Woosh Wireless

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3 posts

Wannabe Geek

#6784 23-Jun-2004 14:40

I've been using Woosh for the last 3 weeks or so in Wellington and have really positive comments. After a small hiccup where they didn't respond to my online information request, everything has been great. It installed with no hassles on either my PC or my laptop. Download speeds are fast as is browsing (I haven't tried it for gaming yet and probably won't). It interfaces with the wireless router at home fine, and I've used it so far at home, at work, and in a couple of other spots in the Wellington CBD. I've called the help number twice, and got quick and helpful answers to questions (one just to check the pop3 address etc which wasn't listed anywhere, and one because I had some trouble getting the settings on my wireless router right)

I haven't been on any other connection other than dial-up so I can't really compare the speed, but downloading from fast sites I usually have speeds in the high 20s or low 30s. Downloaded a 267mb file the other day in around 3 hours.

I haven't had any dropped connections yet that I know of - I thought I did once, but it was because I was running the modem off battery and it ran out (I guess it would be cool to have a warning system for the battery - or even better have the option of powering through USB, but I guess thats asking a bit)

So pretty positive experience here!

nobody

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Geek

#6785 23-Jun-2004 15:01

Do you work for Woosh Ged? :p

There should be some sort of disclosure policy on this website!

On another not, has anyone used the Woosh connection manager software to successfully download software updates?

The views expressed in my comments are my own and are not meant to express the views of my employer, or of my employers client(s). In fact they're probably not even my views.

Ged

3 posts

Wannabe Geek

#6792 23-Jun-2004 16:17

No 'Nobody' I don't work for Woosh or have any vested interest in them (other than as a happy customer I hope they carry on operating). I think its a wee bit juvenile to assume or imply that someone who has a different experience to you might not be telling the truth. Nobody asked you if you work for one of Woosh's competitors when you posted your negative experiences.

I'm quite happy to accept that you're telling things as they are, but perhaps you could also accept that perhaps it actually is possible that I'm having a good experience? In fact my Wellington experience is similar to a previous post on this site, so maybe it is just working better in Wellington, who knows? I guess we'd find that out by people feeling like they could provide posts of their actual experiences and not feeling like their motives will be questioned.

On your question about the connection manager for updates, mine seemed to connect but said I didn't need any update - so whether its just up to date because its a new modem or whether its not getting proper info I don't know.

Cheers

bjorn

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#7320 21-Jul-2004 18:56

In February when woosh first came to Invercargill, I decided to give it a go.. The first thing I noticed was the latency.. It was always up n down and far worse than dsl even dialup which is crazy, about 120ms right up to 600ms+ which ruled out online gaming straight away. I emailed woosh about the problem and they said they were waiting for ipwirless (the people that make the woosh modem) to release a firmware upgrade. The next problem I discovered was it wasn't true flat rate anything over 7 GB they aren’t happy about which is easy to go through if you don't watch what your downloading. Also downloading internationally sometimes can be pointless at some points in the day getting lower speeds than you get from dialup. Personally I feel predy mislead after woosh making it sound so good, I guess it will be allot better when they sort there sh!t out... (if they do..) but just a warning to people looking at getting woosh at the moment it really isn't worth it.

paradoxsm

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#8484 12-Sep-2004 22:12

Woosh My views.

Having signed up recently for woosh as well as being an old Walker Wireless customer, I seem to have had really good and really bad service.

The service's great points are always on anywhere wireless internet access. nothing better than using your laptop in starbucks with it while everyone else is tinkering with 801 WiFi ana paying "Reach" $$$ for the pleasure., I sometimes as a novelty, fire up the WIFI on the lappy and share my connection with co-drinkers. :-P

I got really novel and used it as a DAB radio in my car but it could not handle handovers from cell-cell.

it is TDCDMA, a hybrid Time Divided Code division multiple access. quite different to what the mobile networks use. As far as I know it's a Philips chipset.

The modem when it works, for internet surfing works fantasticly!
It seems to be intermittent.

I have to run a booster antenna and find you better take it wherever you go as it rarely works without it. except in CBD and near towers.

When it drops out it seems to die altogether. I have to reboot the modem to get it to reconnect. it gives the usual "the remote comuter is not responding.
This is on both Ethernet and USB.

