Wireless Broadband
 

I am loosing my office at home, due to my second child being born, so we are moving from a desktop to a laptop.

I am thinking that maybe wireless broadband is the way for us to go.

I am currently on Time Warner Road Runner, will I see a differnce?

What do you use, and what does it cost you?

Thanks

I have Cox cable as my provider and use a Linksys "Wireless G" router to send a wireless signal throughout the house. It was very inexpensive, easy to set up, and has varying levels of firewall security, from none to the highest level of encryption. The router seems to be as fast as my cable was by itself, so I'm happy with it.

Hi Scott,

I was looking for the service where I can get Broadband anywhere around town, I thought that was wireless broadband?

Oops. Sorry. I misunderstood.

Personally, I've never heard of a service like that but it wouldn't be the first time I've been out of the loop.

Verizon, Sprint and Cingular all offer the service. If yo currently have Cable broadband you will be dissappointed.

Wireless broadband is only as fast as basic DSL. 700 k although it is capable of bursting higher it just does not compare to Cable.

It's also pricey when you consider the speed. You end up paying the same for a 1/4 of the bandwidth.

So I should just stay with my wireless router in the house?

Yup. Alhtough having something that connect via bluetooth to a cell phone and dialout via gprs or whatever would be sweet too...

Your not talking about Wimax (802.16), right? Here in Seattle you can get a 5mb wireless connection downtown.

Our experiences with wireless from Sprint, Verizon, etc....has been very mixed. Just as with cell service, the quality can vary a great deal from on location to the next.

I've got wi-fi at home and I've got the Verizon service. The latter is great, but definitely not as good as wi-fi. Along with slower throughput, cellular broadband has lots of "lag" - you wait a while for the computers to connect, though once they've agreed on what to do data-throughput is good.

The chief reason for getting it is if you're frequently using your laptop outside the home or on the road. The convenience is unbeatable, and getting an internet connection is no longer a guessing game (is there a HotSpot nearby? Will the hotel have 'net access? How much will the service cost? etc...) New laptops are coming with the hardware built-in, so that you only need to sign up for the service. I'm hoping to retro-fit this to my ThinkPad X31, so I don't have tie up my single pc card slot.

Just for a customer support testimonial:

Cingular's updated program crashed my laptops. Response from Cingular, we'll look into it and get back to you in 24 hours. I said that was not good enough. They said to take my laptops in for service and they would NOT pay for anything. I said that was not good enough. They said they would get back to me in 24 hours, is was their policy. They will not respond to me and it is 6 days. I have no computer access from home for personal stuff and personal business as I have no operational computer at this time. We are looking into alternatives...

I've got roadrunner and I don't notice a difference whether I'm on the main computer or sitting outside with the wireless laptop. Very easy set up, just go buy the stuff and install it. Don't bother getting TW involved.

I prefer Linksys, I had problems with the other main brand, can't remember the name right now.

I've got a more annoying one: I've got two identical laptops. Same make, model, upgrades, the whole shebang. One is for regular use, the other is its back-up. The Verizon software crashes Windows 2000 on the back-up machine consistently. Neither IBM (it was made before the Lenovo buy-out) nor Verizon can figure why this happens. Even when I swap the hard drives and RAM between the two, Verizon's Mobile Connection Manager brings the blue screen of death within seconds.

Disable "Venturi", that seems to help the latency.

I had Verizon EVDO until 2 months ago. It was pretty darn good. I agree a cable modem or DSL is better, but not when you're sitting in a cab or a hotel w/o conventional Internet.

Yep, other methods of connection just are not satisfactory for our lifestyle.

Oh, an update: I finally got ahold of someone at Cingular last night. They swore they were to call me back by 3/31 at the latest. They agree that their latest update killed my system and we are now working to "repair". It looks like I will have to wipe my system out completely and re-install everything from scratch. Bl**@y H*!! is all I have to say....