THe "aircard"

[Evil Tony]

I new periph you can put into a laptop or computer via a cell phone service to connect to the web instead of a hardline.

Opinons on this?

[Trooper110]

Not really new, they've been around for a while. It's basically a cellphone signal receiving card that translates the signal to a wireless signal for you. So you have the same ups and downs as with a cell signal, plus it's nowhere near as fast a broadband, no matter what the cell companies claim. And expensive as all hell, think the last I heard it was about $50/month just for the service.

[L_Mo]

The internet server charge, as far as I know, is the same fee you have to pay to use a blackberry and such. I think one of them has closer-to-broadband speeds (sprint?) but at the end of the day it's not quite there yet for me to think about doing it.

Some day it'll be common place and I'm sure I'll get it, but right now it seems like it's still in the "early adopter" stages.

[Zantheus]

Not really new, they've been around for a while. It's basically a cellphone signal receiving card that translates the signal to a wireless signal for you. So you have the same ups and downs as with a cell signal, plus it's nowhere near as fast a broadband, no matter what the cell companies claim. And expensive as all hell, think the last I heard it was about $50/month just for the service.

Yea I know in Canada Toronto area.... that option has been available to us for years. Avg $$ is 45/mth and I think its 10gig BW until u charged xtra...not too sure though

[-IRC-MIKE]

It isn't worth the price. Most companies that offer if have high rates and per minute usage, and it is not very fast.... and it wouldn't benefit the company if it was fast.

[Evil Tony]

It isn't worth the price. Most companies that offer if have high rates and per minute usage, and it is not very fast.... and it wouldn't benefit the company if it was fast.

My parents have dial-up, and they can't get broadband in their area...so...

[Zantheus]

My parents have dial-up, and they can't get broadband in their area...so...

No broadband...wow...where do they live?

Edit: I thought Dial up was like Vinyl is...long gone

[paceman]

My parents have dial-up, and they can't get broadband in their area...so...

No broadband...wow...where do they live?

Edit: I thought Dial up was like Vinyl is...long gone
Far from it. There are LOTS of rural people that don't have Cable, much less live close enough to a switch to get DSL.

[Thrashdragon]

A coworker of mine recently got rid of his (Sprint), it was slow as hell and didn't work in a lot of the areas where his phone did. I believe it was $60-$70 a month plus a usage fee, so he ended up paying something like $200/month. It wasn't any better than dialup, speedwise.

[-IRC-MIKE]

It isn't worth the price. Most companies that offer if have high rates and per minute usage, and it is not very fast.... and it wouldn't benefit the company if it was fast.

My parents have dial-up, and they can't get broadband in their area...so...

Satellite internet, my friend. They won't be playing COD4 .. you can play WOW on it, but it is pretty good service, usually. WildBlue is one service, and you can get Hughesnet through dishnetwork in a package deal or with a discount if you already have satellite service. I'll have my friend get in the forums and give you a bit of info.

I think he pays either 69 or 79 dollars a month for 1.5mb satellite connection.

[omfg karl marx]

Satellite internet, my friend. They won't be playing COD4 .. you can play WOW on it, but it is pretty good service, usually. WildBlue is one service, and you can get Hughesnet through dishnetwork in a package deal or with a discount if you already have satellite service. I'll have my friend get in the forums and give you a bit of info.

I think he pays either 69 or 79 dollars a month for 1.5mb satellite connection.

Not worth it, imo. Satellite is fairly unreliable and many providers have pretty restrictive caps. Plus, there's a pretty large setup fee ($200-$400 depending).

[Evil Tony]

It isn't worth the price. Most companies that offer if have high rates and per minute usage, and it is not very fast.... and it wouldn't benefit the company if it was fast.

My parents have dial-up, and they can't get broadband in their area...so...

Satellite internet, my friend. They won't be playing COD4 .. you can play WOW on it, but it is pretty good service, usually. WildBlue is one service, and you can get Hughesnet through dishnetwork in a package deal or with a discount if you already have satellite service. I'll have my friend get in the forums and give you a bit of info.

I think he pays either 69 or 79 dollars a month for 1.5mb satellite connection.

Yeah, my 60+ year old parents enjoy playing video games...they thought the Atari 2600 was a waste of time, and thought I should be spending mytimte outside playing in the fresh air and sun.....:p

[-IRC-MIKE]

But if you've just GOT to have something faster than dialup, satellite is the only other option when you don't have cable or DSL readily available.

[mapes]

This area should prove interesting in the coming years as the FCC releases some spectrum and maybe just maybe we get some actual 3G cell networks operating here in the US.

[The_Needle]

We use many of these at work, Sprint and AT&T and even an Alltel card. Sprint is definitely the top of the line. The primo package runs around $75 per month for unlimited data. Speed is comparable to 1.5Mb DSL and one of my friends actually does play COD4 on his. Overall, they are a useful tool and if you get a router to put the aircard in you can run multiple PC's on it at the same time of course.