What do people here know about Mobile WiFi (MiFi) hotspots?

[mahatmakanejeeves]

I am working at home now. I am teleworking.

Telework has been an option for years. Before the recent unpleasantness, I never did telework. There's a reason for that.

I live in an old house. I do not have cable TV. I watch TV over the air. My telephone service is provided via a twisted pair of copper wires. Verizon is my plain old telephone service (POTS) provider. I can have dialup or DSL. Anything more than that requires that I make changes to my existing infrastructure.

I did break down recently and buy an Apple iPhone 6S. It's a Tracfone. The only thing that makes it a Tracfone is the SIM. It is not locked, but I have been on Tracfone for years with no complaint.

To use a laptop, though, I’d have to have a cable run from the street to the house. Tracfone won't let me use the iPhone as a mobile hotspot. At that point, I’d have to take the connection into and through the house, either by running wires within the walls, or putting wireless base stations within range of where I wanted work. I'd also have to sign up for some sort of plan. I got tired of trying to look it up online, so I never got around to doing anything about it.

I had been wondering if there were an alternative to running wires or cable all over. Could I access some internet service provider in a wireless manner? It turns out that that is possible. I just didn’t know the right words to use at Google.

On that last Monday we were able to be in the building that is my place of work, I was handed my just-retired boss’s Verizon Jetpack, and I took that and my GFE (government-furnished equipment) Dell 5480 laptop home.

The jetpack is a mobile hotspot. It will find a Verizon antenna if there is one nearby and connect to that. No wires. I am close enough to a Verizon antenna that the system works just about glitch-free. There is usually a mid-day stretch when everyone is on the system, and it slows down, but that’s an issue with the workplace servers, not a Verizon issue.

The bill is being sent to my employer, and I can’t imagine what it must cost for the data going back and forth. The Verizon Jetpack I'm using runs on 4G or LTE. There are 5G devices, but they cost a fortune. I see there are home plans that use mobile hotspots.

This arrangement is working well for me, much better than I would have expected. I see Verizon has plans that rely on them. A little bit of data per month, not expensive at all. More data per month, a little higher cost. You know how that works.

I'd like to hear some thoughts from people here. Do you have any recommendations?

I wouldn't mind having a subscription TV account, but I suspect all that streaming would really run up a bill. Streaming online radio would use a lot less data, I'd imagine.

Thank you.

[Kali]

1. maybe get a sim card from verizon for your phone, or get a used verizon phone

$45 month unlimited data, and don't quote me, but I think it is another $15 to use it as a hot spot - or it may be free, I am not sure I have never gotten around to trying it.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

4. For $45 or $60 a month, I think I could go a long way with a MiFi connection. NT

[janterry]

2. everything is wireless

at least all laptops are. You will need a modem and a router. The modem came with my internet service for free (though some will rent them out to you)

and I purchased a router.

I paid under 30 for the router (I'm pretty frugal).

My desktop computer is not wireless, but I bought an adapter (tiny, fits right into the back of my tower) and it communicates with the router/modem and it's now wireless).

edit, I reread what you wrote and I might be missing the whole thing. You want to access a hotspot?

(sorry, bad day. car DIED. Died during a pandemic, lol)

[mahatmakanejeeves]

3. "You will need a modem and a router."

I don't now.

When I left my place of employment, I took with me the employer-owned laptop and the MiFi hotspot. That's it.

I have to use a computer furnished by my employer. All the data is encrypted. It doesn't matter that I have a laptop running Windows 10. It won't connect to my employer's servers. I work for a government agency. Nothing secret, but I have to be on GFE (government-furnished equipment) to connect to my employer's servers.

Re: car death. What do you mean? Battery?

I see you and I are editing at the same time. Verizon has device somewhere in the neighborhood through which I am uploading and downloading data. The Verizon Jetpack is about the size of a 9-volt transistor radio, if you remember them. The GFE laptop I use is sitting on a table right next to the Jetpack. The laptop has a WiFi "card." It communicates with the Jetpack wirelessly. The Jetpack communicates with the Verizon device, mounted on some nearby utility pole, wirelessly. No one had to come out to the house to run a connection. I did not have to fish a cable through the walls.

