3G or 4G internet on a PC through USB

[burger2227]

I found an internet service called Freedom Pop that offers 1/2 G of 4G service for free per month. All I needed was a USB stick
to get internet on my laptop if it worked out. I decided to give it a try by purchasing a USB stick from NewEgg for $20.

The 5 Blue bars strobe when it is searching for a signal and the round LED turns from yellow to green when service is found.

Note! Freedom Pop 4G service will no longer be available for this BOLT or WIMAX Device in November 2015!

When I received the stick, I signed up for the free service online(using my ISP, not the stick network) and I tried it out at
my apartment and got nothing even though the 4G service map showed green all around. I called tech support and we found
nothing wrong with the unit so the next day I decided to drive it around to pick up a signal. I finally got a green light near a
Seven Eleven and pulled into their lot.

I was able to surf the web without any problem! It worked pretty well! After that, I drove clear to the beach and got no other reception.
BUMMER!!

I found a signal booster for $14 that is supposed to work without any outside power. The antenna goes outside and the receiver
on the other side of a glass window passes the 4G signal to a 4G device inside:

I used regular tape so that I did not have to use the permanent double sided tape provided on the 2 units.
The insulated window appears to be pretty thick so I'll have to try it on my car. I plan to permanently mount them
on my car window if they work. So far no luck. I'll try driving to the beach on Friday.

Note! Freedom Pop 4G service will no longer be available for this BOLT or WIMAX Device in November 2015!

[burger2227]

I finally got around to mounting the antenna on my car. It does not show up in the rear view mirror at all:

I cannot see the internal receiver underneath either. The outside antenna mast unscrews to remove it when necessary.

It appeared to receive3 the G4 signal a lot better. I even had it blinking green near my apartment. I had to unplug and
reinsert it in the USB port to get it to receive again when the green light kept blinking. A few miles out of town it lost
reception and it never came back. Not even when I returned home several hours later. I have never gotten any reception
on the return ride.

So far, for the short times I have gotten reception, I have used over 45 MB of data out of the 500 per month that is free.
Another drawback is that the data gets CUT OFF 100 MB BELOW that so that you can't supposedly go over. That idea
seems kinda dumb as they already could just charge extra for the excess data as they have my credit information!

[burger2227]

Tried it out again today and found out that I have to unplug the stick sometimes to get it to connect. If that is the case, then the stick should have a reset button, because USB plugs are shaky to begin with. I've seen them damage pretty easily, even USB 2. USB 3 will be a nightmare!

Note! Freedom Pop 4G service will no longer be available for this BOLT or WIMAX Device in November 2015!

I'm about out of the month trial period, so I'll let you all know what happens with the FREE stuff!

I was able to connect to 4G right outside my apartment building so the usage, going through email, was higher
than normal. Services like Twitter or Facebook eat up more data as they are constantly updating.

I want a 4G service to run a PC for free when I'm not using it! Plans for laptops cost $50 per month whether you use it or not. I'll pay for service if and when I need it! Otherwise I can just use free WIFI, but I'd like service in between. We shall see...

[burger2227]

I've started a new billing period and it appears that my unused data is rolled over to the next month:

I found a $9.99 charge for the rollover service on my credit card and contacted them to cancel the Premier Service.
Otherwise I will have to pay for the rollover data. They never asked me if I wanted to keep the trial service.

Note! Freedom Pop 4G service will no longer be available for this BOLT or WIMAX Device in November 2015!

[burger2227]

Drove to Pittsburgh and Washington DC and got 4G service in both places, but not NEAR everywhere.

The rolled over data is still showing on my service, but I assume that from now on I will only get 500 MB with 400 MB being the cutoff. Haven't figured how to buy more data without a more expensive plan. No matter how you figure it, 500 MB is only free if you don't roll it over for $9.99 for whatever data is LEFT OVER from last month for the next month. That's still only 500 MB per month average. At that price, 4 GIG would cost $80. What's FREEDOM POP about that?

Plans can cost $19 for 2 GIG or $29 for 4 GIG of data. There is also a plan for 3G / 4G that costs $7 for 1/2 GIG. Seems to me like a scheme to try to beat the customer if they make a wrong move, like most things these days. I don't mind people making money, but I hate playing games with the FREE stuff they supposedly offer and then GOUGE you for if you want a TEENY bit more.

Can't wait until they start offering FASTER INTERNET to Netflix while my Verizon service has NEVER HIT 50 MB downloads to begin with. Maybe I should pay the $10 more for faster service, but I'll never get it anyhow!

[burger2227]

Update: Found that I can roll over the ,5 Gig of 4G data for $3.99 a month up to a max of 20 Gig which would take 40 months.



They kept trying to charge for the Premium Service with the free 500 M, but a second call finally stopped that. This may be a great alternative internet service for emergencies once 4G is available in more places. So far Virginia Beach at the boardwalk only has 3G. That should change pretty soon!

[burger2227]

T-mobile has a WIFI service that works with the iPhone 6 and automatically switches the phone to WIFI when available. This can cut down on Data usage to save money and the calls work just as well as 4G.

Seamless, Integrated Wi-Fi Calling on the iPhone 6 with T-Mobile: http://recode.net/2014/09/30/review-sea ... -iphone-6/" target="_blank

If you have poor cellular reception somewhere, you might want to make voice calls on your smartphone over Wi-Fi. The practice isn’t new, but it hasn’t been nearly as easy or seamless as making a standard cellular call.

You typically either needed a separate app, which can require the other party to have the same app, or a separate phone number that your contacts wouldn’t recognize. And even in the case where Wi-Fi calling was a built-in feature, a call begun on Wi-Fi usually simply dropped when you moved beyond Wi-Fi range.

