On Tuesday, I purchased an AT&T Sierra Wireless 881 USB Air Card to use in my laptop.  I needed to be more mobile than I already am, what with the fact that the mojitos are usually served outdoors on the patio during the summer months.

Today I returned that steaming hunk of junk.  I spent many hours trying to get it to work, including one on the phone with a mostly clueless AT&T tech who told me at one point that “you know more than me” about the networking troubleshooting.

I couldn’t get to any internet sites; ping barfed with a 1231 error, and zero data packets of any sort were sent or received.  I tried upgrading the AT&T Communication Manager software direct from the AT&T support site, and even tried the Sierra Wireless 3G Watcher software.

So, when I returned the 881U, I got a GT Ultra Express card in its place, for $50 more.  I figured that Sierra Wireless was the culprit here and that moving to a different manufacturer might work out well.

I was right.  The GT Ultra Express works beautifully.  It’s an Express Card card, so it’s much lower profile than the monstrous 881U, and it works like a champ.  Initial bandwidth tests to Speakeasy show a download speed of 1639 kbps and an upload speed of 636 kbps, which is right in the advertised range and definitely acceptable for my needs.

So – for those of you choosing between the Sierra Wireless cards and the Option Wireless cards available from AT&T, definitely consider the Option Wireless ones, particularly the GT Ultra Express.  The difference is night and day!