My Reasons Why I use Prepaid Cellular Service and avoid contracts!

Prepaid phones

Prepaid Service is Better!

My sister called me wanting to know about prepaid cellular services.   She is getting tired of paying for contracts and all those really high fees for unlimited everything.  She wanted me to research this and tell her which service is best for her whether it be Straight Talk, Virgin Mobile, T-mobile, and Cricket Wireless. I know I’ve talked about some of these services and ideas in the past and  they have been nothing but a way to keep my bills from to high and they actually help me save money in the long run.  I will talk about some of these and hopefully they will make it easier for you to decide.

Lower Payments!

I know this might sound like everyone else but I have found, that since I have yet to buy a contract.  I’ve have keep my fees really know.   Like this Virgin Mobile USA phone the Kyocera rise, I have yet to pay anymore than 36$ a month on services.  I’m paying for 200 minutes an unlimited text and Data. I have been using Google Voice, as my VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) provider and only had to pay $10 for the phone number.  So I am basically using the unlimited Data to do all I need and rarely use my minutes.

On a side note, you basically pay more for your contract services because you are paying for the Phone you buy and buying an Iphone can cost anywhere from $800 to $1,000.  So they add that on to your bill in small amounts but you they don’t pay for it but you do in one way or another.

Unlimited Data!

Something seems to be happening in the Phone industry where all contract providers are giving you limits.  So you can avoid those limits and tell them you don’t want to have limits.  I am seeing Virgin Mobile USA, Straight Talk, and T-mobile all have unlimited data even though they throttle your data you still can use it after you go beyond the limit.   AT&T and Verizon Wireless charges you for more data services.  So you have to be careful and not go over your limit.

Unlocked Cell Phones

Having seen this in the past with my HTC Inspire, I can take my phone with me when I want to and switch my service and possibly get even better signal strength but it isn’t always the case because some prepaid cell providers will not have SIM Cards to use with your unlocked cell phone.   So it will just depend be a smaller amount of places like Straight Talk and and T-Mobile who will carry sims that you can buy to use with their services.   Others are starting to sell sims but it will take time for other providers to have them and sell them.

Better Customer Service

With smaller companies you get to be a little more personal with customer service.   The Bigger the company the harder it is to get anything done.   It seems they like to build more red tape and keep you frustrated.  I have found the smaller companies want to keep you as a customer and will do almost anything to keep you with them.   If they have to give you a discount to keep you they will over look small stuff and not penalize you for it.  So you can save money from time to time by talking with them and you could even get a free month of service if you do it right.

I am sure these are just a few but these are why I will always go with No Contract Cellular services and not be bound down by a contract.   I can save so much money this way that I will not even consider using anything else but no contract providers.

Paul Sylvester

Reviewing the Overdrive Pro 3G/4G Prepaid Mobile Hotspot (Virgin Mobile)

Click Image to see Price!Overdrive Pro 3G/4G

The Novatel Wireless MiFi 2200 Prepaid Mobile Hotspot was my first choice when I first started using the Virgin Mobile / Sprint network.  I knew what I was getting myself into after using that modem. Knowing where I was,  I knew I was going to need a Signal Booster.   I found the Wilson Electronics – Sleek – Cell Phone Signal Booster, Which is a cradle.  I also used it in conjuction with my ARC Wireless Freedom antenna.  Which I have had for over a few years now.   So I know how useful this little guy can be!

You can use it without the Freedom antenna, because the Cell Phone Signal Booster comes with an Mini Antenna that can be used put outside on the roof or someplace to get a better signal  I like the Freedom Antenna because of it’s Bi-Directional amplification.  I can point it at One tower and get a faster connection and faster speeds.  It isn’t as though you have a way to Hack it to increase the Signal strength just yet.   I am sure someone will do it sooner or later, when they do I will know about it myself.  With it being a 4G modem though, I have been wondering when Sprint is going to bring 4G LTE to my area!

The Pro’s

I can only come up with a few but here goes some of the most common ones:

  • More Display Information — No more guessing if I have a signal or not.   For that matter, no more guessing if there is an update or something is wrong. 
  • 4G Possibility — If and when Sprint decides to give my area the 4g access, it should dramatically boost my speed by 50%.   I don’t know when but I am confident that it will happen.  Walmart no longer sells the Mifi 2200’s 3G only cards so I am sure it is coming.  You can buy an Overdrive Pro Dock for it but only for 4G, not 3g.
  • Micro SD Card Slot — Great way to share music with all your devices at once.   No more having to switch from one device to another to find that one song.   You can keep it on the Overdrive and listen to it when you want to.
  • The UI isn’t bad — Comes with a lot of bells and whistles.   You can have all kinds of sounds when you loose signal or when someone connects to the device.   So you have an audible notification when something happens.  The Router menu has some great things you can do with settings to improve security.

Basically that is it for right now.   I am sure I will have more on the pro’s later on.   

 

Cons!

  • Bulky — Not as thin as the Mifi 2200 card that I once had so it isn’t as easily concealable.
  • Not Unlimited 3G — When I first started using the Mifi 2200 card, I was unlimited but if you are going to buy it right now without having an account that has unlimited 3G.  Then you will have to pay 55$ for 10 Gigabyte a month.  I am on the grandfather clause so it is unlimited  3G for me!
  • 4G — Just like it being a Pro, it is also a con. Without the 4G capability it isn’t really unlimited to everyone.  Hopefully it will be soon though.
  • Price — After buying this new modem it wasn’t as cheap as the Mifi 2200, but I thought it was time for a change.   So you can always buy the Mifi 2200 card a little cheaper.   Don’t know how long they will be selling those on Amazon so get them while you can!

