• Review: Rogers Rocket Hub

    Posted by Mike Yawney on November 25th, 2009 33 comments

    rogersWe take high speed Internet for granted. Admit it. If you live in any urban area you’re used to the fact that you can download movies and music at the speed of light. We’re talking legal files, of course. We’re used to connecting our laptops up to our wireless home networks and surfing the web at speeds that weren’t even possible five years ago.

    But if you live in a rural area, you may not be so lucky. Outside of large urban centres, high speed Internet is still a luxury. Availability is usually through satellite which can be expensive. Now Canada’s largest wireless provider claims to have a solution.

    Rogers Rocket Hub is a small device with a big claim: the ability to bring high speed Internet to even the most remote locations. As long as you have access to Rogers HSPA network, you can access the web. So how well does it work? We put it to the test to see if it delivers on its promise.

    The Concept

    The idea behind Rogers Rocket Hub is quite simple. You plug a small device into an electrical outlet in your home or office and immediately it will connect to Rogers HSPA or 3.5G network. It then begins pumping out high speed Internet throughout your home or small business. Up to 15 computers can be connected to the Rocket Hub either through Ethernet connections or wireless, if preferred.

    The Design

    The Rogers Rocket Hub is surprisingly small for its advertised abilities. It’s about the size of a small paperback novel and is fairly well designed. It has a glossy piano black finish and is very light. And just so you don’t forget who you’re paying your monthly bill to each month, a silver Rogers logo is displayed in the middle of the unit.

    The power button is back lit, red when it’s off, blue when turned on. That same blue hue illuminates a signal meter showing how good the reception is in the location you choose to set the Rocket Hub up.

    rocket_hub1

    As far as style goes, Rogers Rocket Hub is easy on the eyes

    The Setup

    Setting up the Rocket Hub takes mere minutes. It truly is plug and play. Once the device has been removed from the box you plug it into the wall and turn it on. Within a few seconds the device will begin searching for Rogers’ HSPA network. If it can receive a signal from a nearby cell tower, the Rocket Hub will begin transmitting your very own personal Wi-Fi signal throughout your home or office. As previously mentioned, you can also hard-wire computers to the device if you’d rather not go the wireless route.

    Besides Ethernet ports, the Rocket Hub also has a phone line port on the back. For a monthly fee, you can connect a regular land line phone to the Rocket Hub and you will receive phone service. This is a nice feature to have considering it can take weeks, if not months, to get a phone company to install a phone line to rural areas. By using the Rocket Hub, you can get instant land line functionality, without having a physical line to your home. Just keep in mind you need to continue to receive the wireless signal from the cell tower to keep your phone operational. If you lose power, you lose the phone line.

    The Performance

    We took Rocket Hub to an area of rural Alberta, Canada, known for its lack of high speed Internet access. A retreat in the foothills of the Canadian Rockies near a town called Turner Valley. While the town itself has high speed Internet, the area we went to did not, as it is too far from town. Just to give you an idea of how remote we were, a cougar just happened to walk past us as were were chatting with the home owners about setting up the device. Yup, pretty remote.

    We were a little skeptical about our attempt as wireless coverage in this particular area was grim. The home we chose had next to no 3G coverage. In fact we could barely get a signal bar on our cell phone. This would put the device to the ultimate test. Surprisingly enough, after scouring the home we were able to find a single bar of 3G coverage in the upstairs spare bedroom. That was all we needed.

    rocket_hub

    Immediately the Rogers Rocket Hub showed we had Internet connectivity. We turned on our laptop and sure enough, access to the web. We began browsing a number of websites to see how quickly pages would load up. We were pleasantly surprised. Although it wasn’t quite as fast as browsing through a high speed connection in town, it was very close. Most pages maybe took 3-4 seconds longer than they would have back in the city.

    The next test: streaming video. As many know, you need a decent connection to stream video with no interruptions. YouTube videos loaded with ease and played back flawlessly. A 3 minute video took about 15 seconds to start playing, but once it began there was no audio stutters or video distortion. All this was done with only a third of the signal meter illuminated on the Rogers Rocket Hub. If the signal was better, we would have had better performance.

