Earthlink Buys OmniSky

sydney writes: "Earthlink has decided to go out and buy the remains of OmniSky's wireless network. According to this story, Earthlink has included these plans under its 'Earthlink Everywhere' initiative. Funny thing is, they even admit the wireless, constant streaming idea isn't going to take off anytime soon. The price of stocks even fell 40 cents. At least though, old OmniSky customers will have an ISP again, for now anyway."

Re:change name to "SkyNet"

[Anonymous Coward]

I would have modded this as funny, but it's incorrect. ;/

Cyberdyne Microsystems built the SkyNet defense system. ;/

Omnisky for my Visor Prism has been a disaster

[sprior]

What I will say is that when Omnisky for the Prism works, it is pretty darn cool. Unfortunatly after having it for almost a year now I have finally reached the point of being ready to dump it. I don't know what everyone elses experience is, but my Visor crashes A LOT when the Minstrel S modem is attached. I'm not talking once a week, I'm talking about 50% of the time I try to use it I get a fatal error/reboot. The modem is just supposed to work after plugging it in to the unit, but it never does - I have to do a paperclip reset after plugging it in or it doesn't ever work.

Omnisky got my suspicions up a while ago that things weren't going well. About last June I signed up to beta a new version of their software which was according to them a week or two away. Then the date got moved back a few weeks, then a few months, then just never happened.

Their technical support doesn't have much of a clue either. When you get a new modem (I've done this about 5 times now), you get prompted for an "activation code" which is just an encryted IP address, and this is burned into the flash of the modem. If you are then directed to change the IP address by tech support, the menu you use apparently writes the address to Visor storage and not the flash. This means that when/if you end up doing a cold wipe the visor out reboot, the Minstrel tries to connect with the wrong address from flash, gets the local cell tower confused, and you end up calling Omnisky tech support (Has happened to me several times). Since the modem also greatly increases the chances youre in for just such a reboot, this is not good. Omnisky tech support seems to be clueless and opinions differ on whether there is any way to enter a new IP address so that it gets burned to flash and avoids this problem.

Experiences with other Palm devices that use other modems might be better and may not present the tech support challenges that the Minstrel S has, but if others have the same experiences that I've had, the Minstrel S, Omnisky service, and the Visor Prism aren't ready for prime time.

Another problem I tried to get fixed by both Handspring and Omnisky is an incompatibility between the Minstrel S and the Handspring brand backup module. This is totally repeatable. If you start with a completely working Omnisky and Visor system, take the modem out, put the backup module in, back up the system, do a cold Visor restart (blow away everything), restore from the backup module, insert the minstrel S modem, then try to use it, it will not work - ever. If you then hotsynch, do another cold restart, hotsync again, then try to use the minstrel S again it works now, but that kinda eliminates the point of the backup module. Both Palm and Omnisky have blown me off about this one, and the only reason I bought the backup module in the first place was because the Minstrel S modem made my Visor so unstable.

From what I've heard, if you want wireless color handheld internet, buy an IPaq instead.

Re:Omnisky for my Visor Prism has been a disaster

[Anonymous Coward]

>From what I've heard, if you want wireless color handheld internet, buy an IPaq instead.

I did, and it works greats!

Another solution...

[singularity]

I bought my Handspring Visor Platinum about a month ago and like it a lot. Since I already have a Samsung SCH-3500 phone, and I pay Sprint $35 for connectivity, I have no desire to repeat charges (by buying a VisorPhone, or paying for a wireless modem and service for the Handspring).

So I searched and found Gomadic [gomadic.com], which makes cables for connecting Palm and other devices to cell phones.

Since I already have a dial-in ISP account and a lot of minutes from Sprint, the cable is a one-time cost to get wireless on the Handspring.

The cable came in yesterday and I have not yet had a chance to get it up and working yet.

This sort of solution makes a lot of sense for people not wanting to repeat charges (for an ISP, etc.)