All in All I am pretty happy with the speed and the use of the Overdrive Pro.   I will be talking it about it more and more in the coming weeks so stay tuned!  I might even have a few hacks or tricks for this little device also.

Paul Sylvester

5 ways to improve your security with your Overdrive Pro (Virgin Mobile)!

My MiFi and My Newton – The Novatel MiFi 2200

 

The OverDrive Pro

After a long hard search for my old Mifi Device,  I recently had to buy the Overdrive Pro (Virgin Mobile) mifi Card.  So I went out to find a replacement for my card and came to this.  I must say that with it having the option to have a way to increase Signal strength on the Mifi card by buying antenna’s for it.  It is a good deal for me.   I had a simple time getting it to work other than having to call Virgin Mobile Broadband (877-877-8443).  I do however think you should update your card for more security and here are a few tips.

Open a web browser and go to http://192.168.0.1

Change The Default Password

Just by chance someone gets a hold of your password for your mifi card.   They then can log into and change anything they want.   So you should change the “admin” Password and possibly change the Wi-Fi Password as well.  You can do this by going to the Admin Setup Page on the Mifi Device.

Change the SSID

By default the SSID for the Overdrive card is OverDrive Pro.   You can leave it as it is but the problem with it is someone else might have the same exact SSID and you may accidentally give out your wifi password to a stranger.   It should be unique and unguessable to people.   This Also can be done in the Admin Setup Page.

Change your DNS

By default you are going to use Virgin Mobile/Sprint DNS servers.  They may not be as fast as other servers and thus you can get a little more speed from changing the DNS to something other than Virgin Mobile/Sprint DNS.   You do this by going into the Advanced Settings, Clicking the Router Tab and going into the LAN tab, Which is a separate tab from the top.  You would then need to change DNS MODE to manual and enter two different IPS.  See below for two suggestions.

Here are two that you can try and see which one works better for you.

Google DNS:  8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4

OpenDNS: 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220

Don’t Display Wifi Password

This is another by default, it will display the password on the Mifi screen for any passer by to gain access to the network.   If you have limited amount Gigabytes to use, you may not want to share that with a stranger.   So by turning off the password no-one will have access to the mifi device without asking you first.  That can also be changed and updated on the Admin Setup Page.

Change your Wifi Password

Finally the last step I would recommend is to change your Wifi Password so no other Overdrive Pro can have that same password.   Again, it is possibility someone else might have that password so it is best not to keep it.   Create a new password you can remember but nothing that everyone used.   Just saying.   You can do this also by going to the Admin Setup Page.

With these simple steps your OverDrive Pro Mifi Card is much more secure and less likely for someone to gain access unintentionally.  So you can sit back and relax and have fun with your card and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did making this blog post.

Paul Sylvester

 

 

Thumbs up to Virgin Mobile, At least they care!

Your account has used 85 percent of your data usage cap. Once you reach 2560.000MB (Which is 2.56 Gigs) of usage, we’ll reduce your data speeds through 05/26/2013.

To check out your account online, go to virginmobileusa.com any time. If you’d like to talk about this notice, please give us a call at: 888-322-1122

Did you know?

  • Your PIN is required whenever you contact us so please have it on hand when you call or access your account online.
  • If you recently provided us with a new email or mailing address, we are required by law to send notices (like this one) to your old address for the first 30 days. Once the 30-day transition period has elapsed, we will send notices to the new email address.

Keep rocking, Virgin Mobile

 

Dear Virgin Mobile,

Thank you for your kind warning and letting me know about my Soft Data cap.   I really wanted to know when I reached a new level of data usage.  I really don’t care about the slowing down of speeds, it isn’t like you will bother me much.   At least you didn’t do what Straight Talk did and advertise they are unlimited but yet I would get calls after calls.  

Please keep on working,

Paul Sylvester

 

 

Why I suspect there is not really a 3G outage right now!

plausible deniability

The Plausible deniability of the Virgin Mobile 3G Outage!

 

So it has been a week now and you’re probably asking the same questions.   Here are a few questions that I have and would love to see an answer to:

 

What is taking so darn long?

Why haven’t you warned us before you did this UPDATE?

Why Haven’t you told anyone?

Why isn’t there more information on the problem?

Why haven’t you updated your websites and other stuff to warn people about the problem?

I could keep going on and on about this and probably even start some conspiracy theories about this.   Here is what I know!  

No UPDATES by Virgin Mobile!

No Media is covering this or talking about it!

Customers are extremely unhappy right now!

These are just a few that I have found.   I went digging around the internet about this and found only a handful of stuff about this.   I am no amatuer when it comes to searching Google, Bing, and yahoo for this type of information!   I’ve found one story about the outage but it was a mear reference to it being down nothing more nothing less. 

So what am I missing?

Probably nothing, I am sure this has to do with Virgin Mobile wanting to thin out the herd sort to speak.  If they really wanted people to stay they would of put out press releases and text everyone in the Virgin Mobile Network and also posted it on their website and their technical support line.   I honestly think they want everyone to go to the 4G network and this is a way to have people either leave or move to a phone that has 4G LTE capabilities.   I’m not buying that this is something they didn’t plan and I hope you don’t either.   Until Virgin Mobile speaks up and starts proving to me they want my business, then I have to assume they are trying to soar the milk of 3G users and get them to go somewhere else.  

Do you think I am right or Wrong?  Let start a Discuss and talk about this even more!

Paul Sylvester