[leveller1642]

Verizon Mifi: Personal Wi-Fi Coming this Month | Gadget Lab | Wired.com

I would love one these, but only if I could buy one outright and use my existing 3G HSDPA simcard. Has anybody discovered if its possible to get one without entering into a contract?

 

[DanTheMiataMan]

I hear they are the SUPER suck. Avg is like 1Mbit even with decent bars and to think about sharing that with others make me feel gross inside also ping times are horrid and you have a crappy UEA to deal with that sets you to like 500megs download for 40bux a month or 5g download at 60 bux a month.

 

[Edwood]

There is a GSM MiFi in the works, so you could always get that one.

Or you could use WMWifiRouter program with a Pocket PC with WiFi and have essentially the same thing, except it can make phone calls and such as well.

I've been using WMWifiRouter with my Sprint Touch Pro. It's a bit buggy with the Touch Pro, but when it works, it's amazing. Connection speed seems to be maxed out at 2Mb, which is more than enough for EVDO RevA spec. Latency is not too shabby, around 100ms give or take. Of course, I haven't tried it with a solid Rev A connection yet.

All in all, if the Touch Pro 2 is not significantly more stable than the Touch Pro, I will probably downgrade to the old 6800 Mogul, which works with the old free version of WMWifiRouter.

The best part about a Portable Wifi Router is not the ability to share with others (too slow a connection to really do that), it's the sheer convenience of not having wires to deal with, or plugging something into a laptop or netbook. Also, not dealing with having to swap SIM cards and such to use 3G in different devices as well.

-Ed

 

[Aevum]

its not the first time i´ve seen this, Vodaphone here in spain give you a DSL router with a 3G card to use as backup if the main ATM/DSL fails or from when you sign on untll the DSL is acuatlly installed, and linksys has been selling DSL/Wifi/GSM/UMTS routers for ages,

now, careful with your data plan, or you might find yourself paying your cellphone bill with sexual favours...

 

[joe]

I tried the MiFi the other day.

I gotta say, it wasn't bad... Sure, it's not as quick as a major connection, for for a mobile wifi spot, it's pretty sweet. We did a speed test, and saw 1.37 mb/s to 1.96 mb/s down, 570 kb/s to 687 kb/s up, over multiple tests. It's like a slow DSL, and really for mobile usage, that's enough.

Sure, you aren't going to be running a high-intensity gaming server off one of these, but really? Would you think you should be able to? I think I may pick one of these up for travel, because if you head off to weddings or travel in packs, you know multiple people want to check email, surf social networking sites, or just cruise YouTube a bit when there's nothing good on at the hotel. With multiple people, this would be perfect, especially if your friends are as geek-chic as mine can tend to be.