T-stick or PCMCIA 3G Card?

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › T-stick or PCMCIA 3G Card?

dimsim

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#31777 30-Mar-2009 13:14

One of our Guys lives in a marginal reception area and his local Leading edge store has recommended he upgrade to a T-stick form an AC595 PCMCIA Card. My thoughts are that the T-stick is going to offer little in the way of a stronger signal over the AC595, does anyone have any experience of this?

Also another one of our Guys has recently had a t-stick sent to his as an upgrade for his AC580 but since upgrading we can no longer VNC to his machine when hes connected to the net via the T-stick. I removed the T-stick software and installed an AC595 PCMCIA card and could access the machine remotely no problem. Does anyone know if the T-stick or new watcher software has some setting that blocks remote access?

My thoughts are that the PCMCIA/Express card is much more robust and less likely to be broken than a t-stick and if the reception or perfomance of the cards is better in marginal areas then the T-stick would be a bad choice.

mjb

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#204178 30-Mar-2009 14:14

If that's telecom stuff, no idea...

If it's Vodafone, there's a possibility the APN is different on each connection. the 3G card is probably using "Internet", and the stick will be using "www.vodafone.net.nz" - the former has no firewalling, the latter does, and blocks all incoming traffic.

(T-stick is telecom isn't it? In which case I've just given you useless information)

contentsofsignaturemaysettleduringshipping

paradoxsm

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#204216 30-Mar-2009 15:40

T-Stick is a Telecom CDMA data device. They only have the once access node which is the equivalent of the "Wildcard" or "internet" APN.

The Sierra usb module "Compas modem" "T-Stick" or whatever naming regime they use would probably be a better bet as you can put it on a USB extension cable and put it close to a window/on a sill, middle of table etc whereas with a card it's stuck in the one spot but then a card is always there and less likely to be snapped off.

My favourite device was the old Gtran cards and the early Sierra card , they were great low-profile units.
Instead they are now massive things that stick out an inch.. ugh.

I'm puzzled with the VNC though, that seems weird.

Graymond

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#204639 1-Apr-2009 11:17

I have a Telecom T stick which is a Sierra usb module "Compas modem" works a lot better than the PCMCIA card that I had about 30 months ago, as mention it can be attached to a lead and moved about for better signal reception. ( you can get external antennae, Mag mounts and Yagi High gain beams if you so desire for poor sig areas)

Using the T Stick on a NEC Versa M540, WinXP Pro and Ubuntu

dimsim

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#204643 1-Apr-2009 11:43

Graymond: I have a Telecom T stick which is a Sierra usb module "Compas modem" works a lot better than the PCMCIA card that I had about 30 months ago, as mention it can be attached to a lead and moved about for better signal reception. ( you can get external antennae, Mag mounts and Yagi High gain beams if you so desire for poor sig areas)

Using the T Stick on a NEC Versa M540, WinXP Pro and Ubuntu

When you say "works a lot better" do you mean that its faster? If the PCMCIA card was an AC580 then you wouldnt have been getting the RevA speeds of the T-stick, hence it would seem like a huge improvement.

edit: I've just seen you're from the US so this may or may not apply :)

tonyhughes

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#204657 1-Apr-2009 12:35

dimsim: edit: I've just seen you're from the US so this may or may not apply :)

Check his profile. He is from New Zealand.

When posting from a Telecom mobile connection, your IP shows up in a range that Geekzone knows as a USA range.

Graymond

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#204798 1-Apr-2009 21:20

dimsim:
Graymond: I have a Telecom T stick which is a Sierra usb module "Compas modem" works a lot better than the PCMCIA card that I had about 30 months ago, as mention it can be attached to a lead and moved about for better signal reception. ( you can get external antennae, Mag mounts and Yagi High gain beams if you so desire for poor sig areas)

Using the T Stick on a NEC Versa M540, WinXP Pro and Ubuntu

When you say "works a lot better" do you mean that its faster? If the PCMCIA card was an AC580 then you wouldnt have been getting the RevA speeds of the T-stick, hence it would seem like a huge improvement.

edit: I've just seen you're from the US so this may or may not apply :)

Tricky these WHOIS checks on mobile broadband

From bad sig areas the T-sticks on a USB extension lead allows you to get a better sig than a card in the side of the laptop.

I,m currently getting 1x at -97dBm from our present location when the EVDO sig is present its about -102dBm, but we have no landline so it's better than nothing.

