I am staggered how popular this page has become in less than 3 months up to Dec 2006! There is now a WISP (wireless ISP) in Orange NSW, Central Coast NSW and Sunshine Coast Qld called Cirrus Communications that provides wireless broadband. 2/06. Another wireless broadband supplier in Dubbo, Bathurst and Nowra NSW and Hervey Bay QLD is Snoopa Community Telecoms Pty Ltd. They provide wireless broadband and VoIP (voice over IP) for cheap phone calls and internet without phone lines. Telstra launched NextG wireless broadband Australia-wide in November 2006.
I setup a wireless database so people in Orange could load their latitude/longitude using Google Maps back in November 2006 but there was no interest so I put a password on it and use it inhouse only. It now covers the whole of Australia and some bits of PNG, Indonesia, NZ, North America and UK and proves useful for working out distances when travelling or planning logistics for us.
Telstra Next G has proven a large competitor to my wifi MESH network idea. We plan to build our own towers and get things going by paying for our own equipment, though at the beginning these may be mobile access points.
Nokia 6230 has an email client in it. You can download your emails using GPRS as long as they are under 30KB each. You can browse smaller or WAP enhanced sites via Google's WML proxy. GPRS coverage is wider and bandwidth is 4 times faster and more reliable using EDGE technology than Telstra CDMA or Unwired. Charge is 2c/KB. Larger Websites will crash the phone due to overloading the limited RAM e.g whitepages.com.au. You can get a Datasuite where you can download SMS, phone book, images and MP3s using a USB cable and Windows driver. You cannot receive faxes on it unless you register a fax line with Optus (it has to be conditioned to receive faxes). Just redirect your Optus Surefax to a landline fax e.g. PC running Win Fax Pro or normal fax machine.
Nokia PC Suite using a 3rd party USB cable on a PC overwrites and fills up the phone memory during contact synchronisation instead of backing off and only updating the relevant records. The only way round it is to backup then flash the memory at a Nokia Care Centre. Don't worry about ringing up the Nokia Careline - the person who answers is not that technical and will refer you to the local Nokia Care Centre.
Because S60 devices (e.g. N95) have so many more features, S40 devices like Nokia 6230 are being left in the dust re applications that will run on them and the user will be forced to upgrade the handset to keep up with new software. Most mobile phones only last about 2 to 3 years before being obsolete.
This Bluetooth USB dongle and BlueSoleil 6.0.x Windows or Linux software is very useful for downloading messages and contacts and texting via the PC:
Nokia PC Suite won't talk to Nokia 6230 due to authorisation problems.
Research
This Telstra CDMA USB modem only has a good Windows 2000 and Windows XP driver on Maxon's Website or Maxon CDMA Website. The driver on the CDROM that comes with Minimax modem will crash Windows XP. If Minimax is tried to be installed on Windows ME, the PC will not be able to authenticate anything from then on. The driver corrupts Windows ME's dialup networking system. The only way out of this is to install Windows XP. So make sure you either upgrade to XP or backup your system before trying to install this modem. Dialup works for Windows ME, just not GPRS.
There is a way of getting the Minimax to work with Linux using driver acm. See Quozl. Do not use RedHat 7.0/Linux kernel 2.2.16 acm driver as it tries to connect to Telstra CDMA several times in one minute each time charging $2/15 minute session or part thereof and racks up enormous phone bills. Knoppix acm driver works fine as it uses Debian Linux kernel 2.6.x. Solution: upgrade the Linux kernel to 2.6.x or above or use XP. Linux kernel 2.2.x is dangerous.
Maxon were the only ones giving support for Minimax. Telstra were useless re technical support and palmed the user off to Maxon.
The Minimax chip was imported from Korea. The Korean Government makes Internet access very cheap so making Korea a great place to do business with if you are an Internet developer like us. The policy idea is that if you make the entry level for Internet access lower, then the local population can use the Internet to develop products worldwide - not earth shattering logic but very effective. It is a pity Australia is so slow to build up infrastructure and depends so heavily on importing hi-tech instead of building local industry like Korea does. We rely too heavily on mining and agriculture for building our capital base.
