Wireless modems

Just a thought, I recently switched jobs and my current job requires me to sit in a car and stare at a gate for 10 hours every night.

My boss probably wouldn't like me playing on a lap top all night, but what fun is sitting staring at a gate? But anyhoo, back to the subject!

I'm looking into getting a wireless modem for a laptop, neither of which I have bought yet but I'm raking in the cash and am interestd in doing some research on the thing.

I found some interesting radio modems, but that didn't really fit into what I needed, at all. Then I found something called the merlin G100. Which is wireless and runs like a 56k modem, which I'm currently running.

So my question is does anyone have some input on what type of wireless modems are the really good ones, and what's a good laptop to get for gaming. Specifically EQ/SWG/SB type games.

Thanks a ton!

If you're looking to buy a laptop for gaming you have to go high spec. This is because every laptop I've ever seen has lower performance then a computer of similar specifications.

I would suggest a 2ghz CPU, 512mb Ram, and a GeForce 4 Go Graphics Card. Even with all that it will still run like a 1ghz desktop with a GeForce II but its enough.

Stay clear of Toshiba and Compaq because the refresh rate on the displays are too low and it will be your bottleneck.

As for wireless modems then I'd have to tell you to stay clear for online gaming. You'll go linkdead frequently.

What I've been reading suggests for the merlin that it keeps a very good connection, and with SWG and newer games coming out that allow for less and less server side info, and the fact that I live in the middle of a very heavy metropolitan area. I think Linkdeading would happen, but not as frequently as to be a horrible pain.

As for laptop. Jesus Christ. I have a good source of income yeah, but that's a helluva expensive comp you're talking about. If I could finance it I'd be paying it off till I was 25 P

But thank you tons for the input. I'll look into that.

Hi Elnots,

The G100 is one of the more uptodate GSM / GPRS Modems, however you have to be very careful with them as not every mobile operator supports them. You need to work very closely with your mobile operator in selection of a Wireless Modem and also check which level of support is availible for GPRS encoding.

Most current GPRS systems are giving around 32 kps at present due to the coding system they are using on the GPRS system. Also these systems use a 'Timeslot' approach. The CS-1 coding system currently used gives 8 Kps per time slot, increasing to 20 Kps per timeslot when operators move to the CS-4 coding system. On a busy network you maynot get that many 'Timeslots' therefore can drop down from the recommended 4 ( 8 is maximum ) to a single timeslot, giving slow speed.

You also need to carefully consider the GPRS charging scenarios open to you. Most operators who have introduced GPRS have a variety of options based on your estimated traffic.



Another option you may wish to consider is WirelessLAN. Its worth seeing if there are any WirelessLAN base stations around where you are going to be working that can offer you service... in the end that maybe a cheaper and more reliable option.

Are you on a stakeout?

I see him as a late night secuirty guard in one of those booths with an arm that goes up and down.

LOL...yea, a late night security guard that watches the gate is what I see as well.

Allthough what really struck me as funny (and dont take offense to this, as its cool you have a job)

but I'm raking in the cash

hehe, as a late night security guard. Dont think I have ever heard a security rent-a-cop say that. hehe

hehe from his above statement about paying off the high end laptop whens hes 25 id imagine hes early 20s area. So that wouldnt be a bad job for that age(i had one and did pretty decent).

hehe, yea, not knockin what he does..at least he is doing (better than some folk who rely solely on their parents, or the system)

Just struck me as funny about the 'rakin in the cash'

never have I once heard a security guard say this. hehe

reminds me of a funny...

had a friend who worked security at a contruction site for awhile. Well, I and another buddy decided to pay him a visit one night (just for BS sakes) and when we arrived he wasnt at the gate (figured he was walking the grounds like he was 'spose to) and he only had a pager. Well, we decided to page him, unfortunatly for him he didnt know we were there and musta forgot about the pager being on him (in vibrate mode) cuz when the call went through, the pager started vibrating and we could see him in the distance jump several feet off the ground clutching his belt like something had bit him, and screaming like a little school girl. Later askin what the hell he was doing, simply put, the vibration at 2:30am scared the $hit outta him.

At least we thought it was funny.

back to topic:
but like Ryn said, you will need a high-end laptop if you want to play the next generation of games that come out.