    The Downsides

    Rogers does warn you must have 3.5G or HSPA coverage in order to get the Rocket Hub to work. If the signal is low you can get an external antenna installed to help boost the signal. This will be needed for some homes, especially in areas where cell reception is affected by hills and low lying areas. While it’s nice to have that option, you have to book an appointment and have someone install it for you. That does decrease the easy self-install which is a selling feature of the Rocket Hub.

    Then there’s the data plans. While they are reasonable for people who will use the web for surfing and emailing, those who download movies and music may find them a bit pricey. Rogers charges $35 a month for 3 GB of data and $60 for a 10 GB plan. After that you will be charged $5 per GB used. This could add up very quickly for avid downloaders. Customers will also have to pay $149 up front for the Rocket Hub and sign up for a 2-year contract.

    The Bottom Line

    Our overall experience with Rogers Rocket Hub was positive. Setup was a breeze and we were able to surf the web within minutes. The connection remained stable the entire time we played around with it and the speed was nearly the same quality as you would receive in the city, only slightly slower.

    Some people living in very remote areas won’t be able to use the service as it still requires 3.5G or HSPA network coverage. But for many living in areas where high speed Internet can only be gained through satellite, the Rogers Rocket Hub could very well be a blessing. Just don’t gorge yourself on movies and downloads. Your wallet will thank you for it.

    The Good

    Creates a reliable high speed Internet connection in remote areas
    Easy Setup
    Simple to use
    Extra $15/month gives you optional telephone service

    The Bad

    Still requires 3.5G or HSPA network coverage
    Data plans can get expensive if you go over your limit

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    33 responses to “Review: Rogers Rocket Hub”

    1. Robert Spencer November 28th, 2009 at 16:03

      I assume this devise is available at the Rogers store. If I were to purchase it and sign up for two years do I get some sort of guarantee that it will work at my location.

    2. Rogersmary December 2nd, 2009 at 05:38

      Hey, Robert.

      Yes, you can get the Rocket Hub at a wireless store or order it faster online at http://www.rogers.com/rockethub.

      As for whether the Rogers Rocket Hub will work at your location, you’re welcome to check out our extensive HSPA network coverage map at http://www.rogers.com/coverage to see if you live within the coverage zone. If you’re on the cusp of a coverage zone, you can purchase an antenna that will boost your coverage reception.

      Most importantly, though, Rogers has a 15 day full-refund return policy for the Rocket Hub. You can take it home and try it out to make sure you’re happy with it. If it doesn’t meet your expectations, you can return it and get your money back. The additional cost of purchasing an antenna may not be refundable, please confirm that with the store of purchase.

      Hope that helps.
      Thanks,
      Mary

    3. Robin Majumdar December 3rd, 2009 at 15:09

      Thanks for sharing this nice detailled review. I’m considering either the Bell Mifi 2372 or the Rocket Hub for a family member living in a rural village (only dial-up and a few miles from the US border)… according to Rogers (and Bell) HSPA is available in her area.

      You mention the cost of the data, but it’s actually cheaper for the Rogers Rocket Hub than the Bell Mifi … possibly because the Bell Mifi unit is ultra portable….

      Thanks again,

      Robin

    4. Jen December 18th, 2009 at 15:44

      We are those people with dial-up or satellite as our only internet option. Just heard about this the day before I was going to get a Telus stick. Anyway…. got both, compared, easily decided to keep the Rocket Hub, return the stick. Considerably faster, much cheaper as a home internet service, and so far consistent service. If you get a 3G signal it works great and couldn’t be much easier to hook up. Haven’t tried the phone connection yet.

    5. Robin Majumdar December 20th, 2009 at 16:27

      Thanks, Jen, for sharing your experience.