BUG!!!!!!!.
one is discovered, on XP, if hyperthreading is enabled on an intel p4 with a intel 82801 chipset it will cause the PC to lock up. that is, DIE.... no mouse, no CTL+ALT+DEL, nothing but reach for the power cord. This is fixable, yes, buy the ethernet cable.
this may also happen on other machines
ASUS p4p800 p4 2.4GHZ, 512MB Hynix RAM

Latency.
Early, yes it peaked but was no too much of an issue. while online gaming was slow, it was not impossible with the strategy games like Red alert, starcraft etc.
Intenet radio ften had a small problem buffering eraly in the song but would work fine from there on in.

recently, more consistient, not far off the VOiP hopefully

Software is utterly terrible. yes it's a "less that 10 minutes" I would not even bother. instead do the following. (this will take 2 minutes for an adept user.)
The whole package is 40+ MB. Less than 1MB of that is actually needed.
following this method, you also DON'T NEED IE INSTALLED!!!! great for us tweakers.

please note, you will not be able to call helpdesk/technical support with this method as the "applications dialer" is not installed. (gives the readings etc)

Charge modem. it can be quirky and if the light goes out it's not good.
insert Woosh Cd WHILE HOLDING LEFT SHIFT FOR 20 SECONDS.
Turn modem on while plugged into power.
Plug modem into USB. yes i know it says not to but forget what it says, it's WRONG! :-P
WIN98/ME, follow the usual procedure for adding new USB device. select select a "driver for this device manually", "other devices" and "have disk"

On XP/2000 let it search the CD for it. select "D: drive" or whatever and click OK.

D:\drivers\Usb\Win98\inf for windows 98/ME machines,
D:\drivers\Usb\Win2k\inf for 2000/XP machines.
and presto, a WDM ipwireless broadband modem is installled.

Make a dial up connection. follow the instructions all over they net for this. it's easy.
WARNING!!!!!! for XP and 2000 make sure you turn on the internet connection firewall. You will thank me you did. For 98/ME you will be safe.

LAN installation.

Windows98/95 (95 if you even so DARE but i have had it working once.)

Plug it in while it's on, and install
D:\PPPoE\PPPOE098.EXE
this seemed to work fine on 98-XP for me.

Win XP

Easy, Start, settings, network connections, New connection wizard, and wait.

Select , Next, connect to internet, setup manually, Setup using a broadband modem that requires username/password/ , ISPname: Woosh, username: @woosh.co.nz, password as per, DO NOT untick "set interet firewall for this connection," unless you want a virus, done. click and you are away.

Ensure you edit the dial up networking connection and check/turn on that internet connection firewall before you connect or problems will arise. AKA VIRUS

Helpdesk, can be good, can be a disaster, all depends who you get as with any company.

Good Luck!

paradoxsm

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#9288 12-Oct-2004 22:32

Update, I have ripped my modem to pieces and funnily enough it has stayed connected for over 3 weeks without a reboot! it's casing is metal and it must seriously affect the high frequency.

It looks ridiculous but the RF performance is superb now.! (and I removed thet stupid backup battery which was most of the problem.)

Please note, the new modems are very fragile. The power buttons break rather easily

Dell

Shop now for Dell laptops and other devices (affiliate link).

freitasm

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#9295 13-Oct-2004 02:31

Interesting... I've used my Woosh modem in Auckland and its performance was very poor. Here in Wellington it's quite good actually. I wonder why... Is Auckland more "dense" in number of users, or less cellsites available?

I was in the Princes Wharf region.

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nobody

47 posts

Geek

#9305 13-Oct-2004 15:03

Could be,

I've been having terrible trouble over the last month too (dropped connections, unable to connect, very slow) and Woosh tech support told me it because they had too many users on the cellsite that services those areas.

Interesting Woosh article in the NBR recently too:

http://www.nbr.co.nz/search/search_article.asp?id=10067&cid=0&cname=Results

The views expressed in my comments are my own and are not meant to express the views of my employer, or of my employers client(s). In fact they're probably not even my views.

T_1_M

21 posts

Geek

#9724 1-Nov-2004 00:46

Hi there, I have been using woosh in Auckland since around March.

