Wireless Broadband and SL

Many of the wireless phone companies (Verizon, Sprint, Cingular) are offering what they are calling broadband internet service via a card to slip into your laptop. I'm wondering if anyone uses one of these services regularly to access SL with a laptop and if they could talk a little about how it compares to conventional broadband like cable and DSL.

I currently have built in wireless, but have also used something i "slip" into the computer to get the wireless signal, and second life knocks me offline, not just off the game, but OFFLINE. I made a thread about it awhile back and others have the same problem, a few said wireless worked just fine for them though. Months later it just got too old (Tried multiple solutions and couldnt get sl to stop kicking me offline) So about 3 days ago I drug a wire through my house and hooked up my computer the old way and turned off wireless, I havent had problems since. My avatar also no longer flies far when i only meant for him to go a meter or so.

I hope to get wireless and sl compatible for me but not sure of a solution.

May work for you though.....

I use an Apple Airport wirless network in my house for connecting to SL and also I freqently use wireless connections around town to connect to SL. Usually I don't have many problems with it, except that it is a little slower then a direct connnection. This results in increased lag, slower loading of textures and increased packet loss, especially where the wireless signal registers as less then full strength. Occasionally this will result in a disconnect, but I dont seem to have more of a problem with this then my friends who don't use wireless. Some wireless connections in restaruants that I have used seemed to disconnect me every 45 minutes or so, but this may also have been from interference from microwave ovens, or wireless phones that use a similar frequency.

Generally I am very happy with wireless, I love the freedom it gives me with my laptop, its worth the other minor inconveniences.

Thanks for the responses, but I wasn't talking about Wi-Fi wireless, I use that all the time. I was talking about "wireless" as in cellular phones. These are PC cards that allow you to get internet access wherever you can get a phone signal, not just at wi-fi hotspots.

ANY wireless you choose to run, depending on where you are, can be troublesome, if not all spots.

Reason being, if you are near lots of electrical interference items, the theory is that can cause wireless to hiccup. Not so much notice on games without user loading so much, (Such as WoW or Everquest, where the world and items are a set staying icon), whereas SL is constantly in need of a strong connection.

Usually, at the first sign of slow down, crawl or hiccup from interference... you lose connection. And that can certainly happen a lot.

I'm more interested when it's working well. Is this kind of connection really robust enough (when it's working well) to connect to SL?

A cellular phone type connection would be terrible. I think the fastest currently available is 3G at 384kbps. I've tried it and it's unreliable and always losing connection.

I wouldn't even recommend that somebody use a wireless router/modem for Second Life unless they're going to sit their laptop on top of their router. While you can get a nice stable wireless wifi connection, you'll always get those moments where something weird happens and you're never really sure if it was the sim you're in, or if it was the cat that just crossed the path of your connection.

Get yourself some nice wire, it's great. You can also hang yourself with it after realizing that all your inventory has gone missing.

Another user, not me, reports that they have the Verizon wireless broadband, use it on their laptop, and get good results with SL. They report getting roughly a 600K connection.

My family uses VWBB, and that REALLY depends on where you are sitting directly from the PoC. Sitting within 40-50 feet, works incredible, however, trying to use it in the garage or the like... not so good.

I'd be interested in finding out where this user is in relation to the base.

Ooh I need that!


Dont quote me on this but I highly doubt those could run SL smoothly, if at all.

Um... if that was an option I would do it. It isn't. That is why I asked.

What is VWBB? It sounds like something different than what we are talking about.

Verizon Wireless Broadband?

Yeah, but it sounds like Seola is using WiFi to get the signal from the PoC (point of connnection?) to the actual computer. The services I'm looking at usually use cards that plug right into your notebook.

I use non-wireless highspeed, wireless with just me on it, and also wireless that is public (shared). The wireless with just me on it is okay... Secondlife is slower, things take longer to rez, I bump into stuff.. usually music streams in very well. The shared wireless is much much slower. Usually nothing rezzes, I can't walk, but I can IM and chat (with alot of typos).

i have a wireless verizon card that gives me service thru their broadband network. It isnt wi fi ,and it isnt connected to a central router in the home...

i can go anywhere with it, and it works very well with second life. However, the one i use by Verizon is very expensive. I don't thiink cellular edge or sprint works as well. And of course its not as fast as a normal cable connection would be, so I wouldn't rely on it as your primary means of connecting to second life.

But for on the road its wonderful.

(You have to buy a PCMCIA card that they sell to connect to the service)

Actually, I'm not. Just as with DSL, depending on the location you are from the tower or base of operations you are, the less it's worth. Right now, between my two choices for Wireless, I've gone with one because even though the other claims to be faster, it's "up to" those awesome speeds. When judging side by side, I don't get half the speed as from one as the other.

I'm 2 miles from one, 10 from the other.

Doesn't make a HUGE difference you'd think...

I use Verizon, with a Motorola Q phone, so I use the EVDO connection

It's do-able... with caveats.

First, the phone matters. There is a HUGE difference between the Q and the Blackberry EVDO connections. With the blackberry, SL is un-playable. Just don't even try. We're talking 80+ second chat lag. Just... ugh.
However, with the Q, I'm getting about 250ms lag on the sims. It's not gonna get cable modem users fleeing for cover, but it's not far behind DSL. And I'm able to get enough bandwidth to really enjoy SL.

Second, the connection matters. If you have 3+ bars (with the Q), it's totally useable. If you are at 2 bars, expect your lag to double or triple, and you are gonna feel some pain. 1 bar? Forget it.

So, my experience. Get a Q, not a blackberry. Make sure where you will be logging on you have a SOLID connection. If you do that, SL is enjoyable. If you don't, well, you are on yor own!

--Faykin