Simple WIFI Hot Spot for computer usage

[Yoda]

This is an area I know absolutely nothing about. I have read through numerous threads and the more I read the less I understand.

I am enjoying the balmy teens here in Pinola Mississippi at my FIL place. He has a C Spire WIFI hot spot that is crawling along. He lives in the country. Not sure what his plan is. but it probably in throttle mode per my BIL due to data usage.

So here is the question. Is there a simple Hot Spot WIFI device (or other) I can get that can periodically be activated - say on a monthly basis, that I can travel with (even without the 5th wheel like this trip)? This is for simple computer use like email, weather, trip planning, browsing, Facebook, etc. I don't need streaming or anything fancy. Speed is not super critical, but waiting minutes for a page to load is frustrating.

Area of coverage would be USA - mostly west and south to east coast (Georgia/Florida) and along the gulf states. Cost I guess is what it takes, but in the 50 to $100 a month range is OK I guess - am I dreaming?

Again I know nothing about this, so any education or advice is great.

Merry Christmas

Keith

On edit. My AT&T service phone has 2 bars here. DW on T-Mobile has 1 bar.

[Jlawles2]

Keith, check with your cell phone provider. Since you are an existing customer, they may offer a plan that allows you to turn a Hot Spot on and off at will if you purchase the Hot Spot.

Other than that, find an address that works with T-mobile as their whole home internet is pretty cheap and works just about everywhere their service works. You can try AT&T or Verizon also, but may get into a contract issue.

[Dave27]

We have periodically considered our options for wifi too. So far, we have stayed with running hot spots off our phones (Verizon). Keeps working for us.
have a Merry Christmas.
Dave

[Yoda]

Keith, check with your cell phone provider. Since you are an existing customer, they may offer a plan that allows you to turn a Hot Spot on and off at will if you purchase the Hot Spot.

Other than that, find an address that works with T-mobile as their whole home internet is pretty cheap and works just about everywhere their service works. You can try AT&T or Verizon also, but may get into a contract issue.

Joseph
We have Consumer Cellular and as far as I know they do not have any Hot Spot devices - at least the last time I checked for my Alaska trip. However I will check again. The use T- Mobil and AT&T networks. However It might be worth checking out the other senior plans to see if one might fit our travel plans better. I need a new phone too - my I Phone SE battery is going bad.
Thanks
Keith

[S&M_G]

Keith,
We have Verizon, 2 phones & a tablet and went to see them with options. They were very reasonable & once we identified our needs we added a 4G hotspot & with an upgraded family plan to capture savings of admin another device. I think we paid $80 for the hotspot & it was $13.50 a month & that included an increase to our phone hotspots from 15gb per month to 30gb each.
We thought that price was reasonable for the amount of data and have never had an issue since.

We even watch Netflix now with the extra gigs per month.

Good luck and Merry Christmas.
Matt

[Cate&Rob]

Using cell phones as hot spots has gotten way better and way cheaper in recent years. Over the years we have used a variety of connection methods, even an internet provider in the Florida park where we spend most of our time . . . but, this year our cell phones are proving to be just as reliable and about the same cost as the park internet provider was last year. We are with a Canadian phone company (Rogers) who work through different US providers in different areas, but usually Verizon. I would suggest that you check into Verizon . . . and watch for special sale packages.

Rob

[trkester]

This is an area I know absolutely nothing about. I have read through numerous threads and the more I read the less I understand.

I am enjoying the balmy teens here in Pinola Mississippi at my FIL place. He has a C Spire WIFI hot spot that is crawling along. He lives in the country. Not sure what his plan is. but it probably in throttle mode per my BIL due to data usage.

So here is the question. Is there a simple Hot Spot WIFI device (or other) I can get that can periodically be activated - say on a monthly basis, that I can travel with (even without the 5th wheel like this trip)? This is for simple computer use like email, weather, trip planning, browsing, Facebook, etc. I don't need streaming or anything fancy. Speed is not super critical, but waiting minutes for a page to load is frustrating.

