Firms like
Cradlepoint have been dishing out generic portable hotspots for years now, but it wasn't until recently that US consumers had a carrier-branded option for creating their own WiFi zone via EV-DO. Novatel's shockingly diminutive
MiFi 2200 portable EV-DO router has officially arrived on both
Sprint and Verizon Wireless, and while GSM followers have been unfortunately left out for the moment, we're still eager to hear how early CDMA adopters are faring. Are you pleased with the convenience factor here? Have you had any odd and unexpected connection issues? Are you kosher with that 5GB limit on monthly throughput? Let us know if you think this thing's worth its asking price, and if not, what would make it so. And... go!
posted Jun 27th 2009 3:30AM
Having a 5gb limit seems too little.
Also, it would be nice if you could pay by usage instead of monthly since you might not use the device every day.
Lastly, in the review, (with the pretty girl) she said that after prolonged use, the Mifi drops the connection sometimes. This seems like a pretty big flaw.
5GB a month certianly isn't enough for me, would like to see it cheaper. Really cool that that technology is out though, how cool is it to carry around a router with broadband built it.
remove the 5gb limit, lower the price and add a screen the has battery info , connection strength and number of user connected easily displayed on it.
Sounds like a bunch of features that would just reduce battery life. I think a simple click to view LED setup for battery life like on Mac batteries would suffice.
Why not have the MiFi send battery info upon request to the laptop screen? The connection driver on the laptop could interact with the device for diagnostics. Definitely remove the 5GB cap though.
If you just go to the admin page it shows you all of that
Jay Jay nailed every point I would change.
just make that display with e-ink and you wont be killing your battery to display that info.
Make the Verizon look as cool as the Sprint one.
How about using Joikuspot (www.joikushop.com) on a Symbian phone?
Turns your device in a Hotspot. No need to carry any additional device around and use same data plan as your phone.
One time fee to buy the app and you're done.
I'm using that app on my nokia 5800 right now! It's a pretty great app and the light version is free too.
I use WMWifiRouter on my Samsun Omnia. It's pretty much the same app. (They even link to each other on their webpages.)
Give us more battery options. I'd love to have 3 or 4 times the battery capacity.
Provide more lights to indicate draining battery levels or weak signal.
It seems like all carriers have the 5gb cap. I have yet to find a company with truly unlimited data.
While this would be great for me as an iPod Touch owner the cost is too rich for my blood. $40 is as high as I will go for 5gb monthly. I too would like to see a pay by usage or no contract option.
@CrispyBalls
I just signed up for Clear WiMax service here in Atlanta and get unlimited home internet *and* unlimited mobile for $55 a month for life. In addition to purchasing the home and usb modems, I picked up their ClearSpot box which let's me create a WiFi hotspot for up to 8 devices . This service will kill the cellcos once it goes nationwide imho.
@YukonDawg
Well, maybe it'll kill SOME cellular companies...
Sprint owns 51% (or is it 55%) of Clear.
make it dispense a pleasant fragrance
By turning it around and let me see the front of the device?
Wait... I'm mistaken for some other cr@p.
It's true, I mistook you for some other crap.
Godsend. My wife teleworks and the MiFi offers redundancy for our cable modem (no adsl available where we live). She's on Sprint's $150/m Blackberry and mobile data plan. Picked it up the first one my sprint dealer had in stock, a day after they arrived. Can't use tethering on BB because company has locked out bluetooth as well as the ability to install apps or change configuration of the BB. Can't use usb modem because her laptop is locked down and can't install apps or drivers for any devices without administrator password. Connecting to a wifi network is allowed, and the MiFi just plain works. Sure battery life could be better (4 hours max) but for something this small, having that much time is incredible. Besides, the power connector is same as motorola V9m -- just get a USB charging cable and plug in external battery or USB battery pack with AA batteries. 5 IP limit for NAT may sound like a drag but really, do you need to share with more than 5 machines? I don't share my home broadband line with that many connections. If you need to, just use internet connection sharing (peer to peer) in Windows or whatever linux equivalent is. For her work purposes, I don't see her using much more than 400MB per week so 5GB is fine for her purposes. Bottom line is she can work anywhere, at the beach, in the car, or at a food court in a mall.
