Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Pond Boss Relatively inexpensive wi-fi?

For the next month or so I'll be bouncing between Chicago and home working on a couple of houses getting them ready to put them on the market. There isn't internet service there, and I'd like to check in once in a while, and check e-mail. Anybody got any suggestions on something temporary for the laptop?

I have a 1st generation Droid phone and I downloaded an app called easy tether. The initial cost was a one time charge of $10. I have been very happy with it and have been using it since last September. It also helps justify the $30 cost when you upgrade to a smartphone. Since you get unlimited internet with a Verizon smartphone there is no other charges from Verizon.

Thanks Dap. Unfortunately I have Centennial which was bought out by AT&T. I hate trying to type on my Motorola Tundra, and the screen is a wee bit small for reading e-mails. I don't have a data plan on it for that reason. The reception has dropped since AT&T bought out Centennial.

I was hoping to find a card or something that I could plug into the laptop and only have to pay for a few months while I'm bouncing back and forth.

What's the largest size LMB that you want to put in your pond? I'll be yanking out more this coming month.

I would stop by any restaurant, coffee shop or Hotel parking lot. Most have free wifi and you usually can pick up their signal without going in. You might even find an unsecured signal at the house in chicago.

If you are looking for a cell based option you can tether or buy a broadband card. To legally Tether you are supposed to use Verizon's $50 a month data package, although, if you have their $29 plan you can hack your phone to share with a laptop, but you are violating your user agreement.

Another option is to use a prepaid celluar card from Virgin. I have a client that was pretty happy with it. Plan can be $10 for 10 days or $50 for the month and it is pay as you go.
Check out their site for more info http://www.virginmobileusa.com/mobile-broadband/

Bender, thanks. I checked, no unsecured signal at the house. I was hoping to find something for the laptop so I didn't have to go sit in a restraunt or in the car. When I'm there, it's usally 12+ hr days just to get it done in the quickest amount of time possible. I'd really like to be able to pop on for a short time at night, or when I'm eating lunch. Driving anywhere means I lose at least 1/2 hr of working time during the day.

I've got AT&T and a Motorola Tundra flip phone which has a small screen. It'd be a bear to type replies to the forum on the keyboard too!

I've got Virgin Mobile Broadband on my laptop. The only options I had were Sprint or Virgin. Virgin was cheaper than Sprint and it runs through the Sprint network. No contracts or deposit's and it is only 40.00/month. It is pay by the month/plan, and you only have to use it once per year to keep your air card/account active.

It works good to great most places I go, however, at home in the woods it slows down because we are in a dead zone. I have a Sprint cell phone and I have to go outside to use it. I do have a repeater that I should hook up and try out again. It did work somewhat last time, but I need to get the antenna up about 50 feet or so.

The air card works better at home if I run it through my router. I have a Cradlepoint MBR1000 router that the air card plugs into. I get a better signal that way because I can put the air card and router in a better location. The router has a range of about 750 feet, although I have never tried that distance, I do get a good signal in my garden and that is about 500 feet.

The air card I have is the MC760. It was 80 bucks plus tax. I am pretty sure the monthly plans went up to 50.00, but I am locked in at 40.00.

My brother has the MiFi unit, and that works pretty good also.

Holy cow I didn't know I was violating my user agreement. The tether option from Verizon was not available when I started using the easy tether app. That option became available shortly with one of the software upgrades. Verizion definatly knows how much data you are using but they have never said anything or asked. Scott size doesn't matter. LOL

Thanks JKB, I'll look into them.

dap, I'll start fishing for them this weekend and dump them in the cage. I'll let you know when I get some. Mike and I are going to trade fish, he wants <14" fish and I want feed trained LMB. Anything over that and they're yours.

I am out in the middle of an 11,000 acre wastewater plant. My download speed is 1.26 Mb/sec. Upload is .23 Mb/sec. Getting 3 bars out of five. Thats inside my truck with the windows closed. Cold out here today!

Scott, you won't have time for fishing this weekend

I might though if I get the job done on Wednesday!

Hey Scott,

As you know, I spend a lot of my life away from populated areas. I'm connected multiple ways to the Internet.

For temporary Internet connections, it is real hard to beat the Virgin Mobile cards. You can buy them at Wal-Mart and get 10 days or 30 days at at time. The 10 day card has data limits. I think it is $20. My 30 day card is unlimited and costs $40 per month. I can actually connect five computers to it wirelessly. On our recent trip to PB IV and Oklahoma, I didn't find any dead spots. When Lynda was driving, I was on-line. It works here at the bear den and at our house.

