The WirieAP WiFi Blues

Very challenging to get WiFi, hence the lack of updates here. We installed a WirieAP last November but have yet to get the thing to work reliably. Wirie Tech Support has been very responsive but so far the results have been disappointing. We can locate and find WiFi hot spots, the Wirie connects, all looks good but there is virtually no data transmission. Most of the time we cannot even load Google's home page. We either have a set up issue (everything seems to be correct according to Wirie) a hardware issue or these things just don't perform as advertised. Has anybody else used these with success? We are told our 4 month old unit has been replaced with an “improved” model and we could replace ours for something like $500. (the new hardware cannot be added to our model). I don't think so. We can still get txt and email on our cell phones so the internet will just have to wait.