I got an Airave

[AnthroMatt]

Originally Posted by Laci

Great! Thank you.

Is the $4.99 a month associated with your already existing Sprint account? (sorry if that is a dumb question)

Yeah, your bill will just be about $5 more expensive each month.

[Laci]

So come prepared with my Sprint account information....makes sense. Thank you very much for your help! I appreciate it!

[larry]

That $5 a month is well worth it if you need more reliable service at your home. If had been $10 a month I would have still paid it. lol

[Laci]

So you are very happy with it I'm assuming? It seems as if it will be very beneficial to me.

Do you happen to know just out of curiosity, if it is an add on to your existing plan, what kind of plan do you have to have to begin with to add this to it?

[larry]

Yes I am very happy with it. It's just a simple account add on that can be added to any plan. No restrictions that I'm aware of.

[larry]

Well I discovered an issue with the Airave. When I receive a call from the regular network just before getting home to Airave coverage the regular network will drop the call when I walk inside my house and get close to the Airave. It appears like the network tried to handoff to the Airave because it identified the strong signal but obviously couldn't because it's not in the neighbor list. I had concerns about this very problem before getting my Airave and was led to believe this wouldn't be an issue. But sure enough I have confirmed it is. So now I have to wait until my phone actually sees the Airave before attempting to make or receive a call when I pull up into my garage. Also note that calls would never drop in this manner pre-airave so I know the issue is caused by the Airave.

That said I still think the Airave overall is a great device. But you shouldn't have to time your incoming and outgoing calls to avoid drops knowing you are getting in or out of Airave coverage. But then again I can understand the logistics of this device and it's probably never going to function flawlessly and I didn't really expect it to either.

[TelcomJunkie]

Originally Posted by larry

Well I discovered an issue with the Airave. When I receive a call from the regular network just before getting home to Airave coverage the regular network will drop the call when I walk inside my house and get close to the Airave. It appears like the network tried to handoff to the Airave because it identified the strong signal but obviously couldn't because it's not in the neighbor list. I had concerns about this very problem before getting my Airave and was led to believe this wouldn't be an issue. But sure enough I have confirmed it is. So now I have to wait until my phone actually sees the Airave before attempting to make or receive a call when I pull up into my garage. Also note that calls would never drop in this manner pre-airave so I know the issue is caused by the Airave.

This is an issue that is highlighted in the Airave manual. If you walk within the range of the Airave's beacon signal, your signal will start to get choppy and more than likely drop.

[larry]

Originally Posted by TelcomJunkie

This is an issue that is highlighted in the Airave manual. If you walk within the range of the Airave's beacon signal, your signal will start to get choppy and more than likely drop.

Yep that's exactly what I experienced last night. I was led to believe by online reviews (prior to getting my Airave) that this would not be the case. But I now know better. I guess I didn't read the manual. lol

[shahhe]

I also got Airave couple of weeks ago. I am having a problem I cannot figure out.

I have a 4 mbps cable modem connection and use Vonage (voice and fax) for home phone. I have Linksys WRT160N router.

After I started using Airave, whenever I get an incoming call, on Vonage or on Sprint phones (1 Centro and 3 Katanas), I cannot hear the calling person but they can hear me. If I am making the call (Vonage or Sprint) we can hear each other without any problem.

This seems to be a VOIP issue. I even setup QOS to high priority for Airave and Vonage phone adapter in my router but that did not solve the problem either.

Anyone else is having similar problem?
Anyone know how to fix it?

[chamb]

Originally Posted by shahhe

I also got Airave couple of weeks ago. I am having a problem I cannot figure out.

I have a 4 mbps cable modem connection and use Vonage (voice and fax) for home phone. I have Linksys WRT160N router.

After I started using Airave, whenever I get an incoming call, on Vonage or on Sprint phones (1 Centro and 3 Katanas), I cannot hear the calling person but they can hear me. If I am making the call (Vonage or Sprint) we can hear each other without any problem.

This seems to be a VOIP issue. I even setup QOS to high priority for Airave and Vonage phone adapter in my router but that did not solve the problem either.

Anyone else is having similar problem?
Anyone know how to fix it?

For what it is worth - I am using the same router and have no problems at all.
My router is set at factory defaults. I do not have Vonage service.

[AnthroMatt]

Just got my first bill since I added the Airave and (shock) Sprint screwed it up and charged me the $4.99 fee twice.