My other favorite is my Kindle from Amazon. It is not as versatile as a laptop, but there are no connection fees. It has incredible battery life. It works on the AT&T 3G network. The 3G Kindle, full-price, is $190. The browser is limited. The screen is black-and-white -- but the screen is big. You can't attach files to e-mails or to PB posts. You can't directly download PDF files, but it can read them. It has a built-in MP3 player. You can get unlimited books, magazines, and newspapers. For reading, browsing, checking Pond Boss, posting to Pond Boss without photos, and checking/sending e-mails without attachments, it is fantastic.

I hate my phone, but it works in a pinch for e-mail and browsing!

Ken

Thanks guys! For now I am eating breakfast at McDonalds and bringing my laptop with me. They have free wi-fi, although it's not advertised. I think Virgin is the route to go (so far).

Did you get anything yet?

I had an issue with my Virgin USB card the other day. It kept coming up with "Device Not Activated" so last night when I got some time I called Virgin. I was really surprised that after a couple of automated questions that I got a real person on the line. Took less than a minute and was very helpful. Just had to retype my numbers in and all was well. He said that happens once in a while. Very friendly and the whole episode took maybe 3 minutes. He also boosted my signal so I get 2 to 3 bars of EVDO Rev A in the woods at home I always thought they could do that and I saw it happen on my device. And the speed defiantly increased.

Another thing I did was get a 10 ft USB extension cable. (about 30 bucks) If I am out on the road on a job site I just put the device in a ziplock bag and hook it up on the end of a 6 ft pvc pipe, then stick it into one of the rail holes in the bed of my truck. Works really well. If I am driving and downloading files, I hang it from my mirror or coat hook in the back of my cab. That also works well. I am just afraid that this device would get broken off just sticking out of the side of my laptop. The USB extension cable was a good choice.

I talked with my brother yesterday and he is on his fifth MiFi unit. They keep burning up for some reason. Glad I chose the USB device.

The USB extension also works very well with my Cradlepoint MBR1000 Router. I do get a better connection/consistent connection through my Cradlepoint (either wired or wireless) than I do with just plugging the device into a USB port. Cradlepoint updates their firmware from time to time, and it is easy to download and install. This combo works for me out here in a virtual dead zone. Still haven't hooked up the dual band repeater due to the lack of free time.

Overall, for what it is, a fairly good experience with Virgin.

I went with Virgin, and for the most part I see one or 2 bars. It really, really slows down in the afternoon and evenings. When I'm away from home I usually log on first thing in the morning. It's slow enough that any youTube videos won't play, any time of day.

Mine is USB as well.

During the afternoons/evenings, it's comparable to dialup. I can get up and walk away from the computer, come back and the page still hasn't loaded.

Scott -- sorry to hear that your Virgin Mobile isn't working as well as it should. I hope I didn't steer you wrong.

As I mentioned in the post above, I've got the little Virgin Mobile MyFi Wireless Hotspot card.



This little card includes an internal router for wirelessly connecting up to five computers to the internet. I've had it for several months and have been relatively pleased with it. I use it at the cabin where I stay during the work week. I too typically only have 1 to 2 bars of signal strength, but it works pretty well. Certainly far better than dial-up would. It is not the best for videos, although the CNN videos and a local TV station's videos are watchable if I give them a little bit of time to start loading before playing. It certainly works quite well for checking/posting Pond Boss, for e-mail, checking the weather, and reading the news.

I paid $79 for the card, and I pay $40 a month for unlimited service. It is always a challenge to renew each month and get the card working again. I've never figured out what I'm doing wrong. It takes several re-activations, and then it just starts working until the month is again up, and I start all over again.

I've also used it in the car when traveling -- actually I used it both ways on the trip to/from Pond Boss IV. It worked the entire way.

Ken, I'm not complaining! It's better than nothing for sure, and depending on the time of day, better than dial-up. I have the USB plug-in thingy that plugs directly into the computer's USB port. Other than that, it works the same as yours. I only needed it for my laptop. I think I paid around the same price, but only $20/month for "X" Gb of usage. I've never gone over the usage because I'm at home for the weekends and some days of the week where I use my other service.

I have a reloadable $$ card that I bought at Wal-mart. With the different places getting hacked, the less places that have my CC card number, the better I feel. I use a Visa debit card for a lot of internet purchases, it's linked to a bank account that only has $$ in it when I need to use the card. I can transfer $$ into it at any time, at no cost, and it happens almost instantly. If someone tries to take out more than what's in there, it won't allow the transaction to go thru. After having 2 different CC cards hacked, I can sleep easier at night now.