forgot to mention. Cost of the mifi was $149. Less than price of a cradlepoint phs300 (we did get a free USB 3G modem that is of no use to us, especially now). Also, mifi is way cleaner solution compared to schlepping around a phs300 with a USB 3G modem dangling from it (is that why they call it a dongle?). Plus, recall that the phs300 battery life is about half that of the mifi. Again, it would have been best to save the additional $50 per month that the mifi cost but that just isn't possible with her company's security protocols. If it were me, I'd have wmwifirouter running from an HTC touch pro 2 and carry one device.
@ Verizon
Per MB Rate After Allowance
250MB Plan: 10¢
5GB Plan: 5¢
You realize that translates into
after you max out your allowance it's
5G: 15cents to dowload a song
250M: 30 cents, on top of all the other charges
Thats rediculouse!
More battery life would be good.
As for the 5GB bandwidth cap, unfortunately unless we see real competition, we will only see more restrictive caps and TOS.
more competition is one solution, no one buying it is another. So long as people keep paying $60 a month, and hardly using it (except for web browsing and email) the cellular telcos will just keep singing their crap terms of service. Don't buy it until they offer a plan for you that works.
First off, I'd take it out of the tin can and fine some other high-quality material!
Uh... stop selling it, and enable internet tethering for people who have wi-fi enabled phones...
Blame the FCC and the cellular lobbyists for that stupid cap.
I recently purchased earlier this month. There are a few issues I have discovered. The first it works with my Intel Mac but had to be initial activated using Windows. The current Verizon software doesn't work on then latest Intel Mac's. Plugging the USB into the Mac appears to switch off the WiFi and put it in a modem mode, which the Mac doesn't have a driver for. If your on a Windows PC that's fine you can connect to it as a modem with the Verizon software. So if your thinking of just using USB it is useless for Mac users right now. The unit does get hot. So you may not want to put it in your pocket while connected. Charging the unit you can't really every turn it off. So while its charging its slowly eating at your bandwidth limit I fear. The last complaint is the annoying bright green LED. Why put super bright LED's on a device most users want to get longer battery life from. Has not one LED but two, power and status/traffic. A small well placed piece of electrical tape solves the light issue. So far I've been happy with it but let me be honest its a backup device. If my iPhone would have tethered cleanly I would have never gotten the unit. Even a jailbroken iPhone didn't cut it because of VPN's and the need to access ssh not just web apps. I like the WiFi and it means I can connect more than just my Mac but the iPhone and even my Linux bases netbooks without 3rd party drivers.
I just activated 20 of them with a Mac... so not really sure what you're talking about. And OSX as a built in WWAN driver for it, so you dont even need the drivers once activated.
I gotta second iMac12 here. I have one of these and activated it quickly and easily with my MacBook. It accessed the Internet right away while hooked up to USB, and started generating a wifi signal that everything in the area that was wifi capable could see. No worries.
Perhaps you were doing it wrong?
LEDs are not an issue, there is a setting in the configuration that you can turn them off. Unfortunately, it is all on or all off.
Still getting used to it. I bought this with a new Pre on that crazy Saturday morning. Upgraded to this after two years using a Novatel EX720 Expresscard. I use it for business only and I work out of my car everyday. At home I have regular cable broadband so it's not my primary connection. In two years I have never exceeded 5Gb/month. Most of my data is a lot of email with big attachments (CAD files), lots of web activity including using a SaaS provider to log and track all activities and projects in real time and I stream 192k internet radio whenever I'm on the move from location to location. I download software, updates, big files, some purchased music - normal stuff. I don't run torrents or any other bandwidth hungry programs. 5GB for $50/month is more than enough and a bargain if you're a road warrior and you need to get the job done.