      What kind of Rogers cell signal do you have? In my scenario, we get 1-2 bricks on a Rogers GSM cell phone – a rural village near the US border in Quebec. Does this correlate to the potential HSPA signal that we’ll get with the Rocket Hub? Or could we get a much stronger, and thereby faster and more stable, HSPA signal if our GSM signal is only 1-2 bricks ?

    6. Mark December 24th, 2009 at 05:40

      I’ve been looking for an alternative Internet provider since all I have is one wireless company or dialup. I currently have the wireless service but the speed is very bad. I’m paying for 1.5Mb/s speeds but am only getting 60k to 80k. The customer service has been less than acceptable and they do not care about fixing the speed problem.

      I found the Rocket Hub and am still looking into it. The initial cost and signing up for a 2 year plan is making me cautious. I signed up for 2 years with my current provider and they have been very bad since day one. There are all kinds of penalties if I stop their service and I don’t want to get stuck again.

      Your review has given me some more information and I appreciate it. When my current provider’s plan expires next month, I will be seriously looking into the Rocket Hub.

      Thanks

    7. Michael December 24th, 2009 at 08:19

      After talking to Rogers sales dept. yesterday, and having them assure me that I was well within the 3G+ network, I went to a store and purchased the device.

      Brought it home and problems started right away.

      Couldn’t get it to see anything better than 2G, played with for a while, then, called Rogers tech support who told me to call “nerds onsite” for an antenna. Nerds onsite is a big joke. The take all this info. from me and cannot even tell me the cost of the antenna. I have to wait for “a guy” to call me back. Seems like lots of sub-contracting going on and that usually means crappy service for the consumer, and in this case it does.

      Signal strength is spotty, even though I an in the “middle” of a 3G+ zone. The device constantly hangs so I have to re-boot. Then it stops working. I call Rogers and someone deleted my acct. and I have to wait “several hours” to get it back. Tech support barely speak English and those that speak English are rude and arrogant. This technology isn’t ready for “prime time.”

      Another “attempt” by Rogers to pump something out to collect $$$ without properly testing and more bullsh*t promises and “coverage maps.”

      Good thing I paid for it on my AmEx because I know they will make sure I get my money back when I bring back this paperweight.

      For anyone thinking of buying this, make sure you buy it outright and start “month to month” so that you can return easily without having signed a service contract.

      Too bad our current “new” federal gov’t doesn’t mandate high speed access via land lines like Obama is doing. I can get high speed internet more easily in Mexico than Canada, and that is a very sad statement.

      Oh, and just for the record, I don’t live on Baffin Island, only 40 km or so north of Barrie, Ontario.

    8. RonJ January 2nd, 2010 at 13:39

      I purchased the Hub and the two year flex-plan on Nov. 27/09. I am very happy with how it’s been working and the speeds I get in my rural location. Much better than dial-up or a line of site wireless.

      Oddly enough, although I have Rogers/Yahoo email and can surf anywhere on the internet, I can’t get into any Rogers web site. If the URL has rogers.com as part of the address, I can’t get into it. I can’t check my useage or use their FAQ’s, downloads, troubleshooting or any other aspect. Rogers knows about the problem, phone techs tell me Rogers is working on it but have no idea when the problem will be corrected.

      This may make A difference to some potential customers. Actually, I’m surprised that they keep selling the Hub with this problem.

      Ron

    9. Derek January 2nd, 2010 at 17:55

      Ok just spent the day playing with a Rocket hub for the in-laws. If you can get a good signal this thing is slick and I think a great value.

      This all started a few days ago when we I found out that I could get 1 bar of 3G on my iphone at their place in an upstairs window. They are in Val-Des-Monts Quebec (in hills) and only can get 19.2 via dialup. We struggled on buying it outright vs. on contract. Bought it outright because we were told that there was a $400 cancelation fee for the voice and possibly an additional $100 cancelation fee for data. (Retarded!) Rogers Plus lady was nice but really didn’t know much about this thing said we had 15 days to return it if it didn’t work.

