Anyone Familiar With Travel WiFi?

[hech54]

We are going to a small village for a week. The place we are staying has no WiFi....NONE.
We have a great phone plan but I'd like to have internet access for my teenage son.

Something like this?
https://www.travel-wifi.com/en

You just turn it on, connect your phone or laptop to it and away you go?
I'm an idiot when it doesn't involve my beloved Fritz! box here at home.

[jagabo]

Doesn't your phone have the ability to create a mobile wi-fi hotspot?

http://newatlas.com/how-to-turn-your-smartphone-into-a-wi-fi-hotspot/32544/

[jagabo]

dup

[hech54]

Doesn't your phone have the ability to create a mobile wi-fi hotspot?

http://newatlas.com/how-to-turn-your-smartphone-into-a-wi-fi-hotspot/32544/

Isn't that the possible "roaming" type of expensive-ness I'm trying to avoid?

[jagabo]

Doesn't your phone have the ability to create a mobile wi-fi hotspot?

http://newatlas.com/how-to-turn-your-smartphone-into-a-wi-fi-hotspot/32544/

Isn't that the possible "roaming" type of expensive-ness I'm trying to avoid?

Sorry, I misunderstood. Since you said you "have a great phone plan" I thought that meant you have a great data plan and just needed the ability to create a wi-fi network to use it on other devices.

[october262]

We are going to a small village for a week. The place we are staying has no WiFi....NONE.
We have a great phone plan but I'd like to have internet access for my teenage son.

Something like this?
https://www.travel-wifi.com/en

You just turn it on, connect your phone or laptop to it and away you go?
I'm an idiot when it doesn't involve my beloved Fritz! box here at home.

is that hotspot device going to work where you are staying at ??
maybe cheaper to just use your cellular phone's hotspot.

[hech54]

We are going to a small village for a week. The place we are staying has no WiFi....NONE.
We have a great phone plan but I'd like to have internet access for my teenage son.

Something like this?
https://www.travel-wifi.com/en

You just turn it on, connect your phone or laptop to it and away you go?
I'm an idiot when it doesn't involve my beloved Fritz! box here at home.

is that hotspot device going to work where you are staying at ??
maybe cheaper to just use your cellular phone's hotspot.

That's what I'm trying to figure out. Is this thing "instant internet anywhere"?

[teodz1984]

probably not.. mileage varies whether the pocket wifi has a good signal from its base station (be it LTE or WIMAX or EDGE)
Speeds wont be that good since it is just wireless ...

Would be nice to research what wireless services are available in the place you are going to before commiting to a rental.

[betwixt]

Where I am there is no cable TV/data and ADSL by normal phone lines gives a max of about 0.5Mb/s if I'm lucky, usually its much slower. People here rely on the gadgets you are talking about even for basic email services. They are basically a data connection to the mobile phone network and a wi-fi access point in one box, they work well.

You are limited of course to the cell data speed even if the wi-fi part of the link is fast and here we find the speed drops considerably in the evenings when more people are using the service. With an LTE connection I can get ~50Mb/s speed in early morning but only about 5Mb/s in the evenings but it is still vastly better than ADSL.

Beware of the cost of a contract. Remember you are using a mobile connection so you need a SIM card and probably an account with a local phone provider so look out for things like minimum contract length if you are only away for a short time. Also check ahead to see which phone providers have good coverage in that area, don't lock yourself into a 2 year contract and then find it doesn't work there anyway!

Brian.

[october262]

We are going to a small village for a week. The place we are staying has no WiFi....NONE.
We have a great phone plan but I'd like to have internet access for my teenage son.

Something like this?
https://www.travel-wifi.com/en

You just turn it on, connect your phone or laptop to it and away you go?
I'm an idiot when it doesn't involve my beloved Fritz! box here at home.

is that hotspot device going to work where you are staying at ??
maybe cheaper to just use your cellular phone's hotspot.

That's what I'm trying to figure out. Is this thing "instant internet anywhere"?

i still say to use your phone has a hotspot because 1- what happens if the device gets lost or stolen ??
do you have to pay for a replacement ?? there is a coverage map at the bottom of the web page might also read the f&q

[pandy]

Get Access Point (Router) with USB port and USB modem support (usually open source software provide such feature - Gargoyle seem user friendly - check HW support), buy 3G/4G/LTE USB modem - buy SIM card (prepaid or similar - sometimes there is promo SIM with some limit data but for almost free).

Overall cost should be lower than 80 - 100$

https://www.gargoyle-router.com/

[theewizard]

48 euro for 6 days
18 gig of total data

what is the son going to use it for, how much does he need, gaming ? movies ?

check with your phone carrier and see how much the will charge you for the same amount of data and coverage where you are going to travel

[hech54]

48 euro for 6 days
18 gig of total data

what is the son going to use it for, how much does he need, gaming ? movies ?

check with your phone carrier and see how much the will charge you for the same amount of data and coverage where you are going to travel

I guess that is my main problem....I have NO IDEA what kind of data usage my modem/router sees. I tried looking through it's interface yesterday but found nothing.
My son likes to play Minecraft and watch YouTube vids. he sucks at Minecraft because our internet speeds are pretty pathetic.

[hech54]

I just went out to my garage(had to get my phone away from my Fritz!Box) and set up my little netbook through my iPhone's personal hotspot....piece of cake.
It's sad when your little, old iPhone 5S is 6x faster than your home internet connection.

[jagabo]

It's sad when your little, old iPhone 5S is 6x faster than your home internet connection.

Except you'll blow through your quota in a few hours and be throttled to a crawl for the rest of the month.

[hech54]

I doubt I've ever used anywhere NEAR my quota. I always have my phone with me but I rarely actually USE it.
I just cleared my data usage stats in it....I used a little over 1GB for the life of the phone....a 5S(2013-2014).

[jagabo]

If you kid is watching HD video on Youtube he'll blow through 1 GB in less than an hour.

[jimdagys]

Some public libraries lend out free hotspot devices, usually for 2 weeks. I tested one and downloading speed was good enough to watch youtube sd videos. You can also use as many GB as you want.

[hech54]

If you kid is watching HD video on Youtube he'll blow through 1 GB in less than an hour.

He does watch a LOT of youtube vids on his phone already and I've never heard my wife bitch about a phone bill.
I really must check on our phone plan SOON.
I live in Germany, but we are vacationing in Germany.....just far from the beaten path. I doubt there will even be any roaming involved.