latest hotspot reviews?

[LivingTheDream]

Hello
Maybe i missed something? Is there a sticky post wifh latest hot spot reviews?

 Looking for

No contract
Data only 2gb/month
Cheap
West coast only coverage

Thankd

 

[John61CT]

Better info on HoFo

Choose your underlying carrier first, helps narrow it down, ATT or VZW better coverage little pricier.

 

[Blanch]

I have a $15 a month hotspot with US Cellular, 2GB and then unlimited 2G. It works just fine for me.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[John61CT]

Check US Cellular's geographic converage

 

[RogerD]

I have Straight Talk (actually TracFone) 4g LTE (Verizon) service
I have the LG Stylo 3 phone and it can be used as a hotspot.
Purchased at Walmart.

2 GB is $35 per month

Great service, but probably not one would consider cheap for 2gb.

Unlimited is $55 per month, but supposedly they don't like you using more than 60 GB.

 

[travelaround]

I like to upload videos to YouTube and wonder which would be the best hotspot for me with that kind of activity. I have no idea how many gigabytes I'm using each month.

 

[LivingTheDream]

I have a $15 a month hotspot with US Cellular, 2GB and then unlimited 2G. It works just fine for me.  


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks.  What kinds of speeds are you getting?  4G? LTE?

 

[Blanch]

LTE for the first 2GB.
Then 2G speeds the rest of the month. The delay at 2G is painful, but the price is easy to live with.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[John61CT]

I like to upload videos to YouTube and wonder which would be the best hotspot for me with that kind of activity. I have no idea how many gigabytes I'm using each month.

You need to start tracking that in order to shop among the 100s of deals available, to find those that match your needs.

Otherwise you either waste money trying plans that don't, or waste money paying for "true" unlimited.

For example, using 100+GB per month without getting throttled is just not realistically / legally for under $100 a month.

Like aircon, some things are just cheaper in a S&B setting.

 

[mpruet]

I like to upload videos to YouTube and wonder which would be the best hotspot for me with that kind of activity. I have no idea how many gigabytes I'm using each month.

Are you using cell internet now?  If so then you should be able to check your current monthly usage.

 

[travelaround]

Are you using cell internet now?

No, I'm not. I'm still in my s/b apartment. I won't get the van for another couple of months... maybe February or March? But I'd like to have the cell phone service and hotspot in place before then. Maybe by January as I plan to go to the WRTR in a car.

 

[mpruet]

No, I'm not. I'm still in my s/b apartment. I won't get the van for another couple of months... maybe February or March? But I'd like to have the cell phone service and hotspot in place before then. Maybe by January as I plan to go to the WRTR in a car.

It might be worth it to get a Verizon myFi as a temporary solution.  Verizon is commonly used as a backup solution because of it’s wide spread coverage.  Another advantage is that you can adjust your limits on a monthly basis.  I’m a part timer and adjust my limits up when I’m on the road, but when I get home I lower it to 1GB.  

In any case if you used it for a while, then you could more easily measure your usage for a month or so so you would better know what your usage pattern is.

 

[travelaround]

...if you used it for a while, then you could more easily measure your usage for a month or so so you would better know what your usage pattern is.

Thanks, I agree, I need to try that and see how it works before I become dependent on it!

 

[Orlimar1]

There is a huge thread over on Howard Forums about the $30/month AT&T ipad plan. People activate it either using a ipad imei, or buy just using the imei from one, and then putting the activated sim cards in hotspot devices. However, there are rumblings that AT&T may be about to start enforcing the sim be used in the correct devices. But even if it does happen, it would be cheap to have until then.

 

[John61CT]

Yes everyone should be aware such "grey areas" are subject to getting shut down anytime.

I believe management doesn't want them promoted or assisted here.

 

[John61CT]

You can monitor your GB usage on landline broadband, cable / DSL whatever

via your laptop, or through your router / wifi device's sysadmin statistics feature.

GIYF

 

[mpruet]

True...

But then you have to know the IP address of the modem admin.  Sometimes it is 192.168.1.1 and sometimes it is not.   I have three wireless routers and each of them have a different IP address.  It gets confusing sometimes. 

And then you have to know the admin userid/password.  And finally you have to understand the terminology used within the admin web pages so you don’t make a mistake and accidentally mess everything up. 

And then there’s the issue of how the information is displayed.  In my router the network rate is measured in packets sent/received, not in bytes.  When I get into the bandwidth monitoring section, I’m only getting the last 8 minutes worth of information.  It’s a rather daunting task to calculate what my monthly usage rate should be - at least for me.  And I come from the high tech industry where while I was in software development, I had to act as network administrator for my systems since I worked remotely and had a rather complex multi-node/multi-machine lab setup. 

But - my Verizon Jetpack has a graph which displays every time I turn it on. It shows my current usage against my contracted limits for the current billing cycle.  Much easier to monitor.