Travel Technology - revamping home/office network, phone, cell configuration

I have an odd setup, with specific limitations and requirements. I'm considering a major revamp, like to know if anyone sees problems with my idea or has better suggestions.

I'm in a very rural location- no DSL or cable available here, and I'm not partial to satellite- heard of too many reliability issues from neighbors. I also have two business lines, numbers which have been established for many years (so I need to keep those numbers) which I've ported over from out-of-area locations. To bring those in on a landline requires "remote call forwarding" which is an expensive option.

So, currently I have IDSL (a version of ISDN, 144k symmetrical) with the phone lines and a fax line coming in on Vonage. It works, but not well. One active phone call uses about 90k, so I can't do two calls or a call and internet at the same time. IDSL is also very expensive. ($135/month). In addition I have one land line, for personal (not business) use, an ATT cell phone, and Mrs. Gargoyle has a T-mobile cell phone.

Here's what I'm thinking of doing. Get a custom bundled package from ATT. Start with a USB internet card, plug it into one of the computers (is internet connection sharing easier if it goes into the XP or Vista machine?), network it to the other computer and hook up a Wifi router so I can get online with the laptop. (can someone tell me how to connect from that cellular internet, through the desktop machine, to create a wifi network?).

Note the internet data card has a 5 gb/month limit, which is 170 mb/day. I'm currently averaging about 60 to 90 mb/day, so I should be safe there.

Then do a package cellphone plan- 4 cell phones, shared minutes. One will be mine, one for Mrs. Gargoyle. The other two will hook up to a Dock-N-Talk or similar (AT&T and some others make them). This makes a cell phone act like a land line, so I can have several cordless phones (kept in different locations around the home, office and studio) on each of the two business lines. That way I keep those out-of-area phone numbers, have full long distance service on them, etc.

Also it looks like some cell phones will let me create a hunt-down sequence, so that if one is busy, it will ring on the next line instead of going to voice mail (call forwarding which only kicks in when the line is busy). That way I just have a single voicemail box for the two office phones and my cell phone.

Still haven't figured out how to handle the fax. My understanding is that fax signals can't go over cell signals. efax type solutions are possible, but I'd have to scan and .pdf outgoing documents to send them, and most of my outbound faxes start out as hard copy, not computer generated. I might get a second land line for the fax. I also read somewhere that Telular has a product that will send faxes over GSM cell phones, but I couldn't find info on it.

If all this works, it will reduce my whole internet/telecom bill by about $100/month, get me four times faster internet speeds, and better voice quality. But, there are so many factors, variables, I'm concerned I'm missing something.

Personally, if you are not in a rush I'd wait and see what/when/if Clearwire makes it to your area. Chicagoland is on the map as a big rollout area, so it could happen.

Looks like Clearwire or Xohm are at least 6 months out, unless you've heard better than that?

It seems it will support VOIP, as a $25 option, which is about equal to my cost of adding the two cell lines to the ATT package. So that part is a wash.

So I could do my idea, and if Clearwire comes in strong, switch to it towards the end of the year for the data package. I'd have to eat a loss on the ATT data package ($60/month) but in between I would have saved $100/month. Looks like 4G should be about 2.5x faster than 3G?

I'm strongly tempted to go with the bird in the hand, and not put up with the hassles of my current setup for another 6 to 8 months.

Can I correctly assume that you've checked with your current provider about their ADSL expansion plans? The reason I ask is that 5 years ago I had a dozen or so IDSL clients, today none. What happened? ADSL originally was out if you were beyond 12,000 feet from a CO. With better technology, that distance has expanded to 15,000 or even 18,000. Also, telcos can expand their network more cheaply now with roadside or even pole-mounted switching equipment.

Can I correctly assume that you've checked with your current provider about their ADSL expansion plans? I'm about 38,000 feet from the CO. AT&T ran cable down the highway in front of my place 14 months ago, and the techs told me it would be live in 3 weeks. Never happened. I call them every few months, they have my account flagged with the statement that service is not available to this client. The're not gonna bring it live if they only can pick up four or five clients in a one mile stretch of highway.

Meantime, the IDSL quality has deteriorated a lot in the 4 years I've had this setup. It was adequate at first, I could even do two simultaneous phone calls with usable quality back then. Now the calls are full of static, and the internet connection goes bad for a minute or two every couple hours (I can still make calls, but I can't ping- maybe it's just glitches in my router?).

How good is your ATT data signal. If you only have EDGE you will not be happy. I would buy the USB modem online from EBay rather than taking the free modem from ATT. You can now go on month-to-month and can cancel if there is a problem.

Get a router from Cradlepoint. They support most 3g modems. If you buy the MBR-1000, you can even buy two modems and load balance them if you wind up going over your megabyte cap.

How good is your ATT data signal. If you only have EDGE you will not be happy. hmmmm.... my cell phone shows a 3G symbol when I'm in range, I'd never paid attention, but it doesn't show that signal when I"m in the home or studio.

