Putting Realism Into Your Network

Larry Chaffin

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My misadventures with an AT&T 3G card in New York

Verizon is going to be my next choice.

By Larry Chaffin on Mon, 10/26/09 - 1:57pm.

I have been traveling with my AT&T 3G card for a while now and it is always a horrible experience when I travel to LA, NY, Chicago and DC. It works fine when I am in my home city, connects every time and the speed is ok (but not close to 3G speed). But I was just in NY again and could not even get data when using it.

Below are two screen shots of my signal and the data-plus-time online. It would connect but I could not get to the Internet. This happened all over NY this week which meant I had to pay for the hotel's Internet since my 3G card would not reliably work. I even went into a store for help and the "kid" there told me that it's my computer and that I needed to buy a new one like a netbook. Since I can connect at home, the computer couldn't be the problem.

As you can see from the images, after 12 minutes I barely received any data in downtown NY even with a good signal. The funny thing was, my iPhone had no problem. I was able to get on the Internet and get my e-mail with it.

So what does this say about the data service from AT&T compared to, say, a competitor like Verizon? I hope Verizon is better as I am about to try it next. I am hoping that AT&T will let me out of my contract, refund my monthly fee and also pay for the Internet service I bought at hotels when the 3G card didn't work.

What do you think the chances are AT&T will help me out?

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About Putting Realism Into Your Network

Larry Chaffin Ph.D is the Chief Executive Officer/Chairman and founder of Pluto Networks, a Consulting and VAR partner specializing in WAN acceleration, VoIP, WLAN, telepresence and security.

Pluto Networks is a Riverbed reseller. Pluto was previously a Cisco reseller but in June, 2010, ended its reseller relationship with the company and is no longer a Cisco channel partner.

Pluto Networks specializes in the needs of small, large and enterprise companies by always giving them a great ROI on the products they sell. Pluto Networks has a presence in 23 countries around the world enabling all of its consultants to be virtual. Larry was a Judge at Interop for the Best of Interop Awards for 2009.

Larry has also co-authored all of the books listed below:

Managing Cisco Secure Networks, Skype Me, Practical VOIP Security, Configuring Check Point NGX VPN-1/Firewall-1,Configuring Juniper Networks NetScreen & SSG Firewalls,Essential Computer Security: Everyone's Guide to Email, Internet, and Wireless Security, How to Cheat at Microsoft Vista Administration, Microsoft Vista for IT Security Professionals, Asterisk Hacking, 2008 VoIP and Video Conferencing, Infosecurity 2008 Threat Analysis and author of Building a VOIP Network with Nortel's MS5100, along with co-authoring/ghost writing eleven other technology books for VIOP, WLAN, security and optical technologies. Larry is currently working on a follow up to Building a VoIP network with Nortel's MCS 5100 Book as well as new books on Cisco Telepresence Networks, Practical VoIP case studies and WAN Acceleration with Riverbed.

Larry also has more than 29 vendor certifications and has been working on many others. Larry has been a principal architect around the world in 22 countries for many Fortune 100 companies designing VoIP, security, wireless and optical networks. He has expanded over time also to include application acceleration. Larry is working with worldwide company now out of Asia as a Special Assistant to the CEO and CIO as they go through organizational and network changes, helping them with strategic advice from his years of experience.

Pluto Networks is a channel partner of, LifeSize, Riverbed, Call Copy, Fastsoft and Symantec.