Portable Wi-Fi Hotspots 98
Dekortage writes "David Pogue reviews several portable wi-fi access points in the New York Times. If you have cellular Internet access, you can plug the PC card into the wi-fi box and presto, you've got Wi-Fi from wherever you are." From the article: "The card provides the Internet connection, courtesy of those companies' 3G ("third generation") high-speed cellular data networks. The box just rebroadcasts that connection as a Wi-Fi signal so that all nearby computers -- not just one privileged laptop -- can go online. With those PC cards, you can go online anywhere there's a cellular signal: in a taxi, on a bus, in a waiting room or wherever. In major cities, the speed is delightful, like a D.S.L. or slowish cable modem (400 to 700 kilobits a second)."
And the price... (Score:3)
Re:And the price... (Score:1)
Re:And the price... (Score:2)
Re:And the price... (Score:2)
I don't know of anyone who uses them to create mobile hotspots for the general public... although I suppose one could.
Re:And the price... (Score:2)
If people start making open hotspots, I suspect they'll find the cell providers cutting them off or otherwise changing the deal (which of course no cell CUSTOMER could ever do without paying an outrageous cancellation fee, isn't "capitalism" great when only one s
US Carriers are Pretty Clueless on 3G (Score:2)
Sure, they put out lots of hype about 3G, but for most of them the "unlimited" plans really mean "all the bits your cellphone screen can display and you're not allowed to Bluetooth/Cable/IR to your laptop", plus there's a much more expensive "unlimited" plan that lets you actually connect a computer, though there's probably fine print in the contract that limits you to a few hundred megabytes of unlimitedness.
So if I
Re:US Carriers are Pretty Clueless on 3G (Score:2)
Verizon Wireless, for example, sells a product targetted to consumers call BroadbandAccess, that is $79.95/month for unlimited 700-800kbps data. It is actually intended as an alternative to Cable and DSL for normal computer usage -- the wireless Router pr
Re:US Carriers are Pretty Clueless on 3G (Score:2)
But, you're right. My setup is a frankenstein's monster to an end user. Replace the bluetooth Palm app with a hacked version?
I'm sure that Verizon locked out the bluetooth dialup access for precisely wh
actually pretty cheap... (Score:1)
Re:actually pretty cheap... (Score:1)
Working on it! (Score:1)
Charon [wiki.rcpt.to] will do micropayment-based charging for using a wireless service. If you can run on it on your wireless device (there's ipkgs available for OpenWRT at the moment) then you can share wireless on a cost-recovery (or profit-making, for that matter) basis. I have my iBurst service available to all and sundry at 4c/MB at the moment, for example.
Still early days for usability, though.
also notable... (Score:2)
Usage fee (Score:2)
I heard of some lady that did something similar with a cell phone + laptop deal, but she ran a p2p application.
Apparently they have a cap on usage, and she got stuck for hundreds in overages...
This defeats the purpose of charging you $100 per month to use a wifi PC, so cell providers won't let this fly.
Re:Usage fee (Score:2)
Re:So what? (Score:2)
Old news?? (Score:1)
Re:Old news?? (Score:2)
Re:Old news?? (Score:2)
You are recalling the story of someone taking TWO of these cards, soldering the heck out of them, and getting a faster total connection. however, it required a laptop with two pcmcia slots on top of each other, the company had to take your computer for a while to do this, and you ended up paying for two subscriptions, one for each card. Oh, and you voided warranties and all that happy stuff.
Sounds like a waste of time - just write a channel bonding network driver that coalesces the two network interfaces
Re:Old news?? (Score:1)
"Easy! Just look at what I do!
(He waves his magic wand and intones the magic incantation: "Foo! Bar! Baz! Quux!" The flame of the antique oil lamp flickers, the drawer beside the computer desk makes an alarming cracking sound, the safe in the basement rattles...). See? (opens up list of installed network drivers) A chnnel bonding network driver!
Late
Re:Old news?? (Score:2)
"Easy! Just look at what I do!
