Minneapolis wireless
April 28th, 2008 |It’s awesome. I am going to be canceling my Comcast service first thing this morning.
I have had the Minneapolis wireless service from USI for a month or so and I have been struggling to make it work. I am able to connect via the wireless antenna in the street via my laptop by the signal is not too good and the speed has not been particularly high.
I went ahead and ordered the home adapter and set it up upon arrival. No luck. I was not able to get my laptop to discover the wireless signal from the home adapter no matter how much tweaking I did on the settings. I reset the adapter, rebooted my computer etc. etc. and it still was kaput. So what good is this whole thing if I can only connect to the antenna in the street and suffer these slow speeds?
It’s been a few weeks now of messing around with it and I was ready to chuck the whole thing into the garbage while resigning myself to the fact that I was going to have to live with crappy Comcast forever.
Over the weekend I attempted to disconnect the wireless home adapter when I noticed an Ethernet port in the back of the adapter. After experiencing a EUREKA moment immediately followed by I AM A DUMB ASS moment I realized that the wireless home adapter is only wireless in from the street and not wireless out to the house. So I plugged my Netgear wireless router from my Comcast set up into the USI adapter and bingo! I am not enjoying all those fast speeds that I have been hearing all about lately.
So see ya later Comcast. Your days of relying on my stupidity are way over. I gots me the smarts now and I am USI Wireless!
Anyone else using this service?
19 Responses to “Minneapolis wireless”
One of my PC’s keeps disassociating itself from my personal wireless network and associating itself to the City of MPLS network. It’s obnoxious.
How is the speed? From the literature it doesn’t seem that it’s competitive with Comcast? Or are you just done with Comcast either way?
From what I recall, there’s a top end 6Mbps package that’s very reasonable if you’re willing to deal with a two year commitment. I’m still skeptical of how it will hold up through a few summer electrical storms.
Contrast with Comcrap, evil as they may be, their standard package is contract-free, just got a speed bump beyond that level of service (coincidentally, I’m sure), and has been extremely reliable.
Qwest is rolling out some network upgrades in the nearish future that ought to boost DSL closer to 20Mbps. It’s pushing fiber further down the network, but not to the premises, so it remains to be seen whether that means I’ll get a line that trains faster than 1.5Mbps.
Stay tuned, I’ve got no plans to sign any long term contracts with any of these guys.
It does look like you can taste the premium wireless service for a month for ~$41, assuming activation is free… that’s really not too bad at all, especially if you end up liking it. If speeds do hold up, that’s actually an awesome deal at $287.40/year.
My GF has had it for some time. It’s mediocre at best. She has a laptop (Mac) and connects through to the antenna on the street somewhere. Only certain areas of her house work. Anthing streaming is slow and gets constantly interrupted. Their customer service was atrocious when we called in to try and find a remedy — long on-hold times and then once we got through to live people, they treated us with disdain.
She’s a lot better at accepting shitty situations that are out of one’s control than I, so she’s resolved herself to using it where it (sort of) works in the house, while I (the emotional neanderthal) remain bitter. It was built up to be all that and has fallen short. I had been excited at the prospect of high-speed internet access that I could feel comfortable paying for (i.e., that I wasn’t getting ripped off by comcast).
One of my PC’s keeps disassociating itself from my personal wireless network and associating itself to the City of MPLS network. It’s obnoxious.
It’s sending you a message.
How is the speed?
Using it over the weekend, it seems no different than my Comcast speed. I will run some tests tonight and report the findings later.
My Mac laptop does it periodically, too. It’s just mildly annoying to have to constantly reconfigure the machines to point at the correct (my personal) wireless network. For some reason the USI wireless AP’s seem to have a stronger “magnetism” to them (for lack of a better word). Since I don’t pay for that service it then precludes those machines from accessing the internet when they need to.
Perhaps I should just give up and subscribe to the city wireless as well. With such a glowing review from Smithers…. maybe it’s worth it.
Note for those directly connecting to the USI antenna on the street.
Just because you computer sees it doesn’t mean you’ll get a good connection.
