Mobile hot spot

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Morticia

Morticia

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Anyone use a mobile hot spot? We got one for vacation as we don't have smart phones. We're going to use it only for taking reservations. Any idea how much data that might use up?
Apparently even our mobile hot spot is old tech as we have to call on the phone to check what's left for data.
But, it does work. I tested it out already.
 
Have you seen Ting Mobile? https://ting.com/
It depends on your software. I user Rezkey on my mobile all the time and it uses very little data.
 
Can't advise you on that .
But I say .... It's time for Morticia and Gomez to take the plunge and get a smart phone. Really. Once you do, you'll never look back. There are a lot of affordable plans. I use Consumer Cellular, very basic, around $20 a month for my needs. No contracts. The expense is the phone itself. I bought one from someone - it has to be unlocked and I don't know all the technical stuff around that. I bought mine for $100. from someone who was getting a new phone. Or you could look into a tracfone android.
 
seashanty said:
Can't advise you on that .
But I say .... It's time for Morticia and Gomez to take the plunge and get a smart phone. Really. Once you do, you'll never look back. There are a lot of affordable plans. I use Consumer Cellular, very basic, around $20 a month for my needs. No contracts. The expense is the phone itself. I bought one from someone - it has to be unlocked and I don't know all the technical stuff around that. I bought mine for $100. from someone who was getting a new phone. Or you could look into a tracfone android..
Click to expand...
seashanty said:
Can't advise you on that .
But I say .... It's time for Morticia and Gomez to take the plunge and get a smart phone. Really. Once you do, you'll never look back. There are a lot of affordable plans. I use Consumer Cellular, very basic, around $20 a month for my needs. No contracts. The expense is the phone itself. I bought one from someone - it has to be unlocked and I don't know all the technical stuff around that. I bought mine for $100. from someone who was getting a new phone. Or you could look into a tracfone android.
Click to expand...
The only time we use the phones is on vacation. We only got the second one because everyone was picking on us when I was in NY and he was home. I had THE phone and THE car. So Gomez got me my own phone. (Notice he did not also get another car. Ha ha.)
We generally spend $100/year. Altho, $20/month isn't bad.
The phone he got me? I turned it off in January, it hasn't been back on since. I can Skype on my tablet. That's my real gadget.
 
SO and I have an AT&T for our mobile service here in the dead zone. We have a Verizon one my brother in law gave us, but it crapped out after a month.
Thought seriously about setting them up for guest use, but it seems like it would be more hassle than it's worth. Don't want to deal with constant "my calls keep dropping out" complaints. Better to just give them free vonage service via the hardlines in the rooms and forget it.
 
PhineasSwann said:
SO and I have an AT&T for our mobile service here in the dead zone. We have a Verizon one my brother in law gave us, but it crapped out after a month.
Thought seriously about setting them up for guest use, but it seems like it would be more hassle than it's worth. Don't want to deal with constant "my calls keep dropping out" complaints. Better to just give them free vonage service via the hardlines in the rooms and forget it..
Click to expand...
I lived in a dead zone in Jericho. Everyone lined up on RT 15 to make calls. I could get a signal on the second floor, if I stood on the roof.
This is not for guests, tho, just us traveling. Gomez thinks we lose too many reservations from me saying we'll call back when we're out of the desert.
So now I get to take reservations in the car. Oh joy.
 
We have a low end rental unit across the street from us, and there's always at least one "interesting" renter there each summer. Last year it was the shirtless wonder (he wore underarmor briefs - we knew this because he had them pulled up at least 12 inches above his shorts). We knew winter was coming in December when he finally decided to put a shirt on.
This year I have a guy in his purple pajamas that comes out in the front yard to talk on the phone and text. My guess is that he's bogarting off my wifi. I prefer to keep my network open for guest convenience, but if it means I have this guy out front for my guests to see every day, it looks like i may have to password-protect it.
 
PhineasSwann said:
We have a low end rental unit across the street from us, and there's always at least one "interesting" renter there each summer. Last year it was the shirtless wonder (he wore underarmor briefs - we knew this because he had them pulled up at least 12 inches above his shorts). We knew winter was coming in December when he finally decided to put a shirt on.
This year I have a guy in his purple pajamas that comes out in the front yard to talk on the phone and text. My guess is that he's bogarting off my wifi. I prefer to keep my network open for guest convenience, but if it means I have this guy out front for my guests to see every day, it looks like i may have to password-protect it..
Click to expand...
Depending on your setup and how powerful a router you have..., you could just see which NIC is his by MAC address and then if you have a Wireless MAC Filter, turn it on, set it to "Reject" and put his MAC address in there. He won't be able to connect.
Trick #2, if you router allows it, set up a manual DHCP for him. If it's allowed, set up an IP or 127.0.0.1 which will mean that nothing will route. But if that isn't allowed, just set up an IP like 192.168.1.253 so you can tell which IP is his. If you know how to, set up QoS so that he has hardly any bandwidth.
<evil>
 
So, we got the mobile hotspot. How many calls to make reservations did we get? Two. How many were while we were in the car? Zero. I guess that's how we solve the problem of too many people calling while we were out of range. Buy a gadget!
 

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