Digiweb Mobile broadband issue.... help!! >_<;

BeerWolf

Just got my mobile broadband package through the mail... and all I can say is "...(?!)..." i.e. - I aien't got a clue on how to set it up.

Yeah, I aien't got a single know how on how to set up a router.


The "Quick Guides" are just rubbish, doesn't actually cover the usage of the wireless card IN the router [it assumes I'm connecting it to a laptop's PCMCIA slot ...] to which is connected to my PC now.

Quick Guide wrote:

/!\ Install Software First

Install Wireless Network Card software BEFORE inserting the Card into the PCMCIA slot. The application will not work if the Card is inserted before software is installed.

Install Software

1. Blah blah blah
.
.
.
.
3. Follow the Mobility Manager Installation Setup on-screen directions.

4. Click Finish to end the installation.

5. Remove the Installation CD from the computer.

Insert the Card into the PCMCIA Slot and Load the Device Drivers:

1. Hold the Card at the integrated antenna with the graphic label facing up.

2. Insert the Card full into the PCMCIA slot.
The computer recognizes the card and loads the device drivers.

BUZZ Trouble here!! It doesn't!! What gives?!

3. Blah blah blah...




The device drivers complete loading, and a blue "connected" LED blinks on the side of the Wireless Network Card. The light blinks until a Wireless Network Card connects to the network. When it connects, the blue light remains on.

Hmm.... the light's constantly blue when it's plugged into the router.

And Mobility Manager shows it's disabled, and trying to enable it does nothing...

My conclusion - I've messed up with the router. (You can see that the guide completely skips the router, it keeps saying " PCMCIA " slot ). The Card isn't even being acknowledged for when installing drivers!!!

HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLP!!!!!

(Can't get support help til Monday -.-; )




P.S. - The Router is a NetGear 54Mbps Mobile Broadband Router MBR814, if that helps.

I need techie heads here!!

watty

You have not broken anything.

You don't use the Mobility Manager SW at all for the Router. That is only for Modem direct on PC. No drivers are needed. The drivers are only for a Modem in the PC/Laptop PCMCIA slot.


You just plug in the PCMCIA card into router and ethernet cable PC to Router and it works.

Set PC ethernet to DHCP/ Automatic (the default).

The LED on Modem
OFF = no power or no driver
Flashing = Driver loaded and working, no signal
Occasional flash, mostly on = Driver loaded and working, poor signal
Steady= Driver loaded and good signal.


To configure WiFi (use WPA) put http://192.168.1.1/ in your browser.

The Mobility Manager will do nothing as the router is using the Modem.

BeerWolf

Yeah - just figured that out with the Mobile Manager thing. So I had everything set up, just had to turn off browsers from dial-up to which I disabled and away it went!


And I'm actually surprised with how well it's doing against my expectations.



40+ ping !! And I'm in the middle of no where, lol

smellslikeshoes

BeerWolf wrote: »

Yeah - just figured that out with the Mobile Manager thing. So I had everything set up, just had to turn off browsers from dial-up to which I disabled and away it went!


And I'm actually surprised with how well it's doing against my expectations.



40+ ping !! And I'm in the middle of no where, lol

Hope they roll this out pretty fast, would make any of the hspda providers look useless with the right coverage.

thebman

smellslikeshoes wrote: »

Hope they roll this out pretty fast, would make any of the hspda providers look useless with the right coverage.

Yeah this is the first speed test I've seen of this digiweb thing and that's well impressive.

If they can keep that level of service and roll it out nationwide, they'll take over the Irish BB market.

BeerWolf

I'm definately happy with it


All that remains is figuring out how to get my 360 hooked to it.


Speaking of which, anyone know how? ^_^;

thebman

BeerWolf wrote: »

I'm definately happy with it


All that remains is figuring out how to get my 360 hooked to it.


Speaking of which, anyone know how? ^_^;

You'll need the wireless adapter for 360 (official one is a rip off, buy on ebay) or a wired connection.

You can also use Internet Connection sharing with your computer using a network cable if you want while your setting up another solution.

You can't share media between Pc and 360 with ICS so that's why your better off connecting to your router via wireless or wired connection directly instead of using ICS.

Once you do get wireless or wired setup, download TVersity to share media from Pc's to 360.

AlmightyCushion

smellslikeshoes wrote: »

Hope they roll this out pretty fast, would make any of the hspda providers look useless with the right coverage.

Yeah those speeds and pings are great. As long as they don't over sell it they could do very well with this.

BeerWolf

Oo, it gets better

AlmightyCushion

BeerWolf wrote: »

Oo, it gets better

1meg upload. Very nice.

MrVostro

But werent all the wireless providers great at first and then when they become over subscribed this forum is choc full of complaints about them?

I'll wait a while before i accept that its really that fast all the time

zAbbo

This is mobile broadband as opposed to a fixed wireless service.

The key advantage is that the card can be popped into a wireless router for sharing the BB for your house.

watty

MrVostro wrote: »

But werent all the wireless providers great at first and then when they become over subscribed this forum is choc full of complaints about them?

I'll wait a while before i accept that its really that fast all the time

A bit of an over simplification. All "Fixed" Wireless services are limited by Comreg licence in contention.

:: "Broadband in A Box" (Some Clearwire & IBB products). No control over how many people use a mast, thus easily oversubscribed. Inherently limited performance.

:: Basic Fixed Wireless. A few different technologies, usually around the 2Mbps, and can't be oversubscribed. The ISP must have enough backhaul. Some use "unlicenced" 2.4GHz thus suffer interference from WiFi, Video senders. Some use Registered 5.8GHz spectrum, again WiFi interference can be a problem. Most of the best services use licenced 3.5GHz spectrum.

:: Digiweb Metro Type Wireless Service. Very high performance and up to 10Mbps.

