Verizon Wireless Broadband/wireless Networking Qurstion..

[KC9LKW]

We just got Verizon wireless broadband but live in a spoty area. We get 2 bars,with the second bar a little shaky. We are aproximately 7 miles from the cell tower, and live on a hill with no BIG trees within 500 feet. How can i increase our signal? My wife is in criminal justice online classes, and we are both members of ARES. If you have any ideas, please let us know. I do know een with the signal we have, it is still 5 times faster then the Verizon dialup we had.

Also with this usb720, how can i wirelessly connect 2 computers that both have wireless cards installed? One has XP and one Vista. I am not sure that makes a diffrence or not, but wanted to throw it in. Any help would be appreciated.

KC9LKW
Roy

[KD8BVS]

We just got Verizon wireless broadband but live in a spoty area. We get 2 bars,with the second bar a little shaky. We are aproximately 7 miles from the cell tower, and live on a hill with no BIG trees within 500 feet. How can i increase our signal? My wife is in criminal justice online classes, and we are both members of ARES. If you have any ideas, please let us know. I do know een with the signal we have, it is still 5 times faster then the Verizon dialup we had.

Also with this usb720, how can i wirelessly connect 2 computers that both have wireless cards installed? One has XP and one Vista. I am not sure that makes a diffrence or not, but wanted to throw it in. Any help would be appreciated.

Roy


One thing you could do is buy a Verizon wireless (CDMA) digital repeater amplifier online. It will cost $300 for the whole unit with antenna, but Iv'e heard it works great. My dad happens to have a Verizon repeater unit where he works and he says it works great. Let me know if you want any more infor about these repeater amplifiers. My email is kd8bvs at gmail.com

[AC0H]

You really can't other than what BVS suggests.
We have hundreds of users at work. Those Verizon wireless cards are the bane of our existence.

The VZ card should be your last resort for broadband, not your first. It's expensive, it's slow, it's unreliable.

[w8gtf]

I have a blackberry and can tether it to a computer (just like the air card) and I'm on the VZW network. As stated above, it should be a last resort thing as connection speeds are less than stellar. The speeds seem to depend on how far from a tower you are & how many people are accessing the data network. I get better speeds at home, than at work. Even tho I have a better cell signal at work. I don't think the number of bars you have for a voice signal matters. I see anywhere between the equalevent of a 768K DSL connection down to literally a 56K dial up connection.

As for splitting it, you would need to enable ICS (internet connection sharing), and either connect the other computer via a cross over ethernet cable (different than a standard etherent cable because one end has the wires reversed). Or if the computer has a wifi card, you may be able to find software so that the computer connected to the air card would act as a hot spot. Either way, I can tell you one computer connected is bearable, and 2 connected would be miserable.

Also, we have a VZW air card at work for testing. It doesn't seem to do any better than my blackberry.

Lastly, you can buy a booster for cell signals. From what I've seen, they are a round bowl on the ceiling (open end facing the ceiling) that is connected to an external antenna. I've heard they can increase voice signals, but I've not heard anything about the data signals.

[KC9LKW]

I know that on the verizon dialup we where on, it was 31.2 kbps at best, with this VZ usb720, it has been over 400 kbps. It does seem it depends on when you connect. We did hook it to a mobile cell antenna on the roof of the trailor, that does seem to help. Either way, it is much better then dialup. Thanks so much for all the info, it did help.

[kf6rdn]

I've got a sprint phone I could tether, great for field work (it uses the same CDMA that verizon uses) but not first choice.


If your signal is borderline indoors, I think you said it was a USB type, perhaps an extension cable and putting the thing near a window or just above other junk would help.

For sharing, you'd have to setup Internet connection sharing on 1 system, and if using wifi setup ad hoc networking, unless you have an access point.