I will admit to being a “gadget freak.” I am interested in most any device that either makes life easier or else allows a person to do things that were not possible without the device. I have obtained a gadget that I find fascinating. It allows me to function in areas where I could not do so previously and I save money besides.
In fact, I am using the new gadget now as I write this article, using a laptop computer on a Greyhound bus traveling from Boston to New York City. I do not have any wires connected to my laptop. There is no power connection and no network connection. I am using a wireless network connection but not the so-called “Wi-Fi” wireless. The wireless connection I am using can communicate with cell phone towers many miles away.
I am writing this article with a standard word processor while simultaneously downloading a large file from an Internet web site in another window. A third window is open with my e-mail program checking for new messages every five minutes. A fourth window is also open, running a program that monitors the wireless Internet connection and is reporting data transfer statistics once every second.
While I am seated on a bus, I could just as easily be seated in a public park, in an airport lounge, riding the commuter train, or even in my own back yard. OK, I’ll try this on the highway only if someone else is driving. The point is that I am connected to the Internet without any wires and I can move around for miles without losing the connection. Did I mention that the connection operates at roughly the same speed as a DSL or cable modem connection?
Wireless Internet connectivity has been available for years, although with serious limitations. Several cellular companies started offering wireless data connections in the late 1990s. Speeds were slow, often at 14,400 baud or less. That sounds slow, and then you realize that wireless connections typically are SHARED connections. That is, you and everyone else on the channel share one connection. When someone else is transmitting, you have to wait your turn. The rated speed is a peak reading only; the average speed is much slower. The result is a connection that has a total throughput that is much less than 14,400 baud. Put differently, any one user of a 14,400 baud connection gets only one share of that advertised speed. Some companies have offered still other technologies that offered peak speeds as high as 56,000 baud (56 kilobaud); however, the average speeds would still be much less than the peak.
Wireless 802.11 connections appeared a few years ago and have become very popular. These are also referred to as “Wi-Fi” connections. These are very high speed wireless connections but also are very short range. In an optimum, line-of-sight situation, a Wi-Fi connection may work for 500 feet. However, the range is quickly reduced by walls, plaster, bricks, and electrical wiring. Most Wi-Fi connections will only work for 100 feet or so from a base station, or “hot spot.”
The 802.11 Wi-Fi devices are sold in all computer stores these days and most of today’s laptops include 802.11 “Wi-Fi” hardware and software pre-installed. You can purchase an 802.11 Wi-Fi hot spot and connect it to your own cable modem or DSL connection in your home. You also install a Wi-Fi card in a laptop computer, if needed. The combination of the 802.11 Wi-Fi hotspot and a matching 802.11 wireless card in your computer allows you to access the Internet connection from around your house or in the back yard. The signal may also “spill over” and be useable in your neighbor’s yard or house. (I can connect to my neighbor’s 802.11 Wi-Fi hot spot while seated in my house.) Luckily, there are encryption features available in Wi-Fi to protect your privacy and not allow neighbors to access your wireless network, even if they do receive a strong signal.
Wi-Fi hot spots are now installed in hundreds of thousands of private homes, at all Starbucks, Border Books, and Panera Bread restaurants, a few McDonald’s, and in numerous coffee shops, airport lounges, libraries, and many other public places. Access to these high-speed wireless networks may be offered free of charge although many places will charge for the service. They all share two characteristics: high speed and very limited range. If you and your laptop walk away from the hot spot, you lose the signal within a minute or so. Use of Wi-Fi wireless networking from a moving automobile or a commuter train is not practical.
The various cellular companies have rolled out new technologies that allow for high speed Internet connections over a wide area. Verizon and Sprint use a technology called EVDO while AT&T (formerly Cingular) and T-Mobile use EDGE. Vendors in Europe, the British Isles, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Korea, and elsewhere are also offering similar services. EVDO and EDGE differ in technical details, but both produce the same results: a high speed wireless connection that is available over an area of many miles. The speeds are roughly the same as those of a residential DSL or cable modem connection. Typical speeds are 400 to 700 kilobits per second (kbps) with peaks reaching speeds up to 2 Mbps. The new “3G” EDGE networks offer even higher speeds but are not yet available in all areas.
Most people will use these on laptop devices, which the technologies are primarily designed for. However, the same wireless technologies can also be used on desktop computers with appropriate adapters. Handheld computers and cell phones also might use these wide area wireless networks with Apple’s iPhone and iTouch being two popular examples. The focus of this article is the standard application on a laptop computer.
As I write these words in one window on my laptop, I am downloading a 73-megabyte file in another window, using Verizon’s EVDO service. The program that displays statistics on the wireless connection shows me that the download speed has peaked at nearly one megabit per second, a bit faster than that of an average DSL or cable modem connection. However, the wireless connection is still shared, and the peak speeds are a bit misleading. In fact, the same program reports an AVERAGE download speed of about 400 kbps which is closer to that of a typical residential DSL or cable modem broadband connection. By comparison, a typical cable modem installed at home usually downloads files at 750 kbps, plus or minus a bit while residential DSL connections tend to be a bit slower. The EVDO wireless connection is still much, much faster than the earlier technologies of 14,400 baud or 56,000 baud.
Downloading a file may produce interesting statistics, but the real test is “how well does it work while using the Web?” In my casual surfing of the Internet, the Verizon EVDO service always appears to be slower than a cable modem but much faster than the 56 kbaud dial-up connection that I sometimes use from hotel rooms. Others who use AT&T/Cingular’s EDGE service report similar results.
