any of you heard of the slingbox???

do u have to have internet and a computer at you home or not????????

 

Well, since you weren't specific enough to say 10MBS, (you only said 10 MB down and 1MB up) I assumed you were saying your whole monthly package was 10MB. And Since that was my assumption, you should know that my "10X" was only in reference to total size of downloads, and not reflecting actual speed.

 

I get that a lot of you are very excited about this new technology and I am still trying to wrap my brain around how it actually works. Not to rail on the machine itself, but the advertising states very clearly "stand alone technology" and "without extra fees". Now that I am thinking about buying one I find out that "stand alone" means along side a wireless router, an extra computer for the house, a cable modem and "no extra fees" means after the $40 - $50 a month for your broadband connection at the home you are never at.

Question... You've got the Sling attached to everything it needs to be; IR pointed at the cable box, ethernet port attached to the wireless router, it is slinging it's signal, via said router, to the home computer... now what? How is that information now making it's way through the internet to my aircard at the Pilot in Bat Crap, Arkansas? Let's say you have left your home computer logged on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Is that home computer also jacked into the internet 24/7? Are you really leaving your home computer vulnerable to every slag in the neighborhood to wifi through your wireless router making your broadband connection significantly less broad? My five year old nephew can hack his way around the the various security protocols that are supposed to keep the wifi generation off of my broadband connection. Please tell me that this is not how brilliant new technology works. Tell me I am missing something; make fun of me for being too old to get it.

 

I've been thinking about trying the Slingbox for a few months now. My dad could hook it up at his house, where he has a cable modem, and I could pick up the signal while on the road.

My main concern is the quality/speed. Some nights I get 60-90k/s with my Sprint air card, but there are times when I only see 5-20k/s with my air card. So when I'm getting 5-20k/s with my aircard, will I not be able to watch TV on the slingbox? Is that how it works? Even 60-90k/s seems like not much to pull in a TV signal to my laptop, but I could be wrong. What determines the speed/quality? Is it completely based on how fast my Sprint aircard can download information or is there something I'm missing?

 

Number 1 - you need to get a new aircard. One of the EVDO Rev-A cards. I just got mine from Verizon and it's working great.....Earlier I was in the middle of Nowhere, AL and was logged on @ 716Kbps. Right now, I'm in Dothan, AL surrounded by crappy chicken filled buildings and am connecting @ 324Kbps. This will help you dramatically. Look for the USB type modem....most have a "Y-Cable" that boosts your signal by 1 watt. You can also buy an external antenna and connect to the modem.

Number 2 - you need A FAST internet connection @ the house. This meaning AT LEAST 300Kbps upload and download speeds. I am getting a 10Mbps package installed @ home this week!!! That will give me 10Mbps download and 1Mbps upload speeds. This should work quite nicely.

Number 3 - you do not NEED a dedicated home computer. You can set up your network using your laptop. Just easier to have the home computer.

Number 4 - your home computer does not need to be turned on 24/7. Your router will need to be on however. I have mine encrypted and have logged a few attempts....but no connections. And, those might be my daughter's husband trying to log on with his laptop. And, your router does not even have to be wireless.....as long as you can connect the Slingbox to both your Satellite/Cable box....and your router you are in business. As a matter of fact....the wired router would make it totally secure with no danger of being hacked from the drive-bys.

Myself....I would rather pay a little bit for the equipment and not have to worry about getting out in the rain and adjusting the dish......plus. With the Slingbox....any passengers can watch the tube while you're driving. Something that is impossible to do with a standard dish.

 

Yeah... the last computer game I played was Super Mario Brothers 3. I have some vague idea about how a router works and I still dial up through Netzero with a 533 Pentium 1 processor. That would be an E-machine, remember those? I mean I am seriously old school. I am trying to teach my self new school networking. Connecting with evdo rev a aircard with my laptop I get. Minimum KBPS necessary I get. I just found out through my guy that the router talks directly to the modem. The modem is already networked, doesn't have to go through the computer. I had no idea until today. I have learned a great deal this week.

Oh... when I say I have a guy... When the crew at MCI in Austin have a tech or software problem they call their egghead to figure it out. He's in charge of the eggheads. That's a guy to have. You all need to get one of those. Now I need a real mechanic and a bartender to marry into the family.

 

Man, you're sure not making it easy to resist the urge to get one of these devices lol. Thanks for reporting, I was a bit skeptical at first but I never heard anything bad said about one of these things.

 

fortunately i have verizons internet, but personaly i like the sites that you can watch the tv shows from. I only watch about 5 shows and im able too watch them all in the amount of internet that I have, also I like the fact that I can watch them whenever. But thanks for the info on the slingbox I was curious about this product.

 

I figured I would look into this today, turns out nobody offers unlimited bandwidth anymore. Sprint/Nextel have stopped offering that plan according to Best Buy and I being a Verizon customer I went to the Verizon store to see if maybe in the past year they started to offer some type of unlimited plan. The answer sadly is no, so the question is to those of you with a slingbox how much bandwidth is needed? At say standard resolution (640x480) how many hours of programming can you get out of 5GB? The slingbox sounds like an outstanding option but if I can't get a 3-4 hours a day out of it I'm not sure it will be worthwhile when I can just Tivo everything at home and watch it when I'm on home time. Thanks in advance for the help. Almost forgot, Sprint/Nextel do offer a 10GB plan but it's VERY expensive (well over $100/mo.).