Anyone using AT&T/sierra Wireless USB Mercury?

[judexavier]

Decided to try it out a while back, due to living in BFE (literraly the LAST place on earth without broadband for some reason) I'm rather unimpressed by the preformance...like "fast dialup" (if that even qualifies as remotely valid performance these days)...

I'm using the "SW generic 3G watcher" software instead of the ATT manager, and I even bought a booster antenna that has added maybe one bar to the signal strength (although that varies).

Any opinions/tips/advice very welcomed.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

EDGE throughput is pretty lousy. "Fast dial-up" is a decent description. It can hit 200kbps if you're lucky. Since you live out in the country, there aren't many options. Have you investigated satellite Internet?

 

[judexavier]

Yeah, looked into all the satellite stuff like hughes net, and a very local company selling Motorola stuff that you use with a 50' line-of-sight antenna you have to buy, through their gateway. Everything is simply too expensive. Easier to drive to a Wifi spot.
Very frustrating!
thanks for the reply. We'll figure out something.

 

[John Picard]

I live in BFE and am using the AT&T 3G dongle for my desktop. I had to get a USB extension cable so I could put it high to catch the signal. Every once in a while, I have to move it around as the signal strength will die.

I'd advise against satellite. It's expensive, start-up fees will rape you, and Hughes does not have a stellar reputation. Just Google Hughes +satellite problems and read.

 

[judexavier]

I live in BFE and am using the AT&T 3G dongle for my desktop. I had to get a USB extension cable so I could put it high to catch the signal. Every once in a while, I have to move it around as the signal strength will die.

I'd advise against satellite. It's expensive, start-up fees will rape you, and Hughes does not have a stellar reputation. Just Google Hughes +satellite problems and read.

Oh yes, I agree, the Hughes stuff is nuts. Heck I'm nowhere near that desperate. I'll just go to the library before I'd committ to that.

It seems I've found a sweet spot for the external antenna, next to a window, and all-in-all, it's not as bad. I'm getting a good 3 bars, sometimes 4.
Mind you it's not broadband by any means (Netflix won't work) but for everything else, it's pretty zippy.

The one really annoying thing is that after a cold boot, you have to plug in and then unplug/replug the card in for it to initialize correctly. I don't know if it's firmware, the connection watcher program, or the Vista driver, but something isn't quite right yet.

 

[John Picard]

I live in BFE and am using the AT&T 3G dongle for my desktop. I had to get a USB extension cable so I could put it high to catch the signal. Every once in a while, I have to move it around as the signal strength will die.

I'd advise against satellite. It's expensive, start-up fees will rape you, and Hughes does not have a stellar reputation. Just Google Hughes +satellite problems and read.

Oh yes, I agree, the Hughes stuff is nuts. Heck I'm nowhere near that desperate. I'll just go to the library before I'd committ to that.

It seems I've found a sweet spot for the external antenna, next to a window, and all-in-all, it's not as bad. I'm getting a good 3 bars, sometimes 4.
Mind you it's not broadband by any means (Netflix won't work) but for everything else, it's pretty zippy.

The one really annoying thing is that after a cold boot, you have to plug in and then unplug/replug the card in for it to initialize correctly. I don't know if it's firmware, the connection watcher program, or the Vista driver, but something isn't quite right yet.

I thought that was just my machine. Sometimes I start the program to connect and it won't detect a signal. I cancel the program, wait a moment, and then start it again and it will detect the signal. It has been a while since the machine hasn't detected the dongle on start-up and I had to play the unplug/re-plug game.

I do suspect that AT&T throttle me if I download several large files (2+MB) in one sitting. That really irks me because if I later try to download an attachment someone sends via e-mail, it is choppy upon playback.

*sigh* I can't wait to move to civilization and get a broadband connection; however, this beats having dialup for two reasons. 1) faster surfing, and 2) I ditched the landline.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

They would throttle you for using 2 megabytes???

What is this, 1996?

 

[Rhainor]

I have a somewhat-related question: Has anyone been able to connect to Star Trek Online via AT&T Wireless? My home connection works just fine, and I can log in from my laptop if I'm on Wi-Fi (usually), but if I'm on my aircard, the launcher won't even load properly. It looks to be a problem with required ports being closed, but beyond that, I'm at a loss. Any help?

BTW, I'm new. Hi!