  RockyBB Premium join:2005-01-31 Longmont, CO
| Re: Any experience with Cricket Wireless Broadband?
said by matthewcoleh :Ph.D. Have you tried it in a different room of your house? Cellular internet tends to work better in a higher elevation and close to a window (reduces interference from stuff between the transmission tower and your aircard). If it's connected to a laptop, do you get better performance outside, or at different locations? |
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  urschler6
| reply to formeat cricket broadband is not worth 40.58 a month, stay with cable. I have had cicket for 3 months now and it is terrible the modem cost 150.00 dollars to start the rebate for 50.00 was no cash just goods. it is slow and unrealiabe dial-up is faster than this crap. I did the connection speed test and it gave it a 2 1/2 stars out of 5. If you want slow videos streams then this is the one for you. |
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  cricket_web
| reply to formeat I think a lot of people don't understand how internet speeds work. If you are downloading a file and it says 70kB, that is equal to a 650-700kb line.
And don't listen to "speed tests", they aren't accurate for the most part. Best way to test your speed is download a file from a server you know has the bandwidth available and look at your speed that way.
Using Cricket in chicago area now for a couple of weeks and it's decent for what it is. I get 500k-768k download speeds (60k-70k is what it would show in my browser), and 90-100ms pings. Not bad at all.
And if the service goes bad, just won't pay it any longer since there is no contract. |
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  Haze
| reply to formeat Cricket Broadband's service really confuses me. On some days the shit acts like it's supposed to act, on others it's damn near impossible to use! Firstly they need to change the name from cricket broadband to cricket dial-up, because the connection is dial-up. |
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  derekh
@Level3.net
| reply to matthewcoleh Re: Cricket Wireless Broadband?
said by matthewcoleh :I calculated mathmatics regarding the 700kps that Cricket boasts and so loudly advertises. If a client of Cricket actually operated at speeds of 700kps; then said client, considering the 5 Gig. limit, would only be allowed to experience the unlimited magical wonders of the internet and downloading for approximately 2 hours!! Let's assume the data rate is 700 kbps (kilobits per second) and they limit you to 5 GB (gigabytes).
There are 8 bits/byte, however serial communications typically require "stop bits" and "parity bits" for framing and nominal error detection owing to the fact that occassional streams of 0000 or 1111 bits in a row at high speed can sometimes cause your modem to lose its place. The rule-of-thumb is 10 bits/byte sent or received (this also makes the calculation much easier in decimal.)
We'll also assume 1,000 = K, 1,000,000 = M, 1 billion = G (rather than powers of 2), again to keep the arithmetic simple.
So, 700,000 bits per second is equivalent to 70,000 bytes per second. 60 seconds/minute means 4,200,000 bytes per minute (4.2 MB/min). 60 minutes/hour means 252,000,000 bytes per hour (252 MB/hr).
Therefore, at their maximum data rate you'd expect to expend your 5 GB cap after a little less than 20 hours of continuous use.
So to clear up one possible point of confusion, Cricket is not offering 700 KBps (kilobytes per second) and if anyone thinks they are offering KBps then this calculation should clear it up for you. That's not to say you will see anything close to 700 Kbps (kilobits per second), or if you do that it can be sustained for 20 hours, but you should understand how these speeds are calculated so that your expectations are well-grounded. |
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 judgedredd
join:2009-09-23 Aurora, IL
| reply to formeat Re: Any experience with Cricket Wireless Broadband?
Hi, I just posted about using Cricket with Outlook etc,.
I got my service yesterday. I can tell you that apart from the problem with not being able to send emails from my personal domains via Outlook Express, which I just solved using port 587 on the SMTP server port from a post on this site, I can state these things with regards Cricket service:
The broadband is much FASTER than the Sprint Broadband I am giving up (the unlimited 69.99 a month service using a Sierra Wireless USB 598 modem, with their most advanced thechnology) The cell phone account is BETTER; I am clearer, and others can hear me better. My usage last month with sprint was just under 5GB, as I used a netmeter before changing over to see what my usage was. So the cap (after which the service slows down, it does NOT stop) is not really a problem for me. |
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  seagreen Premium,Mod join:2001-05-14 out there | reply to formeat (topic move) Cricket Wireless Broadband - Router Question
Moderator Action The post that was here, has been moved to a new topic .. »Cricket Wireless Broadband - Router Question |
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 radiohead473
join:2009-09-27 | reply to rsrussell Re: Any experience with Cricket Wireless Broadband?
Hello!
I have a cricket modem and service.I was told by the sales-person it would stream movies and such.That it was almost as fast as cable broadband.So,do I have the right to return this for a refund? |
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 delmarvawifi
join:2008-07-15
| Such things are hard to prove. Did you sign a contract or were provided a copy of the terms of service when you paid?
The key here is an understanding about what Mobile Broadband is and the technology behind it.
It is better than Satellite and Dial-up, far worse than anything else. |
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 yragha I'M Stuck In The 80's Premium join:2002-05-08 Pasadena, TX | reply to formeat Love it.
Have used Cricket for two weeks and get 700 down and 500 up. Currently, no dropped connections either.
