Mobile Internet using AirCard and Mobile Router

[jbeletti]

Joe,

Mine is under the back seat, driver's side in my RAM. But not under the seat-bottom. Rather, under the seat-back section. The RAM seat-bottoms flip up. Then under the seat-bottom is a fold-flat floor that fold out towards the front seat. This reveals a section under the seat-back that can store relatively flat items. The router fits there perfectly. The factory installed Sirius Satellite Radio tuner is in the same place on the passenger side.

My CarPC is under the driver's seat. My USB hub, PC power supply, 12 VDC power block, Sony camera switcher and a whole mess of A/V cables are in the storage area under the front row middle seat.

Jim

 

[jgilbert]

Jim,

With the router underneath the back seat, do you still have a good signal to the fiver? Inside the truck is probably no problem, but I wonder about getting it out to the trailer.

Joe

 

[nhunter]

I don't have mine permanently mounted, but I think I would put it behind my glovebox as I have lots of room. The range on the Kyocera KR-1 is pretty good. I have had it in the truck about thirty feet away from trailer and it worked in the trailer. I imagine they have the same range as a household router.

 

[jgilbert]

MHunter,

Thanks for the reply. The glove box area would be a good choice also. My Ford f-350 has a large glove box, but am not sure how much room there is behind it. I'll have to check that out.

Joe

 

[jbeletti]

Joe,

I replaced the rubber ducky antenna on the router with a roof mount (magnetic) antenna. An SMA male to N male adapter was required too.

Jim

 

[nhunter]

jgilbert, I also have an F-350. I was thinking you could screw it to the actual back of the glovebox so it is easy to get out if need be and to keep it away from the heater core / ac box.

 

[jgilbert]

nhunter,

Are you talking about inside the glove box or behind it?

Joe

 

[jgilbert]

Jim,

The antenna for internet is the wifi one on your truck picture, right? Where did you get it? Also, the adapter plug..........is that only for the Junxion box or would it be required for any mobile router? Perhaps this question is better directed to nHunter since he has a different manufacturer router?

Joe

 

[jbeletti]

Joe,

The external WiFi antenna that is on the truck is universal in terms of the router brand/model. The adapter required to connect it to different routers may be different.

I purchased the antenna from Sharper Concepts. Here's a link to the antenna. I ordered it with a female-N connector. Cost was $35.

The adapter was ordered from WPS Antennas. They do not stock it. But they had it drop shipped from a distributor.

While it is recommended to order antennas with N-female ends, if instead, you ordered it with an N-Male end, WPS Antennas does stock the adapter SMA Male to N Female. If SMA-Male is what you need to replace the WiFi antenna that comes on the Mobile Router you choose.

Consider also adding an external Cellular Antenna for the AirCard as well. If you want, I can detail my ordering information.

Jim

 

[nhunter]

I was thinking behind the glove box

 

[nhunter]

Well I finally broke down and bought a Wilson wireless cellular booster. Wow does that make a HUGE difference. I drove through and area that my digital handheld had zero signal and my 3 watt analog truck phone had 1/2 service. As soon as I turned on the booster I instantly had full coverage on my handheld and aircard. Of course 3 watt still had half as they are trying to phase them out.

 

[jbeletti]

nhunter,

Thanks for the update. Sounds on par with what Clark is seeing with his and what a buddy of mine in South Florida is seeing.

I may have to add an cellular amp one day. But I am running out of room in the RAM to add electronics. Especially ones that generate heat and use battery power

On a side note, I updated firmware in my Sprint (Sierra Wireless 580) AirCard today. When I put it back into the Junxion router, from a connected client PC, I got a DL speed of 723 kbps. That's not bad at all. Expecially considering that the same client was transmitting GPS coordinates over the Internet to a server every 10 seconds during the test. My camera also FTPs an image to my web server once a minute. To get that download rate, I was surely between FTP cycles.

Jim

 

[nhunter]

I tried to update my Telus aircard 580 and i got mad at me and tech. support couldn't figure it out.

 

[jbeletti]

That's why I have a "replacement" card. Part way through the firmware update of the original card, the update stopped. Rendered the card useless. Getting a replacement card through Sprint was a big pain too. I was weary of doing the update yesterday but it needed it. Got lucky - it finished in about 5 minutes.

 

[jgilbert]

Verizon or Sprint...............that is my problem. Which do I choose to be my mobile internet provider.

Sprint can be had for $60 a month. Verizon is the same $60 if I also switch my cell phone service to them. I've been reading on another board that Verizon is cancelling some users that are going big downloads or are staying connected for long periods of time. The cancelled guys were supposedly downloading mega gigs of movies and songs. Sprint is somewhat more lenient of such activities. I am not a movie downloader, or online gamer, or song downloader except for the occasional iTunes song or album. BUT, I did envision an "always on" connection (when we start fulltiming) like the wifi cable modem I have in my house now.

What do you guys say?

Joe

 

[nhunter]

Mine is through Telus and I leave it on all the time, but after 8 or 10 hours of being dormant it shuts off.

 

[jbeletti]

Joe,

Being in the Chicago area, I am covered well by both Sprint and Verizon. I chose Sprint because I got an airtime and equipment discount through a corporate affiliation.

In practice, with the Sprint service for a couple months now, I'd say I am generally satisfied. The only quirkiness I am finding is that when I hit an area that is not covered, I don't always reconnect automatically when I hit a covered area again. I need to power-cycle the router/aircard. I have also made sure that I put the aircard into my laptop and run Sprint's Connection Manager software every now and then. This allows me to update the aircard's firmware (if needed) as well as the PRL (preferred roaming list).

If what you say about Verizon is true, that may be a consideration for Sprint. Check who can cover you the best too. If you have not looked there, take a look over at www.mp3car.com. Look in the forums there and see what you can learn about the 2 services. Same too for the forum over at www.evdoinfo.com.

Good luck,

Jim

 

[jgilbert]

Thanks for the info about other sites, Jim. The thread about cancellations came from the evdoforums.com site. I'll check out the others also.

Joe

 

[navyAZ1]

Okay I'm dizzy from reading all of this, here's my question I am working from the road using my Verizon air card for my laptop I am working with CAD drawings and if I don't have a full signal my speed is really slow. If I get the cell phone booster will that increase my speed for file transfers or will it just increase the signal or do you get more speed when the signal strength increases. Sorry to sound so dumb but I'm not even close to being a geek. Our first trip went well but at times when the signal strength was weak it would take forever to transfer these drawing files like 3 to 5 minutes. I have considered zipping the files and then email them to my office account and then move them to the file location if that might be faster. Will travel mostly in the east this year but next year plan to be out west and will surely need help out there for a good signal.

 

[jgilbert]

navyAZ1,

Your speed of downloads and web pages loading and such should increase with a stronger signal. In other words everything will be faster when you show 4 bars instead of 1 bar. That being said though, if you are out in the boonies and getting a good signal, it won't be as fast as it would be if you are in a major metro area with the same signal. The infrastructure away from the big cities is just too spread out to give you the same speed as in big cities.

Joe