Mobile Broadband

[Menehune Man]

Re: Mobile Broadband

1)Is that the cable thingie that came in the same box as the modem?

2)Mine has dropped the connection about 4 times so far. It was faster earlier today than it is tonight. I was told it works well with Skype video. I'll believe it when I see it!

1) Thanks for mentioning that! I would think so???
I'm taking Hippie(HP) with me tomarrow to Mobi and will bring that cord.
Gonna have them make sure I have all the settings correct.

2) My connection seems to be slower at night too.

[Menehune Man]

Re: Mobile Broadband

Okay TuTuSue!
That is the dual port Y connector. The card only fits in one end while the other two get plugged in to USB ports. I used it like that for about ten minutes of surfing, etc. I liked it, but would have to check in the evening for a real test.

While at Mobi I bought a "Freedom Antenna" for $36. http://www.freedomantenna.com
It plugs in to the card so doesn't take up any other ports.

At the moment, it's great...

[tutusue]

Re: Mobile Broadband

[...]Gonna have them make sure I have all the settings correct.[...]

I have a call into them. I can't figure out how to check my settings. The obvious one accessed from the menu is dimmed. Please let me know what your settings are, if you can.

ETA: Aha! I don't have the card. I have the other one! And I now have it plugged into the Y connector cable. The speed's been acceptable this morning. I hope the Y thingie helps tonight.

[Menehune Man]

Re: Mobile Broadband

Noticeably faster!

For the card...
CONTROL PANEL
NETWORK AND INTERNET
INTERNET OPTIONS
INTERNET PROPERTIES
CONNECTIONS

Mobi (HELE) is in...
Dial-up and virtual private network settings

I thought that sounded odd, but was told it's correct.

[tutusue]

Re: Mobile Broadband

Noticeably faster! [...]

Do you feel the antenna helped the most? Or did Mobi tweak your settings?

I'll need to go back to Mobi because hele is so slow today that I turned my DSL back on. I haven't cancelled that yet!

[Menehune Man]

Re: Mobile Broadband

Do you feel the antenna helped the most? Or did Mobi tweak your settings?

I'll need to go back to Mobi because hele is so slow today that I turned my DSL back on. I haven't cancelled that yet!

Didn't change anything internal.
Only added the Y connector and antenna.
Try it and if you don't like, the antenna can be returned.

[tutusue]

Re: Mobile Broadband

[...]
Try it and if you don't like, the antenna can be returned.

Will do. Thanx, MM.

[Menehune Man]

Re: Mobile Broadband

Gotta say I'm very pleased and satisfied with the performance now!
Not only faster for surfing, but for uploading too. And hasn't dropped it again.
Hele's a keeper.

[Random]

Re: Mobile Broadband

And Random. Mobi started out on Oahu without full coverage.
But I haven't heard any complaints from anyone now.
Hope it won't take too long for it to become usefull for you on Molokai.

We'll see. Molokai is not as urban as Oahu. Our main town Kaunakakai is about as progressive as your Haleiwa.

[tutusue]

Re: Mobile Broadband

Random...fwiw, the Mobi/Hele employee who helped me, when I asked him about taking my computer outer island, mentioned that hele works outer island but is slower than on Oahu.

[Random]

Re: Mobile Broadband

Random...fwiw, the Mobi/Hele employee who helped me, when I asked him about taking my computer outer island, mentioned that hele works outer island but is slower than on Oahu.

Does that means customers on Molokai using Hele have a much slower broadband speed to begin with?

[tutusue]

Re: Mobile Broadband

Does that means customers on Molokai using Hele have a much slower broadband speed to begin with?

Dunno...that question is way over my untechie tutu head!!! That said, we didn't discuss any particular island. Slower applied to all islands.

I just returned from 2 Mobi stores. I'm not sure this hele thingie is going to work for me. It's just too slow. When I play videos on YouTube or Facebook, the videos keep pausing to load. Accessing the iTunes Music Store and downloading a song are frustratingly slow altho' nowhere as slow as dial-up. I bought a booster antenna for the little usb hele card/modem. The antenna is 5 times bigger than the card and is tethered to the card by a cable. Using speedtest.net I get the following speeds:
Without antenna booster:
287 download
45 upload

With antenna booster:
362 download
35 upload

I'm certainly not edumacated <g> on this speed issue but I think those might be pretty lousy numbers. One of the stores I visited, I had to explain the difference between dial-up and DSL. The employee knew roadrunner was the fastest but he thought dial-up and DSL were the same thing because they're both Hawaiian Telcom! Testing hele in Makaha ought to be interesting! Dang, I was so hoping for better performance. I'm willing to take a step down from DSL but I'm not willing to return to dial-up speed.

[tutusue]

Re: Mobile Broadband

Hele's performance seems to be acceptable in Makaha. So far I haven't had a problem with videos pausing to reload. The iTunes radio stations have had only a couple of short rebuffering issues. The test speeds have been quite a bit higher. Dang, it'd sure be nice to be able to completely dump DSL but it looks like I'll need to keep it, at least in Waikiki. And, unfortunately, there's no free ride on anyone else's signal...with a fall back on hele, if needed!!! Back to number$ crunching.

[Kaukura]

Re: Mobile Broadband

Have you considered ClearWire? I've had it going on 3 years and have been quite happy. Itunes works fine, I can stream abc.com shows with no problem. Rarely does a youtube video sputter, it has, but not often. Netflix streaming is iffy, but I have actually heard from those with high speed that it has become problematic for them as well. I've moved a few times and my little modem comes along and plugs in.

I was seriously looking at Mobi because it is a bit cheaper, but it seems it may be a bit slower and that is something I definately do not want. I dont want to deal with dsl at this point and love the portability of clearwire. Plus I have high speed internet at work

[Menehune Man]

Re: Mobile Broadband

Have you considered ClearWire?

My friend just got Clearwire and is very pleased with it.

My Mobi Hele is working well now.
Streaming radio and videos... no problem.