In 3g areas it's very fast, be interesting to see what happens between now and June

bbman

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#204818 1-Apr-2009 22:59

The TSTICK RF capability is unlikely to be better than a PCMCIA 595u card un less the extension cable is used.

Both have external RF connectors and in all cases rurally or in poor coverage areas or even in a city i recommend and sell a quality YAGI directional antenna and ULTRA low loss cable to get the best connection and speeds. Ultra low loss versus std rg58 etc makes a massive difference to signal strength.

From my experience I have found the 595u USB card had the best on its own RF performance with or with out an extension usb cable. The TSTICK is certainly not as good.

When an external YAGI antenna is used all of the devices work on EVDO some 15 - 25
+ KM from the local site.

Note soon enough Telecom will have USB wCDMA data cards available with faster download and upload speeds and coverage on all cell sites so the foot print will be much better.

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dimsim

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#207337 16-Apr-2009 16:38

Well, through trial and trial, I've managed to answer the question for myself.

The AC595U USB Modem DEFINITELY does not perform as well as the AC595 PCMCIA Modem.

In my marginal reception area the AC595U could only muster 2-3 of 5 bars of 1x where the AC595 would lock onto 2-3 of 5 bars of EVDO-A. Needless to say ping times and throughput were dramatically different. When on 1x, ping time was around 1000-1200ms and throughput was dire, eventually winding itself up to 132kb/s down and 50kb/s up. No amount of using with the cradle or moving around to get better reception helped here. The AC595 on the other hand had 2-3 of 5 bars reception, ping time was around 200ms and throughput of 990kb's down and a healthy 538kb/s up.

For reference I've also got a Vodafone UMTS card which can only muster dialup speeds at bestin my area.

So if you live rurally or are in a marginal reception area with no other broadband options I would start with the AC595 PCMCIA card and if that doesn’t perform that well add an external yagi with low loss cable to it. I've got one site which is about 25km out of town but with a clear view of the town and pointing the yagi down to a cell tower in town is currently giving 400-500kb/s up and down. The 3G offerings such as these are infinitely better and appear to be just as reliable if not more so than the Satellite alternatives, they're cheaper and give a better browsing experience too.

I havent tested the 595U in a good reception area but immagine in main centres is should work ok but if you've got a PCMCIA slot or 3G router I's go for the AC595 any day.

Hope this information is of use to someone else considering which hardware option to use with Telecom's mobile broadband.

bbman

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#207340 16-Apr-2009 16:46

dimsim: Well, through trial and trial, I've managed to answer the question for myself.

The AC595U USB Modem DEFINITELY does not perform as well as the AC595 PCMCIA Modem.

In my marginal reception area the AC595U could only muster 2-3 of 5 bars of 1x where the AC595 would lock onto 2-3 of 5 bars of EVDO-A. Needless to say ping times and throughput were dramatically different. When on 1x, ping time was around 1000-1200ms and throughput was dire, eventually winding itself up to 132kb/s down and 50kb/s up. No amount of using with the cradle or moving around to get better reception helped here. The AC595 on the other hand had 2-3 of 5 bars reception, ping time was around 200ms and throughput of 990kb's down and a healthy 538kb/s up.

For reference I've also got a Vodafone UMTS card which can only muster dialup speeds at bestin my area.

So if you live rurally or are in a marginal reception area with no other broadband options I would start with the AC595 PCMCIA card and if that doesn’t perform that well add an external yagi with low loss cable to it. I've got one site which is about 25km out of town but with a clear view of the town and pointing the yagi down to a cell tower in town is currently giving 400-500kb/s up and down. The 3G offerings such as these are infinitely better and appear to be just as reliable if not more so than the Satellite alternatives, they're cheaper and give a better browsing experience too.

I havent tested the 595U in a good reception area but immagine in main centres is should work ok but if you've got a PCMCIA slot or 3G router I's go for the AC595 any day.

Hope this information is of use to someone else considering which hardware option to use with Telecom's mobile broadband.

Interesting, in the rural areas I have been providing mobile broadband rural solutions for, the 595u is superior to the 595 but in saying that most if not all of those solutions have used an external antenna. I use the 595 in my laptop and it works really well by itself.

I guess it is possible that the external RF port is not as good on the 595 versus the 595u but on its own the PCMCIA might out perform the USB variant.

Note the T stick is not as good as the 595 u either.

These devices will become obsolete once WCDMA goes live as you will get HSPA 3G coverage off all cell sites. Thats the downside of EVDO right now. But I have had great success selling data cards & APT CDMA routers that provide a better, more reliable service than Farm side in the areas i have been dealing with.

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