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Review by applezz13 
UPDATED: 26 days ago
member for 2.7 years, 208 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Essex,Baltimore,MD
 $25 per month
 about 1 days
 "No hassel...No contract...self install"
 "spotty coverage"
 "Great value if it will work in your location"
| Pre Sales Information:
Install process:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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I currently use comcast, but am not an intensive internet user. We mostly read email/web pages and the wife plays some flash game and we sometimes watch video on line. I am sick of paying comcast $60 per month, and as I am lucky enough to live in the Baltimore area thought I would give Xohm a try. On their coverage maps my house is about 75-100 yards outside one of their "green" coverage areas. I stopped by one of the mall kiosks and talked to the salesmen. They showed me the map of the coverage near the mall and it was worse than the coverage at my home. I figured I would give them a try, as they have a 30 money back policy. They even said the monthly fee is prorated and refunded if you do a return. I purchased the MAX-206M2 ZyXEL modem as I want to run my wireless in the house off it if possible. Initially I had trouble finding a location in my house with signal, but finally discovered that in the kitchen window I could get a steady 2 lights out of 3 for signal strength. With the third light sometimes appearing. That was around 4PM. Now it is almost 7PM and I have a steady 3 lights in the same location. The setup was simple, just turned off my wireless card, connected the ethernet cable from the modem to my computer and opened a browser. The Xohm paged opened and walked me through the account setup. One nice thing, as they are new almost any email address is available. I then was online and surfing. I am getting 1.5-2.5 download and .8-1.5 upload speeds. Now on par with my comcast connection, but I think they might be fast enough for our use. I plan on using both together for a month or two and then deciding which to get rid of. One thing I did notice, as I have the unit in our kitchen whenever the microwave is on the connection is gone.
I will update the review with more info as I continue to use this service.
Update to my review....The morning after I hooked up the unit I had a solid 3 lights for signal strength and have had three lights every time I checked. I am getting a constant 1.5-3 down and 1-2 up for speeds. I connected Xohm to the wireless router without telling the wife and she didn't even notice! When playing Call of Duty my pings range from 80-120, not the 40-90 I was getting with comcast but still playable.
One issue I am having is downloading large files(1-2 gigs). It seems the Xohm device will sometimes dissconect and reconnect to the network. I think this may be because I am between two towers and "officially" not covered by any tower and they are fighting over my connection. When this "switchover" happes my download gets corrupted. I just downloaded a download manager program and am testing to see if that will solve my problem.
Another thing I don't like is the only receive signal strength meter is the lights on the device. The web interface tells you the transmit strength, but not the receive.(If I am wrong could someone tell me where to look!).
Updating with current info. My download speeds had dropped to a crawl, so I power cycled the modem(it has been powered on since my first review). It would not reconnect to the Wimax signal when it powered back up. I logged into the modem via the webpage and it appeared to be stuck in the INIT phase, the word "INIT" was in bold caps up near the signal meter "lights". I also noted that the power light on the unit was orange instead of the green it had been before. I rebooted the modem several times and it still did not work. I called tech support and they were pretty useless, they had me push the reset button and power cycle the unit a few times, things I had already done. After the 5th or 6th power cycle, it did finally start working. He said to call if it happened again and that I would probally be given a new modem. He has no clue about the orange power light, he thought the light should be green if ok and red if bad.
I am reducing the tech support rating 1 point for this, but I am also increasing the connection reliabiliy 1 point as this has been my only issue and it appears it was the modem not the signal.
Overall the service more than meets or needs so far, I have 3 computers, my VOIP adapter (Teleblend), a Wii, my directv dvr, a wifi internet radio, and sometimes use my MDA phone to check out info online. With all these items using the connection basic web use is unimpaired, however I am unable to play Call of Duty if there is heavy use of the unit(no big deal, I play once or twice a week).
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XOHM WiMAX