I found the installation and configuration of Verizon’s EVDO service to be very simple. Several different cards from different manufacturers are available. After reading numerous reports on the Internet, I originally purchased a V620 card several years ago. It was manufactured by Novatel. It is a standard-sized PCMCIA card, similar to many other plug-in cards designed for use in laptop computers. The V620 has a rather large protruding case that apparently houses the card’s antenna. There are no batteries within the card since the V620 card is powered by the laptop’s battery.
Two years later, I replaced the PCMCIA card with a Novatel USB727 wireless device. Instead of being a PCMCIA card, the USB727 plugs into a USB connector on any Windows or Macintosh computer. I use it primarily on a MacBook that does not have a card slot for PCMCIA devices. In operation, the older PCMCIA card and the newer USB device appear to be identical in operation.
A number of other manufacturers produce wireless cards for EVDO and EDGE wireless connections. Messages on a number of web sites indicate that one other popular card also works well but has a very fragile antenna connection. Messages from many users who purchased that card reported that they broke the antenna on it within a few months. Whatever card you consider purchasing, I suggest that you examine it closely to determine whether or not it will hold up under day-to-day use. The USB727 device has a very rugged internal antenna that will withstand significant abuse.
Another suggestion is to purchase a card that has a connector for an external antenna. While the internal antennas apparently work well in urban areas with strong signals, taking the same card to a rural area may result in marginal connections. An external antenna can double or triple the range of an EVDO or EDGE card. While my connections have been 100% reliable so far on the internal antenna alone, I did make sure that I selected a device that has a connector for an external antenna, should I ever need one.
I purchased both the first V620 card and the later USB727 USB device in a local Verizon store. The same devices can be purchased from Verizon’s web site as well as from numerous vendors. The retail prices on all these cards seem to be unimportant. Every vendor offers discounts and rebates. Despite a claimed high retail price, I ended up paying $49.95 for the V620 card and $69.95 for the USB727 device after all the rebates and discounts were tallied.
The most difficult part of the purchase and installation was finding a knowledgeable sales person. After all, these stores sell thousands of cellular (voice) telephones but very few EVDO or EDGE data cards. I first visited a local Verizon store one evening, and the first sales clerk I talked to didn’t seem to know much about wireless connections. He assured me that Verizon had such a service, but he wasn’t able to answer even the simplest questions. He called in his shift supervisor to help, but the supervisor’s level of expertise seemed to be about the same as the first person’s.
I returned to the same Verizon store the next morning and found a very knowledgeable person on duty. He not only answered questions, but he also made several suggestions about things that I neglected to ask. I whipped out a credit card and soon left the store with a V620 wireless card under my arm. About an hour later, I had installed the card and was up and running.
Software installation was simple, using the included CD with all the required Windows drivers and utility programs. If you purchase one of these devices, make sure that you read the instructions that say to install the software first before inserting the card into the laptop. Doing it the other way around will result in problems.
The original V620 card didn’t work on Macintosh systems but Novatel has since corrected that oversight. In fact, I found the new installation of a Novatel USB727 on a Macintosh to be much simpler and easier than was the same installation on a Windows laptop.
So what is the downside of these high speed wireless connections? Actually, there are three major drawbacks.
The first is coverage. EDGE and EVDO services are widely available in metropolitan areas and surrounding suburbs but coverage in rural areas can be spotty. New sites are being added all the time, but you may need to wait for the companies to install high speed wireless coverage in your area. The cell phone companies’ web sites all have maps showing their coverage areas.
The second major drawback is speed. The advertisements say "roughly as fast as DSL or cable modems" or words to that effect. The keyword is "roughly." I will say that my EVDO card is slower than DSL or cable modems but still much, much faster than dial-up or any other wide area coverage wireless solution available today.
The third drawback is price. Being on the leading “or “bleeding,” edge of technology carries a high price tag. Various price plans are available with most users paying $40 to $60 a month for unlimited usage.
That’s not cheap. I can justify that price only because I travel a lot and often have to pay for Internet access. Many hotels charge $10.00 or more per day for high-speed Internet access, either wired or using “Wi-Fi” wireless access. Occasionally, I have paid more. It doesn’t take many days to equal or exceed $60. Those charges only cover access while at the hotel, not while in convention halls, airport waiting lounges, and other locations where I may be spending time. In my case, I was already spending $60 a month or more for high-speed access outside of my home, so the Verizon monthly rates actually save me money. The same may be true for many business travelers.
A few people who travel a lot may even cancel their regular in-home broadband service and use EVDO or EDGE wireless access all the time, both at home and when traveling. $60 a month doesn't sound so bad if you are already paying $40 or $50 a month for in-home broadband access plus another $30 to $100 a month for access from hotel rooms.
Those who live full-time in recreational vehicles (RVs) may also feel that the charges are justified. Just keep in mind that these services typically are not available in rural areas. (Novatel’s V620 card also automatically switches to Verizon’s older and painfully slow 14,400 baud service that is widely available if it cannot find a high-speed EVDO signal.)
All of this is great for the businessperson or the RV owner, but I suspect the average private individual who does not travel a lot will have difficulty justifying an $60 a month charge for high speed wireless coverage.
I purchased to the Verizon EVDO instead of Cingular's EDGE service simply because Verizon has better coverage in my home area and because it can connect to the slower 14,400 baud service even in rural areas, and because the ruggedized V620 EVDO card has provisions for an external antenna. If you live in a different area, or if you have different requirements, AT&T/Cingular’s EDGE or Sprint or T-Mobile technology may be a better choice for you. Further information may be found at the cell phone companies’ web sites.
Newsletter readers in other countries will find similar services available from Vodafone and others. Europeans typically pay less for these services than do those of us in North America.
If you are presently using Wi-Fi wireless and are encountering outrageous expenses, I’d encourage you to obtain an EDGE or EVDO wireless card. Depending upon your requirements, you might save significant money.
“Look Ma. No wires!”
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