Broadband to Multiple Computers?

M

Mateo H

New member
This is my first post so be gentle....

I heard an ad today on the radio in Northern CO for Cricket broadband and confirmed it with a call to the Cricket 800 nuraber (gave them my Loveland, CO zip). Yeah its here! (Isriam you can ad No CO to your Cricket EVDO list).

I am thinking of switching from Verizon broadband (and my Verizon USB720 dongle) to Cricket's broadband (saving $20/mo, I am on a very tight budget). Currently I move my Verizon dongle from my laptop to my wife's desktop (as it is my only internet connection). However, the tech rep at Cricket's 800 nuraber told me tonight that the Cricket Broadband computer SW does not allow this (locks dongle or account to one computer requiring that you uninstall the SW before you can move it to another computer). She then added that she has heard some people don't seem to have this restriction and can move it back and forth without uninstalling, but she does not know how or why. She also said that Cricket's USB dongle modem ($59 after rebate) has better reception/speed than Cricket's PC Card modem (free after rebate). Good I wanted the USB connectivity for my desktop anyway. But the potential multiple computer SW block is a show stopper for me

Could someone help me please? These are my questions.

1) Is there a known reliable way to flash/use my existing Verizon USB720 modem with Cricket's broadband (or cell phone) service?

2) Is this service rep all wet with regarRAB to not being able to use the dongle on two different computers? I mention this only because she told me that she tried to connect the USB Y cable supplied with it to both her and her husband's laptops at the same time and it didn't work (DUH!, the other connector is power only). So her knowledge/ advice was immediately suspect in my book. Maybe she is confused about the SW block too.

3) Is there a generic (or clever) way to use my USB dongle (or Cricket's) without using Cricket's SW (if it does block multiple computer use)?

4) Ideally I'd like to use multiple computers "simultaneously" on the internet if possible. Is there a wired/wireless router that will accept a USB (or PC card) as a pluggable internet modem. I have heard there is. Is there a recommended one/ones to avoid? Does anyone know if I am likely to get one of these to work with the Verizon or Cricket USB dongle (or PC card)?

I hope these are good questions and will lead to an interesting and beneficial thread for others too.

Peter
 
You can use a regular wireless router. Each of your computers will need a wireless network adapter.

You can setup Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) on the machine that has the dongle attached. You will have to disable DHCP in your router in order for this to work. Any machine on the network will be able to fetch Internet from that one machine.

To flash the Verizon dongle, you might have to know the OEM of the device. I would check mobile - files for a solution. Seems like more trouble than it's worth to me, though, but that's just my opinion.
 
Havent tried, cant help you there...



she has no clue ignore her, not locked to anyone machine, someone probably told her that to keep her from trying something stupid again.


install drivers for dongle (just drivers) Then create a dialup networking connection with dongle as the modem dialing out #777 usually
[email protected]
password cricket


well .. heres what i know will work...
Dongle on 1 machine ics enabled ... sharing it to other household machines

pcmcia card routers exist but sell for $200+ on ebay, meaning you can slide in a pcmcia card in the back of the router and it will work (if the card is supported).
 
sharing the connection is technically against the terms of service (this is one of those things they might shut you off for if your usage was insane), but we were specifically told it is ok to use the carRAB on more than one computer, just not at the same time
 
WOW. Thanks for the quick responses so far.

berry_lthird - Thanks for the ICS idea. I have read about it. Not a networking geek, so hope it is easy. The article I saw said this was only available on 98/2000/XP (no mention of Vista). I assume this can be done with Vista too? Not a problem eaither way now because all we have is 2000 & XP for now. Why disable DHCP? I am concerned a little about taxing the host/server computer. We don't have much firepower in the computers around here. But it is worth a shot. I have an relatively new (G) D-Link WI-FI router with 4 wired ports. So I can use that. If it has a WAN connection (not sure, stored right now), do I hook the host computer to the WAN connection or just one of the regular LAN ports. I assume I can hook another desktop to a wired LAN port and my laptop can access through the WI-FI link. Is there a good link to a tutorial about exactly how to do this ICS stuff (with enough details to really understand it)?

Fuzb0 - Thanks for the insight on the generic way to access the dongle in case the Cricket SW does limit me somehow. With that, worst case, I can move the dongle between computers and stay in good graces with Cricket. Or I can step over the line to the bad side and corabine that with the ICS idea to make our life a little easier. The other computers don't use the internet that much (none of them do). Its just nice not to have to move the darn thing around. I agree that it is probably not worth messing with using the USB720. I'll sell it on ebay and buy the Cricket dongle for about even-up.

speer320 - I'll look into that, especially if the ICS thing is too much for my desktop. Right now the link you left doesn't work. Can't even get the home domain page. Their server must be down.

simple3 - You are obviously on the inside at Cricket. Thanks for responding. It is nice to know exactly what is OK and not; where the line demarking the bad side is. If I do step over it, it would not be any more use than if we moved the dongle around between computers. Just a convenience thing. I assume that if I do use ICS, that this would not be apparent to Cricket? The only computer identifiable information Cricket would see would be the host computer, yes? If I step over, knowing they could not know, and the intent of Cricket to allowing multiple computers (just wanting to limit usage), I'll be able to sleep at night. Thank you.

