Re: CDPD experience?, Ricochet SE modem for sale

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From: edward@jungco.com
Date: Fri Jun 09 2000 - 17:55:57 PDT


I have used the CDPD modems for about a year, both Sierra Aircard 300 and the Merlin. I like the Merlin -- it is cheaper and the antenna doesn't break as easily. The Sierra has a different driver approach, but they had some issues with their Win2k drivers that turned me off. Both do not appear to drain my laptop too much.

Both cards are slow. I never get anywhere near 19.2kbps. Typically it's less than 4800. Latency is very high and the modem goes into scan modes fairly often. I can't use it for interactive web browsing and it's dicey for instant messaging, but it works fine for email.

Note that your CDPD account is tied to the hardware. So you will need to call AT&T or GoAmerica or whomever to reset your account if you use another card.

I also use a Ricochet. It works better for me on the interactive stuff than CDPD, but has limited coverage as you note.

CDPD has had good coverage for me. I think I didn't see coverage in Palm Springs and maybe Santa Barbara, but it was covered in major metropolitan areas.

Hope this helps.

Original Message:
-----------------
From: Stephen D. Williams sdw@lig.net
Date: Fri, 09 Jun 2000 14:07:40 -0400
Subject: CDPD experience?, Ricochet SE modem for sale

I noticed that the AT&T CDPD unlimited usage rate ($54.99/mo or as low as
$8/mo. + $0.055/min) has reasonable terms and I can buy old transeivers
inexpensively. It appears that most areas I would want access are covered by
the unlimited time, except DC where I don't need it that much anyway. Areas
like DC are covered by another company that causes per-minute charges.

http://www.attws.com/business/smcorp/explore/wireless_ip/rates.shtml
Although the bandwidth is meager (19.2Kbs), the coverage is great and the
price is adequate.

Does anyone have good experience with these?

For Sale:

I have a Ricochet SE modem that I seldom use that I'd be happy to sell to
someone in a covered area (Seattle, SF/SJ valley, Wall Street, or DC (a bit
closer than I live)). In downtown SF I have had as much as 5.1K bytes/sec.
transfer on compressed data. Latency is very high (300ms on the East Coast,
less on the West Coast) but throughput is usually reasonable, 2-3K/sec.

sdw

--
Insta.com - Revolutionary E-Business Communication
sdw@insta.com Stephen D. Williams  Senior Consultant/Architect   http://sdw.st
43392 Wayside Cir,Ashburn,VA 20147-4622 703-724-0118W 703-995-0407Fax  Jan2000

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