Comments on: Review: Rogers Rocket Hub

By: Rabirtch

Rabirtch — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 20:15:00 +0000

I have a toshiba satilite lab top which was given to me last summer, my mother in law is hooked to a bell wireless hub and the kids used the lab top so my 2 teenage boys were not fighting for internet use. We acquired a Rodger hub and the lab top will not hook up wireless, what is causing this.

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 07:53:00 +0000

Turner Valley is 60 kms from Calgary…about halfway between the two you can see Calgary…hardly “rural” in that sense. That said, as a former resident of Turner Valley, I still had dial up in 2007 although high speed was available then from another provider, so I get your point about reception. Moved to Okotoks, 20 kms away from Turner Valley and have been enjoying my High Speed Extreme internet service from Telus ever since.
HOWEVER, I work in Northern Alberta…which IS rural. Unpaved roads rural. How about a test 60 kms from say, Conklin AB instead? Then your data may be useful.

By: William Mougayar

William Mougayar — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 22:58:00 +0000

How about 4G? This RocketHub looks like it’s a generation behind, no?

By: Judithadene

Judithadene — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 00:53:00 +0000

Re the Rocket Hub….The power cord/adapter is “extremely” flimsy. I’ve had it for a year and for the last several months, the wires were coming loose and the power up not always working unless I played around with the wires. Last week it finally just detached from the power box adaptor. So, no phone, no internet and I live in the country with few other options. I called Rogers and was told too bad…..you’re 15 days out of warranty. Pursued it further and was told by some guy in customer relations that adaptor part was NEVER covered by the warranty (even if it broke well before one year). They were rude and wasted about 3 hours of my time (I went to India and back a few times). They weren’t even able to tell me where I could purchase a new one. When I originally called technical support, the guy knew right away what I was talking about and pin pointed the exact location of the problem….so obviously this defect is chronic. My advice to all of you is to tape your wire connections so that they don’t move around. I discovered a new power cord/adaptor is going to cost me about $70.00. BAD BUSINESS RELATIONS ON THE PART OF ROGERS. THEY PROBABLY KNOW THERE IS A PROBLEM BUT IT WOULD BE TOO EXPENSIVE TO ADDRESS IT AND TRY AND FIX IT.

By: Susie Porter72

Susie Porter72 — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 19:38:00 +0000

same with us, we never know what r bill will b from month to month it is crazy!

By: Beepbeep

Beepbeep — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 06:49:00 +0000

Where we live they are charging us $360 or the hub or you have to sign up for a 3 yr plan.. Where can i get it for $149. Thanks

By: KIM

KIM — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 21:55:00 +0000

Thanks to you all for taking the time to write! Your knowledge end experiences is appreciated!

By: Kim

Kim — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 21:51:00 +0000

Please help!! If not the big three then who?? i am in the Caledon Ontario area and all options have failed thus far. Like Brian we have a household with 4 computers and 2 are working from home a lot — Any ideas would be more than appreciated!!

By: Terri

Terri — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 17:55:00 +0000

Hello why can’t i get a fax machine to work on the Hub????

By: Doris

Doris — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 15:09:00 +0000

The model described was unavailable when I acquired a Rogers rocket hub at the end of April 2011. The NetComm 3G10WVR was the only model available. In only 4 months, we are now on our 3rd hub. The first was defective, the antenna fell off after 31 days. The second simply stopped holding a signal, and our third doesnt seem to obtain as strong a signal as the previous ones. Replacements are always refurbs, which may explain the reliability problem. But, as far as surfing goes, we are very pleased that in eastern ontario, we have generally good reception

By: Just another guy

Just another guy — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 12:11:00 +0000

I play sports too and have a wonderful life. Hunting, fishing, sports, hiking etc. I also have three kids ( another part of my LIFE) that need internet for school and research not to mention reporting their soccer refereeing results. Just because I have a household that uses more internet than you doesn’t mean I have no life. What then is NORMAL use. Do you have the strangle hold on the magic number that is NORMAL download and up load amounts. Sheesh, we have five computers and just the windows updates would put me close to 3 gigs.