Now, with the release of the iPhone 6, T-Mobile — the most aggressive promoter of Wi-Fi calling among major carriers — says it has solved those problems with what it calls the “next generation” of Wi-Fi calls.

Walt Mossberg

[burger2227]

While on vacation I used my 4G stick to get my laptop connected in my car while on beaches or in big cities:

The laptop never left my car when I could get a decent 4G connection. I even have a small TV to watch...
I ended up having to sleep in my car 3 nights where there were no available hotel rooms in Florida.
The center console lid served as a decent mouse pad while the cooler and seat cushion kept the PC
from flying into the dashboard when stopping quickly. The 4G stick is green with 5 bars!

Note! Freedom Pop 4G service will no longer be available for this BOLT or WIMAX Device in November 2015!

However, there were times when the device would just be disabled on its own and could never be enabled:

The NDIS based Device would not enable without a total reboot of the laptop so I believe it is the laptop's fault!

[burger2227]

I got another Freedom Pop stick that does both 3G and 4G. Here is 3G in my neighborhood:


There is 4G in my neighborhood, but it comes and goes. My 4G stick never found it!

The silver center piece slides down to lock the USB connector safely away.

Now I have to set it up with Freedom Pop with a totally new email address for that account!

1) They will not allow you to substitute another device for existing rollover data! You lose it!
2) They may refund the value of a returned stick as much as $15, but don't bet on it!

I decided to keep both $20 sticks!

So 3G/4G costs $16 or $19 a month instead of the FREE .5 Gig data plan that only costs me $3.99 to roll the half gig over each month.
The Trial Plan costs $16 per month after the first month plus a FREE month of their rollover and virus protection,
then it costs 8.99 per month plus $16.66 but only 500 Meg can be rolled over.


I'm gonna play with my first 2Gigs and then go to the 500MB rollover plan next month and drop the BS Freedom Pop Premier package...

I found a Franklin Install Wizard on my laptop to install the device. Don't know where it came from.


NOW all I seem to be getting is 4G on that Franklin 700 stick! The blue LED flashes on and off, but no green in my apartment.

[burger2227]

I found a way to add an icon to the notification task bar by right clicking the Status in Network Connections, then clicking Properties:

I checked the Show an icon check box in Properties so I now know if something is amiss or the device may be disabled...

Floating the mouse pointer over the icon can also indicate the speed which was 425.9 MBpS in this case:

The Franklin stick is just flashing blue. I still have never connected with 3G indicated only.

The Franklin stick just does not seem to work when 3G green or steady 4G blue! The speed says 425, but not the web pages!

Meanwhile this is what the 4G Bolt stick usage looked like after a trip to Florida where I used 1.73 gigs on beaches:

I also earned 50 MB for signing myself up to another plan...WHOOPIE!

[burger2227]

1) So far the 3/4G stick only works when the blue LED blinks. Nothing with 3G green LED or blue LED solid.

2) To restore 4G service, I must remove stick from USB and replug it in. Then hopefully it works for a while.

3) Videos and photos may not load well. I had one video take 6 minutes to play the first minute and then the rest of the video ran fine!
Email messages may load text before pictures etc.

The best I can do is keep the original 2Gigs and go to the 500Meg per month for $3.99 and use the $8.99 Freedom Premier to roll it all over each month.

That's $13 per month for emergency 4G service... the only other option would be to use 2G at $16.66 per month and drop the $8.99 FP service.

On the web I found a way to update the firmware and now the 3G appears to be working. Web page HTTP://192.168.10.1 :

Default password is admin and it must be entered to do anything. The password can be changed but why?

Now it appears to be working fine! A little slower than 4G, but not too bad:


I decided to add WiMax to LTE and CDMA mode to see if it helps in cities:


4G WiMax is available through Sprint in cities all over the USA:

Zoom the map here for specific cities: http://www.clear.com/coverage

[burger2227]

The 3G/4G stick has been running on 3G for 5 days using about 20MB per day mostly reading emails. No drop of service at all!

Pictures may take time to load. Up to 5 seconds in emails. Videos may stop and restart several times. Some run normally.

At 50 MB per day usage that would give me 10 days a month with 500 MB rollovers. I can accumulate up to 20 GB in 40 months...

Later in the 5th day today, the stick just disappeared from the Network Connections list so I rebooted the laptop. The stick
started off in 4G blue, but it wasn't working real well until I went to its setup page and changed it to the stronger 3G:

I decided that the 3G signal looked much better and switched the radio button to 3G above and clicked Switch.

The 3G or 4G setup can be done without signing into the page setup password,
but the settings may not stick! Local web page HTTP://192.168.10.1

[burger2227]

There are times when I get both 3G and 4G and the device does not know which is best:

This local page kept coming up on my laptop when I tried to go to a Google search so it may help out at times.

Not only couldn't I sign in to the device page using admin, I couldn't seem to control anything!

Switching to a better 3G signal only lasted a bit before it went back to the lower bar 4G setting...

A low 4G setting is worse when loading pictures and videos than a 3 bar 3G signal.

Finally after 2 days of 4G, it finally was handed over to 3G with higher bars. The handover darkens the setting screen:

Pages are slower to load on 3G service and user settings are darkened as changes cannot be made!

Data usage shows greater use with 4G even with a weak signal. 3G used half as much data:

[burger2227]

After the free month, I decided to go on the 500MB plan and roll it over:

Each month the charge will be $3.99(3 months = $11.97) plus $3.50 rollover = $7.49/month paid by credit card every three months.

This is slightly more than the $3.99/month I pay to rollover 500MB of 4G service, but the stick works twice as well!

Rollovers are limited to 500MB a month up to a limit of 20GB, but that would take 40 months...