::How to build a mobile WiFi hotspot:: [/tech/net] (13:13)

I gave up on public WiFi a few years ago and turned to EVDO as my primary mobile internet connection. I've been on EVDO Rev A since summertime, and the access speeds are incredible. They are so good that when I'm at work I often turn on the EVDO card when I need to download large files because it's significantly faster than our office connection. I think this says more about how bad our office network is than how good EVDO is, but with the exception of my home connection, EVDO speeds generally meet or exceed the bandwidth I can get anywhere else.

It's great, but sometimes I'm out and about and would like to share my internet with others. OS X has a great internet sharing feature. I can share the EVDO connection to other machines, but I've found this not to be very reliable lately. I haven't figured out exactly what the problem is, but it's not something I have a lot of time or energy to spend on the issue. I expect this things to just work. If I wanted to spend all my time configuring my machine, I'd go back to Linux.

The solution is an EVDO Router. There are a number of devices available, but none of them caught my eye until the recent release of the CradlePoint PHS 300. What is unique about the CradlePoint is that it adds battery power for a truly mobile internet connection.

For normal home use, battery backup isn't really important to me, but the battery backup does make car use much simpler. The car adaptor provides power to the unit while I am driving. If I stop somewhere, the WiFi hotspot stays active. Anyone still in the car doesn't lose access when I stop, and if I want to stop somewhere that doesn't have WiFi, assuming I'm not parked too far away the battery power kicks in and provides internet access while I'm inside. If the signal can't reach, I can take the unit with me and continue using the connection.

I haven't had time to drain the battery, but others have reported 2+ hours of charge. That's not quite what I can get out of my laptop, but it pretty much covers all my mobile needs. If I need more than 2 hours of connectivity, I'm probably going to be near power to plug it in. I would love more power, but right now it seems like enough.

I'll post a more detailed review when I have a couple weeks of use out of it. So far I don't have any serious complaints. If you are looking for a mobile internet solution for more than 1 machine, give the PHS-300 a look.

::EVDO Rev. A review:: [/tech/net] (15:47)

Ok, so I lied a couple days ago when I said I'd be canceling my EVDO service when I get my iPhone in a couple weeks. I was really just trying to make the point that the expected iPhone service pricing is not out of the ordinary and someone with iPhone service would be paying much less than many of us already pay for mobile access. I planned to keep my EVDO service because I do have mobile data needs that extend beyond web and mail. Unless the iPhone can share it's connection via bluetooth or wifi, and there is no indication that Apple is even remotely considering the option, then it's really not a great replacement for me.

With that in mind, the kind folks at 3gstore.com (who I highly recommend - having been a customer for several years now) got in touch with me to let me know that EVDO Rev. A has been available here in Austin for several months and that Rev A speeds are quite a bit faster than my Rev 0 speeds.

That's all I needed to know. I ordered a v740 card and have been testing it out all morning. I was concerned about compatibility with my MacBook Pro, but just like with the V640 OS X recognized the card immediately and put the familiar EVDO menubar item, making connection as simple as with WiFi. It took 30-45 seconds (seemed like an hour though) for the card to be activated on the network. Then I was up and running.

The first thing I noticed was that web page loads were very snappy. I don't know if Rev A EVDO has lower latency than Rev 0, but it sure felt like it to me. After clicking around on a few pages to satisfy myself that everything was working well, I did the obligatory speed tests. Depending on the site, I was getting anywhere from 800kbs-1050kpbs download speeds. Switching over to my Rev 0 card, I found I was getting 550-800kbps. That's pretty decent jump, but it isn't grounding-breaking.

Upload speeds were significantly different. I saw upload speeds of 600-800kbps compared to 125 kbps on the Rev 0 card. That's about 4x as fast. I often find myself waiting for emails to finish sending, for example, so I expect Rev A will be significantly better for me.

It's hard to say too much after only half a day of testing, but my initial impressions are positive. The overall experience is noticeably better than regular EVDO. If you've been on the borderline about EVDO, then give Rev A a look and see if it doesn't push you over the edge. If you are a current EVDO user, then I strongly recommend upgrading. The faster speeds are definitely worth the price of a hardware upgrade.

