SIGforum.com    Main Page  Hop To Forum Categories  The Lounge    Need info on getting a Hot Spot for internet
Go
New
Find
Notify
Tools
Reply
  
Need info on getting a Hot Spot for internet Login/Join 
Member
Picture of m1009
posted
Reaching out to the mind of SF please. We currently have a landline, with Wi-Fi router for internet, all bundled. Thinking we need to set up a wireless hotspot ? As we have been having issues with our provider and we are looking for other options. What do you all recommend?
 
Posts: 1167 | Registered: September 27, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
paradox in a box
Picture of frayedends
posted Hide Post
What sort of internet connection do you have? Cable?

If you get a wifi hotspot it will work over cellular. The speeds are okay but not perfect. If you go through a main carrier you will be throttled when you use too much data.

However, I have no cable or other high speed available. So I have been using multiple hotspots from Unlimited4gLTE.com. It's been okay. They occasionally have to refresh the hotspot when I lose internet. Once it took them almost a week and they were less than friendly in their response, telling me to not send multiple messages. But overall it works since I really have no other options.




These go to eleven.
 
Posts: 12605 | Location: Westminster, MA | Registered: November 14, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of m1009
posted Hide Post
It’s a phone connection,not cabl, we are out in the county, so our choices are limited.
 
Posts: 1167 | Registered: September 27, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Baroque Bloke
Picture of Pipe Smoker
posted Hide Post
I have a Zing hotspot with a built in router but it has issues. I now rely on the hotspot of my iPhone to provide an Internet connection for my laptop. A much better solution. I can allow other folks to simultaneously use my iPhone hotspot too.

Just ran Speedtest: 153 Mbps download, 7.23 Mbps upload. Plenty fast enough for me. Sprint service.



Serious about crackers
 
Posts: 9622 | Location: San Diego | Registered: July 26, 2014Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Short. Fat. Bald.
Costanzaesque.


Picture of TexasScrub
posted Hide Post
I use a Netgear Nighthawk router with OTR Mobile service. I'm currently using their ATT service, but they have TMobile as well with 5G speed (I don't have it in my area yet so I haven't switched) and the Nighthawk is 5G. No throttling, no download caps. Its mobile too so I use it on the road! 60 bucks a month and my speeds vary from about 5mps to 70mps on 4G LTE.


___________________________
He looked like an accountant or a serial-killer type. Definitely one of the service industries.
 
Posts: 2055 | Location: Victoria, TX | Registered: February 11, 2012Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of m1009
posted Hide Post
Thanks for all the info. I will have to do some checking to see what’s available in our area and prices. Right now, we have ATT for mobile device as a backup, but the phone bundled services with wireless dsl for main internet. Wanted a backup plan in case I had issues again with the main ISP, as I’m working from home now.

Edite to add: Just had internet upgrade finally corrected with the main ISP. Download speed at 44mbps, and upload speed 3.25. At least it’s MUCH faster that what we had before. Just wanted an alternative to the main one.
 
Posts: 1167 | Registered: September 27, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Washing machine whisperer
Picture of Appliance Brad
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by m1009:
It’s a phone connection,not cabl, we are out in the county, so our choices are limited.


We live in very rural America. Our local phone company is so oversold on DSL that they aren't taking on new customers. And the speed is so horrible that it's useless anyway. We tried WiFi through a local company. I'm a half mile with line of sight to their tower right behind my fire department. Tower is 190' We had them for a couple years and as they added subscribers but not more capacity, it became unusable, especially on weekends. We tried a device from Verizon with an outside mounted dipole antenna. When it was first installed it was significantly better than the WiFi but after 2 antenna replacements and multiple complaints because again weekends became incredibly slow to the point pages would not load, we looked again for a solution.

Currently using a hot spot from ATT. It has to be placed in a window so it has a solid signal but it works very well. It costs about $70 a month but it is a metered connection so we have to limit watching movies or streaming music. It doesn't slow down, they just ding us for every 10 Gigs over our cap.


