Question about "legit" cell/wifi tethering
Karli — Fri, 12/04/2009 - 13:36
Hi Downies!
I'm trying to explore gift ideas for my awesome husband, and I'm a bit at a loss because honestly we have most of the crap guys would tend to wish for (speakers, tv, computer, iphone, bla bla bla).
I was reading up on some gift guides and saw that Verizon has a product called the MiFi 2200 which can be used to convert a cell phone signal into wireless internet for your laptop.
My husband is very weird about the idea of jailbreaking his iPhone; don't ask me why cause I don't understand it myself. If I had my own iPhone I'd jailbreak it in a heartbeat. But I digress.
As we have AT&T, the Verizon product is obviously not really a viable option, especially since they have some crazy fees to actually USE the damn thing. So not particularly interested in that.
I'm wondering if anyone knows of a product that does the same kind of thing, that will work on an iPhone, and doesn't have any costs past the initial purchase of the product. I was looking at this 3G-to-wireless Portable Router and am thinking this might be what I'm looking for, but I don't want to spend a ton of money only to have it not work out.
Any help and tips will be appreciated!
The short answer is no --
carno — Thu, 12/17/2009 - 07:34The short answer is no -- nothing will be able to use the iPhone's Internet service until ATT gets their shit straight. The only *possible* possibility is if you were to:
You could combine this with a Google Voice + Skype account so when iPhone has no service you could still make/receive calls as the iPhone will be connected via WiFi with Skype.app on the iPhone.
The problem is, I'm not sure if this will work because ATT might be able to block using your iPhone SIM card in an HDSPA modem. If it *is* possible, there could be some carrier settings for the HDSPA modem which I don't know but maybe w/the USB modem documentation.
I would recommend doing more research on this -- if I had an HDSPA USB model I'd try this myself but I don't...
Your other option is to accept paying $50-60/mo and get 4g+3g service from Sprint via their U300 or U301 USB modem (if the 301 is out yet). Sprint was running a deal a few weeks ago and they gave me one of those CradlePoint routers for free (w/2yr contract of course). I paid < $100 and I think the bill will end up being about $59/month.
I've used Sprint's 3g service for years and it's been great - with a medium or better signal I can raid as long as I'm not in a moving vehicle. While you can still download things fast in a moving vehicle, the latency is way too high for something like Warcraft. I've been using the 4g service for a few weeks and the coverage isn't nearly as good, but it will fallback to 3g and it's unlimited bandwidth (3g fallback is still a 5GB cap though). The speed and latency of 4g however, is much better.
Either you can pay ATT more for HDSPA, jailbreak the phone, get Sprint or Verizon (I usually get lower latency w/Sprint), or wait a few more years for Google to enter the scene.
Sprint's 4g network covers
carno — Thu, 12/17/2009 - 07:48Sprint's 4g network covers Portland and Vancouver:
http://coverage.sprintpcs.com/IMPACT.jsp?covType=wimaxdual&serviceType=d...
Also forgot to mention Sprint's 4g service is actually a technology called "WiMax". Sprint started a sister company called "Clear" (clear.com), which sells the same 4g and 4g+3g service under a different company name. They also have coverage in OR/VA but I think their 4g+3g was a little more expensive. Sprint's 4g+3g is $59.99/mo (I just checked my plan) and Clear.com's is $70/mo.
I'm not affiliated with Sprint or anything, I've just done a lot of homework for this. With my line of work I'm kind of fucked if I'm without Internet. The other thing I have is one of Starbucks' "Gold" cards (not the credit card); whenever I spend more than $2 at Starbucks I automatically get 1 free (maybe it's 2?) hour of WiFi at that Starbucks HotSpot. In practice I've found it lasts more than the 1-2 hours (I've used it for an entire day on several occasions). If ya'll don't like starbucks then don't bother -- their 10% discount the card currently gives everybody is going to be discontinued (I guess sbux lost their ass on people like me, I've probably saved $500 w/it).
The thing is, what are you
Ghli — Fri, 12/04/2009 - 15:11The thing is, what are you going to use the portable router for? If you're going to use it for web browsing, non-HD youtube videos, etc. it works fine (besides the fact that the youtube videos are going to take a bit longer to buffer and play). You could game with it, but you're going to have to basically shut everything else that could use your connection except for that game and vent. You will be subjected to 200-500ms latency times with occasional spikes if you are farther from the cell tower.
Another problem is that at&t does not do officially support tethering with the iPhone, yet. The iPhone data plan, the data plan for "dumb"phones, the data plan for smartphones, and the data plan for tethering are all 4 completely different plans and have different price points.
iPhone data $30 unlimited
"dumb" (normal) phone data $15 unlimited ($10 with family plan)
smartphone data $35 unlimited ($65 with tethering)
tethering only $35 200MB/ $60 5GB
Third problem is that at%t's definition of unlimited is really 5GB. Could you actually go over this limit and get in trouble? Who knows. There are stories about people constantly going over this 5GB limit and not get into trouble, and people who do get into trouble.
I myself have been tethering as a backup connection,and have had good days and bad days. It was only in the last 6 months that the connection has been fair to good, while before it was bad to fair mostly because I was in an area where only 1/2 of at&t's signal was on 3g, and the other half was still on 2g/edge and the phone would prefer to go onto the edge signal as it was the stronger of the 2.
If you are going to want to experiment with this, you probably will not be able to do this with the iPhone's sim chip/data connection. If you do happen to have access to another 3g phone that you yourself are using, go try tethering on that phone "unofficially" and see how the results are at first. If it's good, then you may want try to go the official tethering route.
The 5GB limit is a good deal
Felsteel — Tue, 12/08/2009 - 11:17The 5GB limit is a good deal of usage, as long as its not heavy stuff like wow or streaming vids and stuff of the sort. .
I work for a Verizon Retailer, although I havent been on the sales floor in about a year now, but I know some of the plans and stuff. If you want to take your laptop around, say down the road in your cat/truck and just want to check your email, get on an IM from the Wal-Mart parking lol, make a quick post on site that you are missing raid, it works great, being mobile and all. Best thing its for are those, "Damn! I really need the internetz right now" situations. its a good idea if you dont mind paying the monthly for it.
The plan is to use it only
Karli — Fri, 12/04/2009 - 16:43The plan is to use it only when traveling and in the car. Light web browsing and email would be the primary usage.
AT&T are jerks.