You can tell you’re uncle that Canadians deserve un metered high speed internet with out caps. Not to mention cell service that is similar to other modern and some third world countries fees. And don’t get me started on satellite tv. Have you checked out the cost in Canada vs the US. Gouge, gouge, gouge. and the CRTC is a joke. Rogers, Bell and Telus do not own the internet. More and more we NEED it to register new products that we buy that need warrenties, banking, etc. Face it, its the new way of the world and Canadians need to have it affordable.

The cost to these big three for a gig of internet and broadband is a spit in the ocean compared to the fee they put on it. And ya ya ya they are going to scream that the infrastructure in Canada is different because our population is so spread out. I could maybe chew that up with some bbq’d moose burgers and choke that down with some Canadian beer if their profits weren’t in the billions of dollars.

If you want to call yourself “we the people” ya better get some better information. Otherwise you are really just “me the person”

By: Brian

Brian — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 11:49:00 +0000

I am finally free of Bell, Rogers and Telus for my internet. However, for some, it is impossible due to not having DSL Cable or Line of site options. They are stuck with the money grubbing, capping, metering, gouging controlling BIG THREE. The Canadian and Ontario government needs to step in here and protect the public from these greedy companies that work as one to form a monopoly over the internet, cell and television signals in this fine country. Canadians are the most gouged people in the world.

By: Cavanbaillie

Cavanbaillie — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 01:08:00 +0000

I just went through two months of discussion and B.S. with Rogers tech support to try and correct my perofmance problem with Rocket Hub. I bought my hub 18 months ago and was promissed up to 7 mbps download speed… I barely got 2 to 3 mbps but it was light years ahead of the satalite system that I replaced which had a latency of nearly 1000 ms. Since then the speed has declined to about .5 mpbs. I am 4 km from the nearest tower and get a full 3G signal. I was told today that the system is overloaded and Rogers is trying to determine how to increase capacity but couldnt tell me when that might happen. I live up in the Ottawa Valley with hardly any population density at all so they obviously put in the cheapeast equipment available just to get the cell phone business. Now I have to threaten them with breach of contract so that I can break my three year contract and find a better solution.
THE STUPID THING IS THAT ROCKET HUB CHARGES $5.00 PER GB OF DATA DOWNLOADED… IF THEY GGAVE ME THE OPPORTUNITY I WOULD PAY THEM 3 TIMES AS MUCH MONEY AS I DO TODAY BECAUSE I WOULD USE MORE DATA… DUH!

By: Hank2898

Hank2898 — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 23:28:00 +0000

get your internet from a provider that isnt bell rogers or telus then it isnt an issue I have been away from them for years and love it the best part when i call they fix the issue without having to be transferred to a hundred people who speak any language but english

By: WeThePEOPLE

WeThePEOPLE — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 16:24:00 +0000

i am just a web surfer , emailer, rest of time I actually play sports, join friends for dinner or barbecues or outings, and I work 50 hrs a week at a job I love. I and many of my generation do not want to pay the same as those (and you know who you are) who obviously HAVE NO LIFE. SO I will be talking to my uncle and other politicians about a pay structure based on normal use…

By: felicity

felicity — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 16:13:00 +0000

easier than thought but what about electricity costs ,how much do they go up and why is the hub instantly so hot to the touch…

By: HarrowTreeHugger

HarrowTreeHugger — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 18:57:00 +0000

I have had the Rocket Hub for over a year, and have had many problems with the reliability of the service. Most problems have been related to the phone service not wroking properly or not working at all. The caller ID feature regularly does not work…Rogers has advised that is a problem with the device and that they do not have a solution at this time. I’ve also had issues with the phone service not working at all which has been resolved with a call to Rogers and their tech’s resetting something… the major problem with this solution is that you MUST call Rogers. Living in a rural area, this is not practical… it requires that you have a cell making the home phone service very unreliable. Even when the internet works, Rogers “Live Support” cannot and will not provide any help. If you are choosing it as your primary phone, think twice. They also market the system for rural home phone internet and small business use, however do not tell you that a fax machine will not work on the system. It sure beats Bell dial-up, but also has a hefty price after install, remote antenna and $145/ month bill…. you also cannot use long distance calling plans with their service such as 10-10 numbers, so if you thought Bell was gouging you, wait till rogers gets their pound of flesh. I use a Majic-jack Voip phone for long distance.