In some ways it's more convenient for me. And being able to share my connection is cool. I've always had to break the connection during my frequent trips from the car to the worksite because the laptop wouldn't fit in the case with the card sticking out of the side. Now I just pop the MiFi in my shirt pocket (my nippy got toasty) and maintain all my connections Citrix, vpn, GoToMeeting, SFDC etc without having to reconnect and go through multiple logins.
I can only get half a day on a full charge. I never had to worry about battery life before so definitely not a step forward there. I do like that I can tether it via the USB cable and connect using SmartView so I don't have to worry about the battery dieing but doing that disables the Wifi radio? Why? I should be able to tether to keep the battery fresh while my clients use the connection via WiFi. Am I supposed to carry the AC adapter and go plug the thing into the wall so we can all use the connection simultaneously? That's dumb and needs to be fixed in a firmware update.
Sprint left the GPS enabled unlike the Verizon MiFi. The EVDO connection performance is identical to the EX720 - reliable and fast but prone to the same drop outs and drop backs to 1x at the usual coordinates. But in the large area I cover (3 counties) there are only about 6 or 7 of those. Amazingly, the Pre doesn't lose it's EVDO connection through those same problem areas so that's a mystery to me. The web interface which you have to use to configure or monitor the device wirelessly doesn't update as quickly as the SmartView tethering app which can be a real PITA when you're wondering if you lost the connection or had a drop back. There are a ton of options and settings you can play with in the interface but the menus don't behave nicely in Firefox. A few extra LED's (not so bright!) to show battery life and connection status would be helpful. The LED backlighting the Sprint logo is stupid, useless and an unnecessary battery drain. I dunno, maybe I'll return it and go back the the card.
The tools that run Verizon, AT&T and Sprint need to realize that they won't be swaying major populations into subscribing to their data services until they remove the strings from their terms. Real business users such as myself NEED to transfer more than 5gb a month. And I will not be subscribing if you insist on imposing a 5gb limit on transfer. Your bandwidth is nearly free these days. Basically what you're saying is "we don't care if you need to do something critical that requires that you exceed 5gb in a month, we only care about raping our customers to increase our own bottom line." This has NOTHING to do with the costs of your infrastructure. You should be concerning yourself only with increasing the bottom line by adding subscribers. This is what makes you profitable, not nickel-and-diming your subscribers. Until you remove the limitations, I will continue to disregard your wireless services, and use land-based connections instead.
Comments like yours are completely off topic. This is for the device itself which is not made by the carriers. With that said, I don't see how you're using 5gb a month if you're not using the device as your main connection. If you're using a data card when you're sitting in your office or something, that's probably part of it. Maybe it's time to forgo the 300kb email signature and background you use on the 2000 emails you send a month. If you're doing anything like mass emailing or something like that, you might want to do that on another connection. Most business people don't come anywhere near 5gb. Maybe you should take a look at what you're doing on a data card, and stop treating it like it's an always on connection. Turn off auto updates for things like antivirus and windows updates while in the field. I really just don't see how you can exceed 5gb if you truly are just using it for business... unless your business involves high quality video.
It needs a higher cap. I deal in large files and complicated building models. I'll often use up 5 GB within the space of a week. If they offered an unlimited plan for anything up to, say, $150 a month, both my fiance and I would've signed contracts the day they came out.
The 3+ hours i get is just not enough. Also the MiFi seems to drop connection a lot more then my old U727 ever did. The addition of an external antenna port would have really gone a long way to correct this. The 5GB limit has never been an issue for me. In a given month using the device for work i use from 1 - 3 GB.
Does any one agree that the power adapter is one of the cheapest POS they have ever used?
Needs:
• Extended Battery
• External Antenna
• Better WiFi Range
• Micro / Mini or standard SD cardslot
The main reason I didn't buy it is the price and the 5GB limit with a "look who dropped the soap" fee there to haunt you... and while rollover minutes are all the rage, apparently rollover megabytes is a scary and foreign concept.
