. : : Urban Reality : : .

I finally received the router after so many weeks of waiting. That darned thing travelled all the way from Germany to Malaysia. Sigh ! If only a transporter exist ~ A moment of happiness then struck by feeling of disappointment. Silly me~ I couldn’t get to test the 3G connection as there’s no Maxis 3G coverage in Seremban. I just remembered, my friend was complaining about his Maxis Wireless broadband. The connection was fine when he used the Maxis provided modem in Kajang and he’s able to log on to UTMS (3G) network. But when he comes back to Seremban he could only use GPRS connection and it sucks. Connection was awfully bad and he couldn’t even download stuffs… LoL

I wonder if there’s Celcom 3G coverage in Seremban. Their offer is kinda good and since one of my commentor, Michael has pointed out that Celcom has the best 3G coverage compared to Maxis. But I can say there’s not much difference between Celcom 3G and Streamyx since it shares the same network backbone. Anyhow, I’ll dropping by Celcom to sign up for their 3G services. The best part is I won’t be tied up by a contract. That means I can terminate it anytime I want. Sounds catchy though…. Hopefully there’s no “hidden” rules & regulation in tiny little font that you have to use a magnifier to read it… haha…  Oh well, that’s how business goes and there’s no way to get around it…

Geez… it’s rather annoying seeing MSN notifier popping in and out while I was typing this.. Something is very wrong with my SuckMyx today. I’m getting disconnected almost every 5 minutes intermittently. MSN connection dropping off, DSL led kept blinking and my DSL SNR Margin is dropping to less than 5 dB. Everybody knows that Streamyx sucks but TMNet is dominating the ISP market. If other ISP were given fair chance, I’m sure there would be some better ISP other than TMNet.

I’ve waited 3 weeks for my 3G router. Hopefully it will arrive by tomorrow or next monday. It’s quite a neat piece of gadget. It’s called Vodafone Zuhause Web & Talk.

This is a device which allows users to share a single 3G connection via wireless LAN. With this router, you can access high speed mobile data services when connected to Maxis or Celcom 3G network. It will also auto-switch to UMTS or GPRS according to the area coverage.

Other than being a 3G router, allows users to connect their normal telephone to it. You are able to make call with this unit, hence the name Web & Talk. You may insert a Mobile SIM card (with or without 3G, it does not matter) and then insert the card to the Mobile Slim slot in the route.Then you connect a normal Analogue phone to the phone slot and you will instantly be able to make a phone call using this router alone. No mobile phone is required.

Another nice feature. If you add a printer to this device you are able to receive incoming fax. However to get this to work you must first make sure your Mobile SIM card is enable for fax. I think the monthly fee is about RM10. Check it out with Maxis or Celcom. It’s easy. Just ask for data call. Once done you will be given a data call (or fax) number. Eg. 012-1234567 This datacall number is in addition to your mobile phone number. Hence you get 2 mobile numbers with one card. Then you print your fax number onto your name card. Now if someone send you a fax you are able to receive the fax message printed with your printer. Cool eh!!!

(Front view)

(Back view)

Note:

The 3 slots behind the router are the Fax (1) and Phone (2) slots. To the right are the USB and RJ45 slots. The top cover can be opened manually. This is where you insert the mobile SIM card to in order to use Internet (Web) and Make call (Talk). This is meaning of Web ‘n’ Talk.

The best part is that it has a Merlin U630 pcmcia datacard included. This datacard is being sold by Maxis for around RM1200

To conclude, this 3G router is able to accomodate 2 Mobile SIM card simulataneously. One SIM card (with 3G) goes into the Novatel Merlin U630 datacard. The other SIM card (no need 3G but with datacall enabled) goes into the SIM slot next to the datacard. So, you use this router to Web and Talk. Ah, and fax too.

Most of us thought that 3G can only be used on a 3G enabled phone or with a 3G PCMCIA card which is limited to be used on laptop only. Not many that knows the 3G phone can be used as a modem connected to either desktop or laptop. Those who know, would rather not use it to surf for a long period.]

 Let’s just say, you have a 3G datacard, and you’re switching between laptop and desktop computers. If you travel but don’t want the hassle and expense of buying duplicate interface cards for both your system. The only way to do that is to use  a PCMCIA PCI Host Controller card. This product allows you to use your laptop cards in both desktop and laptop machines. Because it is a PCI hardware solution that integrates seamlessly with Windows, your peripherals work with no loss of performance or features. It supports both the 16-bit PCMCIA and 32-bit CardBus standards, so you can use virtually any laptop peripheral card to expand the connectivity of your desktop computer.

This item is running on a RICOH chipset.

It seems like 3G is gettng popular and Celcom is having a promotion for their 3G card. They currently offer 3 package which is the Pay-per-use, D99 and D120. With the 3G connection, you’ll be able to surf the web with the max speed of 384Kpbs and the upload speed of 64Kpbs. I plan to subcribe to Celcom 3G since the apartment I stay in doesn’t have phone lines and I don’t wanna get Streamyx and get tied up with their contract cos I’m only gonna stay there for another 5 months. The good thing bout what Celcom is offering is that I can just cancel the subscription anytime I want.

Difference between UNLIMITED PLAN and PAY PER USE PLAN:

Take example of downloading 20 MBytes of Windows Media Player 11 from Microsoft download center.

Pay per use plan:
Celcom charges 10sen/10 KByte = 1 unit
(Note: 1 kByte = 1,024 Bytes)
Monthly fee: RM 0.00
Download charges:
20 MBytes = [(20*1024kByte) / (10kByte) ]* RM 0.10 = RM 204.80
Upload charges:
500 kBytes = [(0.5*1024kByte) / (10kByte) ]* RM 0.10 = RM 5.12
Total charge (Monthly fee + DL + UL) = RM 0.00 + RM 204.80 + RM 5.12 = RM 209.92

Unlimited Plan:
Celcom charges RM 99/month
Monthly fee: RM 99.00
Download charges:
20 MBytes = [(20*1024kByte) / (10kByte) ]* RM 0.00 = RM 0.00
Upload charges:
500 kBytes = [(0.5*1024kByte) / (10kByte) ]* RM 0.00 = RM 0.00
Total charge (Monthly fee + DL + UL) = RM 90.00 + RM 0.00 + RM 0.00 = RM 90.00 per month

Hope you get the point here.

Celcom’s 3G is running at peak speed of 384 kbps. Download files from reliable sites, i.e. Microsoft.com could obtain DL speed of 320 kbps or more. So your download of 20 MBytes file will complete in less than 10 minutes. If you do this with Pay per use plan, you already lost RM 200 in 10 minutes.

I just heard from a friend of mine, some idiot received a RM20k bill from Celcom because he thought he was using the 3G unlimited plan. Well, if you’re going to apply for Celcom 3G, do confirm your registration with the agent. There are a lot of complaints from other users about their 3G subcription because the agent marked their application as Pay-per-use instead of Unlimited usage.