::Escaping the WiFi ghetto:: [/tech/net] (11:08)

"WiFi is dead", I said almost exactly one year ago. When I first discovered broadband wireless, I thought I had forever escaped the pains of that WiFi. Things were good for a while, until the MacBook Pro came along. The ExpressCard debacle plunged me back to the dark ages of WiFi, and let me tell you it wasn't pretty.

It seemed the state of public WiFi had actually gotten worse while I had been away. Keep in mind that as I say this, I'm in Austin, the third most unwired city in the US. If any city should have a good story for WiFi, it's Austin. Nonetheless, over the last 6 months of WiFi, I've had nothing but bad experiences.

The complaints are much different: terrible reliability, port blocking, captive portals, SMTP interception. When you add the pains of public WiFi to the risks of promiscuous networking, WiFi just isn't a very interesting thing.

What's worse is that WiFi pretty much seems like the least efficient way to get people online. Why should every business out there need to take on the expense and the maintenance hassle of providing internet access? Just think about all the wasted time and money spent maintaining hundreds upon hundreds of redundant hotspots. I'm not doubting the economic benefits to a coffee shop or cafe of having wireless access, I'm just questioning the inefficiency of the technology chosen. WiFi is good for local home and office access, but it is a poor technology to create any sort of public internet service. It's silly on a small scale and laughable on a large scale like our Wireless Mesh Project here in Austin. Again, I'm not criticizing the idea behind this, I'm just questioning the technology.

It's great to be back on EVDO. It's a bit more expensive, but it solves my WiFi problems. I don't have to worry about the unreliability of WiFi, showing up to find the access point is down or that the provider is blocking email. I don't have to worry about sitting close to the access point. Everything just works. However, even though I've escaped the WiFi ghetto - EVDO is not the final answer. It's a nice solution for now, but my understanding is that EVDO doesn't scale well. The providers can't really handle massive numbers of users. That keeps the price up, keeping only in the hands of people who make their living online and can justify the expense. Hopefully the coming years will provide better solutions. In the meantime, just being back on EVDO is good enough for me.

::Wireless broadband with EVDO - 2 month review:: [/tech/net] (18:28)

I've been on EVDO for almost 2 months now. When I signed up, I was fairly certain that wireless broadband would kill public wifi, but in thinking about how disappointed I was with GPRS I knew that it wasn't a given. Fortunately, for me, EVDO has turned out to be everything I thought it would be, and then some.

I chose Verizon's BroadbandAccess program. It's $80 a month. ($60 if you have phone service with them) That's not cheap, but it has proven worth every penny to have connectivity wherever I go.

So far I've travelled up and down Texas. I was able to get connectivity along I-35 from Austin to Dallas. Google maps is very handy when you are using it in real time as you go down the road. I was in New Jersey a few weeks back and was able to get online everywhere. Not only did I save time not having to hassle with the hotel network or with finding free wifi in the area, I was actually able to share my EVDO connection with the people in my class when the conference room turned out not to have connectivity. Basically, $80 a month buys me the peace of mind of never having to worry about connectivity. If only all my problems could be solved so cheaply.

From a technical side, EVDO is just a bit slower than a DSL connection, at least at full signal strength. I almost always get full signal strength where I've been using it, but it is occasionally weaker. The worst signal I've gotten was in the basement of the Hyatt at DFW airport. I wasn't able to get a solid phone signal on my T-mobile phone, but I was able to get enough of a signal to make EVDO work. That was nice.

Speed isn't always consistent, but I rarely have problems getting 600-800 kbps download speeds. Upload speeds are much slower. I'm not sure what the cap is, but I don't think I've ever seen 200kbps up. That's more than enough for my needs, though I'd obviously like to be able to FTP files a bit faster. EVDO has performed reliably (no problems) and consistently over the time I've had it. I'm sure there will be problems when more people are using it, but for the time being at least, service is almost as good as it could be.

