{"id":729,"date":"2013-08-17T09:09:29","date_gmt":"2013-08-17T16:09:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/10kdev.ivystreetinc.com\/?p=729"},"modified":"2013-08-17T09:14:08","modified_gmt":"2013-08-17T16:14:08","slug":"mobile-tethering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/10kdev.net\/?p=729","title":{"rendered":"Mobile Tethering"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Recently I just switched cell phone companies to get a lot more talk, text and data at a much reduced cost which is something I need right now. \u00a0(Side note: I was with the other provider maybe 15 years and they were *quite* curt with me on my departure. \u00a0 Cringe . . . )<\/p>\n<p>Anyway, I had to look into using my cell as a mobile &#8220;hotspot.&#8221; \u00a0I prefer carriers that can use GSM phones (you can now deduce my move) so I can buy unlocked phones to get new features, or replace broken ones for cheaper than the insurance cost. \u00a0 \u00a0My current phone is a Huawei u8800 and its a cheap 4G phone I bought for $150 last year and runs for about $114 via Amazon prime today. \u00a0Its a great backup. \u00a0It runs a lower version of Andriod, Froyo or something, but I don&#8217;t care. \u00a0It replaced an slick Motorola that I had consistent problems with (I loved the Motorola but it was sooo undependable).<\/p>\n<p>Anyway, back to these hotspots. \u00a0In the old days I could hook a USB line to my phone and use it as a modem. \u00a0Same thing here. \u00a0I am currently looking at two pices of software &#8211;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>FoxFi<\/li>\n<li>Tether<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Both are comparable for my uses, both have free licenses with limited (like 1\/2 hour use then shuts off). \u00a0FoxFi is a bit cheaper, Tether makes a few more support gurantees.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Setup<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Setup is easy. \u00a0There&#8217;s an app for your Android (or whatever OS) phone, and an app for your computer (I use Windows 7). \u00a0Install was painless.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Use Cases<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>My network somehow blocks me from using an unlocked phone as a WiFi or Bluetooth hotpot, but it works with a USB tether. \u00a0But \u00a0it works fine.<\/p>\n<p>Something to keep in mind though: \u00a0if you are doing this, are you really going to need to be streaming tons of data the whole time? \u00a0Probably not .<\/p>\n<p>For me, I can start it up, do some emails and a Dropbox sync, and then stop. \u00a0Unless I am on vacation in a remote area I cannot see a use for me to need this all the time. \u00a0Also, most places have WiFi so you won&#8217;t need to use it.<\/p>\n<p>Also, even a 4G LTE network is a lot slower than most WiFi. \u00a0So do you really want to live like that? \u00a0I can almost hear the modem noises going off.<\/p>\n<p>&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8211;<\/p>\n<p>Still, this fits the bill quite nicely for my needs of occasional mobility. \u00a0A salesperson might need it a bit more, in which case throw these companies some cash (which I may do soon once I decide on which software I like).<\/p>\n<p>Last to note, one of the software sites said they could not guarantee your cell provider wouldn&#8217;t find a way to shut off this type of tethering\/hotspot solution. \u00a0I understand, and also think its too bad. \u00a0We can&#8217;t find new use cases without blowing away the old barriers. \u00a0I mean, just now some of the older providers are coming up with features like &#8220;get a new phone once a year instead of every two.&#8221; \u00a0I have no idea why they think that is a feature or a revelation, we&#8217;ve all been talking about it for 20 years. \u00a0I guess &#8212; why does a dog lick his balls?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Recently I just switched cell phone companies to get a lot more talk, text and data at a much reduced cost which is something I need right now. \u00a0(Side note: I was with the other provider maybe 15 years and they were *quite* curt with me on my departure. \u00a0 Cringe . . . ) [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/10kdev.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/10kdev.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/10kdev.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/10kdev.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/10kdev.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=729"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/10kdev.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":731,"href":"http:\/\/10kdev.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729\/revisions\/731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/10kdev.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/10kdev.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/10kdev.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}