Area of coverage would be USA - mostly west and south to east coast (Georgia/Florida) and along the gulf states. Cost I guess is what it takes, but in the 50 to $100 a month range is OK I guess - am I dreaming?

Again I know nothing about this, so any education or advice is great.

Merry Christmas

Keith

On edit. My AT&T service phone has 2 bars here. DW on T-Mobile has 1 bar.

I have a inexpensive cell phone with Visible as my carrier which uses the Verizon network. For $30 per month, they allow unlimited hotspot at 5 Meg download speeds which is plenty for what you want. You can usually even stream one video stream. It is truly unlimited with no reduction in speed after any amount of data. I was averaging about 50 gb per month over the summer with no speed reduction.

I turn on the hotspot functionality on the phone which allows ONE device to connect. If you need more than one device, (like I do) I make my one device a GL.inet Slate or Beryl router. You can connect it to the phone as a WiFi tether or USB tether. The router is only like $70 from Amazon. Once the router is connected, you can connect whatever you want and it all goes thru the Visible cell. I have a laptop, Amazon echo (Alexa), our two phones, 2 Google chromecast devices and a tablet that I use in the trailer. All works very well.

Visible is no contract so you could turn in or off whenever you want. But I find I just keep it all year and use for other things like my wife's craft shows or even when I will be using more data than I want to pay for on my normal cell.

Terry

[Yoda]

Great information folks.

New question - how much Data GIG? do I need. I'm thinking say 2 to 3 hours night basic computer browsing, etc.

I think our cell phones have 250 gig/month shared and we have come close to using that up just search camp sites and a email, etc in our travels - no computer usage, just cell phone data.

Again I really don't understand the data plans and how much time you get in Gig usage.

Terry trkester thanks for the information, but when you talk about hooking up a router, this is beyond my understanding for mobile. I do have a router on my home system (hard wired to the microwave dish I have, then my computer us eithernet cables to one of the ports - is it the same principle? Hook the hot spot to the router with a cable, the the other devices connect using wifi? Hoping to understand better.

Thanks everyone. Research will need to wait until I get home due to the slow speed here.

Merry Christmas

Keith

[Sandridge4]

I would encourage you to look at T-Mobile home internet, we have been using since January with no issues while traveling. It is $50 per month for unlimited and no throttling and best of all no contract. We use it for work, email, internet browsing and tv streaming as well as 5 blink security cameras, Amazon Alexa, smart dehumidifier and Dyson air purifier. Have never had an issue with speed.

[trkester]

Great information folks.

New question - how much Data GIG? do I need. I'm thinking say 2 to 3 hours night basic computer browsing, etc.

I think our cell phones have 250 gig/month shared and we have come close to using that up just search camp sites and a email, etc in our travels - no computer usage, just cell phone data.

Again I really don't understand the data plans and how much time you get in Gig usage.

Terry trkester thanks for the information, but when you talk about hooking up a router, this is beyond my understanding for mobile. I do have a router on my home system (hard wired to the microwave dish I have, then my computer us eithernet cables to one of the ports - is it the same principle? Hook the hot spot to the router with a cable, the the other devices connect using wifi? Hoping to understand better.

Thanks everyone. Research will need to wait until I get home due to the slow speed here.

Merry Christmas

Keith

Here's a picture of my config which may help.

In the picture, all my devices connect to the router in the middle using Wifi (dashed lines). The router does have some ethernet ports like your home router but simpler to just connect everything using Wifi.

To the right of the router, the Solid line is the connection (tether) to the phone. This connection to the phone can also be Wifi OR you can connect your charging cable from the phone to the router. If you use the cable method, it will work a little better plus the router will keep the phone charged so it's the preferred method.

