MiFi: Wi-Fi to Go, No Cafe Needed

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/07/technology/personaltech/07pogue.html?_r=1&em

by gasull • 17 years ago

49 28 17 years ago

ph0rque2• 17 years ago

My wife and I were just discussing this... it started out with the fact that we're part of the 20% of US households that don't have a land (phone) line; just cell phones.

After discussion, we concluded that we'd ditch our land internet connection once we could get an all-you-can-eat data connection, such as the one mentioned in the article, for $50/person, and not have our data connectivity costs go up.

Looks like this will become a reality once the price drops by 50% (and this becomes integrated into an iPhone/android-based phone).

Readmore2• 17 years ago

Your last line got me thinking: aka Rabid speculation time.

What if the Apple 'Media Tablet' that is supposed to launch with Verizon service had this same feature? It's got an internal 3G connection but it can also broadcast a Wifi hotspot with Bonjour!

That would be an amazing gadget.

thwarted• 17 years ago

It's not so much a matter of capability as it is a matter of carrier restrictions. The carrier restrictions keep an app that does this for the T-Mobile G1 from being easily distributed (and I think it requires rooting your phone, last I checked). So the amazing gadget already exists, it's the contractual agreements that need to be made amazing.

staunch• 17 years ago

It really isn't very good for a permanent internet connection. High latency is the biggest problem. It just makes everything feel sluggish.

whatusername• 17 years ago

I love wireless for the last few metres of a connection - the last mile though - I'm not too sure of. When you've got 2 desktops, 3 laptops, 2 smartphones, X360 and a Wii sharing the household connection - I'm not sure I want to run that over 3G.

Still - wireless "broadband" speeds are increasing faster than I can get in the home..

Readmore2• 17 years ago

This RRW article about the Mifi hardware says it runs linux and is capable of hosting applications.

Very cool: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/watch_out_wifi_here_com...

ynniv• 17 years ago

This would be a simple iPhone app, if Apple and AT&T would allow it. You can do this by jailbreaking your phone, but it's a complicated ordeal.

lionheart• 17 years ago

But what would the battery life be?

joeyo• 17 years ago

So plug the iPhone into the wall when you're sharing internet over wifi. Anyway, the article claims that the device gets only four hours of continuous use. I imagine this is better than an iPhone using wifi constantly, but is it really that much better?

oldgregg• 17 years ago

Great, one more device to carry around... Why is this not just a software addition to existing 3G/wifi phones?

J_McQuade• 17 years ago

http://www.joikuspot.com/aboutJoikuSpot.php

And a very handy piece of software it is too! Murders the battery life on my N96, though, as if it wasn't pitiful enough. Still, a couple of spare batteries beat the MiFi hands down for price.

anigbrowl• 17 years ago

Cool, but one of the weaknesses of Wi-fi has turne dout to be the security. Of course you want your connection secure. And of course you don't want some creepy guy surfing kidde porn from your IP.

But as implemented, in a lot of places there's extensive wi-fi connectivity and unused internet bandwidth but it's all private. How great would it be if every router gave 90% of the bandwidth to the owner and leaked 10%, with some sort of packet-tagger to say 'mobile origin'.

We nearly had public Wi-fi in San Francisco but one group of citizens wanted it publicly owned or nothing, and wouldn't tolerate a private service subsidized by ad frames or similar. Classic case of perfect as enemy of the good. Community peer wifi has been tried but I signed up 18 months ago and heard nothing since.

sjf• 17 years ago

> But as implemented, in a lot of places there's extensive wi-fi connectivity and unused internet bandwidth but it's all private. How great would it be if every router gave 90% of the bandwidth to the owner and leaked 10%, with some sort of packet-tagger to say 'mobile origin'.

This already exists: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FON

andymoe• 17 years ago

I have a ctr500 from Cradlepoint. (http://www.cradlepoint.com/products/ctr500-mobile-broadband-...) + a sprint express slot EVDO card for about $68/month. It works really well and is very small. The cool thing about this is it has a NIC built in so you can light up a network if you really need to. Of course the hardware subsidy from the phone companies is pretty attractive. The cradlepoint was about 200 bucks and the card was probably 300 when I got it about a year ago.

bmj• 17 years ago

These are interesting devices. I've been working on utilizing them as a data transfer option for non-cellular handhelds used for data collection in clinical drug trials. The device has an API for managing the ExpressCard connectivity.

kineticac• 17 years ago

it's funny: "a U.S.B.-stick version, which cries out to be snapped off by a passing flight attendant’s beverage cart."

since when could you use satellite wifi on a plane?

wmf• 17 years ago

That was my thought as well, but later in the article he mentions using the MiFi in a plane parked at the gate. I still think it's silly to worry about a USB modem being "snapped off".

silentOpen• 17 years ago

It's not from a satellite, it's through the cell network.

As for the flight attendant thing, lots of people leave their dongles attached to their notebooks. Also, the author discusses using the MiFi while waiting on the runway for take-off.

Given all that, the plane use case does seem pretty weak, though.

tdavis• 17 years ago

(250 megabytes of data transfer, 10 cents a megabyte above that)

Some day we'll tell our kids we paid 10¢/MB for a ubiquitous Internet connection and they'll commit suicide.

kalvin2• 17 years ago

I've been doing exactly this for almost six months using my jailbroken iPhone and the PDAnet app. It turns my iPhone into a personal wireless router which I can connect to with my laptop. Works great (in the SF Bay Area, anyway).

PDAnet: http://www.junefabrics.com/iphone/index.php

hboon• 17 years ago

Doesn't it suck juice like crazy?

It was the only reason I jailbroken my iPhone a year back. Tried it, the phone was hot after half an hour and the drain incredible. I'd never jailbreak ever since.

kalvin2• 17 years ago

About 30% per hour. I only use it an hour at a time.

navyrain• 17 years ago

My beef with current wireless options is not the hardware, but the stifling bandwidth limits and obscene overage costs.

I would carry around a cerealbox-sized modem if it meant unlimited broadband everywhere for a reasonable flat price.

trekker7• 17 years ago

marginal value-add over 3G modem

roc• 17 years ago

That margin makes all the difference for people who move around a lot.

jnorthrop• 17 years ago

I read about this yesterday just as we were mulling over an $8k internet connectivity bill for a conference we hosted. It got me thinking that a tool like that would pay for itself within 1/2 day of use if we could get 3G connectivity in an exhibit hall -- which admittedly may be sketchy.

Xichekolas• 17 years ago

"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."

Yes... it's entirely magical and meant to be a secret. Surely this thing defines a hostname like 'mifi' that you can type in instead of the IP.

Cool device, but four hour battery life is kinda slim. Wonder if you could dial down the power on the Wifi transmitter so it only worked within about 8 feet and extend the battery life a little.

You could also slap this on the back of an iphone with skype and poof, iPhone on the Verizon network, if you really dislike AT&T.

MiFi: Wi-Fi to Go, No Cafe Needed

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