Subject: [NEXTEL-1] How To Build A Home Network Over CDMA

From: [email-masked]
Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2003 13:14:57 -0400

How To Build A Home Network Over CDMA
Contributed by mmasnick on Fri, Aug 29 2003

Well, this certainly doesn't sound like fun, but someone who moved to a new house
that had no DSL or cable accessible started using a 1xRTT cellular (2.5G)
connection from Sprint for his internet access needs.  However, the problem was
that it could only work on one computer at a time - and despite being told by
Sprint and Novatel (makers of the PC card) not to, he set himself up with a home
network. It involved some additional software, but eventually he did get it to
work. Of course, the difficulty it took him to set up suggests that the wireless
carriers might want to think about things like home networking before they start
pitching 3G solutions as a replacement for home DSL/cable modems.

www.techdirt.com

============================================================
How to build a home network--the hard way
Steve Kovsky,
Contributing Editor,
AnchorDesk
Friday, August 29, 2003

There's nothing like telling people that something
can't be done to inspire them to pull out all the stops
in an effort to prove otherwise. The fact that these efforts
often prove entirely futile is never a deterrent.
We just don't learn.

I'm not sure what drives us to redouble our efforts
when faced with a seemingly insurmountable
obstacle. Whatever you call it (stick-to-itiveness?
stubbornness? sheer foolishness? obsessive
compulsiveness?), it's been driving me like a Mack
truck for the last couple of weeks.

HERE'S WHY: When I recently moved from the
suburbs of San Francisco to the wilds of Northern
San Diego County in Southern California, I lost my
SBC DSL connection. And, apparently, there's no
way to get it back until the company installs new
equipment in my neighborhood, which may never
happen.

The loss hit me pretty hard. The only thing that got me through my broadband
withdrawal was this wireless wonder called the Merlin card. With connection speeds
in the 100kbps range (according to CNET's Bandwidth Meter) over Sprint's CDMA
(Code Division Multiple Access) network, the SprintPCS Merlin card has provided me
with a relatively peppy alternative to the glacial 22kbps connection speed I get
with my local dial-up account.

The problem was, I couldn't share the wealth. Only my trusty Dell Latitude laptop
was able to experience the pseudo-broadband connection speeds afforded by the
Merlin card. Other members of my family, though not nearly as addicted as I,
eventually began to manifest their desire for the Net. They needed their fix, too.

SO THE QUESTION was: Could I set up my home network to share my wireless CDMA
Internet connection?
Representatives from both Sprint and Novatel (makers of the Merlin card)
respectfully informed me that their products wouldn't support shared access--that,
in effect, I couldn't do what I'd set out to.

But, in talking to a tech support rep at Novatel, I found out that it wasn't
actually impossible to network a Merlin card--it just hadn't been done before (to
anyone's knowledge) and it wasn't supported by the connectivity software that
Sprint and Novatel provide.

That seemed like an invitation to me, so throwing common sense (and their good
advice) to the wind, I set out to do it anyway.
First, I tried sharing the connection using just the networking capabilities built
into Windows. Whether because I've got too many versions of Windows (everything
from XP Media Center Edition to Windows 2000 and Windows 98) on my network, or
because of my own inexperience in network configuration, I couldn't get my desktop
PCs to recognize the Merlin's Web connection.

THAT'S WHEN I turned to a program--Sygate's Home Network--I'd once used to share a
dial-up connection. It was very user-friendly, I recalled, and so was its support
staff. I wondered if the product was still available, and its developer still in
business.

To my delight, I found that the software was indeed still in existence, with a
free 30-day trial version available from ZDNet Downloads. Although the economy has
forced the Fremont, Calif., company to move upstream and focus primarily on
corporate clients rather than home users, it's still willing to support its
consumer products.

In my obsessive-compulsive approach to solving the problem (who needs sleep?), I
found a kindred spirit in the person of Jeremy Moreira, from Sygate's tech support
department. For every quirk I uncovered in my by-no-means-standard network, Jeremy
was available to troubleshoot it. After a few marathon phone-support sessions, we
declared it a success: I was able to surf the Web at moderately high speed from my
home office, while my wife simultaneously managed her Hotmail account on an HP
Media Center desktop--both of us connected to the Net via the Novatel/SprintPCS
Merlin card.

The setup isn't as cheap to operate as a typical broadband connection--I paid $179
for my hardware, and Sprint recently started offering an all-you can-eat special
of $80 a month for unlimited access. But it does have one big advantage over DSL
or cable: It's untethered to my house. The card goes wherever I do. I've used it
from Boston to Portland, Oregon, usually with very acceptable results. So if
you're looking for another alternative to broadband, you might want to give it a
spin.

http://www.zdnet.com/anchordesk/stories/story/0,10738,2914574,00.html

------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-->
Buy Ink Cartridges or Refill Kits for Your HP, Epson, Canon or Lexmark
Printer at Myinks.com. Free s/h on orders $50 or more to the US & Canada. http://www.c1tracking.com/l.asp?cid=5511
http://us.click.yahoo.com/l.m7sD/LIdGAA/qnsNAA/61FxlB/TM
---------------------------------------------------------------------~->

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/