how-to block ads
|
Review by jtimleck 
UPDATED: 165 days ago
member for 334 days, 20 visits, last login: 161 days ago
 Baltimore,Baltimore City,MD
 $35 per month
 "Value for speed, customer service, full mac support (including the install CD), easy to set up wireless router at home"
 "install was problematic, but tech support helped, no cheap wimax (or skype?) phones"
 "Best value for the money for the speed of connection."
| Pre Sales Information:
Install process:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
|
This is an UPDATE (Jun 10, 2009) at the start here - recently I tried to connect to the advanced aspects of the ZYXEL modem (see »Advanced Zyxel Modem Interface-Get A Mac OS Optimizer Widget ) and guess what... On Feb 28, 2009 the modem was updated. But I didn't update the modem. THEY did.. And in doing so they blocked out access to the advanced features again. Look, when I buy hardware it's MINE to change - not Sprint/Clear etc. - at least not without my permission. So that's a BIG blemish on them in my books.
Now here's my initial review:
OK, so today I bit the bullet and bought the modem and signed up for the Home plan - 25 bucks for 6 months and then 35 after that. A helluva good deal considering we were paying 25 bucks a months for Verizon DSL at 85kB/s max before.
OK, so what do I think?
First impressions matter - what mattered more were the impressions of others before *my* first impressions. I really couldn't find one person that said they hated it, or it didn't work. Comcast is *ridiculously* expansive for broadband and they rape you with their packaging of services. Verizon has gone from 14.00 a month for life to 25.00 in just 2 years. Not cool. So from there I did my homework, checked for coverage (I'm "green" in Northeast Baltimore, near Greenmount and 33rd (which, btw is good because coverage is in the "not so great" neighborhoods too I might add) and went and bought my modem from Towson. No hard sales pitch either. Nice, polite, fast.
Got the ZyXEL modem home and pulled out the setup install CD. Supports Macs the lit says.... but in most companies this NEVER means install software (are you listening comcast, verizon, etc.). Popped in the CD and there was the familiar Mac install dialogue, which they also didn't futz with or change or "skin" as so many other developers do in windows (And the reason they shouldn't - the GUI for macs is made to be the same in similar states of an app for a reason - you know what the app is doing...windows, are you listening?). Software for the install modem and activation wizard went without a hitch.
Basically you install the software which directs you step by step for the modem, cables, etc. and then you click and the modem, using the proprietary signal for xohm, brings you to the activation portion of xohm.com's site. And now things went south...
The link was flaky. 3 "bars" strong but it kept stalling after entering info (there are 5 screens you need to do, ending in confirmation basically). I'd enter, it would "spin", waiting to receive or send info - I have Little Snitch installed (monitors network traffic) and I was getting *no* traffic whatsover. I restarted the process. And got a page further. And then... same thing. I would get "You are not authorized to view this page" webpage errors - which to me suggests problems on their server end. This of course rendered the registering process moot and I had to start again. I reset the modem, and restarted the computer several times to no avail. I phone customer service and after literally 20 rings passed I hung up.
Now a caveat - this was Christmas eve at 4pm (it was a present) so *everyone* and their dog could have been a) using their cell phones, b) activating new cell phones and c) karma... So I went back and tried again. Got to "enter your credit card info" and did this and then .... spin. ARGH! OK, this time I phone and selected "I have an account" (as opposed to account activation... It was more true than I didn't, I had 80% of an account, lol) and immediately was able to speak with Carlos....
Carlos then spent the next 25+ minutes with me setting up my account. This was WAY too slow honestly, but given the holiday and what appeared to be slow servers on their end was not a big deal. He was professional and courteous. And he got it done. Which involved entering all the info again and reseting my password which I had tried to log earlier. Which brings a "caution":
CAUTION - if your registration stalls at a particular screen STOP and call. If you do not then you will "void" the option you chose for your name and email listing - because I had already entered a user name (which is also your email name) the "system" will not let you use that name in another account establishment attempt. That *sucked* - I had my full name for my email and now I couldn't use it. So anyways I settled for something else I could live with and we went ahead.
Activation then onwards was a snap. Setting up the wireless router was also quick and easy. Something to keep in mind which I forgot: If you have wireless devices (I have a Roku music server, for instance) if you set them up on anything but the *default* IP address of your wireless router it won't be able to "see" the router if you reset that router for use with the XOHM router (which in most cases you will/should I would think). So this caused a "stupidity-induced" headache on my part for a bit, but no problem otherwise.
