She likes Apple and I like Android, so she got the Iphone and I got a Samsung... But at the same time we decided to upgrade our wifi air card that was from 2008... It still had 1x speed which is dreadfully slow...
But we had a Cradle Point Router that the whole thing ran with and it connected everything in the motorhome or at the lake or here with no problems....
In the process of getting new phones, they need a data plan, so we went with the share everything deal where it doesn't matter what device uses the data, you all draw from the same allotment...
All of this was somewhat expensive, but we decided to grab a new mifi to replace the router and air card... They had a deal going for Christmas.. It arrived overnight and seemed to all work nicely in Kansas...
Well, once set up here in Arizona, the little mifi didn't like this town at all..... For the last three days, it has disconnected from the tower almost every 5 to 10 minutes... It needed a complete power down with the power switch to come back on line.. And then I couldn't get more than about three lines of blog written before it was gone again... Frustration!
So this morning it was no longer the holiday, and I called in to see what could be done about it.... Of course they don't believe that you know what you are doing or talking about, so it took quite a while for me to go thru doing everything again with the tech... Hard reset, and reprogram the router and reset again... Then he put me on hold and he did a lot of stuff from his end...
Then he had me connect to the tower again, and almost within the minute it tossed me off again... Right with him on the phone... And he could see that I was no longer there...
We have a store about 3 miles North of our location here and he sent me to the store to get another mifi... Just put your sim card in the new box...
Well the tech up at the store immediately knew that that wouldn't fix anything..... The store was beyond busy and I had to wait around for a while to get helped... A guy with a tablet logged me in as waiting and they came for me by name...
But once the tech came out, he wanted to see the mifi... He took it apart and removed the sim card... He said these are bad some of the time and went back to the back room for another one...
He was carrying an Ipad that had some fancy scanner devices on one side... He scanned the mifi, and then the new card... Found my account in the Verizon database and performed magic so they all went together...
After putting the whole deal back together, he booted it up right there in the store... I had my Asus pad with me and we logged onto the mifi and began to browse at random... He had me wait for about 10 minutes to see if we got kicked off the system.... But no it stayed rock solid...
So tonight we have been on for the entire writing of the blog and haven't had to reboot once... I can see by looking at the software that we have lost the connection a couple of times during the day, but it signed back in a few moments later......
These Verizon guys seem to know their stuff!! It took a couple of hours to get it sorted out, but in the end we are working for now... Knock on wood or something close..... as my fingers are crossed... And my toes too....
Retired Rod
We have been watching what others have done with Mi-Fi as that is what we will probably have to go with once we start serious traveling. Be safe out there. Sam & Donna.....
ReplyDeleteSo much less frustrating to go to the "source" and get things sorted out. Good customer service I'd say. Well, except maybe the misdiagnosis over the phone, but at least he sent you in the right direction.
ReplyDeleteI get kicked off our mifi by Verizon a few times every day. And sometimes it is so slow I just give up and wait til later. The guy at the Verizon store told me that where we are in AJ is right at the edge of the 4g signal and sometimes when it shifts to another tower it drops. Don't have a clue as to what he was saying but that's what he said. Glad you're up and running again. The guys on the phone are used to dealing with technology challenged folks like me so they take it nice and slow.
ReplyDeleteI can't say we haven't had Verizon problems but most are short lived. We have a Samsung Verizon wifi and it works 99% of the time. We travel all over the east half USA and have heard a lot of ppl say Verizon is the best. Considering it's $50 per month, I'm totally happy with it. Keep up the good blog work..we "share" coffee every morning.. Our blog? http://www.cmhl09.blogspot.com Rolling Earthquake
ReplyDelete...Charlie
The MiFi's typically need firmware updates when people get them. Google your model and there should be links to verify this. Typically there are forums where a model is discussed and while Verizon won't brag about it needing one the forum folks will say where they are and what it fixes.
ReplyDeleteAlso, my cell phone does better at sharing wireless than the MiFi does, how strange is that? :)
Erik
I checked and my version is the latest... Their server is supposed to push the update to you, but you have to press accept to start the download..... So when the new stuff comes I should be notified...
DeleteI won't even start on the verizon nightmare but am glad to see you are all straightened out!!
ReplyDeleteAfter almost two years. I've determined that Verizon tech support folks are either not very good at fixing stuff or their network is marginal in the areas we chose to park. Verizon has replaced our MiFi 3 times now. The battery appeared to be dead so we purchased a new battery. With new battery, the MiFi worked for 20 minutes, then it died again. Same symptom - battery will not charge. Verizon store had no clue but suggested we purchase a new MiFi. No thank you! I'm cancelling my Verizon contract and letting AT&T and iPhone take over as the means to access the internet. So far, my iPhone hotspot has been more reliable than Verizon MiFi.
ReplyDelete