I sit in a sort of police package cruiser. Nice car. And sit in a cemetary parking lot watching the gate to the cemetary to make sure no one gets into the main building.

Isn't hard, it's boring. But I'm making 1600 a month, which since I spend about 500 on monthly bills leaves me with a nice chunk of change to start burning a hole in my pocket.

Errm, okay so I guess what I'll do now is get in contact with ATT or SW Bell to see about the service before I get ahold of a modem. Want to make sure the modem I'm going to get is compatable with the laptop.

Thanks /waves

you could try this..get a 802.11b wirless nic.. You said you live in a heavy populated area....never know you may be able to piggy back a signal =D

Anyone with a network set up that includes an 8.11 wireless NIC is going to realise in about a week that something isn't right and shut him down. If they're feeling mischevious they'll do a little more before finally letting you know they're on to you.

Security guards here get pretty good money. It's also a pretty cool job.

Elnots. If you have 1k knocking around each month in 3 months time you'll be able to afford a pretty cool laptop.

Hey Ryn you look like you got a bit of knowledge on laptops eh?

I'm looking to get one, about the specs you said, do you recommend a specific company? I customized a Dell 1.8/256/geforce4/30gHD for 1,800 and its the cheapest I could find and it looks decent on paper...

I'm a bit confused though on the display choices:
15" Ultra Sharp™ UXGA Display
15" Ultra XGA Display
15" Super XGA+ Display

Is there a huge difference between these? Theres quite a bit of $ difference between them and wasn't sure.

Oh well let me know what you think

As for the subject, not to hijack, I'm using a 802.11b wireless now (obviouslly smaller range than a GPS) on campus, and I don't know if its a problem with wireless in general or the little bastards who run the net connection don't know what there doing, but our (roomates and I) connection drops a couple times every night for 15-30 minutes and it blows arse.

Doing the 802.11 thing might work, but the problem he might have is LOS

Without LOS it won't work, even if you do happen to be near a company who decided to do it :P

I'm probably the worst person to ask about where to buy computers from because I don't know any of the American ones. However I now use Dell myself and I won't try another till I get a problem with them. I don't know if they're competetive on price over there though but I would recommend them.

The only advice on display is this bump the memory to 512 rather then 256 because it will be a bugger to get round to later on and you won't use the full capabilities of the GeForce with only 256 according to nVidia.. Then buy the best display you can afford.

My advice is always the same...imagine the best computer in the world - price it. Then when you've established you can't afford it knock down the bits you really don't need one step at a time and price it. When you think that you can afford it buy it.

Ok cool, I just wondered because you mentioned refresh rates to Elnots and I don't know any details like that, and I want to be able to run EQ on it along with normal crap like maybe actual college work, and I've been saving my money since I was like ... not born.

Errm, I'm about as computer literate as the guy that spends his computer time in games and on chat rooms. Cause I am that guy.

I don't know much other than the very basic stuff about computers.

Ryn, I owe people alot of money too, and I didn't mention eatting out*groceries* in bills. So I'd say in the end I have about 700-800 bucks at the end of the month, but yeah, after a few months I might be able to walk into Comp USA and buy a laptop with 3000 dollars cash. Gotta love the credit checks banks put my ass through, /cry

And I don't have a clue what signal 80.111 or whatever you're talking about, and besides free cable hook ups, I don't do anything technologicaly illegal.

That and NO CD cracks, but come on that's like.. tearing the tag off your mattress!

Most of those places don't have any kind of authentication or anything, so to me that says they wouldn't mind too much if someone borrowed alittle bit of bandwidth

Prolly wouldn't work anyway, even in LA there is a very limited amount of places you can use it

<wave elnots>

Maybe you could set up a wireless base station in your office, and position it so that the wireless net card in the laptop could talk to it, then have your office puter connected to the net, and then use ICS to share out the net connection to the laptop. If distance is an issue, get a longish cable to plug the wireless router into the office puter, sticking the wireless router out the window or something.

As to buying with cash at compusa...ug...check out dell, imho.

That's what essentially, a radio modem is. You set up a station which broadcasts the net signal.

At least, from what I read that's what it was. And that's why I stopped looking into it.. /chuckle