Lanchester.net ...musings of an old nerd

If you're lucky enough to be walking around with a Verizon Mi-Fi in your pocket, it would be a good idea to turn off broadcasting the network name. It's just an added security precaution so the casual user doesn't see your SSID (network name) pop up when he turns on his wireless-capable device near you.

How do you turn off broadcasting your Mi-Fi's SSID?

• Launch a browser on your Mi-Fi-connected device (iPhone or computer).
• Type in 192.168.1.1 in the address line and click Go (press Enter, whatever!).
• The Mi-Fi's status page will appear. You need to login with your admin password to make any changes.
• Type in your admin password in the upper right corner.
• Click the Login button.
• Choose Settings from the Advanced menu at the top (in the red menu bar area).
• Under Access Point, uncheck the setting "SSID broadcast enable".
• Click the Apply button.

That's all. Now you'll have to type in your SSID on your computer/iPhone/iPad the first time you want to join the network. (Some devices will always keep track of it and hop back on it. Others will force you to retype it every time.)

Needless to say, you also need to turn on security (WPA2 preferred, if your wireless cards can handle it).

• Verizon Novatel 2200 Mi-Fi Tutorial (Flash-based video from Verizon)
• Checking data usage
• How to remain under the 5gb limit
• Boosting the Mi-Fi's signal
• Locating cell towers (not a simple task!)
• Access the Mi-Fi admin page
• What does 5gb get you?

I bought a Verizon Novatel Mi-Fi 2200 Wireless Hotspot to work with an Apple Tablet. (It's actually an iPad, horrid name, yet to be released by Apple.)
 
I tested the speed of the Mi-Fi* at work and at home and at various places using my favorite iPhone speed test app, SpeedTest.net. Well, the Mi-Fi was getting TROUNCED by AT&T 3G on SpeedTest.net every single day. I chalked it up to a very nice AT&T 3G setup in this area. (*I understand I'm actually testing the speed of Verizon's 3G CDMA-based EVDO data service, not the speed of the Mi-Fi, but it's much shorter to say "Mi-Fi" than all that!)
 
Then something big happened. The "Great AT&T Melt-Down of 2010" at work began. Too many iPhones. Too much drain on the AT&T amplifier in our buildings. AT&T's service tanked to a range of 0.00 Mbps to 0.09 Mbps download last week.
 
The Mi-Fi provided zippy network access to three of us, including two who were hitting Pandora, and still the Mi-Fi download speed was reported around .29 Mbps. Hmmm...
 
I finally decided to get the computer at home on the Mi-Fi, and I used the internet version of SpeedTest.net to check the speed. What? The Mi-Fi reported 1.66 Mbps, a huge jump.
 
That's when I figured something was fishy. I tried the iNetworkTest app on the iPhone. Mi-Fi: 88.79 Kbps. AT&T 3G: 54.68 Kbps. What?!
 
So when I cruised to dslreports.com on the iPhone (i.dslr.net/iphone_speedtest.html), the Mi-Fi was 1510 Kbps, and AT&T 3G was 640 Kbps. Double what?!
 
The SpeedTest.net app (NOT the website) appears to be reporting incorrect data. SpeedTest.net app indicates the iPhone on Mi-Fi is .29 Mbps (296.96 Kbps), and on AT&T 3G is .38 Mbps (389.12 Kbps). Clearly wrong.
 
Speeds are measured in bits per second, not bytes. To translate megabits to kilobits, multiply the megabits by 1024, or divide the kilobits by 1024 (your choice).
 
The conclusions to be drawn are:

• Don't trust a single speedtest app/website.
• Speed test results vary, based on how busy the download/upload speed test server is and other factors.
• The iPhone appears to slow things down. (There's no way to test AT&T 3G on my laptop, but the Mi-Fi appears to download far faster on a laptop than on the iPhone.)
• The Mi-Fi was definitely the way to go for the Apple Tablet (iPad)!!!

It was impossible for me to activate my new Verizon Wireless MiFi following the terrible instructions provided by Verizon. It appears the version of VZAccess Manager (software stored on your MiFi used to activate it) is incompatible with Snow Leopard (Mac OS X 10.6). You have to download a new version from Verizon's website to get it to work.

Verizon's MiFi Support page VZAccess Manager software for 10.6 (You'll have to enter your MiFi's phone number, which you can actually get off the WRONG version of VZAccess Manager, but you have to install the wrong version first.)

Before installing the new version of VZAccess Manager, you need to uninstall the old version. The uninstall option is under the VZAccess Manager menu, if I remember correctly. Somewhere along the way, while fussing with the wrong version of VZAccess Manager, something (I think from the cell tower) started updating the MiFi, and it activated on its own, without my credit card info and without my name and address. Geesh. Have to call into them this morning and pass that along.

I already have an iPhone with AT&T's 3G network. The network speeds where I live are great, but when we trek out to the east coast to where the brat lives, her 3G speeds are awful. In addition, the 3G networks between here and there are few and far between, so it's a lot of EDGE. So why not kill two birds with one stone? Get a Verizon MiFi and a WiFi Apple Tablet. The MiFi is on its way (1 cent from Amazon). Too bad I can't order a tablet yet.