[Tfug] [Bulk] hot spot vpn

[Bexley Hall]

Hi Matt,

On 1/16/2013 1:53 PM, Matt Jacob wrote:
> 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.

OK.  So, their thinking is that it will cause you to *increase* your
usage (which, presumably, incurs extra charges once you reach your
monthly cap?)

> 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. ;-)

Is that fee (assuming a similar data cap) comparable to that of your
regular cell phone plan?  I.e., do you get the phone service "for
free" (comparatively speaking) with the data plan?  Said another way,
if you *only* wanted data, can you save anything ($$) monthly?
(I assume if you only want *phone* there are ways to save money...)

I've seen PCMCIA and USB radios that appear to do this (technically,
not "create a hotspot" but, rather, give your laptop/desktop a
wireless connection.

>> 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.

Ouch!  Can't really do much (thinking in terms of a laptop's data
connection) with 4GB of data (esp if that includes protocol
overhead and not just payload!).  So, you'd only use it "in a pinch"
(since your phone, presumably, can access WWW, email, etc. it's
hard to imagine what you might need it for...)

>> 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).

Understood.  OTOH, it *does* give you connectivity where you
might not have it, otherwise!

Thanks!
--don