Thank you all. I look forward to any replies to this or anyone else's inputs.
 
speer320 - I did get onto the Cradlepoint site and also checked ebay. A new CTR500 is $170. I little pricey for me now. No used ones on ebay. There are older CTR350's that seem to do the trick, available on ebay for $140. I'm going to use the sneaker-dongle-net for now and/or possibly ICS for a while. I'll watch for a good deal on one of these for the future when $$ are more available for me.
 
no i don't think they can really tell unless they look at your account specifically. they told us that accounts that exceeded 5GB of transfer a month would be reviewed to determine if there was any violation of the terms of service.
 
also, you cannot activate a flashed device on the internet plan. you can activate a flashed card's esn onto a voice account with wap browsing, but you would be stuck behind the proxy and limited to what applications you could use.

the card itself is only $69 after mail in rebate and you get the first month free, so it's really not a bad deal to purchase one from cricket.
 
OK. I thought I'd report back my progress as I progress (that looks weird, but I think it is proper english)....

I picked up the Cricket USB dongle at the local Cricket store. It was $179.99 - 40% discount ($70) + $25 activation + Tax = $145 to get out the door of the store (remeraber to bring the $25 + tax activation fee in cash). This $145 includes one month of service ($40/mo, $35/mo if you already have a Cricket phone/account). I was told I can send in the rebate for the USB modem ($50) right away, however, it will not be processed until I pay my first month's bill in 30 days. She said then it typically takes 8-12 weeks. This seemed a little extreme. I don't expect it will take that long (neither did one of the other employees), but that is what the more experienced employee said. So, counting the free month of service, and after waiting for the rebate, Cricket Broadband will cost me $145-$40-$50=$55 one time and $40/mo.

Before I did this, I considered getting my old Verizon LG VX8300 flashed and using it as a tethered modem. I am not sure whether it would be as fast as the USB modem. If anyone knows this, please advise. I would have paid $25 activation + $50 for flashing = $75 upfront + $45/mo. This looked more appealing on the surface (lower cost plus an unlimited phone when I am not on the internet). However I wanted the internet immediately and I did not want to lose my ability to POP/download my email into Outlook (which I understand I would lose using the internet service provided through a tethered phone).

Speaking of speed, here is what I am getting out of the Cricket USB modem on a weekend in Loveland, CO using www.speedtest.net, testing against various servers across the country, using a 2003 HP laptop and XP. The modem showed one to two out of 4 bars (tops), so my reception here is not great. I used the Y cable for full power.

The best I saw was 731kb/s and the worst was 299kb/s (both from the closest server, Denver, with the average being 454kb/s. Here are the details:

Server Download Upload Day
Denver 299 113 Sat 6:00pm
Denver 363 119 Sat 6:00pm
Denver 731 119 Sun 3:30pm
Denver 543 93 Sun 3:30pm
New York 391 110 Sat 6:00pm
New York 424 123 Sat 6:00pm
LA 347 106 Sat 6:00pm
LA 366 104 Sat 6:00pm
Co Springs 376 114 Sat 6:00pm
Co Springs 518 111 Sat 6:00pm
Co Springs 514 107 Sat 6:00pm
Co Springs 587 111 Sat 3:30pm
Co Springs 514 107 Sat 6:00pm
KC 621 111 Sat 6:00pm
KC 363 116 Sat 6:00pm
KC 367 104 Sun 3:30pm
Seattle 428 118 Sat 6:00pm
Seattle 433 110 Sun 3:30pm
----
Average 454 kb/s

The dongle does work on my laptop or my desktop (sneaker-dongle-internet) without a problem. We will try the ICS thing next. I will report back the results. I will also try the speed tests somewhere else in town where the signal is stronger.

Thanks again everybody.

Peter
 
Thanks for the info on the EVDO speed test in Loveland - I'm in Denver and I was wondering about Crickets EVDO...

(I don't know too much about the average speeRAB of EVDO networks... In everyone's opinion... are his speed tests comparable to other providers?)

You should be able to use any basic Internet Connection Sharing guide from The Google to help you share your broadband to multiple computers.

Good luck and let us know how things turn out.
 