In Italy I use a vodafone pc card gsm modem, it is 3G capable but often it only gets EDGE, so I am familiar with the difference. You're right, EDGE wouldn't make me happy. Gotta give this some more thought and some more testing...

have you thought about moving into a more urban area? :)

have you thought about moving into a more urban area? :)
If you had attended the GargoyleDo last year, you'd know why the answer is NO.

OK, this thread is clearing things up for me. I think it is best I switch the legacy phone numbers from Vonage to cell phones and the fax line either to efax or a landline. That will cut $25 to $30/month off my telecom bills, and sound quality should improve. ROI for buying the equipment to convert cell signals to several cordless handsets will be about one year. Also, I'll check whether I can add those lines to my current ATT cell service, which is already out of contract, and keep them out of contract too. That wil give lots of flexibility.

Then I get a wireless data card and get the service from ATT or another provider on a non-contract month-to-month basis, so I can test that it works and be free to bail if real DSL or cable or 4G service comes into my area. If that works, it reduces me from the $135/mo for IDSL to $60 or whatever the data service costs. Even if it is EDGE it shouldn't be any worse than my current speeds. A three day test shows I'm only using maybe 1.5 to 2 GB per month, so I'm safe on the 5 GB limit.

Thanks for all the advice, but any more advice or commentary is very welcome.

If you are CLOSE to a 3g signal, take a look at a Yagi directional antenna and/or a Wilson signal amplifier. Make sure the device supports 3g signals. Lastly, buy one that works with more than one carrier. You may discover that you can get a Verizon 3g signal, but not an ATT one at the Gargoyle Homestead. If you don't want subsidized equipment you can go month-to-month with Verizon at the same rate. I THINK you can do the same with Sprint for $10 more a month. My gut is that TMobile's 3g network is too embryonic to help. You might, however, want to see whether Cricket and MetroPCS have offerings in your neck of the woods. I'm guessing that you are in a neighboring county to Metro Chicago where it is still rural. If you are in the true heartlands, strike the Cricket/Metro PCS suggestion.

That is why I also suggested month-to-month. 3g modems are cheap. If your 3g stick is the cheapest from a Euro GSM provider, it is probably 2100mhz only, but certainly double check. Like a mobile, you'll have to unlock it. Even if you buy an unlock ATT 3g modem (look at the 551u from Sierra. It is discontinued, but only slightly and supports the latest specs. You should be able to get a deal on it).

I might go "window shopping" at the 3gstore.com. They have a number of extender solutions. They have GREAT support and I can vouch for the company, but a careful shopper can sometimes beat their prices. The prices aren't bad, but they are not the cheapest. The 3g store also has a good 3g forum called evdoforum or evdoforums. Despite its name, they are talking about HSPA there as well.

By the way, the Sierra has better reception than many phones. I get a 3g connection in my office on it, even though my Nokia E71 is only pulling EDGE.

Addendum: There is a discussion on EVDO Forums about truly unlimited data plans, (e.g. no 5 gig caps). They list two such plans. The first is an Alltel for $59.00. The poster doesn't love Alltel, but remember that Alltel is being merged into Verizon (think "grandfathered"). The other is a Sprint plan through an MVNO on the Sprint network.

Meantime, the IDSL quality has deteriorated a lot in the 4 years I've had this setup. It was adequate at first, I could even do two simultaneous phone calls with usable quality back then. Now the calls are full of static, and the internet connection goes bad for a minute or two every couple hours (I can still make calls, but I can't ping- maybe it's just glitches in my router?).

Have you cleaned or replaced the connections on your side? Oxidation and corrosion over time will decrease connectivity. Also, have you asked your provider to check the connections on their side to try and resolve the static?

If a call is really taking up 90Kbps of bandwidth you can also look at changing the codec to reduce the traffic. That might help things. There is an option in the Vonage control panel that lets you do that. A call can be reduced to about 20-30K if you choose a more aggressive codec.

And if you decide to do the 3G card I'd definitely do a dedicated hardware option for sharing it rather than using windows-based ICS.

If a call is really taking up 90Kbps of bandwidth you can also look at changing the codec to reduce the traffic. That might help things. There is an option in the Vonage control panel that lets you do that. A call can be reduced to about 20-30K if you choose a more aggressive codec.

And if you decide to do the 3G card I'd definitely do a dedicated hardware option for sharing it rather than using windows-based ICS.

yes lots of options out there

say

http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/07/netgear-announces-3g-mobile-broadband-wireless-router-for-802-11/

or portable ones

and a beauty but not out in time for the OP

http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/15/cradlepoint-announces-3g-ready-ctr500-travel-router/

either way its spending money

Update-

Lots of good suggestions here, this has been very helpful.
I got the ATT data service out of contract; currently using my Vodafone express card, which, being European has slightly different band support than the ATT ones. It uses 1900 connection, most ATT towers near me are 850, so it's not connected to the ideal tower. Still, speedtest shows 474 kbps download, 347 upload. With IDSL I get scores in the 110 to 128. So, at a minimum, I'm 3 to 4x faster for half the price.