      We bought the rocket hub and decided to set it up at my place first where I get great 3G coverage.

      Funny thing was we couldn’t get a signal with it and after logging in to the hubs web page we could see it actually was on the network but gave us an access denied msg on the mobile network page. Called Rogers and was juggled around with the off shore support were we finely got someone who said there was a problem with the network that was making the hub not show the signal strength but that it should still give us internet. I was sceptical but he was right and we got 2.03Mbps down and 1.93 Mbps up.

      So we packet it up and took it to in-laws. Put it up in the window beside the iphone but was disappointed when the rocket hub only gave us 1 bar of 2G. It could barely load Google page. Iphone was able to surf data and make phone calls. Not one to give up I convinced the father in-law to get a broom stick to stick the hub out the window. Got 2 bars but still only 2G. We could surf but still really slow. Asked him to find a longer pole. He came back with a 12 footer. Lot’s of tape later and some frost bite we got a 3G signal and 1 MB down. We did a quick Skype video conference with the sister in-law in Texas. Success!

      We knew this thing could work but we would need an external antenna on a pole. “May need an external antenna” and “contact Rogers for external antenna” is plastered all over the box and in the documentation. 40 min later, 2 phone calls and 6 people later we finally get someone who tells us that Rogers doesn’t sell it and that Nerd’s is contracted out to sell and install it. We get transferred to Nerds and we get our info taken down to have a call back to gives us an idea of cost of the install.

      I’m expecting that Nerds isn’t going to be the right people to climb 60+ feet to install an antenna on a mast. Rogers needs to train their people on this and really sell the kit direct to those who want to install it. Currently sourcing my own external antennae kit should the Nerds not pan out or be a boat load of cash.

      Conclusions so far.

      Over all a very cool little hardware product.
      Voice/Data plan is great value.
      Antenna in this thing sucks or an iphone has a magical antenna/receiver in it.
      Rogers people haven’t been trained on this product yet.

    10. fred January 4th, 2010 at 07:28

      I received a Rogers Rockethub on Friday, which was intended for my parents cottage in rural southern Ontario. I have to say I’m really pleased with this device and service. It’s replacing an Xplornet satellite setup which despite costing $500 to install and $60+/month never worked even marginally well. The Rockethub is pulling down speeds comparable to a 4mb DSL, plenty fast enough for my parents to check their email and do casual browsing. The setup was extremely easy. Five minutes out of the box and we were browsing. Overall, first impressions are very favorable.

    11. Matt January 7th, 2010 at 17:43

      Just got the rocket hub yesterday. I’m north of Oshawa, Ontario. (North East of Toronto 80km) I’ve got full strength on the signal meter with 3G lit up in the centre. I’m assuming that this is about as good a signal as I an get.
      BUT, the speed is not very good. Advertised at up to (yes I know) 7.2M, I’m getting about .5 to 2.0. Right now in the evening I can’t even get 1Mb/s.
      I’m guessing that maybe this has to do with the load on the local tower.

      I got the rocket hub to upgrade my slow (a relative word) wireless local providers max 3Mg service ( which actually gets about 1M average.) Upload is faster with the rocket than my old wireless, but so far that’s about it. This wireless service works good, and unless I can get the Rocket to “rocket speed”, I am going to return it. (The sound of maybe say 3 or 4 Mbps is good!)

      Keep in mind. I’ve only had the service for a day.

      Yes I had xplornet for 2 years, I even tried their 2Mg service for 120/month, but it couldn’t even get 1M, maybe 800kbps max.
      Although, it was slightly better than dial up! – and a second phone line.

      I enjoy 10+Mb/s at work – in a completely rural area – but they have cable access which offers internet on cable.

      The rogers store I bought this at had never sold one, and had no idea how it might work. Oh yeah, it took an hour on the phone with tech support to get it working.

      It is a cool looking device though!