Drop the price and set a "soft" limit of 5GB and I'll be happy... IOW, if I hit 5GB, don't charge me a cent more, just reduce the speed by 50%.
Is there a way that a European service provider get MiFi proposed to us ?
Can I use this to create a wifi hotspot for my ipod touch?
Cheryl
Yes Cheryl, you can, from what i've been reading. I've wanted to get one, but the verizon contract is too pricey for me. Especially not knowing if I can get the verizon signal around where I live. Get one at amazon, with the Verizon plan, you can get a mifi device with a contract for a penny.
Hope it works out for you.
I use it with my iPhone whenever AT&T's 3G coverage sucks. Its handy.
I am enjoying mine but having a mini LCD screen with a status would be useful.
Cal
I would like to see a battery indicator so I know know just how much juice is left.
I woudl also like a way to turn it off and on. For example, when charging the device turns on. If you aren't careful, your PC could connect and eat a nice chunk of that 5 GB of allotted data.
Customizable port forwarding. I can't do remote desktop or VNC. It only does 'common' ports like ftp, telnet, http.
There're advanced menus for entering custom ports in both the filter and forward windows.
Nope, not on mine. I have the Sprint version, maybe that is possible on the Verizon version. I have the latest firmware also.
That's strange, I've got the Sprint unit and it's detailed in the manual too although it's the one you have to download rather than the worthless one it comes with.
So what's the verdict? I would only use this if I could use port forwarding for VNC...
I can't do it in any of the advanced menus. The port forwarding advanced menu only has a list of common incoming applications like FTP, Telnet, HTTP and you can't edit the port for them. And there is no extra fields to put in custom ports.
@justpete
Can you give us the details on how you are able to do it?
Been a while since I looked - custom options are available only for port _filtering_. Duh.
Yep, I'm an idiot, very sorry about that. Geez but I h8 it when I don't rtfm when I oughta.
Thinking maybe something had changed as the Advanced menu wasn't available in the browser i/f over the last day or so (and what the heck was that all about anyway? - it's possessed...) I checked the downloadable manual and there was never an extended custom option for port forwarding, other than in my mucked up memory, but it does say it can't be used unless a fixed IP is purchased from Sprint, otherwise it won't work at all, or so they say.
Wow - there is a lot of misinformation on this blog! First off it does have a battery indicator built in to the Sprint application that shows you current usage (MB/GB) battery strength - AND it gives you the option for turning off the LED lights to save power. It is also done as a safety feature so if you are out in public, you aren't advertising. That's not an issue to me as I either leave it in my backpack or in my pocket. As for the power issue, only once have I drained the battery. Even then it was not an issue, I just plug the MiFi into my USB port of my mac and it charges it while I am using it. The only down side when you have to do that is you limit the number of connections from 5 to 1, which isn't a big deal to me as if I am draining it that much, it is because I am working on a project on my laptop, and don't need to worry about my Pre, iTouch or any other device needing access. And I must say the speed of the device is INCREDIBLE. I had never been with Sprint before, but I have VZW for work (Worst phone company on the planet) and came over from AT&T for my personal - and it blows both of them out of the water - VERY IMPRESSED!
Im a pretty heavy power user, and have not come close to 5GB. And I don't know why everyone bashes Sprint for that. Both VZW and AT&T have the same cap. Also, with my discount I pay $45.00 a month instead of $60.00 - something you will never see VZW or AT&T do! If you are looking into buying one, definitely go with Sprint - as with VZW they cripple their device (Just like VZW cripples ALL of their phone and data devices - try to get wifi on a VZW phone!!!!) Work has a couple of the VZW devices, I tried it and the Sprint MiFi at my house and it was not even close!!!!
Overall I am EXTREMELY satisfied with the Sprint MiFi2200 and would not have any other data device!
what discount?