Transfer rates were as low as 1 KB/second and high as 14 KB/second, averaging 6-7 KB/second in Orange NSW. There was tons of latency in the network. You could watch the rates ebb and flow within a 5 minute span - nothing smooth unless you were downloading say a 20MB file. The rest was fits and starts. Everything slows to 1 KB/second around 6pm, presumably when most people are using their CDMA phones or Telstra Bigpond.
Orange does not have 1xEV-DO coverage. See Telstra Mobile for coverage maps - only Moree, Albury, Canberra, Penrith, Newcastle and Wollongong have 1xEV-DO! Check out the map before committing to a useless Minimax modem if you live in the country. Dialup is more reliable and cheaper by a factor of 10 in the bush if you are a heavy user! Minimax is only good for checking an occasional email, not working online for hours without a phone line or ADSL or you will get hit with VERY large bills that will threaten to knock you out of business.
Finally, Telstra charges $2/15 minute session or part thereof (even 1 second!) after the initial 20 hours/month so upgrade your Linux kernel to 2.6.x or above or swap to XP or pay enormous rates for wireless internet. Telstra billing refunded the lost funds due to above Linux 2.2.16 acm driver bug which clocked up tons of debt. Telstra reduced minimum period to 60c/5 minute chunks on $49/mth PC Pack plan in March 2006 or so which is heaps less wasteful!
After much fighting of bureaucracy on the call centres, a Telstra call centre in Bendigo put me onto Telstra Countrywide Orange where I got some sense. All the other Telstra call centres were just guessing and cost me tons of money on phone calls leading nowhere. According to Telstra Countrywide, Orange, (1800 687 829 - 1800 OUR TCW) you have to have both USB plugs plugged in or there is not enough power to get to 1X speed. 1 USB plug plugged in will only get the modem to 10kbps speed over normal CDMA. I have not tested this yet and have always only used 1 USB plug. May be this is the reason I was getting appalling throughput. Also I was in a steel shed with the roller door east facing away from the tower on Mt Canobolas west of Orange, blocking the signal. In rainy weather, the signal bounces off the clouds and ionosphere to give better coverage. In sunny weather, the coverage was pathetic. Newcrest Mining has its own 3G tower at Cadia 16km from Orange facing down into the open cut as Telstra would not cover this area with public money. EV-DO will probably be in the Orange area by November 2006.
The last catch 22 is that Telstra is going to switch off CDMA by April 2008 and replace it with 3G so this equipment may be redundant by then. Telstra say they will replace the equipment for free before the cutover date. There is squandered money in this whole area. Country areas seem to be the idiots in the whole equation. There is badly a need for competition out here to get some sense locally, whether hotspots or area wide wireless broadband. Telstra has been forced to extend CDMA coverage for 3 more months as Next G is not up to scratch re coverage in country areas despite the hype.
Maxon 3G NextG Blog - HSDPA
Windows XP SP2 will cause older motherboards to crash regularly. You will need to upgrade the BIOS using someone like eSupport.com who resell AWARD, AMI and PHOENIX BIOS upgrades. eSupport has a tool that will detect and order the correct BIOS upgrade for your motherboard. You will need to have the Windows disk on hand as the new BIOS will be detected and needs to be installed otherwise you will have to roll back to the old BIOS. Windows XP installed the correct BIOS drivers without resorting to the XP install CD. I kept getting pooling Blue Screen of Death crashes nearly every second day once I moved to XP from Linux. So far after the BIOS upgrade this week, I have had no Blue Screens of Death due to pooling with consequent file loss on the hard disk. The number of 'serious errors' that the Online Crash Analysis has been reporting to Microsoft has dropped to zero, touch wood. XP seems to be very demanding of BIOS including power management etc, so old BIOSes cannot work properly with XP and the consequent crashes and loss of data with annoying regularity, leading to quite a bit of chaos. The OCA message was very vague about a driver needing to be upgraded. It turned out the BIOS had to be upgraded. This was after much rummaging and searching through driver areas on XP support pages like MSDN. This wrecks Linux so you will have to either boot with PnP OS disabled in the BIOS or get new or disable Linux drivers (e.g. via82cxxx, dac on Red Hat 7.0) to enable to boot without freezing - see Scyld.com
If you upgrade to firmware 26 from firmware 22, signal strength drops off badly from 4 bars to 1 bar. There doesn't seem to be a way to rollback to firmware 22. The $$RSSI must be 60-80. I had 92-94 so a very weak signal.