Sorry bud, there are no NDAs to sign - just write a fakie driver that coalesces two other drivers. Write it once and use it everywhere - all you need is the OS DDK.
Re:Old news?? (Score:2)
You are recalling the story of someone taking TWO of these cards, soldering the heck out of them, and getting a faster total connection.
No, there was a story about a homemade wifi - mobile phone router. [slashdot.org]
Mobile Wardriving (Score:5, Interesting)
Moderation -32767: Huh? (Score:2)
Re:Moderation -32767: Huh? (Score:1)
With a nice set of host redirections you could do have plenty of fun.
Hanging around peoples homes waiting for them to connect to their bank account or buying things would never be so easy.
Re:Moderation -32767: Huh? (Score:2)
With all the hubub freakout over people wi-camping streetside, I wonder how people would react to superceding in-home APs with a more mobile approach. I think a game, or "tag you're it" type of thing might be fun. I think I'd hate to have to carry a couple of laptops in my back
Re:Moderation -32767: Huh? (Score:2)
Beter yet... (Score:1)
As people find they have an internet connection suddenly, you get to surf through any unsecured laptops' shared folders, like "My Music."
Of course, I'm not advocating anything of the sort... *whistles innocently*
H.
Re:Beter yet... (Score:2)
Re:Mobile Wardriving (Score:2)
The price is prohibitive here as well (Score:4, Informative)
Not to mention the old saying "I got WiFi access now, my neighbor bought an Access Point". Who's want to run an AP through a line that's probably costing more than your rent if some leecher finds your AP? How secure can those APs be made so it's possible to make sure you're not going to invite everyone on the airport to a P2P party?
Re:The price is prohibitive here as well (Score:2)
Re:The price is prohibitive here as well (Score:2)
Re:The price is prohibitive here as well (Score:3, Informative)
Alas, at least in my experience, it's definitely "unlimited" rather than truly unlimited. I used to listen to Shoutcast and other internet radio stations regularly on my Treo 600, but after a few months of this got a phone call from Sprint PCS telling me to stop using up so much bandwidth.
Re:The price is prohibitive here as well (Score:2)
Verizon is unlimited. (Score:2)
Internet Connection Sharing... (Score:3, Interesting)
1) Plug in WAP wherever you are
2) Enable ICS or iptables on whatever computer has both the mobile internet card and a wifi card
3) Configure IPs to use the computer in step 2 as gateway
4) Profit! er, I mean: Surf!
We did this on the way up to defcon between 3 cars like 4 or 5 years ago...
OS X too... (Score:2)
Same with OSX; you can pick which interface to share, and what interfaces(multiple ones can be used) to share it with. I've done it before in hotels where we didn't all want to pay for high speed internet, so each night one of us 'bought' internet and shared it with everyone else.
Anyone else get the feeling the summary is major astroturf? Half expecting it to dice and do my taxes, from the sound of it.
Re:Internet Connection Sharing... (Score:2)
Re:Internet Connection Sharing... (Score:2)
Re:Internet Connection Sharing... (Score:1)
The price of convenience.... (Score:2)
So i
Worked for us at Linuxworld 2005 (Score:3, Interesting)
Popsci Had this in How2.0 a few months ago (Score:1)
Re:Popsci Had this in How2.0 a few months ago (Score:1)
Does Unlimited really mean Unlimited yet ? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Does Unlimited really mean Unlimited yet ? (Score:3, Informative)
Rogers, Cogeco, and others (Toronto area) have already come up with the "excuse" to limit bandwidth far below the rates they advertise. In some cases their traffic shaping results in poorer performance than you'd get with an old dial-up modem.
In most industries you're expected to grow your capacity to service the market. With cablecos, they'd rather charge you the full price and limit your service. The problem is, why pay for an "extra fast" link if it doesn't even perform as well as the "light" packa
Re:Does Unlimited really mean Unlimited yet ? (Score:1)
Re:Does Unlimited really mean Unlimited yet ? (Score:1)
one night my workstation locked up, but not my modem/router so i had like 12 hours of 'inactivity'. They used that as the excuse to terminate my account.
