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lujohnson
N 0 E Q P
join:2002-08-08
Agoura Hills, CA
 ·Sprint Mobile Broa..
| MiFi 2200 Wireless Hotspot
Just received my new Sprint wireless hotspot device Monday, and I must say, I absolutely love it.
It's faster than my Novatel U720, which averaged speeds around 1700/500. Using the MiFi 2200, I'm averaging consistently over 2000/800.
This thing works so well, it's almost spooky. When i look over at my unused Novatel U720, all I can think is "Wow, a cord. How quaint. Ah, those were the days..."
I've been able to place the device on the dash of my car and access it from over 100ft away at a park, at full connection speed.
Yesterday, I drove the entire length of Malibu Canyon thru the Santa Monica Mountains, from Calabasas to Malibu, streaming Hulu the entire way, without a loss of stream. I did this with the 2200 sitting on the passenger seat.
Novatel did an amazing job on this piece of technology, and I wanted to share my initial experiences with it. I'd love to see one opened up. Anyone have pictures of the insides yet? | |
lujohnson
N 0 E Q P
join:2002-08-08
Agoura Hills, CA
·Sprint Mobile Broa..
| Update:
My original MiFi 2200 unit failed suddenly. Turned it on one day, and it just kept rebooting, endlessly. I reset it, hard reset... cleared everything user 'clearable' and it had no effect.
Since it was within the first 30 days, my Sprint store exchanged it for a new unit.
Fired up the new unit and ran tests for a day or two, and found that my earlier speed tests of 2.1/850 ish, were now no better than 750/750 consistently. Tried everything, checked for firmware updates, and it was already up to date. Reset it multiple times. Tested speeds on more than one laptop and desktop in full bar signal areas... still, 750/750 ish most tests... even slower others.
Additionally, randomly, my surfing would slow to a crawl, and upon checking the 2200, found that even tho I was in a 'full bars' signal, that it had bumped itself down into 1xRtt. I would then have to power cycle it to get it to ramp back up to EVDO.
So I took it back to the store. They exchanged it AGAIN.
So, is my third unit working? Well, sort of. It stays in EVDO mode normally, like it should in my strong signal EVDO areas that I frequent... but my speeds are STILL only averaging 700/700.
The WiFi light on the 2200 also seems to blink at a slower pace than I remember. It's as if it's in a different mode of some sort. The wifi indicator light on my first unit flickered rapidly when I was using the web.... not sure what that means. I'm looking forward to chatting with Sprint technical support to see if there may be something set improperly in my unit.
My first 2200 was shipped from a Sprint warehouse back East. The 2 I've gotten locally have the speed issue. Thinking maybe there are some out there that are initialized incorrectly, and some that aren't
Anyone else have feedback on their experiences with the MiFi 2200? | |
lujohnson
N 0 E Q P
join:2002-08-08
Agoura Hills, CA
·Sprint Mobile Broa..
| reply to lujohnson
After several days of very slow speeds (compared to what I'm used to) I'm suddenly getting double...1.5/600 ish, which is approaching the speeds I originally experienced with the MiFi2200.
I'm not sure if there were network problems coincidentally affecting several towers over the span of my experience. Either there were, or perhaps something in the 2200 'updated'.
Checked the firmware and other internal stuff's version numbers.. I don't *think* I notice any revisions.. but unfortunately didn't think to record what they were when I first fired up the unit. | |
rmk288
@stsn.net
| reply to lujohnson
I have the same exact issues as you do. I drop into EVDO 1X and don't come out without a reboot. I also noticed this happens more often "on charge" with the wall charger. Some other weird things:
I go into roaming and won't come out without a reboot.
Signal indicates full bars yet I drop to 1X.
2nd unit, first had battery issues.
3rd unit, charger won't ever fill battery while in use.
There are a lot of firmware bugs. I feel at times like the first time I used VISTA. BUGGY!!!!
And then there is the issue of support. No web support (the links haven't been enabled), no chat support (they don't know about it) and it takes about 6 calls to get a US call center (instead of Monterey Mexico, or the Caribbean) where they actually know what a MIFI 2200 is.
The product manager of the MIFI 2200 for Sprint should be on line in the Unemployment office.
Going for my 4th unit today. It's definitely a result of poor firmware and no testing. I beta tested for Verizon on the same unit. The Sprint version of the currently shipping firmware appears to be worse than the original alpha version of the Verizon firmware from 4 months back.
SHAME ON SPRINT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! | |
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