No muss, no fuss. I like that. I like that a lot.

It works surprisingly (for me) well. Kids would shrug their shoulders and not be the least bit impressed.

[janterry]

5. big prius battery

took it to get it tested
said thank you
drove it home
cried
called places that might work on it
priced new cars
priced used cars
called other places
feeling better and more resigned. 2,700 to fix

[mahatmakanejeeves]

7. They're hybrids, right?

I thought it would be one of those easy batteries that you buy at the checkout counter.

[janterry]

9. It has a tiny battery, too - but this is the hybrid

battery and it's expensive.

It's an old car and it was expected. But I didn't expect it TODAY. I could buy another car, but this is not the right time. I never want to buy another new car - I'd buy a used one and I can't go car shopping now (nor do I want to). So, this is probably a pretty good deal. It will give me a few more years - and that would make me happy.

[csziggy]

13. Check Cars.com or Carvana.com for cars

Cars.com lists cars from dealers and private owners all over the country. You can set your search terms - how far away, make, model, year, type, etc. I found two different vehicles with them, both from same used car dealers, and was very happy with the prices and what I got. In fact, I still own the first one I bought in 2005.

Carvana is a little more upscale - they tend to sell newer used cars in very good condition. They do not negotiate - the price they list is what they will take, period. But they will bring the car to you, if you are within 90 miles of one of their places. We met them about halfway, they unloaded the car and let us test drive it before we accepted it. We still had seven days to return it if we found something wrong.

I've found online car shopping a lot less stressful than in person looking!

[intrepidity]

10. Sorry, butting in here...

I watched a YouTube video about replacing a Prius battery yourself. I don't have a Prius myself, but was just curious. It's a bunch of work, but doable if one is 1) handy 2) has time 3) has basic tools 4) has a place to work on the car, lots of dismantling 5) has patience.

I think the battery itself (reconditioned) was $1500, so there's no getting away from that.

If you're interested, I can find the link?

ETA: link - this guy is really good, fun to watch

[janterry]

11. I've seen those

I'm not handy in the least. I think the prius folks (I mean aficionados on the prius forums) worry a lot about the reconditioned ones.

They do put batteries in themselves. But the brand new one from Toyota is 2,000. I don't think I could get it for much less (something about Toyota keeping them from the market). But even if I could, I can't do it.

My regular guy could do it (he's honest and great). But he's mostly closed. He just has one guy coming in for little things. The rest are staying home.

TY, though

eta: i mean I've had to call a dealership. But this guy is giving me a reasonable deal. I called another dealership and they wanted 3,500).

[csziggy]

12. Be careful with the reconditioned Prius batteries

My husband had a 2006 Prius we bought used. He used it for 5-6 years then up graded to a 2014 Prius V and I used the old one.

The battery pack went out and Toyota wanted nearly $4000 to replace it - more than the car was worth. We found a deal for a re-conditioned battery with a three year warranty. Drove fine for a year, then the battery pack went bad, got it replaced, labor only (still $350). Drove another year, battery pack went bad, same deal.

Then nine months later, the battery pack went bad and took the car's computer with it. $5000 to fix. The mechanic offered $500 for the car and we took it. He could get the parts at cost and of course do the labor.

Now, even though Toyota is expensive, we get all our work on the remaining Prius there.

[janterry]

14. this is for the whole new toyota battery

2,700 includes labor. The price of the battery has come down

So, if I get another couple of years - it would be worth it

worst case scenario I only get a short amount of time

that would suck and all - and not worth it - but I wouldn't be out that much. I could live with it.

[csziggy]

15. Yes, the batteries have come down but they are still expensive

It's like replacing the engine in a conventional vehicle.