Performance:
»www.speedtest.net/result/378504798.png
Well I'm not exactly "wowed" just yet.... I'm getting 1.5 to about 2.3 and not much higher. Not sure why so "low" (I was expecting 3+ given the great coverage I have). But I've also dropped to 2 bars - but that shouldn't matter I thought. I also have experienced dropouts of services intermittently. Not sure why. Only a minute or two, but annoying. But hey *twice* as fast for only 30% more coin is still a deal - and that's at it's worst performance, which seems rare. Will try some alt setups and see how I fare.
Overall ... do it. 30 day money back guarantee on the modem. Great pricing. Very good customer service, etc. Recommended
Followup comments:  
Smile__
Premium
join:2008-10-10
Baltimore, MD | Keep us posted on speeds.. I can see them getting better based on your coverage. Have you put the optimizer widget on the desktop to monitor interference? | |
| | jtimleck
join:2008-12-24
Baltimore, MD
 ·XOHM WiMAX
| Re: Keep us posted on speeds.. Hey Smile___
here's a recent test
I got a nice download speed... but it was at 4am in the morning... kinda early for me....
About the widget...( xohm should make this more clearly understood that it's available, what it can do - it took some hunting around to find it)
For those who don't know . Here's the link -
»developer.xohm.com/widgets/optimizer
It's an Adobe Air widget (like Yahoo/Konfabulator/Apple's Dashboard) it's a mini app that detects interference and you can see it change on your desktop as you move the modem (or other device) around to see it's placed optimally for reception.
HOWEVER... it doesn't seem to work with Macs... (not so great as an "interoperable" piece of software then) BUT I keep a windoze box around for just such emergencies... it loaded without error and I still have to play with it as it doesn't seem to make a whole lot of difference at this point where I move it to - still "2 bars". Here are the stats from the widget:
RSSI: -77 (lower "negative" numbers are better)
CINR: 15 (higher numbers are better)
Now I have nothing to compare these to so that would help to know what they "look like" to an educated eye. Would appreciate any suggestions or feedback.
cheers
A.T. | |
| | | jtimleck
join:2008-12-24
Baltimore, MD
·XOHM WiMAX
1 edit | Re: Keep us posted on speeds.. UPDATE:
OK, So I used the optimizer for better placement of the modem and it seemed to work along with resetting modem and router to default values (which is problematic too as anyone knows you should never leave your modem or router values at defaults as that invites security problems.
I hardwired the modem straight to the PC (no router between) and used the PC desktop widget because the widget doesn't work on a Mac (see below for a work around though for macs that allows you to use the modem web interface as a giant "optimizer widget"...)
Here's my original signal and interference numbers...
RSSI: -77 (lower "negative" numbers are better)
CINR: 15 (higher numbers are better) BTW, since folk just bunt these terms around like we all know what they mean:
RSSI defined (Received Signal Strength Indication): »en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Received_S···dication
CINR defined (Carrier to Interference-plus-Noise Ratio):
»www.javvin.com/wireless/CINR.html
...and speeds were less than stellar at around 2100 for downloads and 400 kb/s for uploads.
Now they are improved:
RSSI: ~ -68
CINR: ~ 24
But I don't think that was the only reason I saw a HUGE jump in speeds; I reset all the modem AND the router settings to defaults and download speed numbers went to about 4000 kb/s and a max of 5400 kb/s (and about 1500-2000 kb/s upload)
Two things I observed through these "trials"
1. The modem's speeds will be fastest when your computer is hooked directly to it, or at least directly to a router, which in turn is directly connected to the modem. Speeds for wireless connections, running off the router itself (connected to the modem) appear to be up to half as fast as the "hardwired" ones. The latency of the request from a client computer to the router and then the modem seems absurdly long sometimes (and they aren't that far apart from each other, have static IPs based on MAC addresses etc. so all the possibles of delays I think I've removed... I welcome suggestions for those computers to improve their speeds.)
2. The modem does NOT like when you use the router to change the default IP addresses it's distributing. Now I didn't try it yet with them changed and assigned to static addresses but it seems this adds a layer of "negotiation" for the Zyxel modem that it simply doesn't like - and this is a good reason why the modem should have the bridging ability unblocked See this thread: ( »Re: The power of Xohm )
Thanks all for your help. Here's the separate post on getting to the modem signal and interference page to make your very own Mac OS optimizer:
»Advanced Zyxel Modem Interface-Get A Mac OS Optimizer Widget
 | |
| DulacLancelo
join:2009-06-29
Mclean, VA
| WiMAX + WiFi = slow ? i, too, have been experiencing this odd slowdown whenever a WiFi connection is involved. for me it seems rather than the speed getting cut in half, that it is more like it gets capped at 3Mbps.
how you figured out a solution or explaination for this yet? | |
| | | |
| Forums » comments on review of XOHM WiMAX |
|
|