:: Professional point to point or Point to Multipoint 10.5GHz services. Expensive. Typically for business use to replace leased line. 5Mbps to 20Mbps.


The Digiweb Mobile is completely different technology to O2/3/Vodaphone as it is designed from scratch as a data network. The phone companies' system is primarily for Digital voice so has poor data latencey and supports few simultanous VOIP calls on GPRS/Edge/3G/HSDPA compared with digital phone calls using GSM/3G.

Of course as with any mobile system the ability to connect at all or the speed you get is limited by how many people are in the mast sector. But the Digiweb Mobile system does not use a dialup connection method as GPRS/EDGE/3G/HSDPA does so can switch connections between users faster. Signal can be lost with out dropping connection or packets (3G can't do this). It is more like a Wireless Ethernet. There is no SIM, key, user logon, PIN, APN or password required either.

Because it is not 3G /CDMA there should not be a "breathe" losing lower signal connections as users are added. The mast capacity per user is much higher for 24 users than HSDPA (the max number of HSDPA 3.6Mbps connections). The number of users than can connect at once is higher too, without degradation of ping time (3G/HSDPA degrades from about 150ms to over 900ms as more users connect).


There is NO kind of internet service that can't be shared to your whole house, optionally using WiFi (with WPA PSK AES I hope!)

thebman

Watty, do you know or can you say anything about Digiweb's plans to roll this out to the rest of the country?

I know when they first started they said they wanted to make this into a mobile phone network too or something like that so they intend rolling it out nationwide or something like that but how serious are these intentions if you can answer?

It says speeds up to 5.3Mbps on digiwebs website, is this the max speed similar to 3 and does it fall off in speed similar to 3's service and the other mobile providers? Wondering how much better is it than 3G more than anything else.

Do Digiweb have any restrictions they want to place on average users in an area. I know its mobile but a lot of people will be using it as a home broadband solution and not when out and about so it should be possible to have a rough estimate to provide service of about half a megabit or more at any time in an area IMO. If they do over subscribe, do they have plans for this situation (now I know you won't be able or allowed to answer that one )?

watty

Well regarding nationwide ro...



Arrrrggh









I hear the sound of Black Helicopters.
(Actually I don't know when Nationwide happens, but I'm sure it's a priority).

thebman

Thanks for that Watty. Good explanation. Mobile solutions may not be intended to replace fixed systems but I have a feeling they will and for a lot of users, they are better than 56K users and cheaper than flatrate dial up at 20 euro a month for a lot of users so well worth the investment and they will have a big part to play in forcing DSL and fixed wireless operators to offer better services to compete.

Mobile may not be capable of doing everything a fixed connection could but it is mobile so it has an advantage over the others that many people will like especially with long commutes and working from home becoming more popular.

Of course I think what your really saying is don't buy it expecting a landline quality connection on the go. There is no dream world system and people should weigh up the pros and cons of a system before subscribing to ensure it meets their criteria despite a lot of technophobes not wanting to read up on it. No homework, no complaining about the limitations of the technology, buyer beware and all that.

elbow316

The Digiweb site says that the product is only available in the Fingal area at the moment - has anyone heard anything about their roll-out plans yet?

Hoping it's available in the Phibsboro area pretty soon

BeerWolf

I'm between Ashbourne and Garristown, within the Wyestown region.

BeerWolf

michael.oleary

I would suggest experimenting with different areas in the house. As you seem to be already doing so, cause signal strengths might be better elsewere.

watty

As long as the Blue Modem LED is steady, the signal strength has little effect on speed compared to 3G. With the router you don't know what the signal is.

michael.oleary

I can't confirm whether I had a solid light, I just knew that I was having poor throughput, once I placed it near to the window I saw a significant increase.
Out of interest watty would an external antenna like this work to increase upstream snr and possibly data rates? It seems to be in the right frequency band. If you could PM me that would be great.

http://www.cdwg.com/shop/products/default.aspx?EDC=1267248&cm_sp=Product-_-Overview-_-Main+Tab

watty

The connector won't fit.
I usually put the router on the window sill and use longer ethernet cable (up to 100m) or WiFi.

I'd imagine in the future there will be aerials available. The card socket is not so common and can be damaged with the wrong connector. Also the cable on that is not long enough.

A single band aerial would be more suitable. The multiband may give no more gain than the built in aerial.

michael.oleary

Do the Cards have an SSMB connector or a MHC connector........ah sorry I was looking at the wrong card. I caught a glance at the 450 MHz card with the SSMB connector. It was more something someone said to me about removing the internal noise by using an external antenna, it makes sense, it would be interesting to see how much of a difference it would make. By internal noise I'm refering possible noise if it was connected to a laptop.

Psygnosis

Can you point me in the direction of one of these cables I live in Rush and never get over 1MB down and 512 up . Though Pings are so good better than my old utv dsl

michael.oleary

Psygnosis wrote: »

Can you point me in the direction of one of these cables I live in Rush and never get over 1MB down and 512 up . Though Pings are so good better than my old utv dsl

I don't believe there are any available as of yet maybe in the future

BeerWolf

This product definately gets a thumbs up from me after a near 2 week trial.

As mentioned already, considering where I live - I can download on the 360, using the laptop (Browsing) and playing CS:S/Quake Wars with a nice constant ping of 35+ on my desktop PC all simultaneously

And this was during peak times ! [Evenings, weekends]

jock2010

Will have to also give the mobile broadband the thumbs up.
i have my old eircom dect phone attached to the SIP port on the digiweb supplied router and have very cheap and free phone calls via blueface.

even if surfing and online wii access is going on i still have clear phone calls.

I just hope that digiweb dont over sell the service as i live in the sticks and found dsl a pain in the arse to say the least