Mi Fi

[csarina]

I am thinking of junking Sky who provide my broadband and telephone. I have a mi fi will this work in the house to allow 2 lap tps to use the internet? Or am I going to have to find cheaper broadband via my phone line?

[JTQ]

My tethered "3" mobile does so I would expect it will however I also expect you will find the bandwidth [the amount of activity capable of going on] will be a real pain. Fine for browsing web pages, emails etc but dead in the water when Microsoft sends through a massive update, and tedious when you want video clips.

Edited December 3, 2013 by JTQ

[matelodave]

Why don't you try it

[tictag]

Bandwidth and cost are likely to be your biggest challenges.

 

Bandwidth

A typical home broadband setup will transfer data at around 12Mb/sec (mega-bits-per-second), whereas unless you have the very latest 4G devices and a really strong signal, your mifi device might only manage 0. 5Mb/sec or so. Transferring an 8MB (mega-byte) mp3 music file would take around five seconds on home broadband and just over two minutes on mifi*. Video streaming would be unwatchable at these speeds.

 

Cost

Home broadband tends to be all you can eat these days (with acceptable use caps) but mobile broadband (mifi) usually has a download limit and then per mega-byte charges should this limit be exceeded (£lots).

 

I’m not saying it’s not possible but you will need to carefully investigate the options to avoid disappointment.

 

Cable might also be an option - I have Virgin Media Broadband.

 

*8MB x 8bits = 64Mb / 12Mb/s = 128secs

[Marks]

I have virgin media, and before that NTL, both cable and been very happy with it, you may find that mifi may be lacking in areas such as speed and bandwidth as previously mentioned and the costs may get a bit much after a while. My thoughts on 3G is that it is for mobile or short term use, if you can get a proper connection, get one.

[dreadly]

Our broadband usage at home is usually ~350Gb P/M - A week away in the caravan on wireless is around only 1-3Gb because we tend not to watch Tv using it.

[ancell]

I agree mobile phone internet-including 4G-if you can find it is just a toy compared to cable Wi-Fi.

 

I ran up a bill of £26 on my 3G phone in 3 days!! in Germany-switched on data roaming!!

 

I use a 3 dongle for surfing and e-mail in the van in the UK.

 

£10 for 1 gigabyte valid for 1 month.

 

1 gigabyte is 2 hours watching TV You tube etc.

 

I can surf and e-mail for a month on £10 but of course start using it like Virgin or Sky hard wired Wi-Fi and your gigabyte will soon be gone!!

[csarina]

We live out in the sticks and cannot get virgin media, its sky or one of the others which operate via a phone line which would cost me the line rental. OK I could pay it up front and save a bit ot swap to BT, no chance of that my friend has had endless roblems with BT.

 

Looks like I may be suck with sky. Have been with them since 2009 when we moved to a house which did not have cable TV. You do not get rewarded for loyalty these days.