New incar wi-fi setup

I will have the New Cyfre Routers next week . They will work with EDVO , HSDPA , 1xrtt and edge . They will support USB , PCMCIA and Express devices . They will be $199.00



Johnathan Brouwer said:
As I have said in the past...I have not had good feelings for these guys from the beginning....I would have loved to work with it, but you can only promise vaporware so long...

Personally, I'm getting a system from Gordon...fixing the signal problem correctly will solve most of my issues. And, I will say I know of no better solution for in-car repeaters and antenna's than Maximum signal's. After the antenna issue, I will go for some sort of pcmia device and a data card and I'm good to go.

BTW, thanks again Gordon for donation of a door prise at ChaserCon, appreciate your support! AND no I did not win it:(

I have found a number of devices that run pcmia cards. When I make a decision and get it all together I will post some pics of the set-up!
Click to expand...
 
Not that Gordon needs another plug here, but I ran one of his cyfre boosters all last season and it is amazing. The first one I got did seem to have issues getting the signal strength specified so Gordon asked for it back, sent me another unit, and it has been flawless. Now I just need to upgrade to one of these 3G aircard hotties...
 
Last edited by a moderator:
The report says they use Sprint. I thought it was Verizon. Anybody know the actual answer of which service or services they connect to???

Dave Carroll sent me his system to test in Tx/OK/Ks through all of April and hopefully I will have the 1st field test in western Oklahoma and maybe north Texas on Sunday. I will post results.
 
Autonet coverage...

Jay, from past experience with Verizon in the Panhandle...at times it was tough to connect even around Amarillo...if you drive around the block and can connect...it might be Sprint after all!!!:D Can't wait to see how the rig performs for you. Keep us posted. -Dave
 
wow, long thread....

sorry no time to read all the posts in this thread, so please forgive me if THIS info has already toured here, but if not, or for those who just joined now, here is my little suggestion :

WIFI in your car

two suggestions :

1. if you have a smartphone / pda / ppc that operates on WM6 ( or a late release of WM5 ) AND is Wifi enabled, then you can turn your phone into a Wifi hotspot with this : www.WMWifirouter.com . So , with great data coveage in our target area, the rural Plains, see what Alltel offers is the htc PPC 6800, it has Wifi and WM6 and will thus give you Wifi anywhere you have Alltel data signal. you can then connect via Wifi a laptop or any other wifi-enabled device, such as the Nokia N95 or N93i cameras ( yeah I know they also do the phone work but I consider them rather as pocket cameras with streaming capability rather than a phone ;-) and THAT is interesting because it means you can use Symbian S60 phones and their great streaming programs in EVDO .

2. www.cradlepoint.com offers several mobile Wifi routers and I guess you could use them in a car if you get power via a 12V-to-110V powerinverter. But even better now they have one model, the personal hotspot, that runs on battery ! so you can even get out of the car and have your wifi anywhere as long as your data provider gives you a signal. just insert the USB-data device . Alltel offers one , too. so once again you could have Alltel-evdo-wifi almost anywhere. and certain devices even allow for 2 data cards so you could get both Alltel evdo AND AT&T GPRS/EDGE to get a data signal and have wifi in even a larger zone. I thought you would have to sign up with Alltel for 2 years but I am being told that the data cards can be had on a month-to-month non-contract basis ? and on the alltel website , depending on your location ? , it seems that the usb data stick can be had for 50$ or sometimes even for free ? wow now that is a great solution. the cradlepoint 300 personal hotspot is less than 180 bucks and i was told on amazon as low as 150....... Alltel data internet is 60.
oh and even certain data cards that are not usb can be used if used with a card-to-usb adapter. see list of supported devices http://cradlepoint.com/techsupport/phs300support.php
 
Well here is the 1st report on the Autonet system field test.

