MiFi instead of cable or DSL?

[schoaty]

I have hispeed cable at the house and DSL at a small farmhouse that has been in my wife's family for years. We now have a truck camper and will be on the road more, so I'm wondering if I should look into MiFi. The plans seem to offer around 5 GB for $50. Since we don't use netflix, I'm wondering if I should drop the cable and/or the DSL.

Any words of wisdom from those who have used MiFi a lot?

Thanks!

(FWIW, we are in the southeast US and plan to do most of our camping in this area for a while, so the lack of service in some areas is not a concern, yet.)

[louiskathy]

Millenicom will give you 20G/month for about $69/month. I just got their 3G/4G Mifi and recommend getting a Wilson Cradle to boost the signal for cross country driving. You buy the Mifi from Millenicom. The 3G store is the place to go for the Wilson Cradle.

Last October we were in Montana for a month from Glacier Park to Custer's battle field and in the last two plus months we've been in some remote places and were able to get internet or at least a better cell phone signal when we needed it.

The Wilson cradle amplifies the signal for our cell phone as well as the Mifi. It's really easy to use.

[jcpainter]

stillthinking99 wrote:
We had a Verizon MiFi 3g for the full contract and liked its reliability to connect our cell phones and both lap tops while on the road. When the contract was up they offered a free 4g MiFi so we took it - now we miss our old 3g. They have figured out a way to "throttle down" our use. It goes and stops, goes and stops, it reminds me of the old dial up AOL where you just sit and wait for the hour glass to do something. It would never handle net flix. If I could get back the 3g the way it was I would.

If you have Verizon's older 4510L MiFi hotspot, they were notorious for having this problem. In May of this year they released a new model, the 4620L. Most reviews on this model indicate that the "stop and go" and dropped connections problems have been resolved.

Hopefully that is correct, as I just purchased one!;)

[bwanshoom]

dupreet wrote:
Hardline DSL is many more times the bandwidth than you can get out of MiFi and other cell services.

Not necessarily. I have hardline DSL and it's only 3Mbs which is the fastest that's offered. My 4G phone does about 10 times that and I assume if I had 4G MiFi its speed would be similar.

DSL speeds are governed in part by your distance from the telco's CO. The further away you are the slower it is and if you're too far you cannot get DSL.

[stillthinking99]

We had a Verizon MiFi 3g for the full contract and liked its reliability to connect our cell phones and both lap tops while on the road. When the contract was up they offered a free 4g MiFi so we took it - now we miss our old 3g. They have figured out a way to "throttle down" our use. It goes and stops, goes and stops, it reminds me of the old dial up AOL where you just sit and wait for the hour glass to do something. It would never handle net flix. If I could get back the 3g the way it was I would.

[LadyRVer]

Not knowing a lot about wi-fi devices as I have a landline, I went with Mi-Fi
for when we were on the road. I did use it on our last trip out and it worked great. Can keep Mi-Fi in suspension and pay only for time used, but when in suspension and you chose the option of -0- pay, it does extend the contract.
But, I was pleased with the service.

[dupreet]

Hardline DSL is many more times the bandwidth than you can get out of MiFi and other cell services. We use it at the campsite for checking email and basic surfing. Just for fun, I dialed my blu-ray player into the Verizon hotspot to see what it would do with Netflix. Where it normally takes 15-20 seconds at home for the movie to buffer enough to start playing; it took 15 minutes through the hotspot! I watched about 10 minutes of movie, which also burned somewhere in the neighborhood of a 1/2 a gig of bandwidth.

Todd

[Eycom]

I full time and use a dumb phone and a WiFi card. Both are Verizon. The WiFi works wherever I have a cell signal. Most of the time I'm on the 3G network. But, I'm constantly amazed at the increasing availability of 4G, particularly in areas I wouldn't expect. Wifi costs $50 for 5G. I've exceeded it on a few occasions, paying $10 extra in those months. Works very well in the east. Check coverage areas where you travel most often. Wilson is soon coming out with their newer version of the Wilson Sleek, a 4G booster for cell and WiFi devices. Should help in the fringe areas.

[Maxi_Signal]

Do not give up your hard line solution . MIFI's are great on the road but you cannot beat a hard wired connection . If you do decide to go MIFI way . Check out Millenicom . They resell Verizon MiFi's , no contract and higher data limits.

schoaty wrote:
I have hispeed cable at the house and DSL at a small farmhouse that has been in my wife's family for years. We now have a truck camper and will be on the road more, so I'm wondering if I should look into MiFi. The plans seem to offer around 5 GB for $50. Since we don't use netflix, I'm wondering if I should drop the cable and/or the DSL.

Any words of wisdom from those who have used MiFi a lot?

Thanks!

(FWIW, we are in the southeast US and plan to do most of our camping in this area for a while, so the lack of service in some areas is not a concern, yet.)

[donn0128]

As an alternative to Mifi you can tether a smart phone and do the same thing, sharing the smart phones internet time with your computers. works for a lot of us. some people still feel the separate mifi is the way to go. It all depends on what you want to do. Personally I don't like carrying around another single minded object. And using my phone makes it a multi tasker.