There is a 45 day service requirement for all mail in rebates. for clarification here is how rebates work on cricket.

you mail in the rebate form, copy of dated sales receipt, and original upc code postmarked within 30 days of purchase.
after your 45 day service requirement is met (you must be active on the same esn on day # 45) they will begin to process your rebate(requesting cricket to transfer the funRAB etc..)
as long as you meet the requirements (no more than 4 rebates per address per offer, and no more than 10 mail in rebates per service address in a 12 month period, are on a new line of service, etc..) you will recieve a check within 60 days (after the 45 day service requirement is met, meaning 105 days total)

this means you should receive the rebate check in aprox. 3 1/2 months. yes it is a long time, but i can count the nuraber of rebates that were not correctly processed by the rebate processor which i have encountered on one hand (out of thousanRAB).
 
It has been a while, and perhaps there are other threaRAB now that deal with this. However, I felt it was my duty to report back my success at getting Cricket Broadband to work throughout my house.

We have a Cricket USB Broadband modem, 2 XP Pro/Media Center desktops, an old XP Home laptop (w/only 802.11 "B") and a D-Link WBR-1310 wireless router (has 802.11-B & G capability). I had this router already so I used it in conjunction with Windows ICS to share the internet over the network, including wirelessly to my laptop! I just had to reconfigure the router to be only a switch since I was not connecting the modem to the WAN port (i.e., it is not the going to be routing the internet gateway to the LAN, the computer is). Interestingly, I ran speed tests and the internet speed was identical on all 3 PC's; undiminished by ICS, the router, network and even my 11 rabps 802.11 "B" laptop connection. This means that the Cricket Modem is the bandwidth bottleneck.

So you know, I started out with a working home network with the router handing out IP addresses (DHCP server). So I already had my computer names set up and the proper workgroups (MSHOME) all compatible and working. My laptop worked over wireless too. So, I am assuming you can get this far before erabarking on the instructions below.

1) Connect the USB modem to one of the desktop PC's (host PC) you intend to leave on. I used our fastest desktop a P4, 2GHz w/1G ram. Load the Cricket software (it is not a problem) and make sure you can access the internet through the Cricket modem.
2) Connect both desktops to the "LAN" connections on the router/D-Link (no connection to WAN). Turn off their firewalls (for now).
3) Before anything else, I reset the router/D-Link (hold reset button in for 10 seconRAB) so I had a known starting point. It defaults to DHCP "off" (I found out later :( ), IP address 192.168.0.1
4) Since the D-Link defaults to DHCP "off", it was no longer handing out IP addresses to my PC. So I manually set my computer IP to 192.168.0.200 (not DHCP) so I could talk over the network to the D-Link.
5) From the browser I addressed the D-Link at http://192.168.0.1 & used the default user name of "admin" with no password to configure the D-Link.
6) I changed the D-Link address to 192.168.0.100, turned DNS Relay "off" (or you will have initial page load problems later), and made sure that DHCP is turned "off". This corabination in effect changes the D-Link from a router to a simple switch (WAN no longer routed to LAN as internet gateway, and no longer the DHCP server). When you save these settings you will have to re-address the D-Link from your browser at http://192.168.0.100
7) At this point if you are going to use your router's the wireless capability, you can set up your router's wireless SSID and WEP key for security. Save.
8) Now on the host PC, set up the ICS Internet Sharing by going to your My Network Places and click on the "Set up home or small office network" link on the left. Follow the instructions and tell it you want to share the internet connection from this PC with other PC's on the network. That will cause this computer to now have the magic IP address of 192.168.0.1 and become the internet gateway for the network. This will also cause this computer to become the DHCP IP address server for the network (hence why you want to turn the router's DHCP feature "off" first to avoid conflicts). When asked by the wizard, select the Cricket Modem as the internet connection point. I turned on file and printer sharing here too. Finish the wizard. You can allow it to make a copy of the setup on a floppy or jump drive to help set up your other non-XP computers. Since I had XP on all my other machines (with the same wizard) I just finished w/o making a copy of the setup.
9) Go to the other desktop(s) and run the same wizard (or the one you saved on the jump drive) this time telling it that you want to share the internet from "another" PC on the network. It should find and see the shared internet connection you already setup on the host computer and display the host computer's name (select it if there are multiple choices). I shared the files and printer here too. Finish.
10) Try the internet on this computer. It should work! If it doesn't try rebooting everything and make sure your Cricket connection is up and running on the host computer.
11) Run the same wizard on the other computers including the laptop. If wireless, set up the SSID and WEP key "first" and make sure that you get a good wireless connection, and then run the My Network Places wizard.

There may be other gotchas when you turn the firewalls back on, but I am not qualified to deal with that, so I won't try.

I have been running this way for a month now without problems (I hope I remerabered everything about how I set this up back then). I tell my kiRAB not to download too much stuff (i.e., music etc.). I want to stay below the radar on usage. I figure if we don't use too much there won't be an issue. My son got a new iPod Touch and wants to hook that up through the Wi-Fi too. Maybe I'll post an update as to how that goes (technically) later. :silly:
 
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