Sprint was only offering me $75 off to upgrade. So I called Sprint and asked for retentions. I made my case that it wasn't fair to offer some people one price and existing customers another. Sprint gave me the same price new customers get and the additional $75 off for upgrading plus waved any other fees like activation.
It was worth my time to take 10 min and make one call. I got the MiFi fr $25.
I would change it by lowering the Price to $20. Otherwise, its perfect!!
JKK Mobile hacked a USB cable to allow charging from a laptop without killing the Wifi. I think he just clipped the green and red wires but check his sight first.
Yep, the charger can provide 1.05A according to the label so the charger in the MiFi must be using the Chinese/USB-IF 'standard' that allows the current drawn to step from 100mA and 500mA to as much as 1800mA/1500mA(1000mA?) respectively if the data lines are shorted together which they must be inside the charger, thus the hardwiring and apparent cheeziness.
So if it detects functional data lines current would be limited to a level too low to power the unit in hotspot mode without running the battery down since the unit acts like the load's in parallel with the battery judging by the way its charge state changes when wifi is enabled/disabled.
Duh, sorry. That should read wallwart instead of charger unless referring to the charger IC inside the MiFi.
a4cb664a
I've gone over the 5GB limit twice and got a bill over $250 each time. Luckily Verizon took the extra charges off after hearing a sob story. The cap really sucks and I miss those days when I could actually download "stuff" 24/7!
Then get dsl, cable, or use wifi. You can download the same amount of stuff in 6 hours that would take you 24 hours on a cellular connection. Downloading over 3g = slow by todays standards.
Wish I could but I live in the boonies and my only other option is dial-up! They keep telling us that we will get dsl "next year"..... they have been saying that ever year for the last 5 years :(
At least make the 5GB LIMIT ROLLOVER ON THE MONTHS YOU DON'T USE IT , NOW THAT MIGHT MAKE IT WORTH BUYING..
Picked one up 2Jun. Replaced home network, wired DSL, wireless hotspot account, and dropped second landline. Also use it in my job (FAE) - a steal at a benjy imho. Speed and wifi coverage as advertised. Will drop into rev0 or 1X w/o indication but will show that status on browser interface. Have had it drop into roaming a few times - at least the power switch lights up blue when that happens.
Power switch is also supposed to show charging status (amber), fully charged (green), and critical battery (flashing red). Rarely see amber for more than a few seconds if at all. Will go green while charging instead of indicating end of charge - pita to drop out of vpn to access the browser interface for real status which lags badly as someone else noted.
Will flash red powering up after removing from charger with browser interface indicating full charge - static bars, no charging. Browser i/f battery icon bars drop to 2 (out of 4) when powered up after taken off charger, sometimes three but it's never shown a full charge.
Occasionally shows zero bars, then one, then two when red flashing stops and light goes green when starting up on battery. Doesn't matter if wifi was enabled during charging or if charged for a few hours or overnight. Connector seems to be flakey - taking it by Sprint Store this am so they can try and charge me for warranty service.
And power switch doesn't respond predictably at power on (ignores multiple hits - touchy sucker) but does at power off, no idea what's up with that. They need to get a firmware fix out for the bogus power switch LED functionality and flakey power switch. I'm not holding my breath.
Hotspot function rocks w/customers and sales guys in office, cap is immaterial - no streaming and won't hit 5G if I try, at 1.5G now and it gets near continous use. DHCP router has a nine port address space for a few fixed IPs at home and office w/o impacting NAT. Mixed WPA/WPA2 mode helpful as work laptop (due for replacement soon) doesn't do WPA2 while netbook and print server do. Password/Passphrase shows only in text, no conversion to hex. But it's easily blanked so no big deal, makes it easy to recall if needed when configuring a new machine, etc.
Would like to see a hard case so the power button doesn't get popped accidentally and run down the battery while being carried around, have had it happen.
