Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with evdo

Contract-less 3G or EVDO internet?

neustile — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 12:07:32 -0800

Contract-less cellular wireless (3G or EVDO) for laptops -- does it exist? I am in a major city that has good 3G and EVDO coverage everywhere. I need a contract-less wireless connection for my laptop, either a phone that I can tether but never make calls on, or a USB or ExpressCard dongle. I need to pay month to month with no commitment. What can I do?

What's a good EVDO card to clone?

frijole — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 08:19:21 -0800

I'm looking at a situation where I may want/need to buy a replacement Sprint EVDO card, and want to just clone over the old card's ID (ESN?) to the new one. What cards work the best for this? The basic gist of it is that I don't want to have to deal with activation and all the other assorted nonsense, I want to just get the new card, clone the relevant details from the old card, and start using the new one. Of course, only after taking a hammer to the old one to make sure I don't get blacklisted.

Manage multiple Internet connections in XP

Emanuel — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 15:47:30 -0800

My system has multiple Internet connections, and I want to be able to specify which of these connections particular applications will use. I run Windows XP Pro. Connection A is EVDO. It's low-latency but has a limited amount of bandwidth usage per month (with steep overage charges if I exceed it), and is ideal for highly interactive applications (such as VNC, Remote Desktop, SSH, Skype, and certain web sites).

Connection B is satellite. It's high-latency, but without any limitations on monthly bandwidth usage, which makes it ideal for large downloads and general web browsing.

I want to be able to specify that certain applications use connection A (e.g. PuTTY, VNC, and RoyalTS), and have the other applications use connection B. I'd also like to be able to block certain applications from accessing the Internet at all, or only allow them to access certain IP address ranges. If it were possible to have connections from an application to certain IP addresses use connection A, and connections from the same application to other IP addresses use connection B, that would be really cool (but this is functionality I can live without if that is not possible).

Another very nice feature would be the ability to monitor total bandwidth usage on each Internet connection. If it was possible to monitor bandwidth usage per-application, that would be even better!

Can anyone recommend some software that will help? Googling gives me tonnes of hits for blocking and firewall software, but I didn't come across anything that looked like it does what I want.

Ideally, this would be one package with a nice GUI, but mixing and matching is fine, and I'm entirely comfortable with a text editor and the command-line if required. If I need to, I'd be OK with setting up a Linux (or *BSD) firewall box to manage my connections, but I'd rather not have to resort to that (recommendations for distributions that would make this relatively painless are appreciated).

Fast 3G Web Browser In My Pocket?

joshwa — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 14:50:54 -0800

Is there a 3G web browsing phone out there that doesn't suck? The iphone has finally made me *really* want a fast web-browsing smartphone.

Criteria:

* EVDO or HSDPA
* Qwerty keyboard
* Full HTML browser (JS a plus)
* IMAP mail client
* Unlimited data plan available

Does it exist? Will it exist?

I'm willing to switch carriers, since my Verizon contract is up next month.

International EVDO Coverage

marc10 — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 23:25:37 -0800

I am seeking a company that offers EVDO service with coverage in Brazil. I am also open to any other technologies that provide a wireless broadband service. I know Vivo (a Brazilian cell phone company) offers a service called Zap 3G, but I would prefer not to deal with a Brazilian company. Ideally seeking a American company that has a roaming agreement.

VoIP over EVDO: Are we there yet??

allterrainbrain — Sat, 18 Nov 2006 08:15:52 -0800

VoIP over EVDO. If you've tried it (especially on Sprint's Rev A EVDO), how do you like it? I'd be using Skype, using it rarely, and only using it during calls -- not leaving it idling and using bandwidth. (With my current Sprint phone-as-modem setup on 1xRTT, I average 400-600ms pings -- i.e., too much latency for VoIP even if I had enough bandwidth. But on Sprint's now active EVDO Rev A, they claim latency of 100-150ms and upstream averaging 300-400k.) Yes, I know EVDO is not in the TOS. And I connect primarily from NYC in strong-signal areas.

EVDOFilter

Alterscape — Tue, 30 May 2006 17:01:43 -0800

EVDOFilter: I'm interested in Sprint or Verizon EVDO phone-as-modem mobile broadband service with my Powerbook, but I've never had a celphone before. Help! I'm moving from a suburban area to rural Maryland (between Frederick, DC, and Baltimore) where cable and DSL are not easily available. A friend suggested I look into Sprint/Verizon Mobile Broadband, and it looks promising, but I'm not sure about the details.

Issue #1: I use a 12" Powerbook with OS X 10.4.6, which doesn't have any PCMCIA slots, but does have bluetooth and USB. I know Sprint doesn't officially support macs; I haven't looked into Verizon yet. How much trouble is it likely to be to get a connection going?

Issue #2: Does using the wireless phone in phone-as-modem mode make the phone unavailable for receiving/placing calls? I would most likely be using my new phone as my primary phone for job-hunting and other such critical tasks..

Issue #3: I will be living right on the border between "high-speed access" and "Sprint PCS nationwide" access, according to the service map. Is there any way for me to find out if I'm close enough to get high-speed before I lay down the cash and sign a contract? If I'm not in the high-speed zone, what kind of speeds can I realistically expect?

Issue #4: I'm a relatively heavy internet user -- I work in film and photography, so I need to move large files around. I read that the Verizon TOS explicitly forbid using EVDO for "always-on internet" a few months ago; has this changed? Am I likely to be hassled by my carrier if I use a lot of bandwidth, even with the unlimited throughput account?

Also, as a first-time cel user, is there anything else I should be thinking about? Thanks for the help!