    12. steve January 13th, 2010 at 15:38

      hey,

      i too am trying out the rockethub for 15 days for my parents who live in the boonies.

      yesterday the thing was working great, on speakeasy.net (a speedtest website) i was getting 6000kbps down and 1500kbps up!!!

      the surfing was quick and reliable.

      today, i checked on it, and although the speeds were still pretty fast according to speakeasy.net, but it would take forever for the tests to start.
      also, loading webpages were taking for ever for them to start loading, the hub has full strength.

      it is pretty frustrating, since yesterday it was amazing, and today it seems to be junk.

      anyone else have this problem/fix.

      like i said, the signal strength is 100% and i get the + for the hspa, but the surfing is painful.

      i have 3 computers networked together, and each one today is slow, where as yesterday, they were all fast.

      HELP!!

      steve

    13. T January 18th, 2010 at 18:42

      Well the Rocket Hub I found to be an excellent product it actually boosts the signal unlike the Rogers Rocket Stick , I live in a rural area and can,t get internet any other way except for dial-up, as soon as I had recieved my product it went straight online with my xbox no lag no problem. A week later mind you I unhooked the power cable and something went wrong so now I have to change my apn name to internet.com and back to the original and back to internet.com ,everytime I turn my xbox on to get online. So in short ver. I’m not sure if its the Hub or If is Rogers blocking it. But Rogers says its not supposed to connect ,but it does. Anyhow if your in to just surf the net its great but if your into gaming you may have to yell at your ISP for a while for them to correct this issue, rather than keeping there pockets lined they should be upgrading their systems to handle the Rural Gamers and heavy surfers

    14. Barry January 23rd, 2010 at 07:01

      WOW the rocket hub works great. We live off the grid in a remote are of the BC coast. Out of the box it was very easy to install but our signal was not reliable. I purchased a YAGI antenna and an adapter on Ebay and now I have 1 or two sets of bars and reliably 3+ meg down and 1+ meg up. Purchased the antenna from ebay You can find it by searching for “24db YAGI antenna”. I purchased the adapter that allows the antenna to plug into the rocket hub on Ebay. You can find it by searchjing for ” FME male to MCX male 90 ” . It is listed as a GPS antenna adapter. Getting the wifi to work was a bit troublesome. The passphrase has to be in uppercase. Good luck ours works fantastic.

    15. Richard January 31st, 2010 at 19:08

      Rocket Hub is great.

      I have a Log cabin in the Laurentians North of Montreal (between Morin Heights and Lachute). The Cabin is located on an estate along with 12 other homes spread across a mountain area. There is no land line phone service or internet available so we are all very isolate. From my cabin, I get NO cel phone signal, I need to climb up the hill .5 km behind the house in order to get 2 bars. My neighbors have elected me to find a solution for our Phone and High Speed Internet problem.

      After weeks/month of looking into different options (Satellite, WiMax/WiFii), found the Rocket Hub solution that sounded to good to be true. On the weekend, I purchased a Rocket Hub from my local Rogers store then went to an electronics outlet and got a Wilson Dual Band Yagi antenna (model 204411 frequency 800-2500 MHz, a 50 cable extension and a Wilson cellular Antenna adaptor part# 359904 to connect the extension cable to the Hub. I plugged everything together including a house phone to the back of the HUB. Started by taping the antenna to a broom stick and climbed on the roof. Got a NO BAR signal but was able to get a phone dial tone; I was able to place a call. WOW. Next, went to the basement and dug out two eight foot lengths of molding and taped them to the broom stick obtaining about 20 feet of height. Back to the roof, pointing the Yagi antenna East toward St-Jerome. Still no signal, Rotated the Yagi Antenna, 10 degree at a time until suddenly strong 10BARS + 3G signal. With that signal, was able to get a high speed Internet connection, could play some You Tube clips, etc.. That is great!

      The rest of the day was spent going to the other 11 homes on the estate to conduct the same test. Of the 12 homes, was able to get a strong 3G signal for 8 of then, the other 4 got a similar signal without the 3G (so phone worked but no High Speed Internet). I am sure with a bit a additional height and tweeking we will get the 3G for all 12 homes. We (the owners of the homes) we ecstatic!!! All agreed to go with the Rocket Hub.

