlimited? Verizon says theirs is unlimited and I even asked the sales guy and he said it was but if you read the fine print you really only get 5gb's per month.

I don't know, but for web browsing & email, 5 gb is plenty while on the road. Downloading movies is not an option though.

 

[Homercidal]

For most people it's much better than dial-up and even better than Satellite, but still not as fast as DSL, not even close. The lag can kill gaming. Generally pretty nice for basic surfing if you get a good signal (and their system isn't being overused).

A radio station uses one to transmit the audio from the studio out to the tower. They reduce the crap out of the audio though, so the oldies sound like tinny MP3s, but you have to listen close. They have times where the high use of the Alltel system causes momentary silence.

 

[kanielb1]

I use an air card on a daily basis. It is my means of internet at my apartment. I have AT&T. It is only 5 gb's a month. I have yet to come close to that limit. I surf the net, myspace, facebook, youtube, and even telecommute with this card. I have been impressed with the speed that I am getting on 3G. I was never one to download movies or music, or gaming, so it is perfect for me.