blind_html Fw: [computer-chatter], Wi-Fi to Go, No Cafe Needed
- From: "Jeffrey Shockley, Windows Desktop Edition" <jawswizard@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <blind_html@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 8 May 2009 21:28:22 -0400
Jeffrey Shockley
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----- Original Message -----
From: Jeffry Miller
To: Undisclosed-Recipient:;
Sent: Friday, May 08, 2009 7:54 PM
Subject: [computer-chatter], Wi-Fi to Go, No Cafe Needed
Wi-Fi to Go, No Cafe Needed
By [8]DAVID POGUE
Someday, we'll tell our grandchildren how we had to drive around town looking
for a coffee shop when we needed to get online, and they'll laugh their heads
off. Every building in America has running water, electricity and ventilation;
what's the holdup on universal wireless Internet?
Getting online isn't impossible, but today's options are deeply flawed. Most of
them involve sitting rooted in one spot -- in the coffee shop or library, for
example. (Sadly, the days when cities were blanketed by free Wi-Fi signals
leaking from people's apartments are over; they all require passwords these
days.)
If you want to get online while you're on the move, in fact, you've had only
one option: buy one of those $60-a-month cellular modems from [9]Verizon,
[10]Sprint, T-Mobile or AT&T. The speed isn't exactly cable-modem speed, but
it's close enough. You can get a card-slot version, which has a nasty little
antenna protuberance, or a U.S.B.-stick version, which cries out to be snapped
off by a passing flight attendant's beverage cart.
A few laptops have this cellular modem built in, which is less awkward but
still drains the battery with gusto.
But imagine if you could get online anywhere you liked -- in a taxi, on the
beach, in a hotel with disgustingly overpriced Wi-Fi -- without messing around
with cellular modems. 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.
The MiFi gets its Internet signal the same way those cellular modems do -- in
this case, from Verizon's excellent 3G (high-speed) cellular data network. 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.
In essence, the MiFi converts that cellular Internet signal into an umbrella of
Wi-Fi coverage that up to five people can share. (The speed suffers if all five
are doing heavy downloads at once, but that's a rarity.)
Cellular wireless routers, as they're called, have been available for years.
The average person hasn't even heard of this product category, but these
routers are popular on, for example, Hollywood movie shoots. On-location cast
and crew can kill their downtime online, sharing the signal from a single
cellular card that's broadcast via Wi-Fi.
Those machines, however, get no cell signal on their own; you have to supply
your own cellular modem. They're also big and metal and ugly. But the real
deal-killer is that they have to be plugged into a power outlet. You can't use
one at the beach or in the woods unless you have a really, really long
extension cord.
The MiFi is remarkable for its tiny size, its sleek good looks, its
30-foot range (it easily filled a large airport gate area with four-bar signal)
-- and the fact that it's cordless and rechargeable.
How is this amazing? Let us count the ways.
First, you're spared the plug-and-unplug ritual of cellular modems. You can
leave the MiFi in your pocket, purse or laptop bag; whenever you fire up your
laptop, netbook, Wi-Fi camera or game gadget, or wake up your [11]iPhone or
[12]iPod Touch, you're online.
Last week, I was stuck on a runway for two hours. As I merrily worked away
online, complete with [13]YouTube videos and file downloads, I became aware
that my seatmate was sneaking glances. As I snuck counter-glances at him, I
realized that he had no interest in what I was doing, but rather in the
signal-strength icon on my laptop -- on an airplane where there wasn't
otherwise any Wi-Fi signal. "I'm sorry," he finally said, completely baffled,
"but how are you getting a wireless signal?" He was floored when I pulled the
MiFi from my pocket, its power light glowing evilly.
If he'd had a laptop, I would have happily shared my Wi-Fi cloud with him. The
network password is printed right there on the bottom of the MiFi itself.
That's a clever idea, actually. Since the MiFi is in your possession, it's
impossible for anyone to get into your cloud unless you show it to them. Call
it "security through proximity."
The second huge advantage of the MiFi is that, as with any wireless router, you
can share its signal with other people; up to five road warriors can enjoy the
same connection. Your youngsters with their iPod Touches in the back of the van
could hop online, for example, or you and your colleagues could connect and
collaborate on a corporate retreat.
Verizon points out how useful the MiFi could be for college students working
off-campus, insurance adjusters at a disaster site and trade show booth teams.
(Incredibly, Verizon even suggests that you could use the MiFi at home as your
primary family Internet service. Sharing a cellular-modem account was something
it strenuously discouraged only two years ago.)
Some footnotes: First, the MiFi goes into sleep mode after 30 minutes of
inactivity, to prolong its battery life.
Yes, it means that a single charge can get you through a full day of on-and-off
Internet noodling, even though the battery is supposed to run for only four
hours a charge (it's rated at 40 hours of standby). But once the MiFi is
asleep, your Wi-Fi bubble is gone until you tap the power button.
It's probably the height of ingratitude to complain about having to press a
single button to get yourself online. But if the MiFi is flopping around
somewhere in the bottom of your bag, just finding it can be a minor hassle.
Fortunately, you can turn off that sleep feature, or even change the inactivity
interval before it kicks in. This gizmo is a full-blown wireless router with
full-blown configuration controls. If you 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) .
A final note: If your laptop has a traditional cellular modem, you can turn on
a Mac OS X or Windows feature called Internet Sharing, which rebroadcasts the
signal via Wi-Fi, just like the MiFi.
But the MiFi is infinitely easier to use and start up, doesn't lock you into
carrying around your laptop all the time, has better range and works even when
your laptop battery is dead. (The MiFi recharges from a wall outlet; it still
works as a hot spot while it's plugged in.
Jeffry
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