By: Marcel

Marcel — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 10:27:00 +0000

We have had the Hub now for almost 7 months and frankly it sucks , our dial up was faster and cost 1/3 of this garbage , I have complained to rogers and get the aw gee just reboot or our tower isn’t aligned to your hub, ahh what the hell does that mean . Never ever again will deal with rogers

By: Black_lizard

Black_lizard — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 12:03:00 +0000

You are lucky then, I returned my Rocket hub twice, Rogers said it was faulty, I live in rural Ottawa. I have an antenna out side to help with the signal, I am 6 km from 2 towers and I still can’t get more than 2, 3 bars on it. And the hub craps out on me 2 to 3 times a week.

What burns me is that Rogers said, I would have great connectivity (B.S.) Also great speed (even more B.S) On a good day when the stars and solar system aligns, I get 800 to 900 kbs, nothing even close to what was posted on rogers. And since Rogers see the hub as a cell phone, you can’t rent one, you have to buy them and get locked in for two year, at 200 a pop plus all that data usage… So it gets very profitable for Rogers and very expensive the customer (my last bill was way over $120 for 12gig download).

Can’t wait till Teksavvy offers the wireless service here!

By: Lin

Lin — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 16:05:00 +0000

I live just outside a small town, in a rural area. Others here have the Rogers hub and seem happy, My concern is I leave my pc on all the time with Windows Live Skype (which I use with my family) Facebook and Yahoo for mail. I go to bed and the PC is on. How many Gig would I be using? AND would Rogers Hub work for a person like me OR would it cost too much? Any input would be appreciated. THANKS.

By: Dkvolb

Dkvolb — Sat, 21 May 2011 14:17:00 +0000

We
discovered that the tracking of actual data usage is very hit and miss. The
result is that we never know what Rogers will charge for the month and so far,
even though we stayed well within the 3GB for the lowest plan, we were charged
for 5GB every month. Calling Rogers the answer is always the same: “If
you’re charged for 5GB than you must have gone over the 3GB limit”.
According to their tracking WE DID NOT. We have taken screen shots showing what
we have used the last day of the billing cycle and the following day but Rogers
will not even look at those. Rogers does NOT allow for opting out of the
FLEXplan, meaning we can’t simply get them to cut us off once the 3GB limit is
reached. We can’t see how this can be an honest mistake that repeats every
month and have concluded that this is a scam. Shame on you ROGERS. Not sure if
Bell is any better but Bell doesn’t work in our location.

By: T

Sat, 14 May 2011 11:20:00 +0000

Hi Dave , you will have to talk to Rogers about getting a public IP address(costs an extra $10 a month) then change the ipn name in the hub to vpn.com . Set your console to a static IP, you will also have to open ports on the hub for xbox live

By: Mshemie

Mshemie — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 21:48:00 +0000

I see that the google android cell phone has the same capacity (it will connect to Rogers HSPA or 3.5G network)
Anyone tried it?

By: Dave

Dave — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 01:00:00 +0000

I realy need help for xbox live… Can you plz explain to me how to get xbox live with a rocket hub ???

By: Maria

Maria — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 18:06:00 +0000

The hub sucks I have been spending over $200 per month absolutely insane!!!

By: Subscriber

Subscriber — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 21:42:00 +0000

The Hub is way too expensive. 10 gigs is just not enough data. Reasonable usage exceeds the 10 gigs easily and $10 a gig gets pricy. Come on Rogers give 20 gigs at least!

