Mobile broadband questions

Joined
Sep 16, 2008
Messages
166
Location
Battle Creek, MI
Hello, I am planning on getting mobile broadband for the '09 chase season, and am probably going with sprint, as my dad gets 20% off through work. Anyways, Im assuming I will just be using a USB modem dongle plugged into my laptop for the wireless, and not through phone tethering (maybe im confused on the whole tethering thing too). I am planning on streaming, and wondered what you suggestion are on antennas, or amplifiers. I am told i need at least an external antenna for streaming. Any comments, or suggestions will be appreciated.
 
'Tethering' means that there is a multi-pin cable that plugs into you phone (not all phones have this feature) and the other plugs into your laptop via a USB port.

Your service provider will have the cable and software available to you - if your phone has that capaicty. They will charge a piece of change for the cable/software; Alltel charged me $60 for it! (Grrrr...) I have the Alltel 'Hue' phone - which was $200+ as well.

You may get by with an external antenna for your phone. I have the antenna and the amplifier from a company called 'Maximum Signal'. I don't always use the amp in the car; but I always use the antenna - they work very nicely. Sometimes you may out of range of a cell tower, and then the amp shows its value.
 
Unless your phone is brand new you can usually find those data cables for less than $10 (shipped even!) on ebay or amazon. Don't pay those crazy overinflated prices at your phone dealer.

Depending on where you plan to chase don't expect to see EVDO everywhere either. It's still only in about 20-25% of the chase areas of the plains.
 
Alright, I also have the alltel hue, Rob. Is tethering necessary, or what about the little usb dongle modems, like the verizion usb 727, or do those data cable connect from your phone into the modem, and then into the usb port, or are they two separate ways of getting mobile internet? And yes David, I usually look on eBay for my cables for almost anything, other places are a rip-off. I once got me a 50ft cat5 ethernet cable for $7.99 shipping included. I will be doing a little more research...

Oh yeah, also wanted to ask about cradlepoint routers. I see they create a secure wifi network for mobile needs, but I dont understand why u would need one, if you can connect to the internet through tethering, etc.
 
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Tethering is necessary for a direct link from the phone to the laptop. Then, install the software, reboot - and done. It's pretty easy, don't be intimidated by it. It's not going to cause problems, and it sets itself up. Be happy. It will shut itself off of the net if you get a phone call; so I have a disposable 'Tracphone' to make emergency calls if I need a phone. Between the disposable phone and the 2 meter Ham radio, I pretty much have all my bases covered and never have to lose data or miss calling out.
 
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Tethering does not have to be a direct connection and can also be done by a bluetooth connection. The main advantage for using a cradlepoint router is that you can use 2 different providers and shape traffic and that it auto reconnects making it a worry free way to stream without having to checking 100X a day to see if your stream is still up
 
Your service provider will have the cable and software available to you - if your phone has that capaicty. They will charge a piece of change for the cable/software; Alltel charged me $60 for it! (Grrrr...) I have the Alltel 'Hue' phone - which was $200+ as well.

If you do go with Alltel, which it sounds like your set on Sprint, but for anyone else. Alltel has a place on there website where you can download the drivers and mobile access application for free. I got my USB charging cable online for like $10.00. So there's ways of getting around there $60 package. I also have the HUE.

But here's the website link:

http://software.alltel.com/


I have heard that some USB cables do not charge the HUE while in use. So make sure your getting one that is a charging USB cable.
 
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