Drove down I-40 from Amarillo to Sayre,Ok and then down south to Granite,OK without loss of signal until we passed Quartz mountian which is known to mess with cell signals. We then worked east towards Hobart and we were hit and miss once we got north of Hobart for about an hour. At times I had to switch back to my Cingular card whioch was also sporadic. David Drummond who was in the same area chasing with us for the most and using Sprint only lost connection 1 time north of Hobart for a few seconds. Once we got far enough North to get back close to I-40 we had good connections again. I will say it is hard to tell how good a signal is. It either is on or blinking. The wireless signal always shows 5 bars since it sits right by the laptop but unlike a data card I cant tell how many bars the actual device is getting. Wish it had a signal level display to show bars. I wil give it an A+ on reconnecting. I never once had to do anything. If it has a signal it connects and starts downloading data. Only tim eI knew I lost signal was my GR3 would miss updates.

All in all I say we had connection 90% of the time. It was as good if not better than my cingular card but not as good as a sprint card. David had hi-speed the entire time and was even able to stream his dashcam live on the internet. We had enough connection to have GR3 running with BR1&2, SR1, BV1, VIL and spotter network. Had to wait on updates only a couple times.

The real test will be NW oklahoma.
 
Dave Carroll said:
...thanks for the update Jay...keep 'em coming! Did you roll with an external antenna or amp with the system? -Dave
Click to expand...

I do not have an external antenna for it. I only used the basic system you sent me. As with all data cards I am sure the reception would increas with an amp or external antenna. I can only report it as tested "out of the box".
 
Another update on the Autolink system. Last Monday Steve MIller and myself chased the Electra tornadic storm as most of you know and we streamed live dash cam. Except for around Altus (as usual) and well south of Wichita Falls near Seymore etc.,... we had a solid connection and were able to run Spotternet, GR3 and streaming video. We had Steves Sprint connection as backup but never used it. THe few times Autonet did lose its signal it usually was only a few minutes befoe it reconnected. It beat my cingular connection easily but still lags a bit behind the Sprint connection. With an external antenna and may an amp it would be even better. I was actually surprised we were able to download radar and upload our streaming video so easily.

So far I give it a B+ but we have only tested along and south of I-40 and north of I-20 through the Texas panhandle east to within about 50 miles of DFW. The one area we really lost connection was from Seymore and Archer City to Throckmorton area buit nothing worked down there. Not even Sprint. I hope I get the chance to test it in western Kansas and NW Oklahoma beforre I have to return it
 
Autonet Coverage Summary

Thought I'd post a summary of our coverage experience with the Autonet router in the Plains.
1) enroute from Virginia to OKC (mainly via interstate): no gaps in coverage
2) Oklahoma, from Shawnee to Ada to Ardmore: a couple of small gaps, but we could always connect when stopped.
3) North TX, from the Red River to Jacksboro/Young County/Mineral Wells: no gaps in coverage.
4) Dallas west to Big Spring/Lamesa: no gaps.
5) South of I-20 there was a peculiar two county gap around Brownwood.
6) Abilene area and to the southwest: no gaps, even far from the Interstates, solid even in Sierra Diablo & Guadalupe Mtns.
7) Western TX Panhandle: off-interstate, from north of Lubbock to Amarillo through Cactus to OK border: no gaps.
8) New Mexico, Carlsbad to Roswell to Clovis: on 5 minute gap near Kenna, otherwise solid coverage.
9) OK Panhandle (Guyman) to Liberal KS: no gaps.
10) Western KS, Rt. 83-283-183 corridors from southern KS to I-70: essentially no gaps (we seemed to temporarily get booted off in areas of high chaser convergence on 5/22-23...crossing this area during quiet times we were streaming video on the road).
11) Eastern Colorado, north of I-70 : 100% coverage, even in the middle of Yuma County.
12) Kansas, north of I-70 and souther Nebraska, south of I-80: no noticeable gaps. Chaser convergence near Grand Island on 4/24 seemed to slow the connection somewhat.
13) Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio: central parts of those states, mainly near Interstates yielded 100% coverage.

We connected the unit to an external antenna throughout the trip, and never used an amp. When we had a weak signal (blinking LED), we were usually able to connect simply by stopping, and then able to get a quick data update.

The Autonet system certainly seems to be a viable way of getting data on the road...it worked very well. -Dave
 
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