The hardware works well. I'm using a Kyocera 650, which runs fine on OS X. You have to run a the VZAccess Manager program, which is quite annoying. There's no menu-bar controls like you might expect from using regular wifi, and you have to explicitly connect and disconnect through the app. Ease of use aside, I've got no real complaints about the hardware or the software.

Ok, I lied. The stupid PCMCIA card sticks out of my powerbook. Not only is it ugly, it makes transporting my laptop a pain. I store the card in my backpack, and I know I'm going to either damage it or lose it eventually. I wish I could leave the card permanently in my machine. I don't foresee laptops with EVDO cards built in any time soon, so I'll just have to live with an ugly black card sticking out of the side of my powerbook.

As you can tell, I am still very much a fan of EVDO. The price is too high for casual users now, but it's only getting cheaper. If you have the need/desire for better mobile connectivity, I can't recommend it highly enough.

::WiFi is dead:: [/tech/net] (10:41)

I love WiFi. I think wireless is a great technology to replace cables for a home/office network, but the concept of a public WiFi hotspot is increasingly less interesting. Over the last year, I've written a lot about the unreliability of wireless access. Assuming your local access point isn't down or mis-configured (a common problem here in Austin), you have to deal with garbage like captive portals, SMTP interception and other types of filtering. Public WiFi really is like a box of chocolates - you never know what you're gonna get. In a city like Austin with hundreds, if not thousands, of independent hotspots, how can there be any hope of providing a consistent, reliable and useful network experience? It just can't happen. The entire model of the public WiFi is doomed by design.

I believe WiFi is only a compelling solution to replace an ethernet cable on a local network. The usecase for a hotspot is connecting to the internet. It's not a good fit. But what is? The ultimate solution is "byoi" - bring your own internet. Internet connectivity should be something you bring with you, not something you go to a hotspot to get. Think cell phones. You turn on your phone and you can make calls. You have at least some limited choice of carriers and can chose the level of service you want. The possibility of getting a reliable connection is greatly increased.

I began experimenting with GPRS a year and half ago. GPRS is too slow and too hard to configure to be a real competitor in anything but spirit. This week I discovered that EVDO service is available here in Austin through Verizon. It isn't cheap (yet) but, it works amazingly well. It's billed as "wireless broadband", and that's pretty accurate. I'll post a more detailed technical review later, but right now I'm seeing 500-800kbps downloads. That's about half the speed of a DSL line. Not bad for wireless. (If you want info about EVDO, check out evdoinfo.com)

I'm not saying EVDO is going to kill WiFi, but this type of service is the answer to the problems of WiFi. I'm sitting here this morning typing this over breakfast tacos at Zuzu's. Zuzu's doesn't have wireless, but I don't have to care. And when I do go somewhere with WiFi, I won't have to worry whether the wireless is up. I won't have to worry if they are going to block my email. I won't have to worry if I can get a VPN connection. I won't have to worry about logging into a vanity captive portal. I won't have to worry that after 20 minutes my IM and email will stop working until I go log into the vanity portal again. I just don't have to worry. That's the way wireless should be.

Goodbye WiFi. It was nice knowing you. We can still play at home and at work, where you solve a real problem, but I'm bringing my own network connection everywhere else.

::Why does domain registration attract such scum?:: [/tech/net] (08:08)

I made the mistake of using the email address of one of my first ISPs. I've had my jump.net address for 10 years, and have kept it with me long after the ISP died. Well, they didn't die. It was much worse; they sold out to a bigger ISP. Oh, and that ISP got gobbled up by another ISP. Of course that ISP was sold again, and I'm currently paying money to a XO, I think. You'd think that a large provider could take care of things like keeping domain names registered. Apparently not.

They were really dump and let the domain name lapse. Now some bottom feeding scum company has gone and swept up the recently released name. They are scum because they have no intention of ever using the domain. They just hope that they eventually pick up a valuable one that they can hold hostage. This is all made possible by a profit-oriented domain registration system that makes more money by providing services that enable this kind of garbage to go on.