By: VZ1800Rider

VZ1800Rider — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 18:16:00 +0000

I live in the city, but in a rural area where Bell or Rogers do not provide any internet. I am on Telus for my cell phone, and I usually get 2-3 or sometimes even one bar on my phone. I got the rocket hub a month ago and I’ve actually been amazed at how good it works. The internet never has gone down once, I’ve been able to game on it, and even my torrents work through it, all at about 3/4 speed of my cable internet back in my old house. Overall, yes this is expensive as hell, but if you are in a place where there is simply no option for cable/dsl then this thing is amazing!! If only I knew a way to keep under the 3 – 5 – 10 gig limits

By: greg

greg — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 21:47:00 +0000

The even badder

the power cord is a huge piece of crap….its super thin and easy to bend and eventually break…i was trying to fix by tape and as i took the tape off the wire ripped right off..its like they intended to make the wire very weak

By: Djheise

Djheise — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 19:23:00 +0000

Got my Rogers Hub 3 weeks ago and am amazed at the speed and portability. We plugged it into the transformer in the car and went for a drive. To our surprise we could get online everywhere we went in that 1 hour time period.
Now my question is – how do I tract how much my bill will be after watching a number of YouTube videos??

By: Eric Egresits

Eric Egresits — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 01:04:00 +0000

My first month with this thing and it blows. Service is good but…I’m with bell though. I had my service cut today. Called to see what’s up, and found out I owe over $900 becouse I used 62g. I admit I should of known the exact details of my plan. Unfortunatly I didn’t. They say they’ll take off $500, either way I’m screwed, I don’t have the money. I know with my Rogers Iphone when you get close to maxing out your data they let you know with a pop up. Why is that to much to have with the bell turbo hub? I live in rural Ontario, and use this as my home Internet. Why can’t we have a fair data plan as do the city folk? I just needed to vent!

By: Ian

Ian — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 15:38:02 +0000

I strongly urge any one looking at this NOT TO GET IT!!! I have it and it truly is not worth it. The price you pay for the monthly plans is not worth the horrible service you get.

By: jason

jason — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 10:07:34 +0000

WRONG PASSPHRASE!! Invalid passphrase!!
I’ve set two hubs up before by entering that passphrase from the back
Of the device……in uppercase! And it’s worked as it should.
Tonight a friend asked me to set theirs up.
Everytime I entered the passphrase it told me it was ‘invalid’.
Tried it on their Mac laptop, on their iPad, on their PC, and even tried entering it on my own iPad and iPhone and each time the same version of the error!
Has anyone else had this issue.
I didn’t get the passphrase wrong. It’s exactly as written on the back of the hub.
Please help!!

By: Robert

Robert — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 18:19:32 +0000

I have had this device since May 2010. It worked find during the 14 day test period. BUT within a few months I found that I would go for days without service. Sometimes, when it does work, it is very, very slow. Occasionally, it works fine. Also it can get very, very expensive. This month I was billed over $120.00 for the month. Do not expect anyone at Rogers to help you with your problems as they don’t have a clue. Once they have you locked into a contract they couldn’t care less. Very poor product and I recommend anyone considering it to think again. If, like me, you need internt access for business. DO NOT get this product.

By: Rockin Rog

Rockin Rog — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 06:43:29 +0000

Marlene, sure the antenna would be nice as a standard (atleast say the antenna that sticks to the window version or?)…here’s hoping.

In the meantime have a look here (careful Rogers has 2 versions of the Hub out now, pick the appropriate antenna kit which provides the proper input to your Hub)..

——————————————-
If you own the Ericsson W35 Rogers Turbo Hub (black stand up modem, says Ericsson on the front) here’s a good antenna..

http://cgi.ebay.com/Ericsson-W35-Rogers-Rocket-Hub-External-Yagi-Antenna-/350417163575

——————————————-
If you own the Netcomm Rogers Rocket Hub (white table top modem) here ya go…

http://cgi.ebay.com/NetComm-3G10WVR-Rogers-Rocket-Hub-External-Yagi-Antenna-/350419397338
——————————————-

For the price you get a good gain!

By: Marlene

Marlene — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 18:08:15 +0000

I live in rural southern Alberta and have been struggling with my current wireless internet provider for the last 4 years. The service is very inconsistent (often not working at all) and many promises of improving the system have gone by the wayside so I finally decided enough. I got set up with the rocket hub and wow… so far (1 week in use) I have consistency. Even tho my actual up and download speeds are not much faster than my orginal provider, web sites are loading faster and there is no lag time at all. Even with the snow storms we’ve had the past week.. still a good connection.