__________________________
Writing the next chapter that I've been looking forward to.
 
Posts: 11314 | Location: below the palm tree line of Michigan | Registered: September 17, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
semi-reformed sailor
Picture of MikeinNC
posted Hide Post
My mom and dad live in the middle of nowhere NC and use a version hotspot. It’s the size of a beeper and uses cell for their internet

When I was a cop, we used the same item for our in car computers networking...but I have no idea how expensive it was. I’m sure the city got a great rate because they had two hundred of them and Verizon had all the city’s cell phones too...



"Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor.” Robert A. Heinlein

“You may beat me, but you will never win.” sigmonkey-2020

“A single round of buckshot to the torso almost always results in an immediate change of behavior.” Chris Baker
 
Posts: 11526 | Location: Temple, Texas! | Registered: October 07, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of m1009
posted Hide Post
Wow, sounds like the hotspots are both expensive and not as reliable consistently. I will check out ATT, since I already have an account with them, but might still check out Verizon, etc. when our internet was down I was using the att, but it was at one bar, so that didn’t work that well either. Prob cause that is only emergency for us, in case the ISP went down. Which it did for 3 days, cause they hooked us up to the wrong hub, and then couldn’t figure out what happened, duh.
 
Posts: 1167 | Registered: September 27, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Nullus Anxietas
Picture of ensigmatic
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by m1009:
Wow, sounds like the hotspots are both expensive and not as reliable consistently.

Depends.

I use a NetGear LB1120 4G LTE modem with T-Mobile and it's been every bit as reliable as our Comcast Business Class High-Speed Internet connection. I use it for automatic Internet connection fail-over for the rare instances our Comcast circuit goes down.

(It was cheap, for me, because I was able to add a line for free during a T-Mobile promotion.)

quote:
Originally posted by m1009:
I will check out ATT, since I already have an account with them, ...

One of my best friends has a bunch of acreage out in the middle of nowhere. The only half-way usable cell coverage on his property is AT&T. So we set him up with an AT&T 4G LTE hotspot. Bandwidth isn't terrific because the signal's marginal, but it otherwise works like a champ.

A bit spendy, though.



"America is at that awkward stage. It's too late to work within the system,,,, but too early to shoot the bastards." -- Claire Wolfe
"If we let things terrify us, life will not be worth living." -- Seneca the Younger, Roman Stoic philosopher
 
Posts: 26009 | Location: S.E. Michigan | Registered: January 06, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Lead slingin'
Parrot Head
Picture of Modern Day Savage
posted Hide Post
 
Posts: 7324 | Location: the Centennial state | Registered: August 21, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
I use Comcast and my speeds are consistently 238 down and 12 up. Never able to tell if they were ever throttling it.


"All warfare is based on deception" Sun Tzu, The art of War
 
Posts: 552 | Location: Gulf Coast of SW Florida | Registered: August 13, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of m1009
posted Hide Post
Comcast not available in our area. Plus I had so much trouble dealing with them when my parents had them, not a fan.
 
Posts: 1167 | Registered: September 27, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
If you Google for "Mobley car connected", there should be threads on Reddit and Howard's forums on it. It's a bit tricky to get it as it is not an advertised program on AT&T but basically it's $20 a month postpaid (thus roaming if needed) unlimited AT&T hotspot.

I have been running it on an AT&T Nighthawk hotspot for several years now. Used up to 40 GB one month with no apparent throttling on a cross country trip. Total is around $23.54 a month after taxes.
 
Posts: 1814 | Location: Austin TX | Registered: October 30, 2003Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
There have been a couple other threads on this that I recall. I also live in an unincorporated area. The only "normal" internet available is DSL at 3 Mb, which sucks. We use this: https://www.unlimitedinternet4u.com/.

It is basically somebody reselling AT&T cell phone service. We bought the Netgear modem they're selling and a SIM card. We pay them via PayPal ($75/month I think). It is unlimited and we do not see throttling or prioritization. We use 100 GB+ per month and have for at least 18 months since switching to it.

The whole arrangement seems a little ...sketchy, but it works great and is the only way for us to have non-shitty internet.
 
Posts: 5243 | Location: Iowa | Registered: February 24, 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of m1009
posted Hide Post
Thanks, everyone! Looks like I will check around and see what is in our area.
 
Posts: 1167 | Registered: September 27, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
  Powered by Social Strata  
 

SIGforum.com    Main Page  Hop To Forum Categories  The Lounge    Need info on getting a Hot Spot for internet

© SIGforum 2024