In the network settings on the phone, there is a setting for Tethering which allows you to tether using the USB or create a Hotspot. Again, I often use the USB so the cable can not only do the data but keep the phone charged.

One last twist to confuse you a tiny bit more...If you are staying at a park which has good Wifi in the park, you can just not use the phone and have the router connect to the park wifi. So just think of the solid blank line as either a connection to your phone OR the park Wifi, whichever is better. Everything to the left remains unchanged.

As far as you question on data, 250gig sounds like way too much data for what you're describing. It isn't 250 MB (meg) that you're using?

Terry

[Yoda]

As far as you question on data, 250gig sounds like way too much data for what you're describing. It isn't 250 MB (meg) that you're using?

Terry

See told you I am a gigabyte dummy - Yep it is probably 250 meg

Thanks for the picture. Is the router 12V? or do you need to be running 120V I know most hot spots need 120V or can they be run off of 12V too or do they have a rechargeable battery pack?

Thanks
Merry Christmas
Keith

[trkester]

See told you I am a gigabyte dummy - Yep it is probably 250 meg

Thanks for the picture. Is the router 12V? or do you need to be running 120V I know most hot spots need 120V or can they be run off of 12V too or do they have a rechargeable battery pack?

Thanks
Merry Christmas
Keith

Runs off usb. I have mine plugged into the USB port that is above our bed. Or you can use a 12v to usb or 110v to usb adapter.

When we go to craft shows, I run it off a rechargable battery pack. I have both a beryl model router for the trailer and a slate model (both Gl.inet) for my "internet in a bag" that I take along with me. A small bag with the phone, battery and router.

Yes I'm a geek.

[Cate&Rob]

We have a 200 gig per month package and with more use than Keith describes, we use maybe half.

Rob

[bogen2]

Runs off usb. I have mine plugged into the USB port that is above our bed. Or you can use a 12v to usb or 110v to usb adapter.

When we go to craft shows, I run it off a rechargable battery pack. I have both a beryl model router for the trailer and a slate model (both Gl.inet) for my "internet in a bag" that I take along with me. A small bag with the phone, battery and router.

Yes I'm a geek.

I also use this setup and it works well for us. I have the Gl.I net Mango model (only $30 on Amazon) tethered to my phone with a Visible unlimited data cell account. We have 2 phones and use the Visible + plan which gives you 50 gigs of “premium” data and then unlimited throttled data for $45/month each. The 2 phones have a monthly renewal date 2 weeks apart, so once one runs out of premium data we just tether with the other one. So we can stream video during prime time hours with the “premium” phone without any problem. And the throttled data is enough for basic web browsing and is usually enough to stream music. So for $90 a month we have 2 phones and a hotspot for our 2 laptops and an iPad in the rig with unlimited use.

Bob

[Shiny side up]

Sounds like a lot of different opinions on what is simple. The RV came with the Winegard 360+ and router built in. I tried different vendors chips/plans in it with sub-optimal and expensive results. Look in the bag of stuff the Winegard 360+ and router came with and there is their proprietary chip. Their Freedom GO plan is paid for on a simple pay-as-you-go basis. No runaround about three months minimum or a monthly fee or any of that. We camp in rural locations along the Canadian border and the towers of choice are AT&T, this is what the Winegard uses. We have two cell phones, the Dish Wally and the obligatory/ubiquitous Roku TV that all find the router and it is as fast as we need. Our RV gets used about six months out of the year and for spells up to two weeks. We have not given the wifi a second thought since we started with their plan. $59 for 10 GB per month. Stream a movie or a ball game and you will hit your head on any plan pretty quick. Our thoughts are as much dough as we have tied up in this lifestyle the cost of wifi in the middle of nowhere is inconsequential at best. YMMV.

The tow vehicle has a modem paid for on an annual basis that serves the wife's surfing on her cell while I am driving. We can see the router in the RV while towing but default to the modem in the truck so save data. Throttled speed in the truck is to be avoided but not the end of the world.