<html><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12pt">I had USI Wireless for a while. The secure connection is the way to go. The public connections are for their limited free access.<br><br>I used a laptop and monitored the signal strength to find the best location. Never found anything strong enough to keep a good connection.<br><br>After I dropped their service, they called and highly recommended their $49 professional installation to solve my signal strength problem. According to others I talked to, this included mounting an external antenna etc. Those other users highly recommended their installation.<br><div><br><span></span></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 16px; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal;"><span>By the time USIW called, I had already switched to Comcast Business Class
broadband and have had 0 problems. Much better that USIW or Qwest DSL. YMMV.<br></span></div><div> </div><div><span style="font-family:courier;">--- </span><br style="font-family:courier;"><span style="font-family:courier;">Wayne Johnson, | <span style="color:rgb(191, 95, 0);">There are two kinds of people: Those</span> </span><br style="font-family:courier;"><span style="font-family:courier;">3943 Penn Ave. N. | <span style="color:rgb(191, 95, 0);">who say to God, "Thy will be done," </span></span><br style="font-family:courier;"><span style="font-family:courier;">Minneapolis, MN 55412-1908 | <span style="color:rgb(191, 95, 0);">and those to whom God says, "All right, </span></span><br style="font-family:courier;"><span style="font-family:courier;">(612)
522-7003 | <span style="color:rgb(191, 95, 0);">then, have it your way." --C.S. Lewis</span><br></span><br><blockquote style="border-left: 2px solid rgb(16, 16, 255); margin-left: 5px; margin-top: 5px; padding-left: 5px;"> <div style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> <div style="font-family: times new roman, new york, times, serif; font-size: 12pt;"> <div dir="ltr"> <font face="Arial" size="2"> <hr size="1"> <b><span style="font-weight:bold;">From:</span></b> Mike Miller <mbmiller+l@gmail.com><br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">To:</span></b> TCLUG List <tclug-list@mn-linux.org> <br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sent:</span></b> Thursday, January 17, 2013 11:47 AM<br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Subject:</span></b> [tclug-list] using USI Wireless in Minneapolis<br> </font> </div> <br>
I have CenturyLink service, again. It was down for awhile and it was not easy to get service when I had to deal with their call center in the Philippines. They seemed like really nice people and they spoke great English, but when they ordered a service for me, it never happened. They'd give me a tracking number, but the system would still have no record of my order and no record of the tracking number!<br><br>Anyway, while I had no CenturyLink, I used the USI Wireless internet system. They charge $10 for one day, which is ridiculous, but they charge $18 for a week and $25 for a month, or $20 for monthly recurring.<br><br>I had huge problems with lots of disconnects and dropped packets, but I was grateful that I could get something while my CenturyLink was down. When I first signed up, I chose this WiFi connection...<br><br>City of Minneapolis Public WiFi<br><br>...opened the web browser, got a username/password for login and ordered a
week of service. After a few days, I realized that I had other options like these:<br><br>usiw_secure<br>usiw_secure_S06N139T1<br>USI Wireless<br>usiw_secure_S01N129T1<br><br>I used usiw_secure with the username/password established above, and that made things work a *lot* better. I had been getting highly variable ping times to my office machine, lots of dropped packets, lots of stalling of VNC connection, but now I was getting 30 ms pings, good consistency, no dropped packets, smooth operation of VNC -- everything better. Now it could be some confounder like the time of day, but I'm pretty convinced that the usiw_secure just worked tons better. A speed test showed 1 Mbps both up and down.<br><br>Another thing -- I tried to figure out where in my home I had the best reception. So I started pinging my office machine, once per second (the USI WiFi router didn't respond to ping) and I walked around the house looking for
patterns. It seemed best toward the southwest of my house. Is there a better way to test signal strength? Is there a better way to improve reception?<br><br>Anyway, thought I'd put that out there in case it helps anyone, but I also wanted to hear if anyone has any ideas on how to deal better with some of these issues. Thanks.<br><br>Mike<br>_______________________________________________<br>TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota<br><a ymailto="mailto:tclug-list@mn-linux.org" href="mailto:tclug-list@mn-linux.org">tclug-list@mn-linux.org</a><br>http://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list<br><br><br> </div> </div> </blockquote></div> </div></body></html>