Dell Latitude D820 with Embedded EVDO

Michael

This thread will be used to discuss the Dell Latitude D820 with EVDO and specific issues related to this laptop and how it works with EVDO. Other forums can be used to discuss coverage, service, etc.

For someone that has this, I am most interested to know how well it receives signal compared to a PC Card, AND if there are any external ports for EVDO antennas or signal amplifiers (I am guessing there is not).

If you just got one of these laptops, we can quickly activate your Embedded Verizon EVDO card for you.
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unimog · EVDO Newbie Joined: 25 Apr 2006 Posts: 1

Can anyone verify that this embedded card will work with Verizon but not Sprint? I thought they were using the same service now, but Dell only shows it as being Cigular or Verizon.

tmgoethe · EVDO User Joined: 31 May 2005 Posts: 56

Dell is selling two cards, one for Verizon and one for Cingular. Nothing for Sprint, alas.
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Thomas M. Goethe

tmgoethe · EVDO User Joined: 31 May 2005 Posts: 56

I now have a Dell Latitdue D820 with the embedded Verizon EV-DO and it is faster and better than using the KPC-650 on my last laptop, a Dell Inspiron 8200.
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Thomas M. Goethe

Scott · Posted: Tue May 02, 2006 10:18 am Post subject:

How do you connect external antennas? What do you do when you have low signal?

tmgoethe · EVDO User Joined: 31 May 2005 Posts: 56

So far, no signal issues in the Tampa, FL area. I can't find any evidence of an antenna port. If I expect to go into a low signal area, I'll swithc the ESN back to my KPC-650 card which does have an antenna port, connect the amp and an antenna go for it.
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Thomas M. Goethe

MJTrigsted · EVDO Newbie Joined: 03 Jun 2006 Posts: 1

I am in Dallas and find that the Dell D820 with the built in card works better (and faster) that n the KPC650 in a Dell D810

Only Negative for me is no EVDO in Nashville on Verizon.....

dotnetcoder · EVDO Newbie Joined: 12 Jun 2006 Posts: 5

I have a D820 with the built-in card. I have had stellar performance with it in the Bay Area. No external antenna ports though. Confused

I am pretty much getting a constant 1.1~2.1 mbs (nothing to sneeze at!)

dotnetcoder · EVDO Newbie Joined: 12 Jun 2006 Posts: 5

So, I have recently come to hate the Dell Broadband Card Utility. I had switched over my service from the free 30 day trial to my cell phone account. 6 hours, and 4 tech calls later, I was able to finally reactivate my card. What a nightmare! The DBCU does not have any kind of manual activation process Sad

Bad, bad development Dell! (and no, you cannot use VZAM yet on Dell D820s).

~dnc

tmgoethe · EVDO User Joined: 31 May 2005 Posts: 56

I had an account with a Kyocera card, I went to the VZW website, changed my ESN to that of the new Dell, waited about two minutes, started the Dell utility, clicked file, activation and was online in a total five minutes or less. Maybe I just got lucky, but it was really easy.
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Thomas M. Goethe

dotnetcoder · EVDO Newbie Joined: 12 Jun 2006 Posts: 5

LOL, you got lucky. What ended up being the problem was that (at least in the Bay Area) you have to have a nearly perfect signal to do an automatic activation, otherwise you fail every time. What the VZW rep told me was that with VZAM, you can force a manual activation where you can change the ESN/Phone number manually and it just works.

With the DBCU, you can only do manual activations. So I literally had to walk around a few blocks with my laptop testing signal before it would do an automatic activation. What a nightmare!

At least all is well now...

~dnc

Vytas · EVDO Newbie Joined: 28 Jul 2006 Posts: 1

I have a sprint phone now with EVDO. I just bought a couple D820 laptops and installed the Sprint modem software to plug my phone into the laptop via USB. Does anyone know if there is a way to input your Sprint service plan information so that I don't have to pay twice? I have the sprint unlimited EVDO data package for $50 on my phone, and it would be nice if I didn't have to pay twice for the same service, just to not have to plug in my phone. SOmetimes I forget my USB cable and its a pain in the arse...

Also, love the Wave Embassy trust suite provided with the D820. Very simple to set up and use. Great for auto-filling in passwords and stuff so that you don't have ot use the cookies. They are all encrypted and safe from hackers on your pc. Very nice Dell and Wave!
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Vytas

dotnetcoder · EVDO Newbie Joined: 12 Jun 2006 Posts: 5

Not entirely certain if using the phone as a modem is the same as a second physical device or not. This is something I would contact Sprint about and/or read the fine print of your contract. It could very well be the case that your phone and its internal modem are considered two distinct devices (chances are the answer will be no, you don't have to pay twice, but I could be wrong of course). Although, I cannot say that I fully trust the cell providers. They will try to make a buck whereever they can, obviously.

As for Wave and Dell. I had a hard time with mine at first. Because of the way that Dell positioned the fingerprint scanner, it makes it difficult sometimes to get a good read, and so I have to shift the laptop around to some weird positions to get a successful read. Other than that, the Wave software suite is pretty good. Just make sure that if you have biometric security on your system, that you set it to allow both passwords and fingerprints otherwise you could lock yourself out of your system (It happened to me)!

Otherwise, enjoy!

~dnc

al904 · Posted: Fri Oct 20, 2006 6:38 am Post subject:

I am considering a Latitude D820 with "built-in" Verizon 5700 mini-card and Dell Wireless 1490 802.11a/g Dual-band mini card.

Am I correct to assume that both cards remain installed simultaneously? In other words, can I easily switch from Wi-Fi to EvDO connections without removing/replacing cards?

Does anyone have any advice regarding configuration options?

TIA

AL//

krhoffma · EVDO User Joined: 27 Mar 2006 Posts: 30

correct.

To use EVDO, you just start dell mobile broadband app, then connect. The internal wifi radio can be disabled with the software. Using the switch on the outside of the laptop also disables the EVDO.