Re: Internet on the road

[AprilWhine]

There you go with the foreign language again.

I freely admit a lack of technical understanding and I am just happy to be able to send an email or post on the forum. My cell phone can only do one thing and that is ring and allow me to talk. No text, camera, voice mail or anything else.

So when terms like droid and tethering and router are thrown around I don't have a clue. What may be an old system to you and others is so far beyond what I have I am lost.

I would like someone to start an explaination of what it takes by citing costs also. I have no laptop, but if connecting while on the road was both fast and cheap I might be tempted, but last time I did anything like that using a Verizon connected laptop at a Verizon store the speeds were so slow it was insane, especially when I considered what they charged for the access. They also wouldn't or couldn't tell me what their limits meant in terms of usage. I have no idea how many gigs or bytes I use here at home so I don't know if I exceed their limit. For us and the occasional trips we can easily ignore the computer for a week or more as we will do next week. I still use Windows XP.

Sorry Jon, you have a valid point that what is clear to one isn't always clear to another.

I'll try to answer you now.

Droid: this refers to any phone running the Google Android system.

There are three major players in the smart phone arena, Droid by Google, Iphone by Apple, and the starter of the trend Blackberry (aka Crackberry ) All have rabid supporters, all are good, choose the one you prefer. Iphone is currently only offered by ATT.

Tethering is connecting your phone to your computer by either a cable or bluetooth (wireless device system). This option saves you money. For example, I tether my Droid and use PDANet (app) to use my phone's unlimited data allowance. If I were to use an aircard, Verizon limits me to 5g and tells me to BOHICA if I go over. By tethering, I don't have to worry about exceeding my data plan, and also don't have to pay the extra $70 per month for the aircard service.

A router is a way to share you Internet connection. Fuzzy and I used to connect the aircard to a Cradlepoint router to have a private wifi network in our coach. When we bought the Droids, we dropped the aircard and now each do straight tethering to our computers.

An aircard can either plug into the designated slot on your computer, or if it plugs into your USB port it is also called a dongle.

As for service, when we are in a 3G area, we can watch streaming video with no problems. Hence how we were exceeding our data plan.

Ok, did this help?

Cheers, Sherry

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Sorry Jon, you have a valid point that what is clear to one isn't always clear to another.

I'll try to answer you now.

Droid: this refers to any phone running the Google Android system.

There are three major players in the smart phone arena, Droid by Google, Iphone by Apple, and the starter of the trend Blackberry (aka Crackberry ) All have rabid supporters, all are good, choose the one you prefer. Iphone is currently only offered by ATT.

Tethering is connecting your phone to your computer by either a cable or bluetooth (wireless device system). This option saves you money. For example, I tether my Droid and use PDANet (app) to use my phone's unlimited data allowance. If I were to use an aircard, Verizon limits me to 5g and tells me to BOHICA if I go over. By tethering, I don't have to worry about exceeding my data plan, and also don't have to pay the extra $70 per month for the aircard service.

A router is a way to share you Internet connection. Fuzzy and I used to connect the aircard to a Cradlepoint router to have a private wifi network in our coach. When we bought the Droids, we dropped the aircard and now each do straight tethering to our computers.

An aircard can either plug into the designated slot on your computer, or if it plugs into your USB port it is also called a dongle.

As for service, when we are in a 3G area, we can watch streaming video with no problems. Hence how we were exceeding our data plan.

Ok, did this help?

Cheers, Sherry

See red highlights. Unknown meaning.

Why would you watch TV over a computer? Isn't that what satellite dishes are for? If you phone has internet capabilities why do you need a computer? What happens if the phone rings when you are watching TV?

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Wait a minute......I know the answer to my question about the phone ringing. If you are like most cell phone users you look at who is calling and send them to voice mail.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

This completely clears things up.

http://www.flixxy.com/my-blackberry-is-not-working.htm

[AprilWhine]

Google Android - operating system, like Windows but for phones.

PDANet is an application (app for short) that allows your computer to use the data feature of your phone instead of paying the phone company extra. Main competition is Easy Tether, another app. We use PDANet but I've heard good reviews of Easy Tether too.

