[ale] Linux supported air card works!

[William Fragakis]

sooo... since, with two teenagers, I'm already spending a ton with
Verizon, what speeds are you experiencing?

thanks,
William

On Sat, 2008-12-27 at 08:37 -0500, Jim Kinney wrote:
> Yay! I'm glad to hear it's working well for you. I have had no problem
> with the USB gizmo I got from Verizon either. The new NetworkManger
> stuff in Fedora9 and 10 are super easy for use with cell modems. All I
> had to do was put in my number at conection-address and it was off to the
> races. I have used the dual USB cable to provide extra power when the
> cell signal is weak. Luckily my laptop has 3 USB ports.
> 
> Now if my Treo 650 worked as well....
> 
> And yes, Verizon spends all of their customer service training budget
> on their nerd w/glasses ads. 
> 
> On Fri, Dec 26, 2008 at 9:02 PM, Jim Lynch
> <ale_nospam at fayettedigital.com> wrote:
>         I have been using a Verizon aircard for a while now with mixed
>         results.
>         It suffered from frequent disconnects, poor performance and
>         occasional
>         drops.  While it wasn't great, it worked better than nothing.
>          A couple
>         of months ago I was speaking with a customer service rep about
>         my
>         frustration with the frequently disconnects and she suggested
>         I sign up
>         for the "Broadband" service which was faster and didn't cost
>         any more.
>         Oh and incidentally I could get a new pcmcia aircard which
>         would take
>         advantage of the faster service if I wanted.  I was
>         unimpressed with the
>         new "Broadband" service I upgraded to wrt speed, bit it was a
>         bit more
>         reliable, not a lot however.
>         
>         I recently traveled to Orlando and found I had left the
>         aircard at
>         home.  I needed internet access while there and decided to
>         check out the
>         new aircard the lady mentioned.  I went to a Verizon store and
>         talked
>         with the guy there.  English was his second language, as it
>         was for all
>         the clerks in that store (Kissimmee).  I was the only one
>         speaking
>         English in the entire place.  But I regress.
>         
>         So he didn't seem to think that I'd see much improvement in
>         speed and
>         asked another clerk about it and they agreed.  They said
>         something about
>         Rev A being a bit faster.  I have no idea what Rev A is.
>         
>         But since I needed access and the cost was $50 with a $50
>         rebate for an
>         extended 2 year contract, I decided that wasn't a problem.
>         
>         I have to tell you that was the best $50/2 year commitment I
>         ever made.
>         I was able to connect and communicate at very respectable
>         speeds all
>         week with no drops, no problems what so ever.
>         
>         I subsequently took the laptop to my boat which is located at
>         a marina
>         on St. Simons Island and where communications is usually
>         seriously
>         compromised.  It again performed flawlessly and with far
>         better speed
>         than at any time before.  Nary a disconnect.
>         
>         As  a note,  I chose Verizon for both my wireless data
>         connection and my
>         cell phone provider because I do use the boat to cruise up and
>         down the
>         coast.  Cruisers in that area report that Verizon has the best
>         coverage
>         of that area.  I don't necessarily think their customer
>         service is
>         exceptional or even very good.  But coverage is pretty
>         important, IMHO.
>         I do have both VHF and HF onboard so I have multiple
>         communications
>         backup, but safety at sea can never be too much.
>         
>         Oh and thanks to (I think) Jim Kinney for the original pointer
>         to the
>         wvdial parameters that made it work on Linux.
>         
>         Jim.
>         _______________________________________________
>         Ale mailing list
>         Ale at ale.org
>         http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> -- 
> James P. Kinney III               
> 
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