Randy Jennings
Supporter
- Joined
- May 18, 2013
- Messages
- 778
I just got the Netgear AC791L on Verizon prepaid, but haven't taken it on a chase yet, so I can't comment on actual performance myself yet, but I can say what made me choose it. Reviews on it where much better than other hotspots. It supports carrier aggregation and simultaneous dual-band (2.4 and 5 GHz) 802.11ac WiFi for up to 15 devices (which I probably don't need the latter, but carrier aggregation supposedly fixes a lot of the issues folks have with these type of devices). I strongly considered the lower cost Verzion models, but every review I read said the AC791L was worth it. I chose Verizon mainly because my chase partner has AT&T so we will have carrier diversity. Personal experience and comments by others have convinced me that AT&T and Verizon are the only networks that a chaser should consider. I used to use my phone hotspot, but I have a low-cost carrier who's coverage stinks. I went prepaid, as I don't want to pay Verizon's prices for my entire family for the entire year - I will just supplement with a prepaid Verizon during chase "season".
As for bandwith, I used over 50MB in under 15 minutes without even firing up Gibson Ridge or doing anything bandwidth intensive. I suspect that Windows 10 decided to update something. It might have been the Jetpack itself downloading an update. I will say if you have moved to Windows 10, that Windows Update is a problem, as Microsoft will not let you turn it off. You are supposed to be able to into the advanced network settings and set a connection as metered to keep it from downloading updates on that connection, but there are problems with that. To begin with you have to first establish the connection as an admin user (just once - not every time you boot and connect - if you create it as a normal user you need to "disconnect" and "forget" the connection and reconnect from an admin user). Normal users have the metered connection option greyed out. Even when you do that, it will still be greyed out and look as though metered connection is off. Doing netsh command in a shell will show you that the connection is in fact metered even on the normal user account, so the display just seems to be wrong. We'll see. I sure hope that it doesn't download updates while I am chasing.
I'm curious for those who have used Verizon prepaid in the past - did you suspend service and reactivate or just not buy more data until the next season.
I use both RadarScope and GR when chasing. The big advantage with GR (besides a bigger screen on my laptop) is the ability to import detailed map shapefiles. I don't know how I lived without that. I am able to stay with the storm a lot more now. There are some other nice things about GR like being able to set your own color tables (although the default ones in RadarScope are nice), VAD (vertical wind profile), etc. GR was worth the investment, and I'm not ditching RadarScope either. Both are valuable tools to me.
As for bandwith, I used over 50MB in under 15 minutes without even firing up Gibson Ridge or doing anything bandwidth intensive. I suspect that Windows 10 decided to update something. It might have been the Jetpack itself downloading an update. I will say if you have moved to Windows 10, that Windows Update is a problem, as Microsoft will not let you turn it off. You are supposed to be able to into the advanced network settings and set a connection as metered to keep it from downloading updates on that connection, but there are problems with that. To begin with you have to first establish the connection as an admin user (just once - not every time you boot and connect - if you create it as a normal user you need to "disconnect" and "forget" the connection and reconnect from an admin user). Normal users have the metered connection option greyed out. Even when you do that, it will still be greyed out and look as though metered connection is off. Doing netsh command in a shell will show you that the connection is in fact metered even on the normal user account, so the display just seems to be wrong. We'll see. I sure hope that it doesn't download updates while I am chasing.
I'm curious for those who have used Verizon prepaid in the past - did you suspend service and reactivate or just not buy more data until the next season.
What exactly is the benefit of using GR3 over RadarScope?
I use both RadarScope and GR when chasing. The big advantage with GR (besides a bigger screen on my laptop) is the ability to import detailed map shapefiles. I don't know how I lived without that. I am able to stay with the storm a lot more now. There are some other nice things about GR like being able to set your own color tables (although the default ones in RadarScope are nice), VAD (vertical wind profile), etc. GR was worth the investment, and I'm not ditching RadarScope either. Both are valuable tools to me.