I've ordered a Cradlepoint MBR 1000 router from 3Gstore, should get that Monday. That might get me to a better tower, and will share the connection via ethernet and wifi.

I've ordered a GE Cell Fusion bluetooth cell gateway- I can set two bluetooth cellphones near it and do in and outbound calls from my two legacy business numbers through that network, using cordless and wired standard phones. I'll decide later today, probably move all the phones to a linked ATT cell account with shared minutes.

Still haven't decided what to do about fax, but I reviewed my Vonage logs, and I only do 4 to 8 faxes a month. The majority are with two companies; one of them can handle PDF's through e-mail, gotta talk to the other. I'll probably just set up to run the fax through the home phone/wired line and try to avoid having anyone send me faxes.

This setup looks like it will drop my telecom bills by at least $100/month and give me better speed and sound quality.

As to the suggestion on changing Vonage settings to use less bandwidth, I've tried that a few times, it's like any data compression- a trade-off in quality. Calls get choppy at low bandwidth.

Thanks everyone! I'll keep you posted, but keep those suggestions coming.

If you want to keep the IDSL (ISDN) you can request that the line be conditioned. ISDN is a tariffed service and they have to condition the line for you if you report problems and request it.

OK, all done. Here's what I did.

Got a $60/month 3G data service from AT&T, no contract. Got a GSM modem on ebay and a Cradlepoint MBR1000 modem from 3Gstore.com. Plugged the two desktop computers into the ethernet ports, and the laptop and printer are set up wifi. Most of the time I get 3G, but occasionally it drops down to edge. I had problems with it losing the connection overnight and requiring reboot, but a firmware upgrade seems to have fixed that. (fingers crossed!)

Since I'm month-to-month with ATT, I can switch when/if 4G or hardwire DSL comes to my boondocks.

Download Speed: 806 kbps (100.8 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 1163 kbps (145.4 KB/sec transfer rate)
Sure is better than $135/mo. for 120k speeds on IDSL, and I can now internet and voice call at the same time.

Then took my old ATT cell, which was out of contract, my wife's TMobile cell, and the two office lines (vonage), put them on a family shared minutes package as ATT cell phones. Linked the account to my ATT land line. That way I get free nights and weekends, and free calls to any ATT cell or land line in the US. I had a few thousand roll-over minutes, and those went into the new account. For the the two office lines I went with the simplest phones, and got a GE Bluetooth Telephone Adapter box from Target. Sit the two cell phones next to the box, plugged in a two line cordless base station. Now the two lines ring on the cordless phones, and I can make calls out from any of those phones through the cell system. Only PITA is I have to punch in a three digit code when dialing out from a cordless phone, to tell the adapter box which line to use.

I set the cell phones to pass busy/no answer calls down the line, creating a hunt-down sequence so everything falls into a single voicemail box.

I also upgraded my phone to a Blackjack II, Windows Mobile 6.1, unlimited internet/pop3 mail access. Did that a week ago, called ATT today, explained my international travel and they immediately gave me the unlock code.

Been having fun loading stuff on the Blackjack, like Google Maps (reasonable alternative to GPS, and it's free), Worldmate (does the "find alternate flights" option work when you're in a pinch?)... now if I could just find a SSH client which worked on WinMobile 6.1... I tried the putty builds, no luck. And a keypass build which works...

Cancelling my Vonage and IDSL contract, end result drops my internet/telecom bills by $100/month.
:p

Cancelled the fax line; I've averaged 4 inbound faxes and maybe one or two outbound faxes a month for the past year; half of that is with two of my supplier companies. I'll probably add an account with e-fax or similar, but till I do I'll tell them to e-mail me. I can plug into the land line for the occasional out bound hard copy fax.

Thanks everyone for all your suggestions!

Wow. Lots of work. But sounds like the payoff will be good!

Two suggestions:

Get a copy of this running on each computer
http://www.shaplus.com/bandwidth-meter/
just so you have some idea of your data usage, since ATT has a 5GB cap now.

eFax has free inbound faxing for light use. You won't likely get your own area code, but that may be not essential.

Sounds like a fantastic solution.

If the 3G limit ever becomes a real problem, you could always see whether T-Mobile offers 3G in your area. Their limit is much nicer (10GB) and they'll have a USB modem out soon.

Wow. Lots of work. But sounds like the payoff will be good!

Two suggestions:

Get a copy of this running on each computer
http://www.shaplus.com/bandwidth-meter/
just so you have some idea of your data usage, since ATT has a 5GB cap now.

eFax has free inbound faxing for light use. You won't likely get your own area code, but that may be not essential.Good. I'd been using MLZ Novatech TrafficStatistic, but it keeps crashing or reseting. I just d/l'ed the shaplus bandwidth meter. It looks real good, and installs in just 150k of disk space. (I like cleanly written small apps)

I'm looking at eFax, myFax and faxaway. Any opinions on which is best? (cheapest for very light usage but still reliable)