Re: Clearwire: Just Say No

Clearwire (actually, the vendor, NextNet Wireless, now Motorola)  
makes a mobile-specific version of the "Clearwire" modem, but it  
requires a trunk-mount installation (much like an old mobile two-way  
radio) and a permanently mounted external antenna on the vehicle.  
They market these units primarily to public safety and government.


Thanks,

Steve



On Jan 26, 2007, at Jan 26  12:13 PM, Patrick Walters wrote:

> I was  interested in ClearWire but until they have a PCMCIA Card I  
> can slip in my laptop It's just silly to cal it city wide access.
>
> Although, apparently the BestBuy Geek Squad have one in those bugs  
> hey drive around so they can access the internet from anywhere.  
> That is kind of cool. The A-Team would have had one in their van  
> I'm sure. ;-)
>
> -=p
>
>
> -----
> Patrick's Sailing Blog - http://www.shipsrecord.com/blogs/patrick  
> <http://www.shipsrecord.com/blogs/patrick>
>
>
> ________________________________
>
> From: [email protected] on behalf of Tom Marshall
> Sent: Fri 1/26/2007 10:50 AM
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: Clearwire: Just Say No
>
>
>
> I have just had the most awful experience with Clearwire and I  
> wanted to
> warn others on this list just in case they were considering signing  
> up for
> it.
>
> I figured it would be cool to get wireless broadband for a  
> reasonable price
> so I tried to sign up via their website.  That didn't work -- the  
> website
> did not allow me to sign up with my address, even though addresses  
> as close
> as two blocks away in any direction did work.
>
> So I called up clearwire sales.  The sales rep ran into the same  
> issue so he
> entered my work address into the system in order to let him make  
> the sale.
> In retrospect, this should have been a big warning sign, but I  
> didn't think
> anything of it at the time.
>
> I'm a firm believer in providers being providers and staying out of  
> the
> firewall business, so one of the very first questions I asked was  
> whether
> they blocked any ports at all.  The sales guy was very nice and  
> upfront and
> said he didn't know, so he transferred me to tech support.  The  
> tech support
> rep assured me that no, they don't block any ports at all on their  
> side.
>
> Once I received the modem, I plugged it in and was unable to get a  
> strong
> signal.  I spent quite a long time walking around my house waving a  
> modem
> around in the air like a dork but the best I could get was a marginal
> signal.  I've made several calls to tech support and they all say  
> that I'm
> well within range of at least two towers (about 0.25 miles to  
> either) and
> they just can't understand why my signal is so bad.  Today (two  
> weeks later)
> they finally decided that they can't fix the problem over the phone  
> and they
> actually have to send someone out to my house.  So sometime in the  
> next
> three days I'll have the added inconvenience of scheduling a time  
> to miss
> work so I can let a technician into my house and wave another modem  
> around
> in the air.  If he can't get a good signal, they may want to mount  
> a modem
> outside my house and that's sure to be another uphill battle (I'm  
> not keen
> to put holes in my house to support a crappy service with  
> technicians that
> lie to me in order to make a sale).
>
> Meanwhile, I went out and purchased a Linksys WIP300 and tried to  
> get it to
> work with the marginal clearwire service.  I spent all night trying  
> to get
> it to place calls but was unsuccessful.  Yesterday, I was at Racha  
> in Queen
> Anne and I noticed they had free WiFi.  So I decided to give the  
> phone a try
> there.  Worked like a charm.  Next I tried from work.  Again, it  
> worked
> great.  So I went home last night and did some investigation.  I  
> did some
> monitor-mode packet captures using my laptop while I tried to place  
> calls
> with the phone.  The SIP packets were going out but nothing was  
> coming back.
> So I figured maybe my wireless router (a WRT54G) was at fault.  I  
> tried
> everything to get it to work -- everything failed.
>
> So I figured I'd call clearwire support to see if they could  
> resolve the
> issue.  The tech support rep immediately told me that they block  
> all ports
> but that customers can request ports be opened.  But, I explained,  
> the first
> tech support rep said that there was no port blocks on the  
> service.  He said
> that was "not the truth" -- I had been lied to in order to make a  
> sale.  So
> in order to open the VoIP ports (that I am paying for, that should  
> be opened
> anyway, and that I was told would be open when I signed up), I need  
> to fill
> out a request that includes detailed information about what  
> application I
> plan to use, why I need it, and so forth.  Then the request goes up  
> to the
> next level and some anonymous network manager gets to decide  
> whether my
> request is acceptable.  If they do choose to allow the requested  
> ports,
> their policy is to open the ports within six (6) business days.   
> Yes, that
> is more than a full week.
>
> So if you are planning on getting clearwire, make sure that (1) you  
> get a
> GOOD STRONG signal, and (2) you don't need to use it for anything  
> but web
> browsing -- VoIP, VPNs, and anything else that your average AOLer  
> doesn't
> use on a regular basis are subject to filtering and the whims of their
> network managers.
>
> If the "technician" that shows up at my door next week can actually  
> get the
> modem to provide a clean signal, I get the privilege of setting up an
> encrypted tunnel to a server outside the reach of clearwire's idiotic
> firewall policies in order to get access to arbitrary IP traffic  
> that have
> already paid for.  Obviously I'm hoping that he can't fix it and I  
> can go
> find a provider that isn't so unfriendly to the tech savvy community.
>
> --
> Innovate, v.: To annoy people.
> _______________________________________________
> Talk mailing list
> [email protected]
> http://seattlewireless.net/mailman/listinfo/talk
>
>
> <winmail.dat>
> _______________________________________________
> Talk mailing list
> [email protected]
> http://seattlewireless.net/mailman/listinfo/talk



---

Steve Stroh
425-939-0076 | [email protected]
Writing Writing about BWIA again! - www.bwianews.com




_______________________________________________
Talk mailing list
[email protected]
http://seattlewireless.net/mailman/listinfo/talk