I get a 3g+ signal with 5-10 bars so plan to get an external antenna to improve this. Set up was very easy. My main computer is connected with an ethernet cable and my others are connected wirelessly – very easy to set up. The computer furthest away has the same signal as my previous internet provider. My husband says web sites load faster than they did before.

I’ve read thru a lot of your comments and the negative part that I agree with is getting the external antenna.. Rogers should provide this not contract it out to another company. There are several types available and I’m not sure which one I should purchase. Nerds is expensive.

Thanks for listening. Happy in southern Alberta.

By: Ben

Ben — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 04:16:03 +0000

Ok, this is my3th or 4th post here, 5 month later.

Conclusion, Ericsson/Sony is the real problem. In the pass i have owned Ericsson product and they all failed on me. Same goes for the W35.

This unit constant need reboot. Every day or so. No it’s not the tower/network. We have no choice as we need some kind of fast Internet and this unit is better than 54K but it’s far from being perfect.

Some may say that it’s the network but please, explain why a reboot will fix everything form a wile??????????????

When it’s working it’s simply amazing, I said when it’s working.

Ben

By: Rockin Rog

Rockin Rog — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 23:56:08 +0000

If I’m reading this correct and what your basically trying to do is retain your WRT610N as your main router instead of using the W35′s routing + wireless capabilities then here’s my 3 cents (2 + 1(hst hike) =’s 3) bla.
(Having your own router I found is much more robust and stable than the W35′s I found).

Enter your W35 interface (192.168.1.1) then Wireless LAN and uncheck WLAN. Now click on LAN and uncheck DHCP server since your going to set your internal network (each PC and gaming device such as PS3-XBOX) to have all static IP’s (I’m assuming aswell that you know about static IP’s and DHCP distributed IP’s.)
Now click on Internet and jot down DNS 1: and DNS 2:’s range.

Now plug your PC into the Linksys router (ethernet cable from the PC to the router’s LAN ports). Enter the router assuming it to has an IP of 192.168.1.1 since it’s Linksys…Dlink normally has a default of 192.168.0.1 etc then password etc.

Now…from there you have to give your router it’s own IP in the domain of 192.168.1.whatever (2-100) since you’ll now have a network in the .1 to .100 range and your W35 has 192.168.1.1 so it’s safe to say you’ll make your Linksys Router 192.168.1.2 for ease of confusion later on.
The default gateway will remain 192.168.1.1 from now and the future since the W35 is the gateway to the internet.

Again in the Linksys router you must also uncheck use DHCP…clicking save settings all the while too.

Now, it’s also handy to jot all this info down on a sticky note to have handy as to who’s device is what for example…

In my network I have repeater-wireless printer-PS3-NAS server-Dlink Router-4 PC’s….
So I have all these devices wrote down as to what IP I’ve given them incase I have to enter eithers interface.

As for setting up the Linksys router that should be all you have to do, at this point. You can now connect the W35′s ethernet cable into any of the available LAN (not WAN) ports on the back of the Linksys Router.

Ok…now you have to set each PC-device on your network to have it’s own IP, Default Gateway and DNS server addresses (you jotted these down in step 2 above from inside the W35′s Internet page).

On Windows 7 click the Start Button..In search programs type tcpip then click on View Network Connections above.
Right Click your Network Adapter-Properties Double Click Internet Protocol Version 4.
Choose Use the following IP address…
IP Address can be 192.168.1.(3-100) and so on..
Remember 192.168.1.1 is the W35, .2 is Linksys etc…

Subnet is 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway (W35′s IP) 192.168.1.1
Now click on Use the following DNS servers
Preferred DNS is the 1st of which you wrote down from above when I asked you to write it down in step 2. Alternate is the second…click OK…

Now you can exit all that…you’ll see your PC or device will connect and you should be good to go on the Internet and Local Network!

May want to print this out what I’ve said for reference or burn it if I missed the mark on what your trying to achieve!

Hope it helped….Rockin Rog!

By: KenC

KenC — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 13:27:04 +0000

I need to cascade the W35 to a Linksys WRT610N dual radio network already setup to stream TV from a Bell top box through HAVA Monsoon Titanium. I had to replace my ISP because it was a radio net on old technology with barely 1.5 Mbps throughput. In short, at this stage I only want to replace the current ISP, so any advice?

