Posted on Thu, Apr 07, 2011
As the internet continues to become more and more of a necessity for business, the ability to connect to the internet becomes increasingly critical to keeping your business running. Many companies have remote works, sales forces which travel, or other employees who need to work from the road. The challenge is keeping them connected and in touch with the rest of the company.
Thankfully, mobile broadband internet is becoming increasingly useful and cost effective. Many people have smart phones with data connections, which allow them to check their email or other company resources while on the go. However, getting a laptop to work this way is more of a challenge. Often, employees use hotel wireless connections or free hotspots in coffee shops or other locations. Increasingly, employees are subscribing to mobile broadband services, which allow them to have a mobile broadband connection anywhere there is cell service available.
The downside to this technology has been that 3G speeds are nowhere near comparable to the typical wifi speeds most people are used to when using a laptop. It can frequently be 1/10th or even less the speed you would get if you were to use a normal wifi connection. Oftentimes, this is only enough for the most basic work to be done and limits how productive an employee can be when out of the office.
However, new 4G technologies are now hitting the market and are available in many cities across the country. With 4G mobile broadband connections, speeds are significantly better and more on par with the type of speed many users may be used to from using their home internet connections. The best part of 4G is the cost is nearly *the same* as older 3G mobile broadband plans, but provides speeds 4-20 times faster. While not as fast as what they may have in the office, it is vastly better than 3G technology and greatly increases access to resources and productivity from anywhere you can reach a 4G signal.
If you're based in Boston, you're in luck, as 4G technology is becoming a big industry here. The current leader is Clear with their WiMAX 4G technology. Clear has also partnered with Sprint, which allows Sprint to offer 4G services to their client base, rebranded as Sprint equipment. The other carriers are not too far behind with offering their 4G services, mainly based on LTE technology; T-mobile does currently offer service and AT&T and Verizon are not far behind. However, it's our feeling here at Terminal, that Clear is the most well established network in Boston, as they have been working on their network for far longer than the other technologies. This is why we chose to partner with Clear, allowing us to offer their technological advantage to our clients and helping them get the most from new 4G services.
If you have a mobile workforce and are interested in getting them to be more productive and more accessible, Contact Us today and we can go over all the benefits and advantages of 4G technology with you.
Brian St. Marie – Sr. Systems Engineer
Give Us a Call 617-731-6319 and Ask a Professional IT Support Technician Any Questions You May Have!
Sincerely, Terminal We Serve All of Greater Boston and Cambridge, MA
Posted on Thu, Mar 17, 2011
I seem to be running into this a lot lately. When you connect to a wireless network, your computer saves the configuration. So all of your old Internet connections in the Network and Sharing Center hang around even after you are done using them.
This might be helpful if you are going to be around the same connections all the time, but you may wish to clean up the old unneeded connections if you are having issues with your network card or connection. You can navigate to the Network and Sharing Center on your computer to manually to remove the old network connections that you no longer use. When you remove the network connections, this also removes the Internet configurations that go along with that connection. Use the following steps to remove the old unwanted connection profiles that may be causing some of the headache.
Click the Start menu and select Control Panel.
Click Network and Internet and select Network and Sharing Center.
Click Manage Network Connections. This will show you a list of all network connections you have created on your computer.
Right-click the old network connection and select Remove network to delete the network connection and the Internet connection associated with it.
Click Yes when prompted to confirm the connection deletion.
Repeat the process for each old Internet connection you wish to delete.
Dennis Foote-Systems Engineer
Give Us a Call 617-731-6319 and Ask a Professional IT Support Technician Any Questions You May Have!
Sincerely, Terminal We Serve All of Greater Boston and Cambridge, MA