Category: Wireless

Cricket Wireless now Offers unlimited Nationwide service!!

Paul

 

Cricket Wireless is now offering Nationwide Coverage for there text and talk. So Iwanted to talk about this a little to help people who might need a little help understanding this. Some of the most common questions I am seeing are:

Do I need to do anything to get nationwide coverage?

If you are constantly on the road each month you will need to sign up for the new plan by dialing *228 on you phone. This will program the phone to allow you to go outside of your home coverage area. It will also change your plan, if you already haven’t changed to the new to plan. If you were on the $25 a month plan you will automatically be bumped up to the $30 dollar plan and this goes down the line.

What phones do I need?

If you haven’t already you should check to make sure you have a Tri-band Phone and if not consider buying a Tri-band phones. You can go and find the ones that are Tri-band Phones on Crickets Phone page.

What if I didn’t call *228 and now My phone won’t work?

You can always call 1-800-922-5159 and see if they will change your plan but other than that will have to wait to get to a Cricket Coverage area (Not nationwide) to program your phone. You can talk to Cricket Wireless customer support and see what they have to say about this. I suspect though you will have to wait.

Can I use this phone if I live in the Nationwide Coverage area?

Most definitely yes, You will have to double check with Cricket Coverage area to make sure you are truly in the nationwide coverage area but other than that you can order your phone through Cricket Wireless and they will ship it to you for free.

Do I have to buy it the Phone from Cricket Wireless?

No You don’t, you can always check out the Amazon website and check to see if they have Any unlocked Tri-band phones. There you can find some cheap Tri-band phones that can be used for Cricket Wireless. You may have to call Cricket Wireless to verify that they can do this but i see no reason why it shouldn’t work!!

I wanted to let people know about the New nationwide coverage area for Cricket Wireless, and would love to hear your experiences when it comes to roaming? leave a comment and let people know.

See you Friday!!

 

 

Using Skype with Cellular BroadBand Modems

Paul

If your like me you will want to make sure you have the best possible speed and connection with your broad band modem. Here are a few articles to better help with you get the best possible speed with a broad band modem like a Cricket modem:

Some other things to consider are:

These will start to make it better for you to use a modem and get the best possible speeds from the modem.  You have to realize what your coverage area is.  There are many factors in regards to your modem speed but that is something that you will have to figure out how to get better speeds.

How do you use Skype with your Cellular broad band modem?

Somethings to remembers with your broadband modem is you won’t have a good connection no matter how hard you try.   Most cellular carriers don’t want you to us it with VOIP(Voice of Internet Protocol).   So you will have to pay close attention to how you use the bandwidth and what you are doing while making a VOIP call.

The good thing about Skype is, it comes with some very useful tools to better watch your bandwidth and to help get the best possible connection.  You will want to make sure not to have it be a super-node, to do this you go to:

Tools then;Options

My settings for Skype with Cricket<

As you can see I checked off use port 80 and 443 as alternative incoming connections, I also like to see all the technical information and bandwidth usage per call.  I made sure to use Socks5 to prevent skype from becoming a super-node. I also have it set to not automatically start up when I load windows.  To do that all you have to do is go to the General tab and un-check start Skype when Windows start.   You can use any port you want as long as you use the same on the SOCKs5 setting also.   I just made the port up it can be 0 to 4 numbers long.   If you want to understand what ports are this little document will greatly help you figure out which ports are good to use.  Some other things to remember when you use Skype for long periods of time is if you need to call someone you should try not to use the internet to much for that takes bandwidth also.  It is better to have Skype use all the possible bandwidth you have available.

Panatech PX-500 PCMCIA Sprint EVDO BroadBand Card

Paul

[ad#tmi-right-1-1]The Pantech PX-500 wireless mobile broadband card for Sprint gives you data communication access for your PC laptop anywhere you roam on the Sprint network at faster speeds than ever before. EV-DO rev A compatibility gives you download speeds of up to 3.1 Mbps and beefy upload speeds of up to 1.8 Mbps. Simple to use, the Pantech PX-500 wireless mobile broadband card lets you surf the Internet, send and receive email and text messages, and connect to corporate networks from just about anywhere.

Technical Specs:

  • Dimensions – 4.57 in x 2.13 in x 0.51 in

  • Weight – 1.8 oz

  • Data Download Speed – EV-DO rev A (Up to 3.1 Mbps Down/1.8 Mbps Up), EV-DO rev 0 (2.4 Mbps Down/153 Kbps Up), 1xRTT

  • Download Protocol – CDMA 850, 1900

  • Compatible Carrier – Sprint PCS

  • Network Compatibility – CDMA 850, 1900

  • 3G Data Speeds – Yes

Compatibility Features

  • Device Supports Data Plans – Yes

  • Available For Purchase Without Service Plan – Yes

Saw this card and did a little digging.  I looks like the newest updated software and drivers for this card can also make it Vista and Linux compatible.   Although with any card you will use up more battery life but it is a small price to pay to check email and surf the web. Also if you have an newer laptop or am about to upgrade I’d suggest Getting a Sierra Wireless Compass 597 USB Modem from Sprint! This is good for anyone who wants to surf the web and not have to buy the hardware to do it with.  Both are free to buy and ship with a two year contract. If in doubt please get the USB card that way you know you know you will be able to use it.

Cricket Wireless Broadband Card — How to get better speed!

Paul1 Reply

After buying the card last month,  I did a quick review about the broadband card. I wanted to talk about the speed problems that I had when I first used the modem.  Here is how to possibly getting better speeds when you use your card.   First off, you will need to disconnect from the internet and go to your quicklink mobile application:

cricket-wireless

You will click on “Tools”  and then hit ‘Activation’.   If you have it fail on your the first time you should reboot your system then try to do the activation after reboot that should fix the activation problem.
newspeedtestAs you can see after I did the activation of the modem, my speed went way up from the last review.  I thought I should talk about how you could possibly fix this.  I called tech support over this to get a better speed.  

This is where I learned about the activation.  If you move or go to another City or travel to far, you will need to tell the modem that there is a new tower closer to you.   It seemed to of really boosted my performance when I go to places on the internet.   So if you come up with some cool tips or tricks to help others by all means leave a comment. After this problem is fixed and the speed seems to be coming more and more, I’d like to recommend everyone who reads this article to go buy the A600. It is really a fast little modem and more reliable to boot. My other review was incomplete because of the speed problems I had but now it is fixed and I am really happy!!!

Vista To release Service Pack 2 in April 2009

Paul1 Reply

[ad#digg-right] Some sources are reporting that Vista SP2 will be out in April.   According to Engadget they claim TechARP is a bunch of Malaysian Kids that like to boast about how they broke the Vista SP1 and XP SP3 release schedules to the world.  They claim though that Vista Release candidate is to be out around February.Microsoft has indicated that this SP3 will include Windows Search 4, Bluetooth 2.1 wireless support, faster resume from sleep when a wireless connection has been broken and support for Blu-ray.   I personally think it will include some of Windows 7 features to better get people accustomed to Windows 7 when they come out.

[ad#ad2-left]Although this is speculation and no hard evidence I think it has some merit due to the fact that Microsoft has admitted in the past that Vista was a big Letdown.  I don’t think they can any more to damage than they have already done.   If anything Windows 7 will be a easy Success if they pull it off in the right way!!!  Although with WIndows 7 be leaked online there is no telling what will happen. I am sure what ever happens will be interesting to say the least!!!