Category: Wireless

Cricket USB UM100 Broadband Wireless Modem Review.

Paul6 Replies

The UM100c is No Longer Available, Please check out the Cricket [intlink id=”3059″ type=”post”]A600 Modem Review[/intlink] Or the [intlink id=”4523″ type=”post”]UM185 Broadband modem[/intlink]. The UM185 modem might be a replacement to the UM100.

After a full week of playing around with this USB wireless, I wanted to talk about it. So let’s break it down into pieces.

  1. [ad#text-broadband1]

  2. Installation —  The installation of the USB was not to difficult.  I did have to do some more steps than this:  Install the Software, then hooked up the USB device to the USB port.

  3. Manual Activated the Broadband —  For some reason in my area they had several people have problems with the broadband activation.  So I had to activate it manually!!

After that all went well, I was on the internet just a cruising along.  I did however wonder why I was getting such a slow response speed.  When I went traveling I thought I would share some of my local results with you to better show you my speed.  All these test were done at

my speed test around town

Please see an updated post on how to get even more speed from the broad band modem.
This speed is not the true speed for the broad band modem.

The Percentages over the results are showing you just what my signal strength was when I was doing the test.  Two of the 4 were traveling on the highway and the other two were stationary.  I also know that my speed will vary along with signal strength, I know I have to be a mile or less from a tower to get 100%.

*Update* 12/21/08

[ad#cricket-1]In my other post I talk about why I didn’t get the speed I expected, but after I did the activation I went to normal Mobile Broadband speeds.   I also now have been using the USB Modem for my main internet without any or much problems.   I know I can’t play any major online games but I can at least have the internet with me were ever  I go.   As long as you stay in the coverage area, you should be in good shape.  .  Like I Said I’ve used it in my area for over a 1 month and with the small little problem, the speed has been really dependable and I haven’t had any major issue with connectivity. I’ve been using this modem as my main internet and have not seen any major internet and have not seen any of the cap come my way.   I think they won’t mind to much as long as you don’t ABUSE the internet, for example don’t use it for bittorrent downloads and you should be fine!!

Update 12/24/2008
I also did travel with my laptop to another city, and I got to say it was really good and how it did when I went from one city to another. Check out the report here.
According to some post and forum talks around the the internet they are talking about the soft cap of 5 Gigabytes but that seems to not be so important right now.   After all, they have to make money some how.   I will update as necessary when I find anything else out.

update 1/01/09

I also did a video and uploaded it to youtube using the broadband connection. I had no problem uploading this video to Youtube. I’ve embedded it in this web page. See it on the bottom:

I also bought the [intlink id=”3059″ type=”post”]A600 Cricket modem[/intlink] and I absolutely love this modem because of the things you can do with it.

Reports are coming in that WPA is no longer secure!

Paul

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According to a media reports, Erik Tews and Martin Beck claim that they have found a way to unlock the Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP) key, used by WPA, to read data sent from a wireless router to laptop computers. According to the researchers, the key can be cracked in 12-15 minutes.

[via Sophos]

According to Sophos, they are claim that people can now watch what you are doing on a Wireless router to a laptop. Although this isn’t to be unexpected this is a very serious out come. It is now easier to watch what people are doing online. So does that mean people can see everything you do? Not necessary. According to some people this is harder than it seems, most of the websites you visit are not encrypted, but websites that use the “https” protocol are more safer to use online. You should be safe if you are buying things online as long as you are sure it is secure. Some other steps to take to help make it harder to unencrypte your wireless single is to use Roboform promotion codes you will get for 10% or 20% off the purchase price!!

[ad#ad2-right]Some other steps to consider are:


If you have a wireless router and want to be secure with any transactions online you might think about hooking up to the internet via the CAT5 cable.  This is one way to prevent anyone from seeing what you are doing online and protects your privacy.  Although this too can be overcome in certain circumstances they are much harder to do and implement so you are safer this way than with most others.

AT&T smacks the gauntlet at you!

Paul

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According to Cnet News:
The test, which began being applied in the Reno, Nev., area on Saturday, limits customers of AT&T’s slowest DSL service to 20 gigabytes of monthly data transfers, while users of the fastest service will be limited to 150 gigabytes. Customers will have access to an online tool to track their usage and will receive notification when they reach 80 percent. Those who exceed their limits will be charged $1 per gigabyte.

[Via Cnet News]


So you just received the information that AT&T is doing this. How do you want to keep track of your online usage. I’ve got some good tools to help you. Although they will only help to a certain point you must remember a few tips and these tips are:[ad#ad2-left]

With these steps you would greatly increase stoping unnecessary use of your bandwidth.  Most people don’t understand that any program you use on your network will be counted on the total bill.  If you know of any good ways to help stop bandwidth by all means tell people and if you find any good programs that might help, please leave a comment.

Toshiba Rolls out the Mobile Gaming Laptop!

Paul

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o Genuine Windows Vista Ultimate (SP1, 64-bit7 version) (default)
o Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium (SP1, 32-bit version)
* Intel Core 2 Extreme Processor1 QX9300* 4096MB PC38500 DDR3 1066MHz SDRAM3
* 128GB Serial ATA SSD3
* 320GB (7200 RPM) Serial ATA HDD3
* DVD SuperMulti (+/- double layer) with Labelflash drive
* NVIDIA GeForce 9800M GTS graphics with NVIDIA SLI technology 512MBx2, GDDR3 discrete graphics memory
* Atheros 802.11 b/g/n wireless-LAN

This looking so sweet, to get the full picture check out the Toshiba Gaming website : Qosmio: X305 Let me know if anyone wants to buy me one!! 😉 I wouldn’t mind one these myself!!

Some G1 Reviews and how they compare!!

Paul3 Replies

I’m searched the internet for the most relevent videos and wanted to tell people about them so here they are:

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Video: Daily Debrief: G1 soon to hit stores

I found some other sources and wanted to talk about them!!

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The Daily Wireless also has a review on it on there site. I also found The Boy Genius talks about there review also. They all seem to look favorable to the G1. Engadget also talk about it looking at the expectations of the G1. So far everyone seems to love the G1. All in All, I think the Iphone is in for a rude awakening. There Seems to be a Good Video on what the G1 Can do so I wanted to also add this to my list of Information.  This is Coming from Wall Street Journal:

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This all seems to be very interesting and I can’t wait to get one in my hands