Using a Broadband card to serve a network.
I often find myself in situations where I wished I could share out my internet with other users. I have tried programs that turn my Touch Pro into a hot spot but it not only kills my phone’s battery but it also slows it down to a crawl. I could tether my laptop to my phone and share that out but why should I when I found a nifty little device called a travel router. When I paired this up with a mobile internet card I had a match made in heave!
The Cradlepoint CTR350 Cellular Travel Router has found a new home in my laptop bag. Using this router with a Verizon Sierra Mobile Broadband Card (EVDO) I can have an instant network setup… Um anywhere I can rig up power.
Simply insert the card into the router. Log into the router and configure firewall, routing and even dynamic name resolution.
This means at your next outdoor event you can not only provide internet to your geeky pals but you could be running a web server that is resolving to a domain name.
I was not only impressed by it’s simplicity but also by how cheap it is. I found the mobile router online for under $150. Cradlepoint CTR-350 Mobile Router
Do any of you use mobile internet for something interesting? We would love to hear about it in the comments!
February 6, 2009 - 3:09 pm
How do you like the wireless cards? Are they comparable to DSL or Cable?
Im trying to find an alternative to the cable/dsl in my area.
-Tyler
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Karl L. Gechlik | AskTheAdmin.com Reply:
February 7th, 2009 at 5:34 am
They are pretty good. Att cards grab hsdpa and the verizon ones do evdo. I get phenomonal speeds when I am in a good coverage area and dial up speeds with one bar under ground…
Where are you from? Also the price around here is $60 for normal speed/bandwith and $100 for higher speed and unlimited bandwith (I found this out after 10gb xfer one month and they bumped me up.)
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February 7, 2009 - 7:10 am
Glad I found this site – I’m finding the content very useful – thanks!
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February 7, 2009 - 1:18 pm
Im located in Greenville, SC.
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February 7, 2009 - 1:54 pm
Wife and I are wanting to get away from Charter Cable. They are the only High speed option in our area accept for Verizon and ATT. We currently have cell phone plans with Verizon. If we were to switch to something like this from our current cable…would you say we would have a considerable difference in speed? Something noticeable? Wife and I VPN into work and I end up on VNC most of the time. Have you had any issues with remote desktop, Youtube, etc?
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Karl L. Gechlik | AskTheAdmin.com Reply:
February 7th, 2009 at 6:11 pm
Me – no but I am using it mostly in and around NYC. It is not by far super fast all the time. I have seen 300-400kbps speeds but normally I get 125-175kbps and when I have bad coverage it can really blow, I’m talking 56k moke type dealey.
How is the coverage out in your area? Did you look at dslreports.com?
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July 7, 2009 - 4:01 pm
Just wait until you get your first overage bill from AT&T.
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Karl L. Gechlik | AskTheAdmin.com Reply:
July 8th, 2009 at 5:29 am
My Card allows for unlimited usage but the fine print says 5GB max for the month. This is fine for me. I have a customer who uses Verizon and his cap was also 5GB he went over and got a letter that he needed to upgrade his service. For another $30 a month they have not bothered him again! But of course you should check with your provider first if you have any doubts or concerns.
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July 8, 2009 - 3:56 am
Karl – how do the end users get online through this guy, cable or wireless? Are you finding it reliable? I need one of these for trade shows!
Tyler – I use a verizon evdo card at home, and the speed is variable. Sometimes it’s great, streams hulu no prob. Sometimes not…it is very sensitive to signal strength, so the closer I am to being outside the better. I’ve also found they have a much higher latency than normal connections, you may find this initial lag annoying, but not a deal breaker. Overall, I love having one for the mobility, but plugging into the fast office internet keeps me sane.
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Karl L. Gechlik | AskTheAdmin.com Reply:
July 8th, 2009 at 5:31 am
You can do Wired or Wireless. For the car or trade show the box is a all in one solution. And its not that expensive!If you are going to buy it use my affiliate link in the article above we will probably see all of 3 bucks for it!
How’s Mosio doing these days Jay?
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July 8, 2009 - 10:12 am
I wonder if you can hack it with Jasager…
http://ninjurl.us/?fon
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July 9, 2009 - 9:10 pm
Nice Karl, I’ll have to get one of these and try it out.
Mosio’s going great. We launched a program called Text a Librarian – kinda like our community Q & A, but for libraries. It’s working really well, lots of cool questions getting sent to people’s local libraries. We’re in Chicago for the ALA (American Library Assoc) conference, which is where I need the connection sharing so we can demo this baby!
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July 18, 2009 - 10:23 am
Hi!
I myself also find out about this mobile router today. Almost buy this kind of thing for my office. I on’t think I need it aanymore since I resolve my networking problem. Just afraid that it will be to slow for oofice work.
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