Mobile Internet For Your Vehicle

admin — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 10:13:02 +0000

So, you just finished watching MTV’s “Pimp Your Ride” and you need to add a little something different to make your car stand out from the crowd. What can you do? How about adding Mobile Internet to your vehicle. It is not as hard or expensive as you might think.

Here is what is needed

Mobile Router:

This is similar to a typical home router with one exception. It uses a Sprint Mobile Broadband Card to provide the internet, allowing you to use it anywhere, even in motion! It converts a Mobile Broadband Card into a Wi-Fi signal that up to 5 laptops can use at the same time. One of the best options for this would be the CradlePoint PHS300 or the CTR500 Mobile Router. Why? These are some of the smallest (about the size of a wallet) mobile routers on the market and are well under $200. The PHS300 is even battry powered so you don’t even need to plug it in! For the other models, just plug an inverter into the cigarette lighter and the unit is now powered up and ready to surf the internet, even while driving down the road at 75 MPH. Of course, that would be for the passengers to enjoy, not the driver!

Mobile Broadband Service:

This is the increasingly popular Mobile Internet service that Sprint, Verizon and others are now selling. For just $59.99 a month, Sprint and Verizon offer high speed internet access anywhere in the USA. These services can be used directly in a laptop for one user, or in this case, directly into the Mobile Router so that multiple users can tap into the same card at the same time.

Laptop:

This one is quite obvious, but there are two ways to connect the laptop to the Mobile Router. One is with an Ethernet cable direct from the router to the computer. The second way would be to just connect through wi-fi. As long as the laptop has built-in wireless, as all newer laptops do, the laptop will find the wi-fi signal the Mobile Router is producing.

Extras:

If extra range is needed on your Mobile Internet set-up, or if the vehicle is often in remote areas there are two products that can greatly increase your performance. The first is an external Antenna. All the current Mobile Broadband Cards have ports to attach these antennas, enabling a more powerful antenna to boost the signal and thus the performance of the card. Amplifiers are even more beneficial. These devices add up to 3 watts of power to the Antenna, which can turn a very weak signal into an average or even strong signal. Not only will these add-ons help your performance, but they will add a bit of the “WOW” factor when people are admiring your unique vehicle.

By: Steve Sasman

Mobile Phones – Sun, Sangria, and SMS Sorrows

admin — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 18:54:24 +0000

Picture it; you’re relaxing on a beach in the Costa del Sol, you’re sipping your sangria and listening to the strains of OBK’s Tú sigue así emanating from the nearest bar when suddenly, a tell-tale beeping makes your heart sink.

No, it’s not a large truck reversing towards you and forcing you into shade; it’s your mobile phone receiving a text message from your well-meaning friends back home, stating that they wish they were with you and bemoaning the fact that you’ll make them look like ghosts when you get back. You groan and think, “It just cost me £1.50 to find out something they told me before I left”.

So maybe ‘roaming’ text messages aren’t quite that expensive but the fact remains that sending and receiving a text message from one EU country to another is more expensive than simply texting your friend in the next town. Currently it costs around 23p to send a text message and another 23p to receive one back – four times as much as it costs at home where you don’t have to pay if someone sends you a message.

New regulations called for by the EU Telecoms Commissioner recommend a price cap of between 8p and 11p on all roaming text messages sent within the EU. If these come into play, it will halve the cost of roaming texts within the EU. While you’ll still be charged for both sending and receiving the message, the actual charge applied will be half, making it just double rather than quadruple the price of sending a text at home.

There are already voice call price caps in place as of 2007, currently set at 38p per minute for making the call and 19p per minute for receiving one. These rates are set to fall by around 5p in the next year, making it cheaper to keep in touch with your envious friends while on holiday. There are also plans to reduce the cost of data roaming – sending emails and MMS messages, and surfing the web via mobile phone or laptop.

By: Jay Tillotson

Mobile Software » Laptop

Mobile Internet For Your Vehicle

Mobile Phones – Sun, Sangria, and SMS Sorrows