Essentially the USI device pumps out a fairly powerfull signal but.. your computer might not have enough power to get a signal back. (Most laptops are good for 100 feet at best, with nothing blocking them.) Sorta like a one way conversation where you can listen but not respond.
USI is very up front about this in their FAQ on the their web site.
USI is very up front about this in their FAQ on the their web site.
Fair enough. Before she signed on for the service, the laptop recognizes multiple USI Wireless/City of Mpls/USI Mpls networks available and ALL of these networks show up with a full 5 bars of signal strength. However, once signed into the service, regardless of the network name, the signal strength drops down to 1 or 2 bars (maybe 3 once in a while). In my opinion, this is deceptive and along the lines of false advertising.
Secondly, upon calling in to get some help, we were basically told tough shit, buy/rent the USI router when for laptop use, their own website recommended(s?) the non-router option.
their own website recommended(s?) the non-router option.
The pricing page itself says “Requires a USI Wireless modem for maximum signal quality and speeds.” So yes I understand that implies you don’t need a “modem”; but I infer it to also mean my QoS will be poor with out one.
As for signal strength, again not entirely their fault. I can get similar readings at work. My pc will think its in range of my employer’s router, and show five bars. Then, as it tries to communicate, it drops to one at best (nature of the building I’m in. too much metal.) So I just view that as the nature of wireless, not an outright deception on USI’s part.
They might be overhyping it a bit on their web site. But I didn’t see anything I would consider outright deceptive (at least no worse than any other company’s marketing materials.)
all my shit is downstairs. if i get the USI modem will it totally suck if it is in my basement? also is it fast enough to watch video without issue?
if i get the USI modem will it totally suck if it is in my basement? also is it fast enough to watch video without issue?
The location of the USI modem does not matter, the location of your wireless router does matter. I have had my NETGEAR wireless router in the basement for years now and it’s worked fine 2 floors away and in the backyard.
Fast enough for video without issue? If you are plugged in yes, if you are wireless no, but that might just be my crappy laptop.
How many computers can you have logged into the system on your account at any given time? Maybe we could pool a single high-speed service between eight of us and each pay $5 or so.
Just to confirm - are using the router exactly as you did before, except that it connects to a USI modem instead of cable modem? I use both a desktop and a laptop here, so I would want to keep a Wifi/wired router to distribute it. I actually don’t have any problems with Comcast connection, but if it’s cheaper I’d try USI.
are using the router exactly as you did before, except that it connects to a USI modem instead of cable modem?
Correct. I simply unplugged the Netgear router from the Comcast modem and plugged it into the USI modem. I changed nothing else and connected up just fine.
I know next to nothing about wireless - even any internet connection for that matter. Can i get this wireless service with a desktop? they say I need a ruckus wireless modem…what other hardward do i need for my standard desktop to make this work?
thanks anyone who can help!
Can i get this wireless service with a desktop? they say I need a ruckus wireless modem…what other hardward do i need for my standard desktop to make this work?
You need nothing else. Just plug your desktop computer into the Ethernet plug on the Ruckus modem and you are ready to squeeze the rock on!
E-mail me if you have any additional quextions.
I’ve read a number of negative posts about USI Wireless. I live in the Bryn Mawr neighborhood and got their ‘buy 1 year-get the second for free’ offer with their Ruckus modem. I became a subscriber in February 2008 when the service went live in my neighborhood. My old Qwest DSL used to sit in the rafters of my basement, right next to my Telco demark. I have a window which looks down the alley and can ’see’ one of the USI units about a block away. I put my USI pre configured Ruckus unit right on the same shelf, plugged it in and did some slight movements of the unit to get me the best signal. I get between 2-3 Mb/S download and get 700 Kb/s to 1 Mb/S upload all the time. I have had three service outages since I got my service, two lasting about an hour and one lasting 6 hours — when I called customer support they were understanding and were able to troublshoot the issues but not able to restore my service any faster. When I had my DSL, I don’t recall any time I had an outage of any note. When I weigh out the cost vs the performance, I’m very happy with their service and have recommended it to other Minneapolis residents. Twice the speed as my Qwest DSL at half the cost. But reading other posts also leads me to say ‘buyer beware.’