Quozl has done it again!

After providing a comprehensive guide to configuring our CDMA modems for use with Linux, Quozl has once again risen to the challenge and tested out Next G connectivity on Linux.

You can see Quozl’s guide here:

http://quozl.linux.org.au/bp3-usb/

Please note, neither we or BigPond provide official support for Linux, so you use the Next G modems on Linux at your own risk. There is some community based support available, but that is it.

We’ve had a fair few questions lately about Linux support for the Bigpond USB modems.  While we are not planning on providing official support for Linux (as we don’t have the resources), we are working with a Linux expert to be able to provide at least a rough guide to the possibilities.

We should hopefully have some news quite soon!  Please note though that Linux is not officially supported either by Telstra (BigPond), or Maxon Australia in any way, shape or form.

On friday last week we finally were able to connect a Next G MiniMax to the internet on Mac OS!  We ran some initial FTP and web tests, and were downloading between 1.4mbps (web) to 2.4mbps (ftp).

After much head banging, we finally ironed out the last bug in the connection.  It’s been a tough process, with the drivers being created by a Mac OS guru in the US, even though he didn’t actually have access to a live network to test on!

With the final tidying up of the code for the drivers to go, and the creation of a User Interface, we should only be a couple of weeks away from the release of the Mac OS support for MiniMax.

Thank you all for your patience so far.  We’re pleased that although it took a bit longer than expected, the final outcome will be a quality solution.

More detailed hardware specs for the MiniMax:

MiniMax HW specs

We’re putting together a spec sheet on the external modem also, so should have that available soon.

We received today the initial version of our Windows Vista drivers for the Next G modems!

Initial testing has gone quite smoothly, so we will hopefully be providing these quite soon. The drivers are Microsoft WHQL certified, which means the installation is seamless.
At this stage they only allow the modems to work as a dial up modem (as opposed to a wireless networking device which our Win XP drivers simulate). This appears to be an issue with Qualcomm, so we are waiting on them.

Screenies:

I also ran a quick speed test on Vista (performance.toast.net) and average around 900kbps.

I tried out Skype today using two Next G MiniMax’s.

I ran a delay test to a couple of major web sites first (google, news.com, bigpond) and the connection averaged around 250ms all up (bigpond was much quicker, but google was a bit slower). The signal strength where I tested was pretty much perfect. I’d like to test again while driving, but that’s for another day!

I connected two computers through Next G MiniMaxes. Both running Windows XP (SP2) and Skype 3.0.0.190. One was a standard IBM desktop, the other a MacBookPro (with bootcamp).

I tried two different tests, once with the video also turned on (from the macbook to the ibm), and once without.

Both tests worked perfectly! There was at most a half second delay between the two ends, even with video turned on (for comparison I also made a call to a friend connected over ADSL, and the delay time was exactly the same). Voice quality was fine.

The testing I did consisted of talking non-stop for 10 minutes from one connection to the other (from the macbook to the ibm). I did some rough measurements of the amount of bandwidth consumed at the “receiving” end, and here are the results:

With video streaming (after 10 mins of connection and non-stop talking):

Downloads: 6.3 MB

Uploads: 2.9 MB

Without video streaming (after 10 mins of connection and non-stop talking):

Downloads: 2.85 MB

Uploads: 2.4 MB

I found it interesting that even though I wasn’t transmitting any voice from the end I measured at, the uploads and downloads were still pretty close. This might be to do with how Skype functions more than anything else…

We don’t have a proper VoIP box to test with here, but we might be able to test something other than Skype in the future.

Bigpond has today launched the first two of our Next G modems, a MiniMax replacement, and a replacement for the old BigPond Mobile Broadband CDMA external modem.You can find out more details about the pricing options for these modems over at Bigpond’s Wireless Broadband page.

Sales and tech support for these modems is available from BigPond (Sales – 131 282, Tech – 133 933)

Make sure to check out the coverage for the areas you need mobile internet access in.

Unfortunately MAC OS support is not available at this stage, but we are working hard at providing that.

Approaching d-day with the MiniMax, and things are looking good.  There are a couple of versions of the modem that we are working on, with one of them being completely finished, and the other only needing a few more fixes.

We now have WHQL (Microsoft) certified Windows drivers for the modem, which will make the installation process even more streamlined.

We’re also hearing good news from the Mac OS driver developer, he’s online with the modem! (which is more exciting than it sounds).  He has indicated that he might be able to provide support for older versions of Mac OS (eg 10.2 and 10.3).  No promises at this stage, but it’s looking good.  In terms of development time we realistically won’t have it at launch, but it should certainly be available not long after!

By the middle of last week we had made excellent progress with Apple US on driver development for the MiniMax. It was completely unexpected when we received the crushing news at the end of the week that Apple would not be able to provide drivers until earliest January next year.
As Mac support is a must for this product, we scrambled to find what other options we had. A brief spark of hope that Qualcomm might have a reference driver was soon extinguished, leaving us once again at square one for Mac OS MiniMax support.

All is not lost though, as our Mac interface developers have been able to contract a 3rd party US developer to create a driver specifically for us! At this stage we still hope to have a working Mac OS driver and GUI for the MiniMax at launch, allthough it will initally be as a separate download, rather than included with the product.

For those who are interested, you can see some example pings and traceroutes done while connected with MiniMax here:MiniMax trace

If you wish to see a particular ping or traceroute (or other network test) feel free to post your request in a comment and we’ll do what we can!