Wifi running continuously with power saving off while on the charger hasn't caused any noticable download hit with email, rss, and nntp cycling on a laptop and a netbook overnight.
Haven't been able to get more than three hours out of the battery but may be due to the problem noted earlier, it acts as if the battery gets discharged just by unplugging the micro USB, strange. And, yes, it does get purty toasty.
Profile (downloadable as backup from browser i/f) has some interesting parameters in it that might allow longer battery life by dropping wifi xmit power, if I'm reading it right. Ain't gonna try it tho, lemme know how it works for you. ;)
FWIW, no problems running browser i/f in linux or xp, IE or Firefox 3. Router IP and subnet mask user settable. Provides connection/authentication and internet logging. Haven't had any connection problems although it's sensitive to orientation when signal is weak, no surprise there.
Since I rolled over my previous service contract from Verizon when I upgraded from my USB based access to the Mifi, I've managed to keep my unlimited service. As far as the experience is concerned; a slightly slow start-up and performance is dependent on the area you are in. In Florida, I'm reaching ridiculous great download speeds, while in Manhattan it can crawl to a stop. But its a great idea and allows my colleagues and I to work in any diner of our choice.
This thing rocks! But pricey. Still though, me and my cousin were roadtripping with some friends, and I was streaming youtube on my pre while he was using his ipod toich to strem youtube as well, and it works great! I've also clocked it at around 1.5 mbs (verizon, with full signal)
I would love one without the 5 GB limit. I do almost that much on my iPhone every month.
MiFI rocks. Have had mine for 2 months. I do have a cable connection at home that does most of my stuff. The MIFI is for the road. The only beef I have with it, is that 5gb cap. Yeah its a lot if your not streaming video but how many people don't do video these days. From my server at home I can stream video to anywhere but only 7 at TOPS a month. All-in-all I love being able to have "THE INTERNET" where ever I am. With Sprint I get around 2mbps average with 500k upload average. I does get slow if you are not in the high speed area, but on the plus side you still have internet.
I really like it and I think the 5gb limit is fine. Just don't DL huge amounts of stuff, guys.
I lose my connection all the time though, and my MacBook Pro doesn't catch the connection unless I power cycle the mifi everytime I try to connect to it.
In summary, I'm only using it because I have to.
I agree that the price point should be lower. Certainly the basic bandwith package is ridiculous from both the MB & the price. 5GB is fine for casual road use when you have a main line at home.
Device change requests:
- signal strength indication LEDs
- battery level indication LEDs
- bandwith used LCD
... or all in one via small LCD?
Which could just be on at the press of a button for a minute, to preserve battery power.
I mainly use our MiFi in rural areas / on the road. There is no way of telling whether the placing of the device is ideal for the circumstances. I use a basic Nokia CDMA phone to check the signal strength, which can vary between nothing and 2-3 bars depending on the direction of the nearest tower and building. For me, ideally, there would be about 5 LEDs that indicate the reception level: red (no signal / connection), orange (connected, but barely), green (good, better, excellent)
We know it it supposed to last 4 hours to a charge, but unless you keep track of it or keep it plugged in, you won't know what the exact battery level is. A small button that briefly shows 4 LEDs indicating a charge of 0-25-50-75-100% would be great.
Provide a way to track data usage on the device. A small LCD ~ tripmeter is needed when you have something that supports 5 devices and tiny data plans with expensive overages ... and no way of tracking usage, unless you plug it into the main system via USB that has verizon manager installed. Plus, for us, that data usage report is about two days behind. Certainly 256MB for a month would be grossly inadequate for even minimal use, and is a recipe for overage fees and/or getting you kicked of the system. That's why we have the 5GB plan. Still, with a slew of automatic updates on a couple of portable systems, we are seriously concerned about that precious bandwith, and so we temporarily disable updates to help with that.
Don't automatically turn the device on when it is plugged in.
