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Sprint PCS "Vision" Wireless Internet
Is it too good to be true? |
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David Adams wrote a related article about using the Samsung A500
on the Vision network |
| I guess if you're not interested in viewing images, it's
a great deal. Unlimited free higher speed (higher than dial up) internet
access when using a Vision phone and a USB connectivity kit to your
computer. |
| I upgraded my Sanyo 4700 to the Sanyo 4900
Vision phone. I can now get twice the minutes, plus an extra phone, plus
FREE Unlimited internet access, for the same monthly price I was paying
before. |
| Sprint no longer sells the connectivity kits.
They instead direct you to the Sanyo web site where they are usually out
of stock. But Sanyo doesn't sell the dialer software so they direct you
to FutureDial.com
where they sell both the software and the USB phone specific cable. If
nothing else, pick up the FutureDial SnapSync software with the cable to
create your phone book in Outlook and transfer it to the telephone. The
dialer software (SnapDialer) and SnapSync is available as a bundle and
worth the extra $10. It doesn't work with Outlook 97 so I had to install
Outlook 2000 and it worked perfectly, allowing complete editing before
transferring to the address book in the telephone. |
| I installed the SnapDial software last night and connected at a speed of
115kbps compared to my Earthlink connect speed of 52kbps. Now you might
say that the speed listed on the computer isn't accurate, and you're
probably correct. After testing with three different types of files, It's clear that the connection through the Vision phone
is noticeably faster. But viewing images through a browser shows extreme
compression artifacts, screwing up my carefully
compressed photos. Being a full time web designer and photographer I
don't like this at all. Scroll down below the table to see the
comparison images. |
E-mail settings
I had to call Sprint Vision technical support (877-228-2257 and ask for
tier 2 support) to get these settings and they kept asking me what e-mail
program I was using on my laptop, as if it made a difference. The outgoing
mail server is smtp.sprintpcs.com and you need to go to your e-mail
account on the web site
and set up an e-mail password. They don't automatically use the password
for your account, even if you've changed it and think that it's being
used. I should mention that I don't use my Sprint account for an e-mail
address. All my accounts go through my web site, so I didn't configure the
incoming e-mail. My e-mail program automatically checks my default e-mail
accounts from my web site as the incoming mail server. |
| The higher speed is only available through
the native USB1 port on both my laptop and desktop computer. I have USB2
cards for both computers and the reported time is only 28.8. Twice the
time the old Sprint dialer delivered, but much slower than the 115kbps the
USB1 port delivers. |
| I tested by timing the upload and download
of three types of files. A 2 megabyte image file, a 228K Microsoft Word
document with an embedded picture and a 1.22 megabyte zip file containing
a program I had previously downloaded. |
| |
Connected through
Sprint Vision |
Connected through
Earthlink |
| File Size
and Type |
2 megabytes image
file |
2 megabytes image
file |
| Upload Time (min:sec) |
4:35 |
10:40 |
| Download (min:sec) |
0:20 |
6:15 |
| File Size When
Downloaded |
93K |
2 megabytes |
Download
Compression
Percentage |
95%
5% of original file size |
none
equal to original |
| File Size
and Type |
228K Word document |
228K Word document |
| Upload Time (min:sec) |
0:32 |
1:37 |
| Download (min:sec) |
0:32 |
0:35 |
| File Size
and Type |
1.22 megabyte zip file |
1.22 megabyte zip file |
| Upload Time (min:sec) |
3:00 |
6:30 |
| Download (min:sec) |
3:14 |
3:05 |
| Reported speed |
115kbps |
52kbps |
|
| It appears that the image file is NOT CORRUPTED
when uploading through the Vision network. Even though viewing in a
browser showed 95% compression, the actual full size original file was
still on the server and other people could see it properly. That makes the
use of the Vision network a viable option, once the limitations are
understood. |
| I'm seeing compression of images between 50% and 95% when
viewed using my Vision phone connected to my laptop. Scroll
down to look at the example images that were downloaded comparing the
Vision phone to Earthlink. |
|
Vision |
Earthlink |
|
Above - screen captures from the FutureDial web site home page
Left - page seen through Sprint Vision
Right - the same page through my Earthlink dial up connection |
Below - a photo from my
CoolPix 5000
gallery
Left - crop from Sprint Vision download showing unwanted image compression
Right - the same crop from a download through Earthlink dial up |
|
Vision
Compressed photo is only 13K when viewed
through Vision |
Earthlink
Original Photo is 31K and looks good through Earthlink |
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