      This is great news, Now all I need to do is negotiate with my Rogers store to get a package deal for 11 more Rocket Hubs + the recurrent monthly fee then do the same with the Antenna outlet.

      What a break through!!!!!!

    16. Natalie February 17th, 2010 at 10:06

      I have to say, we have had this for six days now and I am so happy I could cry. After two years of increasingly bad Xplornet satellite service, we finally have true high speed! We live in a rural area (eastern Ontario between Montreal and Ottawa) and have not been able to get microwave internet (unless we put up a 1,000-foot antenna!), nor anything that Bell offers (other than dial-up!) My neighbours across the road tried the Bell alternative to this, but it did not work and Bell of course would not return the $40 they initially paid. We took our Hub over to their house and it worked fine. Saturday they went out and got the Rocket Hub and it is working great for them. We have all died and gone to heaven.

      I am a graphic designer and am thrilled to have this for my work. I was ready to jump off a bridge last week when it took me seven hours to upload a 7-MB file via satellite, with constant crashes. I don’t care if this Hub ends up costing me triple what Xplornet does (not that I expect it to), it will be worth it if it works. We have been paying $70/month for crappy satellite service that was often attaining only dial-up speeds, not to mention the several hundred dollars we spent to install the Xplornet dish. Xplornet truly does suck.

      My husband is still debating getting an external antenna; we don’t seem to need it. I hear people have varying results with external antennae.

      We thought this would be too good to be true, but it isn’t. I am so so so so so happy!!!

    17. Rod February 22nd, 2010 at 09:59

      Hey this all sounds good but how good is the wifi? Does it go through the whole house or just a few feet? I live in a remote place where there is only 1 bar if i stand right on my roof, but i put in a booster and antenna from wireless extender and it has worked super with 4 to 5 bars in the house. My contract is coming up with Telus and thinking of going to Rogers for the hub so we can all be on internet at the same it and not fight over the air card.

    18. Mark February 23rd, 2010 at 05:34

      After eight years of dial up at an average speed of 19.9 The rocket hub is a blessing to our home. We live in rural SW Ontario and the only options were dial up and Sat. We are in a dead zone for the Bell coverage. Last week I stopped at a Rogers Store and while skeptical of their claims of coverage decided to try out the Rocket Hub. We are very pleased with the results. Even with only between 0 and around 5 bars showing on the signal strength I get what I consider to be great internet connectivity.

    19. Darryl February 26th, 2010 at 07:12

      Loved your posting. As another work-from-home professional with a rural address, I can appreciate your challenges. I’ve done Xplornet Wireless and am back to their Satellite and am ready to throw the thing out. Now that you’ve had it for about two months or more, how are you enjoying it? How are you doing on data usage month over month? Any additional feedback before I go to the Rogers store? Thanks.

    20. andy kaye March 2nd, 2010 at 03:12

      anyone know if the amount of data used on a rocket stick is the same as the data used via this rocket hub???
      i am currently looking to trade in my rocket stick for the hub but was told the data usage is actually double for the “hub”!! that would change things vs the cost of rogers data plans!!

    21. Mike Yawney March 2nd, 2010 at 05:14

      Andy, you pay for how much data you use. If you’re getting faster speeds with the Rocket Hub then yes, you’re technically using more data so it will cost you more.You pay on how much data you use. Hope that helps.

    22. Rod March 2nd, 2010 at 18:02

      Hey this all sounds good but how good is the wifi? Does it go through the whole house or just a few feet? I live in a remote place where there is only 1 bar if i stand roof, but i put in a booster and antenna from wireless extender and it has worked super with 4 to 5 bars in the house. My contract is coming up with Telus and thinking of going to Rogers for the hub so we can all be on internet at the same it and not fight over the air card.
      Rod

    23. Martin March 3rd, 2010 at 15:43

      All is fine but the cost is still there, this Hub sounds good but your limited on amount of packets (Gigs) download/upload and rogers will make money on cost recovery especially for music, movie, gaming online 10 Gig limit a month it dosent take much to consume with all the windows updates, attach emails, spam, corrupted downloads.