One thing I do when it gets really slow is reboot the device and hope it hooks up to a different server. Usually it does.

My brother has the same unit Ken has, and as I said earlier, he is on his fifth unit. They keep croaking on him, dont know why. Virgin sends him replacements at no charge. He knew their number without having to look it up

Considering that we are only about 200 feet apart (I am further in the woods) I get a better signal than he does. Could be that he is closer to a main power line than I am. The cell towers are south from the power line and we are just north. If I go to the other side of the line I get a better signal.

My GPS (Garmin 1350T) also goes nuts if I drive under the power line slow. The other day when I crossed it, the GPS said I had some where around 247,000 miles to go, when before that I only had about 500 feet to go I use it to track mileage (works forward and reverse) One day at the waste water plant I logged 28 miles driving around the RI beds checking them out. Got a gas card from work a couple days later. Boss has me put driving time and mileage in all the quotes I do now.

You'll also notice that atmospheric and seasonal conditions will effect how well your device will work. They work better in dry air with no foliage on the trees. Pea soup thick foggy mornings are the worst as well as very high humidity days. One thing that puzzles me, is that the darn thing works really well in a heavy rainfall??? Dont know what is up with that!!!

Scott, I still have to send you out that SD card. With everything that has been going on lately, I just forgot about it.

Making slow progress on Luna's Garden, just dont have much free time anymore. (who says getting a real job is a good thing) Nephew wants a summer job and I am considering because I have plenty of work to be done around here. All of his friends have summer jobs but they live in town and could easily walk to Burger King or Taco Bell (reminder, make your own lunch) He is a great kid, and would probably whoop all of your butts "combined" in golf, just not sure he could handle some of the projects I have. I'll have a talk with him tomorrow.

When I was 12, I got my first job on a produce farm. I walked to work until I saved up enough to buy a 10 speed from Kmart, then I was motoring! Not sure I would want to ride a bike on the road these days.

Whats up with all the road kill???

I see critters every day on the road and slow down and avoid them so they dont get squished. Haven't hit one yet! I think some people do it on purpose. A few weeks ago, I saw a guy stop and help a Turtle to cross the road. Thought that was pretty cool! Squished turtle on the road yesterday. Those things explode when run over! All that pressure, and only a few outlets Quite a few dead cat's last week also. Do these things run in cycles? Squirrels have to be about the stupidest animals on the planet. They stop dead in their tracks right in front of you and look at you coming at them. Wonder what they are thinking at that moment

JKB, no rush, I'm busy here too. Between working on a couple of houses and my stuff, I don't have much free time for fun stuff.

I hear ya on the critters. I went from 60-0 about as fast as the car would do it just to miss a tiny fawn standing in the road, I ended up stopping right next to it, with 2 tires on the shoulder. The deer looked at me and just stood there. The car that was coming towards me slowed way down, and when the fawn saw it it took off running straight down the road in front of the car.

I've had squirrels freeze in the middle of the road, get run over (but not hit) and coninue running after I've passed.

As for critters -- I ran over a realllllly long black racer snake tonight just before getting to the driveway. Not much choice. I got back here to the bear-den to check the raspberries which were nearly ripe a few days ago when I was last here. The patch was seriously over populated with squirrels and birds, and very few raspberries -- can't they go out and play in traffic?

But, the main reason for this post is the Virgin Mobile card. Tonight was my night to renew for another 30 days. I started over 30 minutes ago, and apparently I finally got all the gauntlet answers correct (with several re-tries).

For better or worse, I'm back for another month. I'm just above the high water line of the Shenandoah River to the west. The 30-acre backyard to the west, up Paris Mountain, rises about 1200-1500 feet above the house -- with Washington DC about 50 miles to the east. Not a great place for wireless, radio, or TV signals.

The card does work out here, for which I'm very grateful.

Ken

I always use the top up cards. I used a cc a couple times but I dont like that kind of info floating out on the net. Still always nervous that the top up cards wont work for some reason. What kind of hell are you going to have go through to prove you paid for it and it did not work So far, so good! I always carefully watch them scan them in.

The 40 dollar unlimited plan I have is actually limited to 5GB/Month, but I only hit in the 4GB range. If I change it now then the "Unlimited/Limited" plan goes up to 50 bucks per month.

All in all, not too bad for what I use it for.

BTW Ken, Black racers and Blue racers (we got Blue's up here) are OK to run over. Those things are nasty and just have a bad attitude! Squirrels in your berries, that's .22 time!

We have some major Blueberry farms up here, and they all use a highly reflective, multi colored type of ribbon every so often, and that keeps the critters out, especially birds.