Moderators mountainborn Posted October 21, 2008 Moderators Share Posted October 21, 2008 With a cell phone due for upgrade, we went shopping. We wanted to stay with Alltel because of good service localy. But more than that, with the upcoming Verizon merger looming on the horizon, and the extremely large coverage area that will provide, we also wanted that advantage. Ways to access the internet are constantly changing and prices vary with different modes and plans. Not only did we want to keep at least, our land line based DSL speeds, we wanted to improve line speeds and reduce cost as well ! Now that's a plan that is both greedy and agressive ! We liked it ! UPS arrived with the first package of cell phone type dodads. It didn't look like much. Small, light and mostly plastic. We had our doubts. It was the UT STARCOM 175ALA. I tried it on a 1.7 gig processor Windows XP machine first. The Windows Vista Laptop test will be later. The machine immediately found the USB device, auto loaded the self contained software and in a couple of clicks I was on the internet ! Speeds are a bit faster than our local DSL ! I have pulled the phone line from the back of the computer that I am making this entry from. The device has it's own cell phone number and can be simply plugged into any computer or laptop. The device has a external antenna jack that will also accept our cyfre cell phone booster for mobile operations. So far I am impressed with the UT STARCOM 175ALA. Testing is still underway. . . . I would rather wake up in the middle of nowhere than in any city on earth 08' Oliver Legacy Elite HULL NUMBER 0003(sold) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators SeaDawg Posted October 21, 2008 Moderators Share Posted October 21, 2008 Looking forward to your continued reports, Mountainborn. My laptop runs on Vista. Thanks for the info! Sherry 2008 Ram 1500 4 × 4 2008 Oliver Elite, Hull #12 Florida and Western North Carolina, or wherever the truck goes.... 400 watts solar. DC compressor fridge. No inverter. 2 x 105 ah agm batteries . Life is good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tumbleweed Posted October 21, 2008 Share Posted October 21, 2008 With my total lack of cell/computer communications, we're gonna' have to have a mini rally to train me on how to use all this stuff. Catfishin' n communication training... could it get in better???? Plse keep up your evaluation posting! Chuck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators mountainborn Posted October 25, 2008 Author Moderators Share Posted October 25, 2008 Chuck, you know we just gotta' do that ! I would rather wake up in the middle of nowhere than in any city on earth 08' Oliver Legacy Elite HULL NUMBER 0003(sold) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators mountainborn Posted October 25, 2008 Author Moderators Share Posted October 25, 2008 I havn't plugged the telephone line back in ! It has been five days of internet use over the Starcom UM 175 ALA. The thing is quick. For all internet things that we do it is more than adequate. The only time I noticed it being slower than our land line DSL was when streaming down to our desktop, full length movies from HULU.com. The movies were watchable, but not totaly seamless and hickup free. So, if you are into online free movies, or you are a serious online gamer, the UM 175ALA might not be your way to go. When I plugged the UM175 into our Vista MOS laptop it recognized the device even quicker than it did on the Desk top Windows XP machine. With the UM175 plugged into the desktop PC, the laptop still connected to the WIFI modem and the UM175 was feeding internet to both the PC and the laptop at the same time. With the UM 175 plugged into the laptop the same was true of the desk top PC, both had internet through the wifi modem connected to the desk top PC. The next test will be to run the UM 175 while mobile in the Jeep towing the Ollie, enroute to the Springfield Bass Pro Outdoors Skills Village. We are nearly disconnected from telephone lines. We have put our home telephone and DSL on vacation rate to continue our test. I would rather wake up in the middle of nowhere than in any city on earth 08' Oliver Legacy Elite HULL NUMBER 0003(sold) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators mountainborn Posted October 27, 2008 Author Moderators Share Posted October 27, 2008 Noted that today there was one less bar of signal to use. Two bars instead of three. Ran the same tests over again. Similar results, but with the movie streams from HULU having considerable more hickups in them ( buffering ). The solution to that might be to let the laptop download the movie, (while we roast marshmallows), for later viewing, making line speeds less of an issue. We don't watch movies on line very often. We do however carry Netflix with us. The HULU movie streaming was just a simple test of line speed and useability. I would rather wake up in the middle of nowhere than in any city on earth 08' Oliver Legacy Elite HULL NUMBER 0003(sold) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators mountainborn Posted November 2, 2008 Author Moderators Share Posted November 2, 2008 We have been at Springfield Missouri for a couple of days now, for Bass Pro Shops Fall Festival. We are with the Off Road camping Club, camped on the banks of the James River, courtesy of the Bass Pro shops. On the trip up from Arkansas, we ran Microsoft Streets & Trips on the laptop simultanious with the starband 175ALA. It was cool to be able to surf the internet when we wanted to, without searching for a free wifi hotspot. We are posting this while boondocking in the Springfield Lake Park. Lots of deer here, they will nearly try to pick your pocket ! Met lots of new friends here. There was lots of intrest in the Ollie. Bass Pro,s photographer and other's took lots of photos. Wouldn,t it be cool to be in one of the publications ? We hope to find time to geocache some while here. I would rather wake up in the middle of nowhere than in any city on earth 08' Oliver Legacy Elite HULL NUMBER 0003(sold) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators mountainborn Posted November 3, 2008 Author Moderators Share Posted November 3, 2008 Another ORCC camper showed me how to set up a WLAN using the starcom 175 and we were able to feed all of the wifi laptops in camp from the single unit ! I would rather wake up in the middle of nowhere than in any city on earth 08' Oliver Legacy Elite HULL NUMBER 0003(sold) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators mountainborn Posted November 14, 2008 Author Moderators Share Posted November 14, 2008 It is deer season here in Arkansas, so we are in deer camp. The camp is really