I connect to the Internet with Cricket Wireless Broadband on my desktop. How can I connect a second computer, my laptop, to maximize my Internet experience?
Cricket Wireless
Cricket Wireless Broadband is a little bit different than some of the other wireless broadband services that I’ve encountered. Rather than having a broadband modem that you connect to your home’s network or to the computer itself, Cricket Wireless uses a small USB device that installs directly to your computer or laptop. The tag line for Cricket says “Plug in. Click. Connect.” After viewing the Cricket Wireless demo, it looks like it really is that simple: plug in, click a few installation buttons, and connect wirelessly to the Internet.
However, this doesn’t lend itself to Internet connection sharing as well as some of the more traditional broadband services such as cable modems. In a cable modem situation, you’d connect the modem to a wired or wireless router and then you could connect multiple computers to the router, all of which can then access the Internet via the shared modem.
Options for Sharing Cricket Wireless
It looks as though you must activate your computer for use with the Cricket device which makes sense. What’s not clear is whether the Cricket device can be used on several computers. For example, I have a “Rhapsody to Go” MP3 player that I can use with three different computers. Each computer must be registered on my account. Once registered, I can connect the device to any of the three computers and download unlimited music to the device. I imagine that a similar feature is offered with the Cricket Wireless modem.
Here’s what I would try. Since your PC is already established, try removing the Cricket modem and installing it on your laptop. When prompted to activate the laptop, does a message appear? What does it say? It might say something like, “You must first deactivate your desktop computer” which would mean that the modem only allows one computer on the account. On the other hand, if the message says something like, “Activating second computer, one license remaining” then you could go ahead with the installation and then swap out the modem depending on which computer you want to use at any given time. Since Cricket advertises that you can take your Cricket wherever you go, I would assume that you’d be able to install it on both devices. In fact, one of the site’s FAQs says that “you can take your Internet with you from your home desktop to your laptop at the park.”
Hopefully, swapping the modem back and forth will work for you. If you want both the desktop and the laptop to connect at the same time, you may be able to share the modem over your home network or use a USB hub.
Celeste Stewart | July 27th, 2009
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I bought a cricket modem today. I too have two computers and wanted to share the internet connection. Here is how I did it. Fist install the cricket on either machine or both if you wish. As far as I can tell the modem doesn’t keep track on how many computers it has been installed on.. Next You must share that modem in Network Connections. Finally get yourself a small 4 port hup and two cat 5 cables (network cables). Connect each computer to a cable and both cables to the hub. Perferably any port but port 1 (port on tends to be an uplink wicvh you won’t be using) Reboot primary machine, once rebooted, reboot secondary machine. You now have the internet on both machines.. I have yet to figure out how to do this through my router but If i find out I will let you know.
I entered my question and it populated your scenerio. My situation is that I downloaded my cricket device for internet and it wont allo me to use it on 2 account from the same laptop. Can this be fixed? Someone told me that my HP w/Vista has a default program to keep multiple user from using the same program on the sam device this does not make any sense for this to be the case. Anyone have a solution besides returning the product?
We’ll look into this for you.
Hello, here’s some information that should help:
http://filetonic.com/blog/2009/12/04/sharing-cricket-device-between-users/
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Here is what I am trying to do: I have a cricket modem. I have a laptop running windows 7 and a desktop running XP. I have been trying to network so I can use the cricket modem with both computers. I was able to network no problem, cricket works on both computers, but I must be doing something wrong, cause I can’t “share” the connection. I know it can be done, cause I have seen posts that people are doing it, any ideas?
Hello, here’s some information that should help:
http://filetonic.com/blog/2010/02/01/sharing-cricket-modems/
Thank you! The Filetonic Team. Follow us on: www.Twitter.com/Filetonic