      Solution = Rogers set it up with unlimited downloads for the Hub users why the limited downloads.

      PS: all of you with this new hub from rogers wait a year and come back and submit comments again. I promise you as more users are buying this service Rogers wont be able to produce the bandwidth you were promise because their will be too many users/Hubs and will have to upgrade their infrastructure which means more money spending on their part………Good luck been there with xplornet sat, xplornet wifi etc…. no win situation…

    24. Brian March 5th, 2010 at 04:42

      Hey all. I have had the rocket hub working since December. I live in a rural area and have had a difficult time getting decent internet that is not the speed of dial up.

      The hub blows WiMAX out of the water. I used to have the hub in a window in our bedroom but with 25 feet of LMR400 low loss cable and a direction antenna (that isn’t even properly aimed yet) I get close to 5 Mb/sec of stable internet. YEEEEE haaaaaa.

      But…..wait. Rogers told me that I would be charged for data I down load. On a flex rate plan with steps at 3, 5 and 10 gigs. After 10 gigs per month you have to pat $5.00/ gig of data… Well… firstly its not just data downloaded. Its data uploaded or downloaded combined. Secondly, 10 gigs was explained to me as a huge amount of data. Well maybe on a cell phone but on a PC it is not. If you get this internet for a home buisness you will easily surpass 10 gigs per month. Believe me.
      At the speeds you get with this device 7 gigs can be down loaded in about 8 hours. Now I have to monitor the total usage with the handy program built into the unit.

      I certainly hope that with all the competition from bell,telus,rogers and any other company that recognises the value of this amazing technology, that this charging for data like the meter on a taxi cab, will go away.

      Its great to have fast internet but I feel like I am renting a home instead of owning. Or leasing a car instead of buying.

      Anyway thats my story.

    25. Richard March 5th, 2010 at 10:27

      Answer for Rod, The WIFI works fine in the entire house.

      Has anyone managed to setup the hub so it can access a server/service installed within the Local LAN from the Internet? I tried using the port forward option however it appears as if Rogers does not support a Public IP for the Rocket Hub.

      Please let me know,
      Rgs
      Richard

    26. Sheldon March 6th, 2010 at 07:04

      I just got this device. It works great.

      Although it can be slow if the signal is not good, sometimes all you need to do is move the hub to a different location and wait to see if the bars on it increase.

      Or go on ebay and order a 10dB antenna for Ericsson W35. Cost about $25. 40dB antennas can be bought if you live in a remote location for $140+, but 10dB should be fine enough.

      More bars = faster speed

      But even at the lowest possible bars its getting 1Mbit down / 1Mbit up. so still not bad.But this is benchmarking on my Asus EEE 701 netbook. When I benchmarked on my iphone, using the rocket hub, I got 5Mbit down / 2Mbit up testing on speedtest.net.

      So not bad. I like the fact this rocket hub / router allows virtual servers and other advanced router features. So thats cool. Have not tried usb storage / printer, but I am going to try connecting a usb hub to it.

    27. Jim Leckie March 8th, 2010 at 07:35

      We’ve had our hub for one month now and we couldn’t be happier – it works throughout the whole house so I no longer have a need for my DLink router – my question is, does the signal travel outside the house so I have to be concerned about neighbours picking it up to download my life away???