Very satisfied. -- NEVER forget 9/11-01 |
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  seagreen Premium,Mod join:2001-05-14 out there | (topic move) Using Yahoo mail with Outlook on Cricket Wireless
Moderator Action The post that was here, has been moved to a new topic .. »Using Yahoo mail with Outlook on Cricket Wireless |
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  kayle
| reply to formeat Re: Any experience with Cricket Wireless Broadband?
Ok so I got cricket (befor I found this site) so far its been decent thank god. My issue is that I also have TIVO and would like to use the wireless features of tivo to connect to the internet. When I follow the directions from my husband who is deployed with the military atm to making the network connections and internet sharing open Tivo still does not see the connection.
Is it possible to share the internet connection with devices such as tivo? I have seen where people connect thier xboxes so I am thinking yes but Im wondering how... help anyone? |
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  jrhickman2
@nov.com
| reply to formeat I currently have Cricket Broadband. You are not able to run multiple things @ once, or it will be really really, slow. I think my wife bought the phone & the modem for like after rebates, total of $50. OOur monthly bill is like $42. I do not however recommend this for downloading apps. It takes weeks to download one thing. It is access to the internet though for $40 compared to all the other air cards, that are $60 a month. I have not had the opportunity to use these, as I will not pay $60 a month for an air card. |
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 CyberDude
join:2009-10-01 Pueblo, CO
| reply to radiohead473 Cricket is fast, IF you have the signal strength! My Cricket has 4 bars at my girlfriends house and I can do all my usual internet activity including VPN into my office. However, it is not TRUE broadband speed regardless of your signal strength. Think of this as surfing over the cell phone and you'll understand why most posters here are frustrated. I'm an I.T. guy so I'm not bothered by this technology. I bought Cricket for remote emergency access (vpn), I don't expect anything more!!
Is Cricket misleading the public? If they had the infrastructure to support the overwhelming requests for mobile access, then sure, Cricket can say this is broadband speed. For now, deal with the slow connections and the blocked ports or go find another mobile wireless that offers true 3G speeds like Sprint ($$).
Thanks, Mark |
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 yragha I'M Stuck In The 80's Premium join:2002-05-08 Pasadena, TX
| And does Sprint or for that matter AT&T or Verizon offer anything more robust? From reading some in these very forums you may get from 6-700 down with Cricket to 1000 with those, but is that worth the extra $20?
Not to me it isn't. -- NEVER forget 9/11-01 |
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  CricktUsrKC
| reply to formeat CricketUserKCMO here again. I've been using this service since February now. My contract runs from the 1st to the end of every month. Was throttled the last 10 days of last month (September). Paid for October's service September 28th at the service center. Still throttled on the 1st of the month. The service center said that my modem was to be reset at midnight on the 1st. No - full bandwidth was supposed to be reset on the 1st - not midnight of the 1st/2nd. She called tech support and said it's been reset. Went home - modem was not reset. Called service center - she called tech support again and said modem was reset. Modem was not reset. Called tech support myself - modem reset for a few hours then went back to 12KBps download speed. Called again on the 3rd - modem was reset - reverted again back to 12KBps download speed. I haven't exceeded 5 GB this month. This is unacceptable service for the 40+ dollars I'm paying. Cricket will never receive another dime from me ever again. |
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  rework
@tigerpawsoftware.com
| reply to formeat Cricket broadband is horribly slow! I am currently using it until my cable internet is installed, and I want to pull out my hair. It can barely sustain a remote connection to my desktop, which it is connected to. I'm in the premium coverage area, and I feel like I'm working with broadband! For $40 a month, it is not worth the frustratingly slow speeds! Spend a little more and go with DSL or Cable, and avoid this annoyance of their service. |
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  notanymore
| reply to formeat Yeah and they really suck bad! It's a shame because it really doesn't have to be this way. I've had them for just over 4 months now. I live in deep south Texas and the first two months were really horrible. At times I was seeing sub-dialup speeds. I mean really, really sub-dialup. I'm talking 3kbits/sec and less! Dial-up is of course 56kbits/sec. It was so slow that I was embarrassed to tell anyone I had Cricket. I actually felt bad for Cricket for minute that a ISP could be so inept. After the two months the speed actually got decent for about 5 weeks. I started seeing speeds between 600kbits/sec to 1.1mbits/sec in the morning up until about noon. After noon speeds would slow to 300-400 kbits/sec. Still tolerable though. About three weeks ago speed slowed to 100kbits/sec and have been locked there every since no matter what time of day it is. That is not broadband or 1xEVDO. What it really is is 1xRTT. I sent them an email asking them what up and of course got no reply. Didn't waste my time calling with all the horror stories about Cricket out there. The fact that they didn't even reply to a paying customer speaks volumes. I use to work telecom (broadband) test and turnup and PC tech support so I would definitely know if the problem were on my end. It's ain't folks. They're brazenly lying to the public with their commercials the speed being locked at 100kbits/sec. It's amazing no state attorney general has picked up on this yet. They apparently ain't doing their job either. I'll be contacting mine though right after I type this. This is my last month with Cricket. Next month i'll give Sprint or Verizion a try. |
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