3gstore is da bomb !

Luka · EVDO Junkie Joined: 07 Mar 2007 Posts: 171

I tried wireless broadband a couple years ago.

Went with sprint, and didn't buy my gear from 3gstore.

I never had a great signal. Finally ended up with no signal at all.

Only got the runaround from sprint, and paid for 6 months of service in which I never logged on, even once. Finally got out of that contract.

Fast forward to the beginning of this month.

I orderd verizon service, and a usb760 and cradlepoint 350 from 3gstore.

Once I had the hardware, I connected everything according to the instructions.

Got connected maybe 5 times. Very bad connections every time. Finally started having exactly the same problem that I had had with the sprint modem... Every connection attempt came back with bad password or sign-in name, and/or, the remote computer did not respond.

When this happened with sprint, I suspected the modem. They insisted that was not it, and wasted my time and money with other possibilities, until they finally let me out of the contract.

When this happened again with the usb760 that I got from here, I called the 3gstore customer service.

Long story short, Ed in texas, walked me though several possibilities. Patiently.

Did I mention that he was very patient ?

He finally reached the same conclusion I had, a couple years ago, with the sprint modem. (And had already suspected this one, of.) The modem was bad.

He set up an exchange of the bad one, for a good one.

I got the new one, this afternoon.

I have been online ever since.

And the speeds are the best I have ever seen, here.

I haven't tested yet. And I refuse to open that verizon access manager program. (I am convinced it is a large part of the problem I was having, before.)

I am very happy, so far. If the connection stays this way, I'll be seventh 3g heaven.

Luka · EVDO Junkie Joined: 07 Mar 2007 Posts: 171

Just wanted to post an update.

I got the modem that day, and got back online.

Stayed online for something like 4 and a half hours, just fine.

The next day, and continuing through most of the day, sunday, I was offline much more than I was online.

Online maybe 1 minute out of an hour.

When online, sometimes I had good download speeds, but most often, it was only about a quarter the speed of DIALUP !!

Ran through a lot of diagnostics and such with the 3gstore tech people.

Man, those guys are not only knowledgeable, they are patient !! And they didn't treat me like I was a kindergarten kid. They don't sit there and follow some kind of script. They figure out what the problem is, first. Then they figure out how much you actually know about what you are doing. Then they work with you accordingly.

We came to the conclusion that the hardware was all working correctly. (With my old belkin usb wifi modem being the weakest link.)(We tried with the usb760 directly in the computor, and with the usb 760 in the router, and the belkin in the computer. That day---same-same.) The problem seemed to be with the signal.

Since, when I -had- a signal, it was a strong signal... we figured that there might be a problem with the nextel owned antenna that I get my signal from.

Ok, by sunday night, full of anxiety about the possibility that I was going to have to give up and send everything back, I had decided to try one more thing. Raise the antenna.

Took until sunday evening to get the antenna raised.

Then... I couldn't make a wifi connection at all.

AAARRGGHH !!!

Monday morning I call 3gstore tech people again.

After quite a while, we both came to the same conclusion. It was probably my old belkin.

So, try it with a cat5 cable, right ?

Trouble was, my computer acted like it didn't even KNOW it had an ethernet port.

It took me pretty much most of the rest of monday to track down exactly WHAT my ethernet port was, and then to find the particular drivers for it on this motherboard.

Got those drivers installed, and *zing* !!! I had a lan connection to the cradlepoint !

I stayed connected all the rest of monday, and have now been connected all day today.

I don't have the fastest speeds. Even though the 'signal strength' averages between -81 and -85, I still get at best .67 down, and .12, up.

That's my best speed. The majority of the time, I am averaging 3 to 4 times the speed of dialup.

Sometimes it is as slow as 1/4 the speed of dialup

Now...

When I was looking at those kinds of speeds, but could not rely at all on the signal being there... It really wasn't worth it to keep the service.

Even if I could have had great speeds... Had the signal remained as unreliable as it was, it would have been essentially useless to me.

Who wants to write an email, and then babysit the computer for anywhere from 5 minutes to an hour or two... just sitting there waiting to hit the "send" button during the 30 seconds to two minutes that you MIGHT have a connection ???

And you can imagine what it is like to try to moderate a forum, or do other online work, in that situation...

Whereas... a mediocre signal.. that is reliable... Is worth keeping around.

The average is faster than dialup. But most importantly, when I am finished with that email, I can send it right away.

I can cometo the computer and use the connection when I want to, instead of having to always be here to babysit the connection.

Raising the antenna took care of the signal problem. When I can afford some guy wires, I will raise it even further.

It looks like I am going to be able to keep this.

Had I had to deal with verizon on all these issues, or any other company I know of, online or not, that sells this equipment... I would have been pulling my hair out, and would have given up, weeks ago.

If 3gstore charged twice as much as anyone else, for the equipment they sell, it still would be worth the price, because of the tech support alone...

Man, I hope you guys pay those tech people very well. !!

~~~

The only concerns I have left are two.

One, that my return time with 3gstore, and my 'trial period' with verizon, were both supposed to have started over again, the minute I signed for the replacement modem. I do hope that happens without a glitch from either.

And two... I live in the great northwet. (Not a typo.) We do not have the best weather for cell/radio signals. We are having the best weather we ever do, all year long, right now.

I am hoping that rasing the antenna as high as I can, will keep the signal steady from now on. Plus another bonus is that the verizon signal here is in the 850 band. Which means the signal should get through bad weather, better.

But it -is- possible that the signal will just fade away to nothing, when the weather gets bad.

When that happened with sprint,I paid for nearly 6 months of service, and never got online, once. They did finally let me out of the contract, but yeesh, I probably paif 3 times the ETF, just in paying for months of service in which I recieved no service at all.

I hope if the same signal deterioration happens with verizon, they will not be so difficult to work a termination deal with.

~~~

All in all, I think I have acceptable service now...And I don't think I would have gotten here without 3GStore.

Thank you, 3GStore !

Victor · Site Admin Joined: 14 Jul 2006 Posts: 141

Luka,

We appreciate the kind words and want you to know that listening to our customers issues and resolving them as quick as possible is our #1 Goal!

We are very pleased that our efforts has brought to you a fully working turnkey solution for your wireless broadband needs.

As always we appreciate your continued business and support and we hope that we are able to help more and more people in situations just like yourself.

Best Regards,

Team 3G;-)
_________________
- Victor

Driskoll · EVDO Newbie Joined: 25 Jun 2009 Posts: 1

Having moved to a new home in an area without cable or DSL internet services, I opted for Verizon mobile broadband. My first place to look for a modem was Letstalk.com, a site that I bought my cell phone from a couple of years ago. To put it bluntly, their pre-sales service was non-existent. In answer to my question about the merits of 3 different modems they supplied, the response was “you’ll have to research it on Google”.

Victor · Site Admin Joined: 14 Jul 2006 Posts: 141

Driskoll...

What were you trying to say here? It reminds me of a few words that was exchanged from one of our previous customers. Is there something you would care to add to his experience I presume?
_________________
- Victor