Wireless / Mobile > Clearwire > Clear in Chicago

reply to Clever_Proxy

Re: Clear in Chicago

reply to Clever_Proxy
Just got clearwire today. I'm in Arlington Hts/Rolling Meadows area. Its only been 1 day but had no problems yet.

I've also observed marked improvement since my last posting a couple days ago. I no longer have the hanging issues I did before. I no longer have to disconnect and reconnect in order to fully load the Google homepage! SWEET!!!!

Looks like I'm going to hang onto this thing for a couple years.

reply to Clever_Proxy


This was done at Larkin Ave and Theodore St in Joliet while I was sitting at the dealer Saturday morning. I didn't have the greatest signal and I didn't have the time to check again outside, but that's an accurate indoors test.

reply to Clever_Proxy
I'm sitting in my living room at North and Ashland using the CMU-300 USB modem to connect.

reply to Clever_Proxy
Here my latest from inside my home (Grand and Harlem in Elmwood Park, IL) - 3 bars Motorola Modem

reply to Clever_Proxy
Just checked online and Clear is finally available to my area in Naperville. Ordered the fastest home service so we'll see if it works as planned. I'm located in South Naperville between Book road and 59 and between 95th and 111th. I am unsure where the closest tower is but believe it is located on 59 in line with the power lines running through Frontier Park. I'll keep you posted on what connection I actually get. Keeping my fingers crossed. I have been waiting for a long, long time...

Capt:

There's a few towers in that area. The closest one is that array outside white eagle on 59

Longitude -88.2067
Latitude 41.7206

Then there's one at 91st and schroger and one at 135th and rt 30.

Hope this helps

reply to Clever_Proxy
Thanks for the locations. That confirms where I thought they were. I'll let the forum know what connection I get when it's up and running.

reply to Clever_Proxy
So I have been testing out the service since Wednesday, after going into the Michigan ave store. Initially I had some issues, mainly with sales agents (over the phone and in the store), as I think they are annoyingly aggressive when it comes to trying to entice you into a contract. I went ahead with the 2 year deal, but...I figured if there is an out for 7 days why not. So far, I have had no issues with the service itself. I am on a Mac, so...I don't really see these bars everybody's talking about lol. However, I have noticed that speeds can be erratic.

Sometimes I get 5mps, sometimes I get 3mps...when I do the speedtests, the results I get are variable. This becomes evident when downloading MP3's or programs (where transfer rate spikes in all directions), but watching movies seems to load without buffer. With all that said, I have not noticed any slow service as I live downtown, so thats good. I think what I might do is switch over to the month-to-month before the 7 days is out...I am not sure its a good idea to be contractually tied to this company since it's still new, when speeds are so erratic. Plus the intensity from which they try getting you to sign on the dotted line left me walking away, feeling like I had the SUCKER tattooed on the back of my head.

I feel like if after 7 days, the service begins going to s**t, I would want the option to go with something else without paying their hefty termination fee. Again, I have only used the service since Wednesday, so I will update in a few days.

reply to Clever_Proxy
So I just received my home modem and plugged it in and this is my result with 3 bars lit (location: South Naperville, IL):





I'm going to move it around tomorrow and see if I can get four or five bars lit if I take it upstairs. Right now it is in between my family room and dining room hooked up to my laptop. It is important to turn it even slightly. I got an extra bar and more signal strength by just turning it an 1/2 inch. Taking it outside gave me four bars. It is interesting that if I held it up to a window I got less bars than having it face an outer wall instead. I figure it is the energy-efficient windows we have installed that is blocking the signal a bit.

But all in all, I am quite happy. I'll keep you posted if that should change in the next couple of days. Now I'm looking for a good router to hook up to it so I can also use it with the two desktops I have upstairs and my HDTivos. Any suggestions?

reply to Clever_Proxy
Looking good, better than I can get.

reply to Clever_Proxy
Hey guys, I'm at Midway and decided to whip out the lappy to see how Clear's signal is out here and it's showing 5 out of 10 signal bars.

The speed is rather pathetic, isn't it? I hope more towers go operational soon!

What were the speeds at the police department after you whipped out your lappy? Just Kidding! =P

reply to Clever_Proxy
Downers Grove Far South, actually more Darien.



RSSI -79
CINR 10

On my way here I just noticed the WiMax antennas and Microwave dish on a Sprint site that weren't there previously. Not sure if it's live yet, but it's not on my tower listing that was updated Nov 15.

LineNoise, where did you get a tower list?

personal observation.

When Moto started the buildout in 2008 they went after the iDen Shelters because (I assume) there was free space. Now they're doing the small cabinets like we've seen pictures of on here.

Here's the antennas, look out for these:

»kmwcomm.com/PDF/HB-X-WM-17-65-00T.pdf

Oh and sales has access to maps.

reply to Capt Pischar
I'm down by 95th and Naperplainfield Rd. Any thought on how well it might work here? There's a scary looking small patch on their coverage map that's giving me pause for thought. Thanks!

The intersection of Naper/Plainfield and 95th.

11,454' from the west tower
13,898' from the east tower.

Since I have no way of confirming the tower I am active on while driving home I am going to assume it's the ONLY active within 3 miles. Anyways, I have piss poor signal at 11,750' and it rapidly declines at about 4,000'. Hell their map is showing "coverage" only 2,879'.

I was searching the FCC last night and there are a SHIT TON of applications...There's going to be a coverage increase, but I think it's too little too late. There's a few towns way out that i'm just like WTF are they covering that for? Then there's a lot that dumbfound me my it was covered in the first place. Like the 6 in Bolingbrook (3 of which I know are ready to roll). To top it all off, they just put a damn AD up for it at the bus stop by my house.

There's 26 just for Naperville.

reply to Clever_Proxy
Here is what I get now that I hooked up a wireless router:



Without the router, I got over 5 mb/s.

I noticed the speed goes down late at night but during the day it is pretty consistent.

I knew that adding the wireless router would decrease my speed a bit but am trying to adjust it to get the optimum connection. My modem and router are upstairs, on the top shelf of my walk-in closet. I work down on a lower level on my laptop. I have another older computer in a room on the other side of the house which picks up the signal just as well. So does my HD Tivo. So distance isn't an issue. The router I have is a Benkin N+ F5D8235-4. The signal on the modem fluctuates between 3 to 4 bars lit.

I am hoping the signal becomes more steady as time goes on and as it is right now it isn't bad, just not what I am paying for (the fastest home speed).

They had better improve on this if they want to remain competitive.