Lewis,
Please read my reply inline.

I have to say this because Windoze/OutLook users only top post and don't comprehend the idea of quoting a message.  So when I replied inline my boss's used to get irritated because they thought I was just sending their original message back to them.

On Mon, Aug 2, 2010 at 10:49 AM, Lewis G Rosenthal <os2-wireless_users@2rosenthals.com <mailto:os2-wireless_users@2rosenthals.com>> wrote:

    Hi, Sam!

    On 08/02/10 12:47 am, Sam Lewis thus wrote :



           The CLEAR Spot is made by Sierra Wireless, and is
        essentially, an
           AirCard W801
                  (http://www.sierrawireless.com/productsandservices/AirCard/MobileHotspots/AirCardW801.aspx).
           It does not do N, only B/G.

           CLEAR aims to provide 3-6Mbps on the downlink and throttles
           uplinks to 1Mbps. There are service areas close to towers
        where it
           is not unheard of to get 10-12Mbps (I was in an area today
        where
           we had 8.95Mbps down, consistently, and about 0.95Mbps up). The
           network here is still being built, so service is spotty,
        but where
           it works, it really does, well, work. :-)


        What's the latency?

    Good question. The tests I've run haven't given me full reporting
    (or I've been more concerned with sheer bandwidth, to make my own
    mental coverage map vs CLEAR's Google Earth overlay), though I can
    tell you that video streams quite well. At my Leesburg townhouse
    (which is not yet on the coverage map, but does report 2+Mbps
    coming down), I got a stall watching a 10-minute youtube video.
    However, switching back to my soon-to-be-disconnected FiOS
    connection, I got the same stall...so it must have been youtube
    and not my connection.

    FWIW, I love FiOS here, but the price point of CLEAR can't be
    beat: $40/mo for 4G-only service, and I can lease the terminal
    adapter - okay, they call it a "modem," but we all no that it's
    not modulating or demodulating anything - for $3.99/mo with a
    2-year service agreement, and that provides for extended warranty
    coverage, as well. I also love the wireless aspect of the
    connectivity, of course. Obviously, it's not for everyone, and if
    the main location isn't on the short list for coverage, it's not
    worth the frustration of trial and error to attempt catching a
    signal. Otherwise, it's really the next wave of connectivity
    (consider how many people simply no longer have wired phones
    anymore, and that's where we're headed with broadband).

    Now, if I could just get this darned little Wi-Fi router to pay
    attention to my ThinkPad, I'd be a happy In the traffic industry two things tend to make a difference to customers, speed, which really boils down to latency since traffic system protocols are poll and reply from a central system, and environmentally hardened.  Does this "darned little Wi-Fi router" work as a VPN endpoint?