[Tfug] [Bulk] hot spot vpn

[Matt Jacob]

On Tue, Jan 15, 2013, at 23:10, Bexley Hall wrote:
> On 1/15/2013 10:39 PM, Tyler Kilian wrote:
> > Adding hotspot to an iPhone is something like $20.
> 
> [I don't use a cell phone...]

On our Verizon family plan, tethering for our iPhones is included at no
additional cost. It didn't used to be this way, but when VZW switched to
their new sharing model a few months back (the "Share Everything" plan),
it was included.

If you don't have a cell phone, you can still buy mobile hotspot devices
that take a cell signal and create a small wireless network. Verizon
would be happy to sell you one for a couple hundred bucks plus a monthly
access fee. ;-)

> And then the data that comes through the phone to your laptop
> just looks like more "phone data" (for billing purposes)?

Yep. With our family plan, we have a shared bucket of 4 GB of data a
month. Use it on the phones, or use it via tethering---it's all just
bytes.

> For a "business expense", I guess you (personally) aren't too concerned
> with the cost of each byte transfered, etc.  Are there practical limits
> on this?  I.e., why doesn't *every* iPhone owner use their iPhone for
> this purpose (instead of having some other ISP at home)?  If it was
> *just* $20, that seems like a deal!

See above. The data transfer is limited and very expensive. Also, it's
slow and has an appreciable amount of latency (compared to what's
available with wired connections).

Matt