Clearwire: Just Say No
Steve Stroh
steve at stevestroh.net
Thu Feb 1 13:55:07 PST 2007
Clearwire (actually, the vendor, NextNet Wireless, now Motorola)
makes a mobile-specific version of the "Clearwire" modem, but it
requires a trunk-mount installation (much like an old mobile two-way
radio) and a permanently mounted external antenna on the vehicle.
They market these units primarily to public safety and government.
Thanks,
Steve
On Jan 26, 2007, at Jan 26 12:13 PM, Patrick Walters wrote:
> I was interested in ClearWire but until they have a PCMCIA Card I
> can slip in my laptop It's just silly to cal it city wide access.
>
> Although, apparently the BestBuy Geek Squad have one in those bugs
> hey drive around so they can access the internet from anywhere.
> That is kind of cool. The A-Team would have had one in their van
> I'm sure. ;-)
>
> -=p
>
>
> -----
> Patrick's Sailing Blog - http://www.shipsrecord.com/blogs/patrick
> <http://www.shipsrecord.com/blogs/patrick>
>
>
> ________________________________
>
> From: talk-bounces at seattlewireless.net on behalf of Tom Marshall
> Sent: Fri 1/26/2007 10:50 AM
> To: talk at seattlewireless.net
> Subject: Clearwire: Just Say No
>
>
>
> I have just had the most awful experience with Clearwire and I
> wanted to
> warn others on this list just in case they were considering signing
> up for
> it.
>
> I figured it would be cool to get wireless broadband for a
> reasonable price
> so I tried to sign up via their website. That didn't work -- the
> website
> did not allow me to sign up with my address, even though addresses
> as close
> as two blocks away in any direction did work.
>
> So I called up clearwire sales. The sales rep ran into the same
> issue so he
> entered my work address into the system in order to let him make
> the sale.
> In retrospect, this should have been a big warning sign, but I
> didn't think
> anything of it at the time.
>
> I'm a firm believer in providers being providers and staying out of
> the
> firewall business, so one of the very first questions I asked was
> whether
> they blocked any ports at all. The sales guy was very nice and
> upfront and
> said he didn't know, so he transferred me to tech support. The
> tech support
> rep assured me that no, they don't block any ports at all on their
> side.
>
> Once I received the modem, I plugged it in and was unable to get a
> strong
> signal. I spent quite a long time walking around my house waving a
> modem
> around in the air like a dork but the best I could get was a marginal
> signal. I've made several calls to tech support and they all say
> that I'm
> well within range of at least two towers (about 0.25 miles to
> either) and
> they just can't understand why my signal is so bad. Today (two
> weeks later)
> they finally decided that they can't fix the problem over the phone
> and they
> actually have to send someone out to my house. So sometime in the
> next
> three days I'll have the added inconvenience of scheduling a time
> to miss
> work so I can let a technician into my house and wave another modem
> around
> in the air. If he can't get a good signal, they may want to mount
> a modem
> outside my house and that's sure to be another uphill battle (I'm
> not keen
> to put holes in my house to support a crappy service with
> technicians that
> lie to me in order to make a sale).
>
> Meanwhile, I went out and purchased a Linksys WIP300 and tried to
> get it to
> work with the marginal clearwire service. I spent all night trying
> to get
> it to place calls but was unsuccessful. Yesterday, I was at Racha
> in Queen
> Anne and I noticed they had free WiFi. So I decided to give the
> phone a try
> there. Worked like a charm. Next I tried from work. Again, it
> worked
> great. So I went home last night and did some investigation. I
> did some
> monitor-mode packet captures using my laptop while I tried to place
> calls
> with the phone. The SIP packets were going out but nothing was
> coming back.
> So I figured maybe my wireless router (a WRT54G) was at fault. I
> tried
> everything to get it to work -- everything failed.
>
> So I figured I'd call clearwire support to see if they could
> resolve the
> issue. The tech support rep immediately told me that they block
> all ports
> but that customers can request ports be opened. But, I explained,
> the first
> tech support rep said that there was no port blocks on the
> service. He said
> that was "not the truth" -- I had been lied to in order to make a
> sale. So
> in order to open the VoIP ports (that I am paying for, that should
> be opened
> anyway, and that I was told would be open when I signed up), I need
> to fill
> out a request that includes detailed information about what
> application I
> plan to use, why I need it, and so forth. Then the request goes up
> to the
> next level and some anonymous network manager gets to decide
> whether my
> request is acceptable. If they do choose to allow the requested
> ports,
> their policy is to open the ports within six (6) business days.
> Yes, that
> is more than a full week.
>
> So if you are planning on getting clearwire, make sure that (1) you
> get a
> GOOD STRONG signal, and (2) you don't need to use it for anything
> but web
> browsing -- VoIP, VPNs, and anything else that your average AOLer
> doesn't
> use on a regular basis are subject to filtering and the whims of their
> network managers.
>
> If the "technician" that shows up at my door next week can actually
> get the
> modem to provide a clean signal, I get the privilege of setting up an
> encrypted tunnel to a server outside the reach of clearwire's idiotic
> firewall policies in order to get access to arbitrary IP traffic
> that have
> already paid for. Obviously I'm hoping that he can't fix it and I
> can go
> find a provider that isn't so unfriendly to the tech savvy community.
>
> --
> Innovate, v.: To annoy people.
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---
Steve Stroh
425-939-0076 | steve at stevestroh.net
Writing Writing about BWIA again! - www.bwianews.com
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