out in the sticks. I have found one place in camp where there is one bar of signal that seems to come and go frequently. Yet, we are able to post on the forums and view web pages with occasionaly having to click refresh to get a page to load. I would rather wake up in the middle of nowhere than in any city on earth 08' Oliver Legacy Elite HULL NUMBER 0003(sold) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators mountainborn Posted November 15, 2008 Author Moderators Share Posted November 15, 2008 Large heavy raindrops woke us up in the night. Wind gusts up to 30mph, we learn from NOAA radio. A norther blew in during the night. Ice on the inside of the windows dissappears quickly with a single flick of the thermostat. Yeh, we sure do need those double pane windows ! The stained old coffee pot percolates on the stove as we flush and brush. The starband 175 is somehow pulling two bars of signal out of the cold pre dawn air. It is time to venture outside and poke up the campfire. The dogs in the kennel are ready to go. I would rather wake up in the middle of nowhere than in any city on earth 08' Oliver Legacy Elite HULL NUMBER 0003(sold) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator+ ScubaRx Posted November 15, 2008 Moderator+ Share Posted November 15, 2008 Mountainborn, You have fun out there, be safe... Steve Steve, Tali and our dog Rocky plus our beloved dogs Storm, Lucy, Maggie and Reacher (all waiting at the Rainbow Bridge) 2008 Legacy Elite I - Outlaw Oliver, Hull #026 | 2014 Legacy Elite II - Outlaw Oliver, Hull #050 | 2022 Silverado High Country 3500HD SRW Diesel 4x4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators mountainborn Posted November 23, 2008 Author Moderators Share Posted November 23, 2008 Home from deer camp, getting ready for work tomorrow. Stole a few minutes to do a speed test and to post the results. This device has it's own assigned cellular telephone number so the distance from where it thinks it is at, to the server can be off by quite a bit, by the time the call bounces from cell tower to cell tower. Using a server in Springfield, Mo: Using a server in Dallas, Tx: I would rather wake up in the middle of nowhere than in any city on earth 08' Oliver Legacy Elite HULL NUMBER 0003(sold) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators mountainborn Posted November 23, 2008 Author Moderators Share Posted November 23, 2008 I just went to Alltel's web site to see what the latest deal on the starcom is. It is free after a $100. rebate. Alltel will want a two year contract to be able to get the device for free however. It comes with an USB extension cable about three feet long. With the cable and the device, I have been able to find a usable signal everywhere I have been, so far. Some places have been better than others so far as speed is concerned. A good example is the speed tests shown above. Here is what the Ut STARCOM 175ALA looks like: I would rather wake up in the middle of nowhere than in any city on earth 08' Oliver Legacy Elite HULL NUMBER 0003(sold) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators SeaDawg Posted November 30, 2008 Moderators Share Posted November 30, 2008 Larry, Verizon had a big flyer in today's St. Petersburg Times, including the USB 727 modem and other wireless devices.This prompted us to check out the wireless internet deals again this morning. Your Alltel /Starcom UM175 combo is still the best deal going with the unlimited airtime. As a matter of fact, if you go to Letstalk.com (an internet reseller), you can get a $100 back with a 2 year contract with Alltell and still get a free UM175 right now. Interesting. Biggest downside I've seen on reviews on the Starcom is the care that must be taken not to bend the connection to the USB port on your computer since the device is bigger than an aircard. Any problems with that, or do you usually use the extender cable and set the device up elsewhere in the Oliver? Big downside for us, unfortunately, is Alltel doesn't show coverage in the area of the NC mountains where we camp the most. We're hoping this will change before the deal goes away... We do get Verizon cell coverage up there, one or two bars, but Verizon's current wireless deal is not nearly as good as the Alltel deal. Looks like this device is working great for you! We're following your posts with great interest. Keep 'em coming! Sherry PS found this listing for remote antennas for the UM175. I understand the UM175 has internal antenna. http://3gstore.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=126 Don't know if any of these is better than moving the device itself around with the cord it comes with..... Sherry 2008 Ram 1500 4 × 4 2008 Oliver Elite, Hull #12 Florida and Western North Carolina, or wherever the truck goes.... 400 watts solar. DC compressor fridge. No inverter. 2 x 105 ah agm batteries . Life is good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators SeaDawg Posted November 30, 2008 Moderators Share Posted November 30, 2008 We were also intrigued with your post on setting up a WiFi hotspot in the Ollie for the camp up by Springfield. Sweet! Sherry 2008 Ram 1500 4 × 4 2008 Oliver Elite, Hull #12 Florida and Western North Carolina, or wherever the truck goes.... 400 watts solar. DC compressor fridge. No inverter. 2 x 105 ah agm batteries . Life is good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators mountainborn Posted December 2, 2008 Author Moderators Share Posted December 2, 2008 The booster antenna looks like it might be just the ticket for moving it around inside our trailers as needed for maximum effect. He, he, even has suction cups ! I would rather wake up in the middle of nowhere than in any city on earth 08' Oliver Legacy Elite HULL NUMBER 0003(sold) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators mountainborn Posted December 23, 2008 Author Moderators Share Posted December 23, 2008 Actual operation video while uploading a 92 MB video file. Our old CRT style computer monitor is on it's last leg and the color is kind of funny. Maybe Santa will bring a new LCD monitor ? The clasic 60 cycle black rotating bers are present in the video, along with the snapping sound in the audio track as the camera gets too close to the flyback transformer in the monitor. But even with these many problems in the video there is a good look at the operation of the UM175 and it's software. Here is the link to the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUCtVHJYAc8 I would rather wake up in the middle of nowhere than in any city on earth 08' Oliver Legacy Elite HULL NUMBER 0003(sold) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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