I'm contemplating getting one of the "Air Cards" that plug into a USB
port, and provide high speed internet access via the cellular phone
system. Plans are available for about the same price from three or four
cellular providers.

Other than high cost, the only down side I've heard of is a data limit.
The maximum seems to be 5 GB per month. If you exceed that limit, your
bill can be surprisingly high.

What experience have you had with these USB Air Cards? Is the 5 GB
limit a problem in actual use? Is speed adequate for downloading files
such as a 200 MB OS update?

I'm contemplating getting one of the "Air Cards" that plug into a USB
port, and provide high speed internet access via the cellular phone
system. Plans are available for about the same price from three or four
cellular providers.

Other than high cost, the only down side I've heard of is a data limit.
The maximum seems to be 5 GB per month. If you exceed that limit, your
bill can be surprisingly high.

What experience have you had with these USB Air Cards? Is the 5 GB
limit a problem in actual use? Is speed adequate for downloading files
such as a 200 MB OS update?

Personally, I'd go with ExpressCard over USB.

In article <jollyroger-568EBC.15033401082009 at (no spam) news.individual.net>,
Jolly Roger <jollyroger at (no spam) pobox.com> wrote:

Personally, I'd go with ExpressCard over USB.

i wouldn't because apple is removing expresscard from the portables,
and if he doesn't have it now, he won't have it with his next portable.
plus with usb, he could use it with more computers, even a desktop.

Do you know of any cellular carriers that have a Usenet Newsgroup server
included in their plan?

In article <010820091453044028%nospam at (no spam) nospam.invalid>,
nospam <nospam at (no spam) nospam.invalid> wrote:

In article <jollyroger-568EBC.15033401082009 at (no spam) news.individual.net>,
Jolly Roger <jollyroger at (no spam) pobox.com> wrote:

Personally, I'd go with ExpressCard over USB.
i wouldn't because apple is removing expresscard from the portables,
and if he doesn't have it now, he won't have it with his next portable.
plus with usb, he could use it with more computers, even a desktop.

Nospam & Jolly-

My plan would be to have the AirCard for all internet access, rather
than having separate wired access at both home and my Mom's house.
Although I think an ExpressCard would be a better technical solution, I
need it to work on computers that do not support it.

And you're right. My old PowerBook G4 is due for an upgrade!

Do you know of any cellular carriers that have a Usenet Newsgroup server
included in their plan?

Fred
If you need a good Usenet server try this; news.eternal-september.org.

I'm contemplating getting one of the "Air Cards" that plug into a USB
port, and provide high speed internet access via the cellular phone
system. Plans are available for about the same price from three or four
cellular providers.

Other than high cost, the only down side I've heard of is a data limit.
The maximum seems to be 5 GB per month. If you exceed that limit, your
bill can be surprisingly high.

What experience have you had with these USB Air Cards? Is the 5 GB
limit a problem in actual use? Is speed adequate for downloading files
such as a 200 MB OS update?

Fred

In article <fmmck-75A970.15522801082009 at (no spam) nntp.aioe.org>,
Fred McKenzie <fmmck at (no spam) aol.com> wrote:

I'm contemplating getting one of the "Air Cards" that plug into a USB
port, and provide high speed internet access via the cellular phone
system. Plans are available for about the same price from three or four
cellular providers.

Other than high cost, the only down side I've heard of is a data limit.
The maximum seems to be 5 GB per month. If you exceed that limit, your
bill can be surprisingly high.

What experience have you had with these USB Air Cards? Is the 5 GB
limit a problem in actual use? Is speed adequate for downloading files
such as a 200 MB OS update?

Personally, I'd go with ExpressCard over USB.

In article <jollyroger-568EBC.15033401082009 at (no spam) news.individual.net>,
Jolly Roger <jollyroger at (no spam) pobox.com> wrote:

In article <fmmck-75A970.15522801082009 at (no spam) nntp.aioe.org>,
Fred McKenzie <fmmck at (no spam) aol.com> wrote:

I'm contemplating getting one of the "Air Cards" that plug into a USB
port, and provide high speed internet access via the cellular phone
system. Plans are available for about the same price from three or four
cellular providers.

Other than high cost, the only down side I've heard of is a data limit.
The maximum seems to be 5 GB per month. If you exceed that limit, your
bill can be surprisingly high.

What experience have you had with these USB Air Cards? Is the 5 GB
limit a problem in actual use? Is speed adequate for downloading files
such as a 200 MB OS update?

Personally, I'd go with ExpressCard over USB.

I'd go for a MiFi over either one. It's a cell network to WiFi bridge,
so your Mac would connect to it like any other WiFi access point. Plus,
you can serve several computers (five, I think) at once from the same
device. I think the service is about the same but it seems a lot more
flexible-- especially if someday you replace your Mac with one that
doesn't have ExpressCard.

I'd go for a MiFi over either one. It's a cell network to WiFi bridge,
so your Mac would connect to it like any other WiFi access point. Plus,
you can serve several computers (five, I think) at once from the same
device. I think the service is about the same but it seems a lot more
flexible

In article <tph-AD7826.22523702082009 at (no spam) localhost>,
Tom Harrington <tph at (no spam) pcisys.no.spam.dammit.net> wrote:

I'd go for a MiFi over either one. It's a cell network to WiFi bridge,
so your Mac would connect to it like any other WiFi access point. Plus,
you can serve several computers (five, I think) at once from the same
device. I think the service is about the same but it seems a lot more
flexible

Tom-

I saw one at the local Verizon Wireless store. It might be a good idea
if one computer could be connected to the internet via a USB cable to
the MiFi unit. Otherwise, a USB AirCard connection could be shared by
connecting an Ethernet cable from the main computer to the WAN port on
an AirPort base station and turning on internet sharing over Ethernet (I
think).

My rationale is that for MiFi, two hops are involved. I think it would
take longer to send data from the cellular system to the MiFi base
station and then to the computer, than to send from the cellular system
directly to the computer. If visitors needed to connect via WiFi, then
a slower two hop connection would be an acceptable compromise.

My plan would be to have the AirCard for all internet access, rather
than having separate wired access at both home and my Mom's house.
Although I think an ExpressCard would be a better technical solution, I
need it to work on computers that do not support it.

And you're right. My old PowerBook G4 is due for an upgrade!

Do you know of any cellular carriers that have a Usenet Newsgroup server
included in their plan?

I've gotten wireless
printing to work, but Time Machine delays its backup until the AirCard
is disabled.