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Mobile Wi-Fi Hot Spot

bsharma writes to let us know about a little goodie that we will be able to buy starting May 17: a battery-powered, rechargeable, cellular, Wi-Fi hot spot that you can put in your pocket. "What if you had a personal Wi-Fi bubble, a private hot spot, that followed you everywhere you go? Incredibly, there is such a thing. It's the Novatel MiFi 2200, available from Verizon starting in mid-May ($100 with two-year contract, after rebate). It's a little wisp of a thing, like a triple-thick credit card. It has one power button, one status light and a swappable battery that looks like the one in a cellphone. When you turn on your MiFi and wait 30 seconds, it provides a personal, portable, powerful, password-protected wireless hot spot. ... If you just want to do e-mail and the Web, you pay $40 a month for the service (250 megabytes of data transfer, 10 cents a megabyte above that). If you watch videos and shuttle a lot of big files, opt for the $60 plan (5 gigabytes). And if you don't travel incessantly, the best deal may be the one-day pass: $15 for 24 hours, only when you need it. In that case, the MiFi itself costs $270." The device has its Wi-Fi password printed on the bottom, so you can invite someone to join your network simply by showing it to them.

11 of 202 comments (clear)

  1. Someone forgot about the Cradlepoint! by strredwolf · · Score: 5, Informative

    Someone forgot about the battery powered Cradelpoint systems. They're at http://www.cradlepoint.com/ and aren't tied to one system or another: You provide a USB dongle for it. It provides everything else. The PRS300 or the CTR350 has been around for years now.

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    1. Re:Someone forgot about the Cradlepoint! by greenThing · · Score: 3, Informative

      I've been using a PHS300 from Cradlepoint with my Sprint USB broadband dongle for almost a year. I commute by train 50 mins each way daily. I turn it on, toss it in my backpack, and I'm online for the train ride with no problems & nothing hanging off my laptop.

  2. Been there, done that. by haner · · Score: 5, Informative

    I don't see the big deal in this. For those of us who run Symbian based phones, Joikuspot has a free version which allows you to use your phone as a personal wifi hotspot with encryption. I use my E71 on ATT for an instant 3G hotspot wherever a 3G connection exists.

  3. Re:Cash money! by CarpetShark · · Score: 5, Informative

    Yeah, I don't get how these highly-metered services even exist -- especially on "landline broadband". Even in mobile broadband, it's nowhere near justifiable, methinks. Anyone who pays $40 for half a CD per month of data transfer in 2009 is batshit insane. That probably wouldn't even cover the spam I get.

  4. Re:"simply by showing it to them" by Hillview · · Score: 5, Informative

    Theoretically, you could "type 192.168.1.1 into your Web browser's address bar -- a trick well known to network gurus -- the MiFi's settings pages magically appear. Now you can do geeky, tweaky tasks like changing the password or the wireless network name, limiting access to specific computers, turning on port forwarding (don't ask)." Of course, you could also read the article.. Theoretically.

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  5. Re:Singularity? by rwwyatt · · Score: 5, Informative

    I am not actually an RF engineer so my thoughts/explanation may be completely ludicrous(it would not be the first time). My expertise is basically layer 3 through 5 of the OSI model

    During the system test phase, a large number of measurements were performed to isolate the impact of Wifi Noise on 3G and 3G Noise on WiFi. It was found that there was actually minimal impact of Wifi on 3G and vice versa.

  6. Re:"simply by showing it to them" by BitZtream · · Score: 4, Informative

    Same thing you do with every other wifi router, you change the password. In this case using their web interface which much like every other little consumer WAP/Router on planet.

    And this would be a good example of how reading the article can save you from asking a stupid question.

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  7. Clearwire already has a similar product and faster by RyuuzakiTetsuya · · Score: 3, Informative

    Full disclosure: I work for Clearwire, and I am also not authorized to speak for the company.

    http://gizmodo.com/5192430/review-clear-spot-portable-wimax-wi+fi-hotspot

    Beats hauling around a bulky CPE device and WiFi router everywhere.

    The only downside is that WiMax coverage isn't in many markets yet.

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  8. WMWifiRouter, JoikuSpot, PDANet... etc? by SirJorgelOfBorgel · · Score: 5, Informative

    "What if you had a personal Wi-Fi bubble, a private hot spot, that followed you everywhere you go? Incredibly, there is such a thing."

    Yeah, it's called a phone!

    If you have a Windows Mobile phone with an internet plan, you could use WMWifiRouter(the most advanced of the pack), which has been available since 2007, and was the very first app to do this.

    If you have a Symbian phone, you could use JoikuSpot, which has been available since 2008.

    To continue, for iPhone you could use PDANet. For Android there are also several programs available as well!

    Why would you use something like this and get another data subscription when all you need is already in your pocket? Aside from the internet plan which you are likely to have already, all of these software are available for a small one-time fee - likely lower than one month of the data package itself.

    Funny thing, none of those apps ever made it out of the firehose when I posted them. What makes this (very expensive and limited) product so special?

  9. Re:Better reception with this unit by Celeste+R · · Score: 3, Informative

    Units like this are nothing new.

    The inherent problem with these isn't the fact that they're celluar; it's the fact that they're WIFI.

    Driving around with this isn't nearly so great when you're getting interference from APs on the same channel (and there's no way to avoid it).

    This means stuttered speeds while there's interference; and until this problem is solved with either a new WIFI spec or limiting the AP to an uncommon spec (who uses A these days?) that its utility is limited.

    And when utility is limited, it's not going to be the wonder product that people would like.

    I'll stick with my USB 3G, thank you.

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  10. Joikuspot by wintermute000 · · Score: 3, Informative

    One word: Joikuspot

    Turns your mobile into a wifi hotspot.

    I've only tried with Nokia models but it works great (N82, 5800). The free version only allows port 80 and gives you a nagware screen the first website you go to but thats it. The paid version allows all ports/protocols with no nag screen.

    Beats this device hands down - you always have your phone with you . Of course your carrier charges may be another story...