This whole project of using broadband wireless in the country has been one disaster after the other! The operating system and BIOS had to be upgraded, the bills were horrendous, the support was shoddy, the product was undocumented and untried in the country areas and we had to briefly rent a flat with a fixed line to get by leading to cashflow problems and dealing with mean locals who progressivly take over all you own or lease. This marks the end of my country efforts. They are not worth the worry and hassles.
Do not use wireless unless you have a laptop which can be moved to a better location for reception. It is impossible to fix coverage issues if you are in a fixed location with a desktop facing the wrong way and low signal strength. Move back to a capital city where there is some decent coverage and do not try to fight the locals in country towns where there is minimal support and service.
Moving equipment over bumpy country roads damages the motherboard in PCs or laptops. Just take a USB drive to plug into someone else's PC or use an Internet cafe to save the damage of taking your own equipment. The jarring of the shock absorbers shakes the motheboard so badly that they crack or are damaged. You need air-cushioned suspension to avoid this damage of electronic equipment on bad roads.
Telstra is so fragmented that the wireless support and coverage areas are in two separate areas that do not communicate.
Telstra will not take down a formal complaint unless the problem can be reproduced on the spot to the call centre. Use www.bandwithplace.com to test speed on 1xRTT in Australia to give evidence to the wireless support centre that you do indeed have a problem or you are going to get nowhere. Save your efforts ringing if you are getting 60kbps as they will not take down the complaint. Ringing 125111 for support using a non-Telstra mobile costs $1/minute so ring with a Telstra mobile which costs 25c/call or landline to 132200. Get a Telstra pre-paid just to cover yourself if you have to ring Telstra wireless supporting using a mobile or pay dearly for the little information you will be fed.
The only light at the end of the tunnel was cheap Bigpond ADSL and a free ADSL modem if you sign up for 24 months. Telstra just want to cancel my account rather than fix the problem in Orange. No wonder their share price is below $4/share. Pathetic losers! They won't tune their network to stop the fades after large downloads.
Telstra CDMA is a good backup for when the fixed line is not working e.g. no dial tone and out of action for 24 hours.
Now I am getting discounted rate off Telstra CDMA for several months which will let me get back to Sydney or Brisbane or some other big city with EVDO (230kps) to download files to a USB drive or laptop and bring them back to Orange. This way I can break even. Otherwise I would have had to cut off the service which was not good as the phone lines are bad in Orange after a storm and may not be up for 10 days straight so I need to keep Minimax going til I get a better phone line or move back to a big city where I can get wireless broadband. I had to put a lot of heat under Telstra via the TIO to get them to work with me over the stuffup over the slow link in Orange and the huge bills I have suffered for 3 months till I got a fixed line again to battle the costs! 3G will be out in 2008 and CDMA will be transferred over to 3G by then. 3G is fast in the country, not just the city, Telstra says. Trying is believing with Telstra, though.
In June 2006, I retried downloading a 58MB file in Orange (I never got back to a big city till Jan 2008!) and I got steady 14-16KB/second downloads for over an hour: it took 1 hr 15 mins to download the file. This was after I upgraded the firmware to Firmware 28 and Minimax software to 1.1.5.7 which had been available since February 2006 but which I had not discovered till June 2006 having had very little luck with the product in the country. I had left the Minimax Modem in my bottom drawer for about 5 months too scared to use it in case I got some astronomical bill for hardly any value. And Telstra were surprised I was not keen on their lousy products! I had to install the Minimax USB modem driver by clicking on 'automatic' when Windows XP detected the modem after uninstalling the old version of Minimax software and driver. I am getting 3 bars instead of 2 bars with Firmware 28. Maxon changed the firmware to reflect: RX, EC/IO(IX) and Carrier Interference (EV-DO) - so the gauge is more useful re the problems of interference of signals bouncing off walls in built-up areas which is smarter than pure signal strength going out. Buildings do reduce the throughput a lot I've found. So Maxon have improved the software and firmware and Telstra has improved the speed of their CDMA 1X network over the past 6 months. I had given up using it as it was way too expensive and slow but they have improved. Thanks to competition of companies like Unwired in Sydney, Telstra rose to the occasion with their Broadband Wireless released in December 2005 Australia-wide and the quality has greatly improved compared to August-September 2005 in Orange. This allows me to download files over 40MB which were impossible over 56kps dialup on 4 hour sessions.