My current car is a Honda Fit, partly because I know the guy that sold it to me but partly because it is conventional technology. It's still hard to find places to get the hybrids repaired so that keeps the price up. This little Fit gets about the same mileage as my husband's Prius V and it's not much smaller. For running around town the Fit is plenty for me - and it is small enough my husband is not comfortable driving it so he won't take it away from me, LOL!

[TexasTowelie]

6. On most mobile hotspot plans, the carrier will throttle you back from their highest speeds

to a speed that literally crawls after you use so much data. The carrier will usually allow you to pay a fee (like $10) for additional data on a one-time only basis before trying to push a more expensive plan. That's okay if you have your cable go out and still want to get on the Internet for a few hours, but cost prohibitive as a long term solution.

If you are primarily reading Web pages and company related material then you probably don't use much data. However, if you are thinking about streaming video or exchanging large amounts of data related to your work, then a mobile hotspot seems less than ideal along with posing security concerns.

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

8. Here's my backup solution...

Last edited Wed Apr 1, 2020, 07:12 PM - Edit history (1)

...which is currently my only ISP:
I bought one of these: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07JJ5V2SJ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I signed up with these guys and bought a SIM from them: https://www.otrmobile.com/

$80 a month for unlimited 4G LTE.

Other than AC power you could connect to the internet over WiFi with nothing other than a WiFi enabled PC.

ETA: No throttling. 4G all the time.

[Kali]

16. that looks pretty interesting

how many devices can you run off of it? does it work like a router or can you use some kind of router with it? what kind of distances work?

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

17. This item is a router (with WiFi) and supports 32 devices. Probably good for about 30 feet.

At 20 feet I get about 80% on a WiFi "N" laptop.

I have one of the LAN ports connected via Ethernet to my primary router a Synology RT2600ac router: https://www.newegg.com/synology-rt2600ac-ieee-802-11ac-ieee-802-11a-b-g-n/p/N82E16833593004?Description=synology%20rt2600ac&cm_re=synology_rt2600ac-_-33-593-004-_-Product&quicklink=true

The TUOSHI is set to have the RT2600ac in the DMZ so individual port forwarding within it isn't needed and all the forwarding is handled by the RT2600ac. I have a NAS from Synology running a VPN which gives me LAN access from anywhere on the internet.

At the moment (2:39 PM EDT) speedtest is showing 5+ Mbps down and a bit under 4 Mbps up.

It's kinda cool. I used to travel a lot so it made life a bit easier.

[Kali]

18. OK, beware...

since I maybe understood 20% of that I may be hounding you for help in the next year or so. I am currently on wifi off a tower on the mountain behind my house. it is costing me about the same per month and can barely keep 5 devices going, a couple or three desktops, and a kindle hooked to a stereo to stream music.

speed test just now - 4.37 down and 2.31 up (which I still appreciate after dial up for so long but...my radio keeps crapping out! )

it is the music that craps out the most for me. I suppose I could bluetooth it to my phone and stream that way but it is a pain if I go outside (speakers out there in a couple locations)

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

19. Help is no problem

I don't want to threadjack so I'll send you some DU mail.

Happy to help.
Nerds need to stick together.

[TreasonousBastard]

20. If what you have works and the boss is paying-- go for it. I have an android phone on...

Boost and the total monthly cost is 50 bucks, including many gigs of data (I forget how many, but I've never hit it...)

I use USB tethering which is almost foolproof in most areas. Boost also sells a gadget that turns your phone into a wifi hub for a dozen or so computers. I've heard it works great, but I don't need it.

I also have wifi in my car, thanks to GM's OnStar for a few bucks a month but it is not as reliable as I would like.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

21. When this nightmare is over, the boss will no longer by paying for access.

I'm not sure how to check the Jetpack to see how many gigs of data I'm churning through every day. I did download the owner's manual, but of course I never bothered to read it. I find its performance quite satisfactory. I would have no qualms about going the mobile hotspot route for home access.