Review by CJKComputers member for 1 year, 3 visits, last login: 342 days ago lodged 1 year ago
Madoc,ON
Business customer
$45 per month
(36 month contract)
about 1 days
"Quick Setup, decent speed, user friendly"
"Some units are unreliable, Bad for lots of data usage"
"Decent upgrade from phone line for a fair price"
Pre Sales Information: Install process: Connection reliability: Tech Support: Services: Value for money:
Well I run a very popular computer company in a rural area north of Belleville Ontario and I deal with allot of costumers that are looking for high speed solutions as opposed to phone line that they currently have and unfortunately because my business is in the same area I suffer from the same problem.
Ever since I got here in 2008 the only solution was Xplornets 900mhz "High Speed internet" but I have been unhappy with them ever since I signed up because I have had other wireless solutions in other areas like KOS in Napanee and had very good results but Xplornet is pretty much the opposite so anyway in late 2010 and early 2011 I decided to try out the Rogers Rocket Hubs and do some in depth testing for not only a potential replacement for myself but also for a potential phone line replacement for my costumers.
So I started out by testing there three different hubs and had different success with each of them.
The first one I tried was the Netcomm 3g10wr which was basically a 2 port wireless router with 3g and phone capability built right in so when I got it back to the shop I plugged it in and it flashed for about a minute and it was already online so obviously I was impressed because of the ease of installation and I hooked up a laptop to it wireless using the card with the password on it and I was on the internet. So after that I ran multiple speed tests and realized that on certain times of day I would get up to around 2.5Mbps and other times it would go down to just over 1Mbps so it was a great upgrade from phone line but was not going to cut it for my to replace my xplornet. Now I have to add that I only got a medium signal with this hub so I was told that with a better signal I would be able to get faster speeds so I later tried a high gain outdoor antenna setup with all the hubs and that will be discussed later.
Then I tried the Erricsson W35 Hub and it was just as easy to install and had pretty much the same features of the Netcomm but it had 4 ports instead of only 2 ports and had no external antennas but had a place to attached one. So with this hub I was able to get quiet a bit faster speed with a medium connection I got around 2.5Mbps to 4.0Mbps at all times witch is good but there is a major flaw with this hub. Over the course of the day if I was downloading lots of data (over 1GB per day) this unit will inevitably overheat and die. I tried this with 3 different Erricssons and had the same result and this did not happen with either of the Netcomms so if you are wanting to use lots of data than this unit may not be for you but other than that it seems pretty stable.
Then we tried the last one. The new Netcomm 3g10wr2 Hub.
This hub was pretty much an exact copy of the older Netcomm except that it was in a prettier shell and it also only had one antenna instead of three and also had the same results of the older Netcomm. This hub also had a medium connection without help and showed 1Mbps to 2.5Mbps so there is nothing else to say about this one.
EXTERNAL HIGH GAIN ANTENNAS.
Well during the whole course of testing we also ordered a high gain directional dual band Wilson antenna and 30ft of LMR-195 cable we are also fortunate enough to have line of site to the Rogers 3G tower that is only a few kms away so we where able to get a full signal on all of the hubs when they where connected to this antenna setup now with the antenna
The Erricsson W35 with a full signal got around 4.5Mbps to 5Mbps but it still has the overheating problem so it is still not recommended.
Both of the Netcomm Hubs ended up with a full signal and there speed ended up being 3.5mbps to 4.5mbps so they are a little slower but they are also more reliable so these would be the ones that I would recommend.
PING.
As for the ping on these it was never good so I would have to say that this would not be recommended for online gaming or anything like that but are great for standard web surfing and downloading. The ping that I got on average without a special antenna was around 80ms to 100ms and with the Wilson antenna was between 45ms to 75ms.
OVERALL.
Well overall as long as you stick with the Erricsson model hubs this is a great upgrade from phone line internet and you will get some decent speeds and they are incredibly easy to setup. But if you require allot of speed and need to have multiple computers connected at all times I would recommend trying to find a company in your area that offers a wireless internet such as WiMax, LTE, Radio Etc and hopefully you can find one that is not Xplornet but that unfortunately may be your only option. At the end of the day if you live in a rural area like I do then you should be happy with the services that are available because it wasnt all that long ago that you would be stuck living with phone line and you would be forced to move in order to get decent internet. I hope you liked my review.
Madoc,ON
Business customer
$45 per month
about 1 days
"Quick Setup, decent speed, user friendly"
"Some units are unreliable, Bad for lots of data usage"
"Decent upgrade from phone line for a fair price"