By: Rockin Rog

Rockin Rog — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 17:34:48 +0000

Hey Mark, sorry to hear about that and your rants about Rogers are being heard. Perhaps the volume of newcomers as expected of course to high speed in rural were disheartening to the infrastructure…could it be too that the men/woman involved in the tech field aren’t trained properly?
I wonder about that because of course I’m still very very happy with my Hub/Local Phone W35 system…actually speed has stabilized lately at 4Megs Down and 1Meg Up during peak day time…of course faster at night! I’ve talked on my phone for about 1000 minutes glitch free this month too…so I wonder about the people that installing the hardware *{towers).

As of right now…I have 1 PC streaming the radio *country station at 128mbps*…downloaded about 5 simultaneous files at 400k average and have a laptop and another PC connected…

In other words…pinch me I’m in heaven!

Yea so Rogers in my opinion has pulled through on their part for us users in this region…

We did have 1 day where speeds flatlined at 40k down due to the massive wind storm in Northern Ontario…that lasted 1 day then things were back to 400-500k download with average pings online gaming at 90ms.

I did drive around the Toronto-Newmarket region this weekend while attending the Royal Winter Fair and was amazed at the number of cell towers every few kilometers…you people have alot of users obviously…

By: Tim

Tim — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 15:53:27 +0000

Well for the first time, I am getting a very unstable connection since 4 am this morning on my W35. Before I was getting a steady 4 bars until last night, it is dropping signals and going up and down from 4 bars frequently, losing my internet and voice at the same time. I called Rogers with my cellphone and I got disconnected with that too, so the problem is not my phone or Hub, it’s the Rogers tower. Three phone calls to Rogers this morning, and all three tech support staff members were sounding sleepy on the phone. I kept getting disconnected from the phone on both the cellphone and the Hub phone, but the staff don’t seem to want to wake up and give a care. During my third call on the Hub with all the disconnections all he did was call me back about 5 times with the same sleepy voice and then gave me a ticket number and then said he will escalate a case with the network…that’s it and then he said goodbye! So now I’m stuck with a lousy network and no one at Rogers seems to care, except to expect me to keep paying them up while I am on a two year contract. So now I have nothing nice to talk about Rogers here, nothing to say but rants!

By: Tim

Tim — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 21:53:53 +0000

I heard recently that Rogers is testing the 4G/LTE wireless network in the Ottawa area. They are using the 700MHz band instead of the current 3G 850MHz band, and this is capable of speeds of up to 150Mbps. I am anxiously waiting for those test results to see whether it is good or not.

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 18:48:01 +0000

Tim, thanks for the explanations, I’ll let you know which antenna tests out the best.

By: Tim

Tim — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 23:48:41 +0000

Mark, the longer the antenna the more the dB gain will be. Those shorter antennas will still work like the first antenna link you gave was a medium gain omni-directional and the second link was a larger high gain uni-directional, but those two are still smaller than the one being sold at ebay which is 40 inches long. I don’t know how the inside of that panel covered antenna looks like, but on the YAGI antenna the length of the horizontal aluminum rod crossed with the number of vertical elements I think makes it the more popular antenna. The shorter YAGI will give the smaller dB gain, the longer one will give the greater dB gain. I can’t find any antennas bigger than this one at ebay and I tried real hard to find one every where else online.

I’m doing some research on building my own home-made YAGI dual band antenna. I would like to make something twice as long as this 40 inch model with the main rod clamped on to the mast somewhere half way over to give the better balance and stability. If I can build one in my shop and make it work real good with at least 40-50dB gain, this will be good for the market. I still have a couple more weeks of chores to do before I can get some free time for this hobby.

By: Mark

Mark — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 17:07:02 +0000

Thanks Tim,
One more thing, if the greater the db gain = the greater the performance improvement, then why wouldn’t all antennas feature a larger number in this area, what prevents them all from providing 24 db gain?

