Aircard 5220, verizon and IBM T42

I posted a month or so back asking for help figuring out why my 5220 no
longer
provided adequate service in the SF Bay Area. While the service had
been
pretty good when I test-drove it in the summer of 2004, around the
beginning
of this year it had degraded to the point where a ppp session would
never
stay up for more than 2 minutes.

To make a long story short, the problem was that I switched laptops,
going from
an IBM T41 to a T42. Verizon's tech support (once I was able to reach
somebody
at a high enough level) was great. They checked out my account, sent
me a new
card to try, walked me through tests, etc. Finally they suggested I
try it out
on a different laptop. On one of my co-workers Powerbooks it was fine.
On
another's T42, it sucked just like on mine. Conclusion: the T42
doesn't work
well enough with the card, at least for 1xRTT service.

Verizon also had me go buy (on 14-day trial) a Novatel V620 (supposedly
an
upgrade from the 5220). That card also sucked in the Bay Area, though
maybe
not quite as badly. But I happened to try it at the Portland (Oregon)
airport
where they now have EVDO. Holy sh*t the thing was fast. So I suspect
that
whatever's wrong with the T42 only matters for 1xRTT service. But
since I
can't get a new laptop anytime soon I'm going to have to let my Verizon

account lapse as soon as the contract's up and look for some other way
to
get online.

Hoping this helps somebody....

--Eric

A very interesting situation... I could think of a couple
possibilities: I will start with the less likely one - Could it be the
power capabilities of the laptop? I am pretty sure there are 3.3volt
and 5 volt cards out there... I wonder if the new laptop can't provide
the 5volts or something.

The more likely possibility is some sort of RF interference from the
laptop itself (whether in the form of the laptop generating RF,
resonating the signal generated by the card back at it, or most likely,
blocking it altogether by shielding the antenna in some way). I would
suggest trying an external antenna on the card to see if this helps!

One very important note (and possibly a clue to your problems) - EVDO
(at least in Portland) is being deployed exclusively in the 1900mhz
spectrum. If your laptop is somehow interfering with 800mhz signal this
could explain your problems...

P.S. I take it you were an OSU student? I just graduated in 2003.

-Eric

fixin@peak.org wrote:
> I posted a month or so back asking for help figuring out why my 5220 no
> longer
> provided adequate service in the SF Bay Area. While the service had
> been
> pretty good when I test-drove it in the summer of 2004, around the
> beginning
> of this year it had degraded to the point where a ppp session would
> never
> stay up for more than 2 minutes.
>
> To make a long story short, the problem was that I switched laptops,
> going from
> an IBM T41 to a T42. Verizon's tech support (once I was able to reach
> somebody
> at a high enough level) was great. They checked out my account, sent
> me a new
> card to try, walked me through tests, etc. Finally they suggested I
> try it out
> on a different laptop. On one of my co-workers Powerbooks it was fine.
> On
> another's T42, it sucked just like on mine. Conclusion: the T42
> doesn't work
> well enough with the card, at least for 1xRTT service.
>
> Verizon also had me go buy (on 14-day trial) a Novatel V620 (supposedly
> an
> upgrade from the 5220). That card also sucked in the Bay Area, though
> maybe
> not quite as badly. But I happened to try it at the Portland (Oregon)
> airport
> where they now have EVDO. Holy sh*t the thing was fast. So I suspect
> that
> whatever's wrong with the T42 only matters for 1xRTT service. But
> since I
> can't get a new laptop anytime soon I'm going to have to let my Verizon
>
> account lapse as soon as the contract's up and look for some other way
> to
> get online.
>
> Hoping this helps somebody....
>
> --Eric
>