      thanx Jim
      Port Colborne

    28. andy March 8th, 2010 at 10:24

      i dont understand why this hub would use more data simply because its faster.. yes,, if you were on the rocket stick for an hour downloading and then switched and were an hour on the rocket hub,, you’d have more downloaded due to higher speed,, hence more data useage.. thats clear.. but if i download a hundred emails on one and then a hundred on the second,, would the amount of data not be the same???
      we have the number of bars changing almost every second.. from four bars on either side to fifteen or so.. the desktop is hard wired to the ericsson and the internet connection seems good – when measured we get 3.4m down and only .5m up.. thirty feet away the signal drops off completely at times and my wifes itouch goes down.. there is a wide open double doorway to the kitchen so its not going thru a way..
      so the wifi seems to need some upgrading,, but its better than dial up!!
      does anyone know how to access the rogers web site??? yeah,, dumb question right.. not.. yesterday i was in,, today i cant access it.. why,, i cant seem to figure it out..
      andy

    29. Benjie March 8th, 2010 at 13:20

      we have had the “hub” for a week now and we love the speed and the fact that we can use many computers on it at a time, but i dont understand why we can not use it for online gaming. anyone know how you can play online???

      thanks
      Benjie

    30. T March 8th, 2010 at 14:19

      As far as the WiFi goes I ended up extending my coverage by linking my Motorola Router to the Hub, then placing the Router in my basement(The Hub is Upstairs)both are linked by ethernet cable hidden along the wall so i now have coverage throughout my house. Mind you my house is fairly large, regular backsplits should be fine for Wifi, as our house is approx 3500sq.ft. in area. I am running 3 Computers and an Xbox360 and still managing to stay under the 10gig. mark.

    31. T March 8th, 2010 at 14:23

      Benjie You have to change the APN settings on the Hub to internet.com, now I use a 360 I don’t know about other systems but if you use connection sharing on your computer it may work, other wise you will have to refresh the router everytime you connect, then promptly connect your device online.

    32. Brian March 9th, 2010 at 04:23

      Hi Andy. I wasn’t saying that you will download more data because it is faster. I was just trying to give an idea of how fast you can reach 10 gig. If you are on youtube or other streaming video it doesn’t take long. In our house we have never had to worry about how much we downloaded…. EVER. This is new to us. The old WiMAX would have been plenty of speed, even at 1.5 Mb/sec but it was so random. It would go down to speeds so slow they were worse than dial up and then at other times it was quite acceptable. It just happened that Bell could care less about how many customers were on the tower and their servers all at once and gladly took your money and gave all kinds of excuses as to what was happening. I can understand, why would Bell put anymore money into a system that is going to be obsolete soon. It would have been nice if they had of been truthfull though. This whole thing with being on a meter for download and upload sucks though. Hopefully as more people hook up to this new technology it will generate enough revenue that they can turf the whole metering thing. To think that some cities are totally wireless everywhere and free. Here we are in a rural area still getting stuck with some sort of charge or penalty or obsticle to overcome just because we can’t get cable or DSL. And remember, the Canadian government has given free money in the form of grants to Nexicom, Bell, Rogers, Telus with the sole purpose of getting better internet to the rural sector. Its so nice of them to take this free money, put up new technology and then ding the customer for the service.. Great deal.

    33. andy March 10th, 2010 at 06:27

      brian — good comments!! when i switched to the rocket hub from the rocket stick one of the girls told me that this would gobble up more data.. as much as twice as much.. i couldn’t understand that.. data should be data.. i queried again (she found out from a fellow employee that because the speed was faster more data usage) when i had another question at rogers to determine my usage.. they wouldn’t oblige stating i had changed in the middle of a billing!! big deal.. another lady however did tell me.. 1.2G in four days!! that was high.. my usage was about a G per month on the rocket stick!! but my wife and i were on and i downloaded two updates and two programs.. so we’ll see where that usage goes down the road.. perhaps it is somehow using up a lot more data for the same emails,, and facebook’s farmville!!
      as for charging less or getting more down the road — hmm.. i see the speeds will only increase,, and hopefully they will add a few Gs to the data billing schedule.. and you are so right about the government kicking in big bucks for this.. we were hoping for what “city” folks have,, alas us country bumpkins get the back of the bus stuff!! ha ha
      take care all.. enjoy the rocket hub or rocket stick.. both are a hundred and one times better than dial up!! even if there are hiccups..
      andy

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