By: Tim

Tim — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 20:37:25 +0000

I would seriously doubt that Rogers will use the 2100 or the 1900 bands that much in the country as the 850 band can carry signals to longer distances and go through trees and houses. The higher the frequency is, the shorter it can travel so the higher ones were made for the users who live closest to the cell towers, and the lower 850MHz is actually good for the country where users live far away from those towers. I guess they wanted the 2100 band for city users mostly but my W35 is also with the 2100 band and I don’t think I will get anything at all if that band was the only one set up, even with the outdoor antenna and indoor amplifier because my tower is 10 KM away. If they want to switch my frequency band to a higher one I know I will be in trouble and I will have to kiss the Rogers Hub Thingy goodbye and move on to another company.

I know some people who don’t like the big antennas because they are unstable. I found the best solution to stabilize my antenna is by installing one little machine screw on the clamp plate through the mast to prevent this from swinging around when it gets real windy. It worked well enough and it never moved despite its big size, and it is very powerful along with the indoor amplifier which added another bar or two on my Hub making it browse and download faster. Right now I have 4 steady green bars, and without the extra booster hardware I would have no connections at all and zero bars.

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 18:54:05 +0000

Thanks Tim,

Ultimately performance will win out for me, but I like the small size of the antenna shop product vs. the 40 inch size of the yagi antenna. But aside from that, the one you mention does not cover the 2100MHz
frequency range which the more expensive antenna shop product does. Any idea how that might affect performance?

By: Tim

Tim — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 14:46:23 +0000

I just realized a mistake, I’m sorry. The Rogers Netcomm device has an SMA female and requires an SMA male coax connector. That same ebay seller has all the antenna hardware for the Netcomm device also here…

http://cgi.ebay.com/NetComm-3G10WVR-Rogers-Rocket-Hub-External-Yagi-Antenna-/280580492768?pt=PDA_Accessories&hash=item4153e68de0

And I think the same antenna hardware will fit on the Telus Netcomm device also.

By: Tim

Tim — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 00:42:48 +0000

Those two antennas will give only 5-11 dB gain and they cost more than the one I have from ebay here…

http://cgi.ebay.com/Ericsson-W35-Rogers-Rocket-Hub-External-Yagi-Antenna-/350409708387?pt=PDA_Accessories&hash=item51960bd363

This 24 dB gain YAGI Dual Band external directional antenna for $85 was a great deal and is easy to set up with an old satellite dish mast or something similar.

If you need more signal strength a Wilson Dual Band amplifier can boost up the antenna signal another 14 dB which will bring it up another bar or two. If the same ebay antenna will fit in all Rocket Hubs there can’t be any difference in the coax connections or how this same antenna will interact with the W35 or the Netcomm one.

By: Mark

Mark — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 12:28:08 +0000

I am in a remote area with a tower 10K to the east. I just got the new NetComm Rocket Hub.
Initially when I plugged it in I was able to get on and surf and even watch a video. Strangely, it quickly deteriorated down to an undetectable signal. I then attached a wall mount medium gain antenna from Powertec Canada, and that yielded me a steady two bars.

http://www.powerteccanada.com/store/index.php/mobile-routers-modems/accessories/laser-710-wallmount-antenna.html

Two bars seems low but the functionality is actually quite good. But before I go ahead and fully install it I am wondering if anyone has any experience with this high gain wall mount antenna being sold by antennashop.ca.

http://www.antennashop.ca/index.php?route=product/product&path=201_220&product_id=49

I can’t find any mention or any reviews of this product. I’ve also looked at the rfconnectionshop.com website but their antennas seem to be specifically made for the Ericsson hub that rogers previously provided.
Does it really matter that much whether it is the Ericsson or Netcomm equipment?

Any further help on the antenna subject would be appreciated.

By: Tim

Tim — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 13:48:02 +0000

Brac, you can use the 15-day trial run and see how well it works and your daily usage. Even if you sign up a contract it can still be cancelled if it does not work out for you during the two weeks as long as you return it on time. Some places work better than others, and the cell towers are sometimes congested but it all depends.

I don’t think a 70 ft. antenna tower is going to work all the time as there are some high hills and mountains that can still block the signal, or if you are in a low valley. So, it all depends on your area, and if cellular won’t work then the next best thing is Xplornet which is costly and slow, or the slower dial up which is the slowest there is I think.