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12:21 pm
July 2, 2010
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I just posted an article called, “My On The Road Data Diet” or “How I Exceeded my 5Gigabyte Verizon Limit”
Check it out and then come back here to discuss it.
Are you constrained by the limits on your cellular Internet contract? Or have you never even come close?
9:00 pm
I'm still using my Droid 2, tethered to my computer. Unlimited data means no excess charges. May not be 4G but it works.
2:39 pm
November 3, 2009
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We were going to use our Droids tethered for any overages. Right where we are parked for a week, the 4G is great and the 3G is not so good. We have a couple of high bandwidth communications coming up, so opted to pay extra for this month.
Helping Travelers to Plan, Preserve, and Share their Travels
10:46 am
I've been thinking about this data issue for a while. For the past two years we've been on the road about five months each year. At home we pay about $60 a month for unlimited Comcast cable. We pay that every month even if we are traveling. We have an Autonet hotspot in our RV and that is $30 a month for 1G. We have a two year contract, but I don't believe you can turn it on and off. So we pay the $30 each month. When we are traveling we usually use 1 – 1.5 G's a month. Autonet doesn't cut you off or up charge you. We also each have a Droid X with unlimited 3G data and use that with PDAnet tethered during our travels to back up the Autonet. I learned from you to do our MS updates on public WiFi when traveling. My husband is also addicted to a Facebook game he used the Droid X tethered for that. We also watch video streaming (Netflix) at home.
Our Autonet contract is up next March and I'll like to put together a more efficient system for home and travel. I'm thinking of dropping both Comcast and the Autonet and replacing them with a Verizon MiFi 4G system. We would then use the mifi hotspot while at home and while traveling. However, I have no idea what our average usage is while at home using Comcast. And I'm unsure if we will be happy with the speed of a 4G system compared to our cable system. Do you know if there is a way to find out our Comcast cable data usage???
Any tips on my plan will be appreciated.
11:34 am
July 2, 2010
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Good question on the Comcast data usage – I need to find that our for our current DSL usage as well. There's got to be a way – I think calling Comcast is in order.
My bet though is that you won't be able to make it on the 5GB MiFi contract, especially with 4G. We found that we could suck up 1GB in a day or two with our 4G MiFi. When our contract is up, I'm going to take a serious look at Millenicom. They resell Verizon, but offer a 20GB plan. Now *that* I can probably live with.
That said, we know people who subscribe to the Verizon 5 GB plan and just don't worry about going over. Overages are charged at $10/GB … not too bad.
12:34 pm
September 5, 2010
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Always looking for a better, cheaper solution. Verizon 4G MiFi: does that have enough band width for Netflix streaming video? Also, how many GB's per month of even minimal movie watching would be required? We don't have cable TV or hard wired Internet access at home because we travel 50% of our time and are not big on TV watching, even at home. Also, I'm a cheap skate and a bit of a tech-no with an outdated data and telecommunications background.<img class="sfsmiley" title="Smile" onclick="sfjLoadSmiley('sf-smile.gif', 'Smile', 'https://geeksontour.com/wp-cont…..', '
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9:40 am
July 2, 2010
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Most movies are about 1 GB, but a long movie could be as much as two. I would not watch full length movies using a limited data plan. Get the disks mailed from Netflix instead!
11:54 am
November 30, 2011
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I'm preparing for fulltiming and thanks to your information have purchased a WIFI Ranger. I also went to Mellinicom and signed up for their unlimited data ($70 per month). Also purchased the USB cell modem. First tried it on my laptop which worked fine but they seem to now be fronting for Sprint, not Verizon. Since Sprint is one of the few major players with unlimited data still, I imagine the Millenicom had to switch. Anyway, after a little fiddling I also got the WiFi Range up both relaying my home WiFi (much as it would an RV park's) and using the USB cell modem.
Haven't done any performance tests but it generally seemed acceptable but it is 3G.
Thanks for all your good information.
8:20 pm
November 3, 2009
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Sounds like a good plan. Having your own network is the way to go. The Ranger makes it possible to use multiple sources for your backhaul.
You might still want to connect to *good* public WiFi using the Ranger when it is available and easy. You will get better speeds for OS updates and large downloads. 3G should be fine for most connectivity.
Helping Travelers to Plan, Preserve, and Share their Travels
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