Fernand
Hello
I want to change my ISP and would like to go for a portable source of internet since I need to have access in both Beirut and the mountain. And I think Mobi and Wise are the only options I have.
I clearly know the costs of everything and the quotas.
What matters is the real world experience. I would like to have the opinion of those who are using these services concerning availibility, coverage, need of a free eye of sight, eventual problems, real speed during the day and night (if it wavers), latency, and if it's possible to download at night when it's unlimited (I mean do they block you once you've passed a certain cap?)
Thank you
I hope you can help me finely choose my most fitting option
samer
11. Bumping
Posting a single word or useless message (bumping) to attract attention to your thread is not allowed and will result in a warning.
rtwo2008
here's my experience with the 2:
I don't know about the mountains, but I guess u can check the coverage on their website.
In Beirut, Kesrouan, etc... they are both good.
Wise:
------
- Only has the big black box option that needs external power.
- Box expensive.
- Has good overall signal and speed day / night.
- Slows your internet to a crawl after 12am if you have downloaded around 4GB during the free night quotas. They always deny it on the phone and say there must be something wrong, but it can't be a coincidence or that every month after the 5-6th day of downloads the internet slows down to 0.5KB/s at exactly midnight.
- I hear the ping is good enuff for online games like WoW.
Mobi:
------
- Have the big black box option that needs external power and the smaller USB dongles that don't need external power.
- Big black box more expensive than wise, USB dongles are moderately priced.
- Black box has good overall signal. USB dongles need to be outdoors or close to a window with a decent line of sight to function properly, but they are great on the beach ;) with a laptop. Has good overall speed day and night.
- You can download as much as you want in the free night time. If you have a good signal, you can do around 1.5GB / night. Make sure you turn off your laptop at 7:45am because it has happened a few time with me that I kept the connection going although making 100% sure i stopped the download at 8am using schedule timers for the torrent software BUT it ate 1.5GB of my quota, when I called Mobi, they insisted that the download had been done during the day which is surely wrong (so i'm guessing they didn't even bother to check and they automatically assume you are guilty until proven innocent) and therefore used the whole quota of my card in 1 day (bye bye 50$).
- Never tried or heard about its ping in online games like WoW...
Good luck with whoever you decide to go with.
Fernand
Thanks a lot rtwo2008.
so seems like Mobi is the way to go if I want to download at night without worrying?
You have no idea about latency?
thanksa again, much appreciated :)
Hybrid
Here's my experience (2~3 years ago):
Wise: PCMCIA (with cyberia, aka wireless bit)
- Latency very low, less than 100ms to google.com, lower than ADSL by around 50ms on all websites and games (ADSL also from cyberia)
- If you download, you get FUPed.
MOBI PCMCIA (from IDM)
- High latency, around 700ms to google.com
- No FUP, but that was 2 years ago, I don't know now.
One thing about cyberia, from what I remember, when I applied to the Wireless bit, they asked me if I want the guy that will deliver and install to bring with him other hardwares, like USB, the big black box, mobi and almost every wireless technology they have... they told me if wireless bit signal is low, then we can check other devices and see if i prefer them. But i ended up getting the pcmcia wise because, well, the strength was 100%, but that's in Beirut :)
Here's an advice, if you're not gonna use it indoors, I mean if you just want internet in your house at the mountains and in beirut, I suggest you bring the black box, so you can adjust it anywhere you want for a better signal strength,
PCMCIA wasn't good indoors, i always had to keep adjusting the laptop, rotating it a bit, moving it up, down, left right...
babum
I believe Mobi has a FUP policy of about 5GB if Im not wrong, it happened that I foolishly downloaded around 5GB thinking that I would be fine, but after that internet after 12 became unusable until around 2 AM or more. They certainly apply FUP policy.
Btw Im using the 256kbps card from Lynx.
Fernand
babum how's latency throughout the day?
babum
If I am not wrong, latency was about 500ms to Washington DC. while using Voip you do feel a bit of a delay though not too much that would make it uncomfortable. The only time I played online with it was for a multiplayer Flight simulator X with a simultaneous voip gsm codec call, working like a charm (though I believe that for FPS it would be harder to play).
for speed, during the day you get around 50 kb/s give or take 10 kb/s .
Fernand
Can you please ping for example bbc.co.uk, tf1.fr and google.com?
haidcar
my advise it wait for 3G speeds up to 21mbp, great coverage and can be used indoors, and it very mobile. release date of 3G is supposed to be September that is less then 2 months a away. its worth the wait
rtwo2008
regarding mobi FUP, it never happenned to me, i recently downloaded 10s of GBs / month but that was on a "Broadband Plus" 512kbps card. I have heard from friends that Lynx mobi is crap.
regarding ping time, i have no idea on mobi, however i know that wise has around 200-300ms on WoW outside peak time, however every little while a spike occurs.
regarding 3G, like everything else that ever happens in lebanon, im not expecting miracles, even when these incompetent fools try to fix something, they fix it wrong or flawed ...
babum
I would say that 3G is absolutely not the answer to our problems. the biggest problem of 3g is the horrible latency, go landline if you want low latency.