Jet Hub Globesurfer III

[loewent]

Good day all,

Recently picked up a Jet Hub Globesurfer III to replace my Wireless ISP. Tried it out for the 14 day 'trial period' and was pretty impressed. Speeds were equal to/better than my WISP. Latency was similar, maybe a bit worse, but I'm OK with that.

However, the tech support for this unit is next to non-existent. I called once to get the thing going, and it took the tech about 45 minutes to find the right info to help me. I actually walked him through most of it.

In the past few days, we've had issues with the telephony part of the Jet Hub. Can't seem to have calls last longer than about 2 minutes before they drop. The base for my cordless phone is pretty close to this thing, but I've moved it to about 6ft away. No other wireless items running in the house, other than our other 2 cell phones.

Tried calling tech support today, and he pretty much told me I am SOL. WTF?!?! I will be going to the MTS Connect store I bought this thing at, see what they have to say about it. It was a very frustrating call today.

Anyone have any experience with these things?

t

[DummyBuy]

Good day all,

Recently picked up a Jet Hub Globesurfer III to replace my Wireless ISP. Tried it out for the 14 day 'trial period' and was pretty impressed. Speeds were equal to/better than my WISP. Latency was similar, maybe a bit worse, but I'm OK with that.

However, the tech support for this unit is next to non-existent. I called once to get the thing going, and it took the tech about 45 minutes to find the right info to help me. I actually walked him through most of it.

In the past few days, we've had issues with the telephony part of the Jet Hub. Can't seem to have calls last longer than about 2 minutes before they drop. The base for my cordless phone is pretty close to this thing, but I've moved it to about 6ft away. No other wireless items running in the house, other than our other 2 cell phones.

Tried calling tech support today, and he pretty much told me I am SOL. WTF?!?! I will be going to the MTS Connect store I bought this thing at, see what they have to say about it. It was a very frustrating call today.

Anyone have any experience with these things?

t

Support and stability is the key to these types of technology and it seems that MTS has not factored this into the equation and that is why they end up with some unhappy customers.

Are the monthly fees similar to you just getting a 4G stick like the MC547. I think they should be releasing the new 679 Novatel stick soon which would be a better option.

If the fees are the same, the best solution is to get the stick and the MOFI3500-3GN router.

It does not have voice but it is just an ip phone solution which you can get anywhere cheap and you will can also get real support.

With the MOFI router, you not only get support, but there are hundreds of other features that are non existence in the globesurf product.

some of the features that may be important to you that the MOFI has are
- XBox, Playstation and other system optimization
- True plug and play technology
- Most gets your faster internet than you would with any other device due to hardware and software optimization that took years to perfect.
- You get the speed of the stick vs the limited speed of your global surfer which has max 14.4Mbps.
(LTE speeds are easily over 20Mbps, rated at 150Mbps)
- 4 ports vs 2 ports ethernet
- up to 300Mb/s wireless speeds on the MOFI vs 54Mb/s on the globle surfer (this is very important to note)
+ many others

if you are a business customer, you may want to note some of these features that the MOFI can do:

- Mifi Hotspot Support
- Failover load balancing (multiwan)
- router to router mesh support
- true DMZ not psuedo dmz zone
- IP Pass-through (makes your router as a stick for users looking to add internet to an existing network without the worries about changing various network settings)
- Aprx - Ham Radio Automatic Packet Reporting System
- Vpn Services and Termination - device to Cisco, Linux, Juniper IPSec, L2TP, & PPTP
- Remote management web-based GUI and CLI over SSH Preconfigured Security
- Serial console available to control another attached device as well as USB to serial
- Dynamic DNS (DDNS) with support for 10+ different DDNS services
- USB support for networkable devices like printers and USB storage drives, IP Phones
- Uses Package system to quickly add support and include software without reflashing the router -- currently over 2000 packages that can be added!
- Windows-compatible file sharing (via SAMBA)
- UPnP and NAT-PMP for dynamically configured port forwarding Port forwarding
- QOS Flexible firewall


Rogers, Bell and Telus used to offer a similar solution where they offered cheaper data plans but have cancelled this option so again they are also in same boat where the MOFI using a 4G\LTE stick is the best solution. Actually, Rogers and Telus have been recommending the MOFI solution to their customers already as they know that support and other issues are not worth it as it can get very complicated when it comes to routers which MOFI is world wide known for now.

[loewent]

Thanks for the reply!

After about a month of use, I've actually come to really like this device. It does work as advertised, and speeds are very comparable to what I was getting via my wireless ISP. It is plug and play. We've actually brought it camping with us a few times, pretty cool to have a WIFI connection when you are in the middle of no where!

Previously, we were paying $55.95 (tax inc) for the WISP, which provided 25GB/month. Add another $40 a month for the Primus Talkbroadband, and I was close to $100/month for internet and phone. And the service wasn't that great, lots of interference issues, down for long periods. It was getting frustrating.

The JetHub costs $63/month for 3GB. My need is about 1-5GB, depending on how much surfing I do, but don't do any downloading, and not much video streaming. The plan is flexible, and increases to $73 for 5GB, and $88 for 10GB. Over 10GB is charged at $10/GB.

Because the plan includes unlimited airtime on the voice side of the phone, and we don't seem to be going over the 3GB, we are actually saving about $40/month over the previous setup. Long distance is charged at $0.35/min, which is pretty ridiculous, but we can get a long distance package that knocks that down. Also, keep in mind that this device operates as a cellular phone. Anyone familiar with the intricacies of MTS and how they charge cellular long distance will know what I am talking about. I live near Niverville, and can call Winkler without incurring LD charges, also Winnipeg, Steinbach, etc etc. So the LD issue doesn't seem to be much of a factor. If we call out of province, we'll probably get a calling card.

In regards to the technical issues I've been having, its mostly on the voice side, with some dropped calls. One of the deficiencies I see on this device is that it lacks an external antenna. So we'll solve that by adding one... available from Wilson Electronics for about $50-100. Currently, it seems to be working well, and the dropped calls seem to be minimal.

Overall, we are quite happy with this device. Sounds like if we do have any major issues with the unit, they will replace it with a new one. But so far so good.

[DummyBuy]

I understand where you are coming from.
You really are only factoring in the price cause you were paying too much for a voice over ip plan.

You can get many voice over ip plan for $20/month or less.

If you want a cheap one, you can get some as low as $8/month for unlimited calling or you can get a magic jack.

For most customers, just the fact of having internet may be all you think you would need but if you factor the price of the stick, MOFI router and all the advantages, since there is no special savings for this unit, many would be better having a high performance router vs the slow Jet Hub but good to know that you got most of your issues resolved.