Stompbox (Score:1)
--the guy who built the stompbox
Re:Stompbox (Score:1)
I just want one! (Score:1)
Sound's like it'll pay itself off in no time.
Re:I just want one! (Score:2)
a) At work? In which case his boss isn't going to be too happy if half the workforce are bypassing the secured, corporate gateway to the outside word.
or
b) Sitting on a toilet somewhere (local Mall or gym?) in his makeshift 'office'? - in which case I'm staying well away from Dave and he needs to get a life.
Who needs portable Wi-Fi? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Who needs portable Wi-Fi? (Score:2)
Funny. (Score:1)
I remember when 3G was first being discussed, lots of
Re:Funny. (Score:2)
Sure, if I could link it to the PC and use my PC to do the browsing... wait, I can. Shit, if I want to take the phone out of my pocket I could use IRDA to get ~1MB/sec to the phone... plenty fast enough for 3G.
But wait there's more. If you but a phone or laptop today we'll throw in a thing called Bluetooth. Your phone connects to your PC with bluetooth and can s
Or if you want... (Score:1)
http://devices.natetrue.com/mobileap [natetrue.com]
Made from a router using OpenWrt Linux and a cell phone data cable. Batteries not included.
A crowd of technophiles would follow you around! (Score:1)
"dude, he's got the hotspot. FOLLOW THAT GEEK!"
PocketPC.... (Score:1)
Other then being a big money hole, and a way to play solitare I'm trying to figure out what to do with mine....
dovado (Score:1)
Hardly new but totally pointless (Score:1)
RTFA (Score:1)
And, if I am crazy enough to do that (or I need to share with a business unit), I can plug the card into my laptop and turn on internet connection sharing with my lap
Re:RTFA (Score:1)
Desktops? Do you really think there's much call for this? How many peop
Re:Hardly new but totally pointless (Score:1)
3G data traffic is expensive (Score:2)
Since in most places you're billed by the kilobyte, even modest usage could run up a significant bill. NTT DoCoMo in Japan has data download rates that range from JPY 0.84 to 1.26 per kilobyte. A yen is approximately 0.8 US cents, so downloading a megabyte goes to about US$7. Downloading a copy of the Linux kernel at those rates would cost you JPY 33,000 (US$280), which is insane. This might work in other countries where mobile carriers provide flat rates for 3G data, but it would very rapidly become un
Why Bother wasting your money... (Score:1)
Peace-driving? (Score:1)
A neat idea. (Score:1)
I can already get wireless anywhere I go (Score:2)
bandwidth (Score:1)
Re:bandwidth (Score:1)
I'm foaming at the mouth for its widespread introduction into the United States, which seems to be hindered by the 3G providers. It's already available in over a hundred countries, and some countries entire communication infrastructures are being redesigned around breezeMAX solutions. Mexico for example has the largest WiMAX deployment in the wor
Re:bandwidth (Score:1)
Verizon does some kind of checking... (Score:3, Interesting)
Just to be sure, I tried the same thing with a different connection (eg: Ethernet) and my setup worked fine - it was definitely something to do with Verizon....
Junxion is a Soekris board with madwifi+ (Score:1)
I have used ICS + a Belkin Travel router (in AP mode) to accomplish the same thing. King County Metro (bus service) has free wif
Surprise! It's cheaper in the US (Score:2)
T-Mobile USA has unlimited EDGE and WiFi (at their HotSpot locations) for $30 a month. Sprint and Verizon offer unlimited EV-DO for $60 a month, and Cingular offers unlimited UMTS for $60 a month.
Paying by the kilobyte went out of vogue here in the US almost four years ago.
High Ping Times (Score:1)
Anyway, it sure beats the Apartment Area Network (aka, free wifi from the neighbors) and winds up being about the same cost as I would pay for home DSL + monthly coffee shop fees.
3G is ... well ... crap. (Score:1)