I am a university student flatting with 3 other students in our house. We decided to get broadband or (medium wideish band as it should be called) and run it through an old 486 computer setup as a proxy and router. This then goes to our switch and then feeds our 4 computers.

we contimplated both woosh, jetstream and satilite. We knew Jetstream was going to have the most reliable service but the prices were too costly for a flatrate which we needed due to the 4 users. Satilite was rediculously priced. Woosh came to our campus and I had a chat to them and they said we were in a perfect position (mt roskil) so I went on trademe and found a second hand modem for $80.

SO there was no REDICULOUS jetstream setup connection fee. Since i change flats yearly I cant afford to pay $99 for a connection to jetstream once a year (come on telecom)!

Anyway I phoned woosh up and set up my account over the phone within 5 minutes. Service was spot on and was very impressed.

The speed it great. I consistently get 250 kb out of the modem! Peak times are a slower, but then u get what u pay for. With woosh I can take it to uni too with my laptop when i need to also (no power cables because of the battery so its great).

However there are some random problems. I dont think the driver is integrated into windows very well. I never use the stupid woosh dialer, i think they should just get rid of the dialer and have a status bar or soemthing.

Every so often some sites wont work. ITs always NZ sites. Nationalbank is a favourite not to work. And this can be really really annoying. Do u know this woosh?

The drivers of the modem also seem to get corrupted really easily. So if you are having problems with it connecting. Uninstall the whole lot. Reboot your machine. Turn reinstall the drivers and it will most likely work straight off. Dont worry about trying to fix it urself. Just start again its easier - TRUST ME!

Overall though I really have been impressed. It serves the four computers we have excellently and works out really really cheap since we share the price between 4 people! Im just waiting for them to get the VOIP going so we can use that (although telecom anytime is soo much better than the old plans).

On the service centre. The first couple of times i phoned up (sales staff) service was superb, friendly pleasant. However the quality seems to be degrading... The last guy i spoke to was a jerk.

Anyways go the entrepreneurial firms
Hope u enjoyed my story

Tim

Amber-la

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#10152 12-Nov-2004 15:46

Afternoon!
Can anyone give me feedback on Woosh use with Macs running osX 10.3.6?
i'm about to embark upon what looks like an epic woosh mission and would greatly value anything you can throw into the mix.
It seems, like any new technology, there teething problems. But it's encouraging to see that there are an even amount of positive and negative reports.

cher
Ams

alasta

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#10155 12-Nov-2004 17:27

Last I heard, there were no drivers available to connect the Woosh modem to the Mac via USB. However, you can connect it via Ethernet connection which is just as easy.

It's likely that it'll work as soon as you plug it in. Otherwise, it'll just be a matter of going into System Preferences/Network and tweaking some settings.

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Amber-la

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#10206 15-Nov-2004 10:02

yeah thanks for that... i know how to connect modems up and tweek... ;-P i get paid to do that.
USB was never gonna be an option due to the drivers required etc etc... it's an extra thats just not necessary when the ethernet option is there.

so maybe a more pertinent question is "is anyone currently using Mac osx and woosh?"

raaaahhhhhhh.....
why is there never coffee when i need it!

Al_mac_n_Linux

1 post

Wannabe Geek
Inactive user

#11015 14-Dec-2004 12:38

I've tried using woosh with mac os X (PPOE is a built in function). It worked, but we have been using our woosh connection for 9 months without issue before, and so was all preconfigured. We only test for a short time. The only thing is a PC is required to load the latest firmware, up to the woosh modem, now way around, that I found.
Rgrds, Al

Amber-la

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#11018 14-Dec-2004 13:44

cheers al... i got one of the modems the other day to trial just how mobile they really are
good grief! the booster antenna is bloody huge! no nice sleek portability here.... coupled with the fact they flashed my modem with the wrong password. I'm on the brink of cucking a hissey-fit and sending it back.
good thing was when it did work in a magical 5 minute window it was damn quick! so pros and cons are balancing out......

freitasm

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#11019 14-Dec-2004 13:50

Why not try the PC Card instead of the external modem? Since I have a space PC Card slot on my Tablet PC I'm thinking of getting it and ditch the external modem...

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