[becomingwhatiam]

I have one and I called Retentions and they gave me the Airave free and they waved the $4.99 till the end of my contract. All I pay is the $10 for unlimited calling. The only thing I don't like is that when I get home and my phone goes to the Airave I loss all signal for like 30 seconds. It's no big deal normally, but if I'm on the phone already it drops my calls.

[larry]

Originally Posted by becomingwhatiam

I have one and I called Retentions and they gave me the Airave free and they waved the $4.99 till the end of my contract. All I pay is the $10 for unlimited calling. The only thing I don't like is that when I get home and my phone goes to the Airave I loss all signal for like 30 seconds. It's no big deal normally, but if I'm on the phone already it drops my calls.

What is happening is your phone is seeking out the Airave signal as you get home and approach the Airave unit. It wants to make a hand off to the Airave because it has recognized it as the dominant signal pilot. But it can't make a hand off because the Airave operates on a different PN offset which is not in any regular tower's neighbor list of hand off partners. So it will cause interference and almost certainly a drop if you are on a call in progress (which was originated on the regular network) and get too close to the Airave.

[becomingwhatiam]

Thanks, I figured it was something like that. Kind of sucks though

[larry]

Yeah the inability for the Airave to accept handoffs is the one big issue so far. I don't think there's any way for Sprint to fix that based on current CDMA technology.

[jb4home]

Originally Posted by shahhe

I also got Airave couple of weeks ago. I am having a problem I cannot figure out.

I have a 4 mbps cable modem connection and use Vonage (voice and fax) for home phone. I have Linksys WRT160N router.

After I started using Airave, whenever I get an incoming call, on Vonage or on Sprint phones (1 Centro and 3 Katanas), I cannot hear the calling person but they can hear me. If I am making the call (Vonage or Sprint) we can hear each other without any problem.

This seems to be a VOIP issue. I even setup QOS to high priority for Airave and Vonage phone adapter in my router but that did not solve the problem either.

Anyone else is having similar problem?
Anyone know how to fix it?

Hi-
I have an airave for a few months already....
as for coverage most of my house gets 5 bars so the product does work well...
Distance of coverage is fair at best..... moved it up into my attic.. and most of the house is covered.. but my home office - which is at one end of the house does drop calls... as the "coverage" is fair to poor at that point... (my house is a good size - not really huge)--
ANYWAY....
Beside my Sprint Cell Phones...
I have (2) voip providers ... ViaTalk and my local cable company Optimum Phone (Cablevision)

MY Viatalk works fine... no conflicts - no problems.. The cable company phone works....Rings & Answers and makes outgoing calls OK...
but... gets disconnected after about 2-3 minutes on a call.
Called and spoke to airave tech support - had to fight to get to a higher level tech / supervisor.
The first tech was reading me a prepared statement and also mentioned SHE had never dealt with a customer with this problem before.
ANYWAY- according to Sprint/Airave support... it's a VOIP problem - there is a conflict with certain VOIP devices - if they use some or all of the same ports as the Airave... you are SOL!
Port numbers for the airave are 53 /500 / 4500 / 52428
Those are assigned by Samsung and according to Sprint - can't be changed.
SO... if you are having problems with VOIP you basically have 2 options...
1. Get rid of your airave
2. Get rid of your voip or switch voip companies to one that doesn't conflict

or.... if anyone out there knows a work-around to change or re-assign the port numbers....
that would be great... because Sprint has NO Idea how to fix this one!

[coalminer]

I was just wondering if someone had taken an airave, set it up and sent it over to Iraq, would it work there? Since most of the military bases have internet access, I wonder if the airave would work if plugged in there???

[larry]

Originally Posted by coalminer

I was just wondering if someone had taken an airave, set it up and sent it over to Iraq, would it work there? Since most of the military bases have internet access, I wonder if the airave would work if plugged in there???

No it absolutely wouldn't work in Iraq because Sprint does not have a license to operate there. The GPS set up would never work.

[coalminer]

Originally Posted by larry

No it absolutely wouldn't work in Iraq because Sprint does not have a license to operate there. The GPS set up would never work.

So there is a GPS in the unit that tells it where it is and uses the particular block they have in that area. Makes sense, I just happened to think about that the other night and had wondered if anyone else had tried it.

[larry]

Yes. The Airave will only work in areas where Sprint has a spectrum operating license.

[budney]

Is the range of the Airave simular to a wireless router? Just moved back to SoCal, and the signal in my place is still very weak. My room is on the other side of the house where the router is.