BOHICA is Navy slang, stands for bend over here it comes again.

Streaming video is addictive! You have no idea what crazy stuff is out there until you start following links on Youtube. Not just TV. We can also stream movies from Netflix to our home theater.

Our coach came with an in motion satellite system, we haven't bothered to subscribe to service. It's only good for TV, while we can get so much more over the Internet.

Jon, hope this answers your questions, but feel free to ask any others as you think of stuff.

Cheers, Sherry

[AprilWhine]

You are right about the phone ringing. But if I answer it, Internet is suspended to the computer and resumes when I hang up.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

If your phone can play movies and put internet on the computer why do buses have satellite dishes and why do people who want to work on their computer have a Verizon card for ???? per month. How much is 5 GB. Comcast won't tell me how much gigs I use on my computer.

Forgot to ask, how much does a phone cost and how much per month?

[AprilWhine]

If your phone can play movies and put internet on the computer why do buses have satellite dishes and why do people who want to work on their computer have a Verizon card for ???? per month. How much is 5 GB. Comcast won't tell me how much gigs I use on my computer.

Forgot to ask, how much does a phone cost and how much per month?

Satellite systems are good everywhere, not just where you can get a cell signal. Better system if you're in the boonies but much more expensive.

Verizon aircard is the same as tethering a smart phone, it's just personal choice. Anything that can be done with an aircard can be done with a tethered phone, including sharing the connection with a router. I am frugal approaching cheap, and am not going to pay for an aircard when I have unlimited data on my Droid.

Five gig is a lot for a casual user, but the fuzzy hubby likes to watch Youtube and subscribes to an amateur photography site both of which are data hogs. We both play Farmville, another data hog, so that's why we were going over the data limit regularly before.

As for how much you can do with 5 gb, here's some examples from a web page I found:

Stuff You Might Do How Much It Uses How Many Times Could You Do It With 300 MB How Many Times You Could Do It With 5GB
Email (no attachment)

3 KB 99,998 1,666,667
Update Facebook Status

25-40 KB 7,500 - 12,000 125,000 - 200,000
Word document

70 KB 4283 71,429
Web page look-up

150 KB 2003 33,333
Low resolution digital image

500 KB 600 10,000
PowerPoint presentation

3 MB 98 1,667
Download a Song (3 minutes)

3 MB 98 1,667
YouTube video (3 minutes)

15 MB 23 333
1 hour of Skype (audio) @ 64kb/s

28 MB 10 178
1 hour of MagicJack @ 128kb/s

56 MB 5 89
1 hour of Skype Video Chat @ 384 kb/s

169 MB 1.5 29
TV show download (30 minutes)

350 MB 0 14
Movie download

700 MB 0 7


But one big gotcha is downloading updates. I've had iTunes updates that were 100mb! Not many of those and you'll be over the limit too.

[AprilWhine]

Oops, forgot to answer your price questions.

The costs for a 4G aircard/modem is now $50 for 5g or $80 for 10g plus $10/g over your plan allowance. Much better and cheaper than the plan I had on my dongle.

Price for a smart phone plan is $40/month plus another $30/month for unlimited data on your phone. If you tether through Verizon instead of buying PDANet, that is an extra $20/month for 2g of data. Personally, I can't understand why anyone would choose that option since PDANet had a one time fee of $20, then uses your phone's unlimited data.

So total for one phone would be $70 plus tax. Our Verizon bill is around $100/month for both our Android phones.

Also, I told you wrong on a previous post: Verizon now has the iPhone too. I personally prefer the Droid but many people swear by iPhones, both are very good.

Cheers, Sherry

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Then what is the deal with tethering? If the cost is as much as an air card what is the advantage. Similarly, I see emails sent from phones all the time. Do those cost $70 a month just to be able to do that as opposed to $40 or so per month?

If I want to get on line when we travel (not sure about that, it's nice to not have phones ring or to feel compelled to get on the computer) I would only do it to get on the POG forum and answer emails. Wouldn't a phone work?