I guess my big question is why does everything around domain registration smell so bad? Almost all the big players seem like big giant slimy rocks that the little roaches can take refuge under. It drives me crazy.

::SBC blocks port 25:: [/tech/net] (12:50)
SBC blocks port 25 for business users

Finding a good ISP is hard. It's always been hard, but it's never been as hard as it is now. The mega-ISPs are, almost without exception, garbage, and it is neaerly impossible to find an ISP who will just give you a good internet connection without messing with your bits on the way out. Most users will accept whatever garbage service their ISP offers, and if most users are happy then we get service that caters to that mass of indiscriminate consumers. It's the Walmart syndrome. Who cares about quality of the products or the shoddy service? As long as they keep pumping out cheap stuff, the masses are happy in the short term. The market for quality products and services erodes, and it becomes very difficult for the small percentage of consumers who know enough to care to find what they need.

Our office DSL line is serviced by SBC. I didn't have a say in the matter or I would have chosen a quality ISP. Or at least I would have tried to if I thought there were still any in business. Last week SBC decided to start blocking outgoing port 25. That is bad under any circumstances, but it is completely ridiculous to do that for business customers. It's even worse to do that for business customers without telling them first.

Of course, you can opt out of the block if you know where to go. But in the meantime, we are left with no access to outgoing email. Thanks a lot SBC. I recommend avoiding SBC if you are shopping for internet service, especially if you are looking for quality business class service.

::roaming with the VPN:: [/tech/net] (20:40)

I've discovered an added bonus of always working over the VPN. I do a lot of work that requires long running connections, like ssh. Moving between networks causes a lot of problems because I have to close and re-open the connections. Today when I got in to the office, I went to the iTerm window that had an open ssh connection from earlier in the morning at home and discovered that it was alive. From the perspective of the remote machine, my box hadn't moved. By reconnecting to the VPN, I was able to reconnect all of my long running connections. It's one more reason to use virtual networking instead of being bound to the physical network. Very cool.

::Property owners don't own the airwaves around them.:: [/tech/net] (15:34)

I'm very glad to see that the FCC Says Airports Can't Regulate Wi-Fi. (via Jeff Nolan) While the libertarian side of me likes the idea of strong rights for property owners, I think the personal right of people to communicate freely trumps that. By the same reasoning, I think that cell phone jamming technologies should be illegal. Fortunately are, but there are enough people with irrational phone rage that I'm not sure eventually some dimwitted politician will try and make it legal.

In the meantime, I'm glad that WiFi, which wouldn't normally have the same protections as cell phone communications, has some level of protection. Your landlord (business or residential) doesn't have the right to limit your use of WiFi. A small, but notable, victory.

::Antisocial promiscuous networking :: [/tech/net] (09:47)

I don't understand why anyone would want to secure a wireless access point. It doesn't make much sense to me. Firewalls and NAT and other devices which promote the fallacy of the secure local network don't make much sense to me either. But trying to secure a wireless network just seems silly to me.

I was without wireless access in my new place for a while this weekend. Much to my surprise, I found a wireless network run by a neighbor. It's definitely a good sign when you have such seemingly friendly and englightened people nearby. I was able to join the network just fine. After testing to make sure the network was really there, I fired up the VPN as I always do on promiscuous networks.

Everything went fine until I disconnected from the VPN. I always close down my important networking apps like Mail and iChat before disconnecting since OS X doesn't have any notion of a secure/insecure connection. I can't tell Mail "only connect when I'm going over my VPN". Whenever it has a connection of any sort, it will happily connect. I forgot to close down iChat. Not long after that I got flooded with AIM Invader!, AIM Invader!, AIM Invader! messages.

Oh joy. My enlightened neighbor turns out to be PC script kiddie with toys downloaded of Kazaa. I guess I made his day by falling into his trap. Besides the thrill of being antisocial, what is the point of running an open access point and then harassing someone who hops on the network? That's a dumb question because that is exactly the point of it. It just struck me as a bit odd. If you want to be antisocial, just close up the access point. If you are being friendly and leaving it open, then why harass people? I'm sure it makes sense to someone out there.