air card question

[aaadave]

hi all, i've got the sprint 727 usb air card that connects at 230 kbps, ( our old dial up was 21 at best, so this is fast to us) and it shows 90-95 dbm. i understand the kbps, but what does the dbm stand for? i've heard that lower dbm is better than higher. thanks, dave.

[Waynem]

dBm stands for Decibel.
Click here for definition.

Edited: Most likely your card is referencing "signal-to-noise," ratio.

[Alex Sian]

quote:Originally posted by aaadave

hi all, i've got the sprint 727 usb..and it shows 90-95 dbm...
i've heard that lower dbm is better than higher. thanks, dave.

you're right. sort of. your signal is actually -90 to -95 ... right?

better signal would be -85 or -80 - and technically thats a higher number (less negative?)

our experience is that at around -80 signal, you are getting as much speed as a cell tower is capable of giving.

in your case, it would be cost effective to consider an externally attached antenna to improve signal, and thus improve speeds.

yes, there is a jack on your u727 to allow for external antennas. it looks like this picture:

[Icehouse]

Slight change of subject: Do you need cell phone service access to use air cards successfully?

[ronstan]

I'm sure that someone who knows for sure will come on here. But I think that now you can get Verizon for the 60.00 price without having their phones. At one time you needed to have their phone service to get that price.

[Cyrus]

I have a Verizon Wireless air card. Connection speed depends on signal strength and type of connection, National Access is not as fast as Broadband Access. The area you are in determines which you get, you are not in control of the type of connection. I can look at the status of signal strength and send/receive rate on the VZAccess Manager Computer interface. All National Access connection speeds and Broadband connections speeds are not the same. It seems to depend on the equipment/tower you are connected to.

Bottom line is as they say, it's a crap shoot, sometimes you have nothing, sometimes fast National and some times slow Broadband. If you get on line consider it a good day. Get a fast connection is a real good day, like real estate, Location, Location, Location.

When you are purchsing the card get them to show you there coverage area. Also get them to let you try it and if it does not work within 30 days you can return the card. You may have to pay for the time you have the card/service.

Good Luck,

[Mrs. CountryGuy]

Icehouse,

I believe I understand what you are asking,

If your cell phones do not work where you are, then the likelyhood of your aircard working is pretty low. That said, I am speaking when your air card and cell phone are vendored by the same company.

We ended up with Sprint because Verizon just would not cover our home area (where the stick built is). We have Sprint phones and Sprint air card. We did have a Verizon phone for years, and no it never worked at the stick built. We had reasons for having that service and keeping that service and at the time they were valid. Life changes, needs changed, we changed to Sprint.

[DONnANNIE]

quote:Icehouse Posted - Feb 17 2008 : 7:20:39 PM
Slight change of subject: Do you need cell phone service access to use air cards successfully?

What Mrs. CountryGuy said. In addition to that, you don't need cellphone service, but if you had cellphone service, you would know whether or not you should have aircard service. They go together. Your aircard is a data cellphone. As they say, "if you don't have cellphone service - you don't have aircard service."

I hope that answers you question.

[H. John Kohl]

quote:Originally posted by aaadave

hi all, I've got the sprint 727 usb air card that connects at 230 kbps, ( our old dial up was 21 at best, so this is fast to us) and it shows 90-95 dbm. i understand the kbps, but what does the dbm stand for? i've heard that lower dbm is better than higher. thanks, Dave.

You have received the answer to the questions. Explaining the minus dbm and data rate a little more. The the good signal strength reference number for this topic is -80 dbm as stated by Alex. The dbm is telling you how well the cell phone is receiving the signal. The kbps is the speed the information is moving through the phone.
So a -80 dbm signal strength should give you the fastest data rate.
Also as stated since this signal reference is on the negative side of the scale a -90 dbm actually means a weaker signal since it is farther away from ZERO so the data rate will slow down because the system will ask for retransmissions which slows the through put.

I hope this helps.

[richfaa]

Ice house. You do not need to have a Verizon cell phone to have a Verizon air card but there is a discount for having both.

[Alex Sian]

quote:Originally posted by richfaa

Ice house. You do not need to have a Verizon cell phone to have a Verizon air card but there is a discount for having both.

sorry rich... that information is no longer accurate. it changed last summer.

no difference in data service rate, regardless of cell phone plan.

$59.99/mo regardless.

[sreigle]

Rich, there's no longer a discount. As Alex said, Verizon has reduced the non-cell-phone-user price to the same as their cell phone customers. We do not have a Verizon cell phone is how I know.

Icehouse, if you buy the aircard through 3gstore (Alex's company) they will handle everything with Verizon for you. I assume they do the same with Spring and ATT but I don't know that for sure. We had to sign some papers Verizon sent us but 3gstore took care of all the signup, etc. Piece of cake, in other words.

Plus, 3gstore is a lot cheaper on the hardware than buying through Verizon, Sprint, or ATT.

Alex, if I decide to get an external antenna to mount on the ladder of our fifthwheel, which would you recommend for our V740 expresscard and Wilson 3-watt booster? Thanks.

[waldo238]

If you can get it down to 60 or 65 then you are basically within eye sight of the tower, lower the number the better. Speed is also affected by how many people are using the DO service at the same time and how many T1's they have dedicated to the DO network at a given site, that is why these devices go dormant when not in use so the band width does not get hogged up.