There is no way of disconnecting from Telstra CDMA Minimax early apart from paying about $200, so I will burn up $500 till then not using it. I am using the excess capacity for fast downloads or onsite support. Telstra does not have a clause in their contracts that reduces the contract due to high payments in earlier months like Optus Mobile do. This is basically a mobile phone contract though it is for mobile internet. Telstra is still very much phone company with 24 month contracts in mind. There is no way of switching to the new PC Card Minimax either for $39/mth for 24 months so I am stuck with the USB Minimax with hopeless throughput. I can see country living is useless when it comes to reliable fast internet unless I use ADSL or some other company than Telstra for wireless broadband that understands and invest in local infrastructure that overcomes blackspots. Telstra just does not support the local scene with local engineers or local budgets no matter what the spin doctors say.
A local community group used Cirrus Communications' wireless broadband using an antenna on their roof pointing to another antenna on a shop over the road in Summer St and the speed is very fast and constant in good and bad weather, all through another company investing in local antennas, something which Telstra could easily afford to do but will not as they are only interested in investing in huge infrastructure projects and not tuning their antennas in the local areas to meet local needs, pretty dumb really.
Only wireless downloads in the middle of the night (3am) get up to 140kps here in Orange NSW. Give up if it is a sunny day. The ionosphere destroys the connection in the daylight hours (no rain, clear sky) due to interference. How pathetic it is to live in Orange NSW without any reliable wireless broadband. Only ADSL works or fixed wireless broadband via Cirrus Communications. The rest is bunk.
Another way is to move the Minimax around till the red light stops flashing and a steady green light is on. This may mean moving the Minimax closer to the window if you are inside. This will show steady signal strength and provide a much faster connection - up around 90kps.
In Orange in November 2006, I have used Telstra MiniMax quite effectively on Windows XP in a customer's home on my own PC to download software and troubleshoot an ADSL connection. This was vital as their phone line was damaged. I am starting to see the power of using wireless internet in the bush even when it is not that fast. At least it gives internet access in areas where nothing else is available.
Around March 2007, I saw Telstra Next G demonstrated in Robinson Park, Orange NSW downloading at 1MBit/sec, so it can be fast if it has the right conditions.
In March 2007, I cancelled my Minimax CDMA and dialup and got ADSL2+ in Orange NSW. I now have DDNS servers connected to the Internet and am moving towards having my own hosting. I managed to cancel my Minimax a little early which was a relief as I stayed with Telstra for fixed line. I am saving about $80/mth due to no dialup costs and getting rid of useless CDMA connection. Downloads are 40 times faster - 80MB in 3 minutes instead of 2 hours or more - and no 4 hour limits.
The only problem is it costs $119 to move ADSL2+ to another house or $22/mth remaining in the contract with Soul if one cancels the contract which can delay a move for a few months till one has enough money or credit to cover it. I moved to Brisbane in January 2008 and Soul had reconnected me in 10 days to a Brisbane phone number. The Brisbane connection is much faster (1000KB/sec) than Orange (100KB/sec) where there was more congestion I believe (as always seems to hobble anything done in the country).
Soul bought out TPG in April 2008 as all things worked out with shareholders leading to more coverage and hopefully better call centre service. TPG now sell mobile plans (Soul was a mobile reseller for Optus).
In June 2007, Unwired does not cover Wetherill Park, quite staggering considering the huge size of the businesses in the area. The only alternative is to use a laptop in McDonalds wifi hotspot or visit a cafe in Parramatta or CBD or setup up a wifi link to an ADSL connection nearby. This is to avoid putting in a fixed line with ADSL or dialup due to the intermittent visits to Sydney not making it worth it. GPRS is prohibitive. Next G is expensive for always on broadband.
Just take a USB flash drive to an internet cafe in the next suburb.
Created: 13 Aug 2005 16:28
Last Updated: 28 Sep 2008 21:20