HaveBlue

I picked up a new Ricochet wireless internet connection today for my laptop. So far, I am fairly impressed. Not a bad deal for $25/month. My question is: Does anyone know how to increase the speed on this? Running WinXP pro on a 1.3 ghz AMD. Modem is PCMCIA internal card. Thanks!

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Alan
1996 Supercharged 4Runner Limited


Hi Altitude 4Lo A 4WD club for Colorado and surrounding states

DealMaker

Ricochet? Is this the old Metricom wireless network innovation that went bankrupt back in 2000? I made alot of dough in their stock back in 1999, then lost my a$$ on it in 2000. Not as much as Paul Allen though. He sunk over $300M into it and saw it all go bye-bye.

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'04 4Runner 4X4 SE V8
BFG KO 265/70/17 - Donahoe Coilovers - Deaver rear springs - Bilstein 7100 shocks - Hanna Sliders - Shrockworks Front Bullbar

2ToyGuy

I don't know anything about this Ricochet system. A couple of questions: An internal modem, connecting to the Internet how? Do you have a base station that's plugged into a phone line, or is it a WAN sort of setup? Where your computer chitchats with a remote station that's on the net through a T1 line or something like that? Have you looked through the sticky "PC tips" in the Computer forum on this board? They have a lot of good advice in there. This thread.
I would also check This thread to see how people view your connection as a freebie for their own use. Too many in that thread were saying they'll steal your service anytime they get a chance, so be sure your security is as high as possible. After all, if you get ripped off, it's obviously YOUR fault for not taking precautions. The usual blame the victim liberal crap.

__________________
"Well, that didn't work!" - Baron Manfred von Richtofen, during the latter portion of his last flight
'87 4Runner, 22RE, pretty much stock, on it's 3rd head now, 146 k miles
'87 2WD P/U, 22R, stock everything, mostly factory everything too, 286 k miles, beater truck.
10 year US Marine and proud of it. One of my daughters is an active duty Marine, another is Navy!

DealMaker

google ricochet network. It is a system of lightpole-mounted repeaters that relay wireless signals from a proprietary external modem (used to be velcro'ed to your PC) to a WAP (wired access point) that is hardwired to the internet. Connection is secure using military-spec encryption of some sort (spread spectrum frequency hopping, don't say it fast after a few beers or your friends will think you're making a pass at them). It was innovative when it was first conceived, but the building out of the network required huge legal fees assocaited with obtaining the right-of ways to attach the repeaters to the light poles (porcelein white boxes with a corkscrew anntennea sticking out of the bottom, about 8 per sq. mile of coverage area). It was actually installed in many cities, and Los Angeles is almost compeltely covered, but the originator (Metricom) went bankrupt before LA officially went on line. As I watched the stock closely, and coincidently had a repeater installed on the lightpole in front of my place, I subscribed (was about $80/month then). Service was OK (LA wasn't officially lit up) and rate was about 80 Kbps. The big selling point was that it was mobile, meaning you could actually be moving in a car and get "hi-speed" internet. ANyway, at the BK asset sale Aries Networks bought them out for pennies on the dollar, and it included some radio freq. as well. That was a few yrs. ago, and it sounds like it hasn't expanded any since then. They touted their speeds at about 200Kbps. That was nice 6 yrs. ago when most people were on dial up. I wonder how their speeds compare to the aircards out now.

EDIT: Oh yeah, remind me to go out and shoot the box off the light pole tomorow morning. Every time I see the damn thing when I pull into my driveway I'm reminded of losing my a$$ when they went BK. In fact, occasionally they're for sale on Ebay. Disgruntled and unpaid installers resorted to selling the ones that they were left with when Metricom folded.

__________________

'04 4Runner 4X4 SE V8
BFG KO 265/70/17 - Donahoe Coilovers - Deaver rear springs - Bilstein 7100 shocks - Hanna Sliders - Shrockworks Front Bullbar

2ToyGuy

Ahhh! Thanks for the info. Now I can make informed descisions about it. We have something here called BeamSpeed, to which I subscribe. $60.00/month, but the speed is awesome. I don't know exactly what it's touted to be, but my 108mb wireless is slow by comparison. Same security, spread spec freq hopping (and yes, I have gotten a slap or two trying to say that too fast ), but it's a WAN system. I have a transceiver in my house that's the AP, feed's into their system as though I were connected via T1 directly into the net. The only trouble is that the transceiver HAS to be aimed exactly at one of their towers, so it's not real portable. But only two towers (where have I heard that before...it sounds so familiar ) in the whole town. Of course, in this little dung-hill of a town, that's plenty enough. In LA, they'd definately need a lot more, but certainly not 8 per sq. mile. I really like it, and am heartily impressed by the speed. I feel it's worth every penny I pay per month. So does my wife, who spends a lot of time on it . Yes, the security on my home wi-fi is at the highest level I can make it. WPA, 63 character random key, changed monthly, etc, etc. Of course, i live far enough out in the country that it's probably redundant, but after reading that other thread, why give anyone a free shot at my system? I can see 10 people all parking just off my property...but it would be allll my fault for not having the security turned up high...

__________________
"Well, that didn't work!" - Baron Manfred von Richtofen, during the latter portion of his last flight
'87 4Runner, 22RE, pretty much stock, on it's 3rd head now, 146 k miles
'87 2WD P/U, 22R, stock everything, mostly factory everything too, 286 k miles, beater truck.
10 year US Marine and proud of it. One of my daughters is an active duty Marine, another is Navy!

HaveBlue

Called Ricochet. They said the PCMCIA card is slower than the external modem. So, I exchanged the internal for an external and am now pulling 460 kbps. Not bad for a cheap wireless connection.

__________________
Alan
1996 Supercharged 4Runner Limited


Hi Altitude 4Lo A 4WD club for Colorado and surrounding states

DealMaker

That's right, they also had the PCMCIA cards made by Sierra and...and...??? can't remember who the other mfg. was. Wow!! 460kbps isn't bad at all!! Especially for <$30/mo. and total portability thruout the city. Right now I'm paying over $100/mo. for cable internet at home and DSL internet at my office 200 yards away. Hey, try having a friend drive you around in a car while you surf the net and report back on how the network works and the kbps you get while underway in the car. I remember Metricom touted the service as operating while you're at speeds of up to 70 miles per hour.

I remember there was a way to ping the poletops and WAP's using hyperterminal or whatever that MS program was called. When you ping the poletops, the response would include the lat. and long. coordinates of the network hardware. I'd plug those into a mapping program and see where they are. Geez...this is like a trip back down memroy lane for me. I think tomorrow I'll take a pic of the poletop repeater in front of my place and post it up. I wonder whatever happened to the rest of the network. Pretty much all of Los ANgeles (and I mean county, not just city) was covered, Orange County, the Bay area, Seattle, I think Atlanta. I think the cities that are covered under ricochet.com are the only cities that ever officially rolled out under Metricom before they defaulted. San Diego was their test city.

__________________

'04 4Runner 4X4 SE V8
BFG KO 265/70/17 - Donahoe Coilovers - Deaver rear springs - Bilstein 7100 shocks - Hanna Sliders - Shrockworks Front Bullbar