Provide an option to disable SMS. Within the first weeks we had several people SMS-ing the previous owner of our MiFi's cell # ... at 20c a pop. Fortunately Verizon was kind to disable it and refund every message. Still 20 minutes we shouldn't have spent on the phone.
Make a pay as you go or have a higher cap for the same cost. GPS drivers in MacOS that work.
I have the Sprint version and its quite nice when just using it with my iPhone, but using it on my Macbook as a tethered modem proves to be irritating in Mac OS if I want to get the GPS working. I haven't messed with it as much in Windows but it seems its just a serial > USB bridge for the GPS.
I bought a miniUSB to microUSB adapter for $.69 on Amazon that passes all the pins, and used one of the Y cables that came with my hard drive to use both USB ports on my Macbook to properly power the device while its tethered. I think I can just plug in the power part and provide just power to it and it it will still do wifi. It really requires 1000 mA to charge though, so YMMV.
Sell it UNLOCKED (and yes, I know its a CDMA device and would need to be manually activated using its ESN number on another operator) and unsubsidized and UNBRANDED. Then I might look at it for more than 5 seconds, although I'd still never buy a CDMA2000 EV-DO device, which would only ever work on a few operators worldwide, while their are hundreds of GSM operators across the globe. Qualcomm's proprietary CDMA2000 family of technologies are such a joke... get with a real open standard like GSM people!
I like it, but activation should be feasible over Wifi. This is for many users a one-time issue, but I use the Verizon $15/day option (since I use this while travelling, and I don't have use for it on more than 3 days a month... and not every month...), and so activation is a daily chore. That is compounded in my case because I use Linux...
external antenna jacks. Display you can "activate" or deactivate to see status, connected machines, battery level, etc. The Display could even be e-ink and update every so often, as opposed to a power hungry LCD.
cant u just go to the ip address of the router on ur computer
It needs a cat-5 port for non-wireless networking equipment, ie hardware VPNs, VoiP equipment etc...
I LOVE mine. I swear by it. I use it with the Eye-Fi Card, and can shoot from anywhere, in real-time. If I want more battery power, I use the Tekkeon MP1800, and I get 14 hours of uptime.
I have the Verizon version, and it's flawless. It never drops connections. Haven't tried the Sprint version.
In fact, I'm using it now, to post this comment :-)
Give that sucker an external antenna port!
The range is only 33 ft id increase that to about 55 or 60 to cover at least one floor of a house so that i could walk around and leave the router in one place
I have the Verizon version. This thing is awesome paired with my Ipod touch, like Iphone on Verizon network. I had Samsung Omnia, which was excellent device considering Winmo, but so much more pleased with new combo. Takes up to 15 seconds to connect to wifi on touch, but data speeds for surfing and web radio are great, as well as new Sirius app works flawlessly. Connects to other wifi devices fine, and tethers fine with USB cable in modem mode on my non-wifi work computer. No complaints, as has been my experience on Verizon. No opportunity yet to share wifi with another user.
I really like it. I have made several co-workers very happy by providing them with internet access while in areas that they could not get local WiFi. Fortunately, I had a U720 with unlimited data and since this was just a device upgrade, I don't have the 5GB cap. For those of you that have Sprint and had an unlimited plan, go nuts, the is no cap. I had four people from Sprint (all recorded on tape in case they pull the "we didn't tell you that" crap) all confirm that the 5GB limit does not apply to my account.
I agree with some others that something simple like a multicolored LED to indicate battery and signal strength would be nice. Also, a very simple app that can be installed on the PC/Laptop/PDA to give the same info would be great. However, a quick click to log in to the router is not a big deal so this is not a major complaint.
I also note that my EVDO reception is not quite as good as the U720 as it seems to switch to 1xRTT in areas that would consistently give me EVDO from the U720. I would say this happens 10-20% more often than with the U720. The upside to this is I can reposition the MiFi within my hotel room (or wherever) to get EVDO back but this is where a multicolor LED would come in handy.
My wife has been using it this past week while at a conference in Texas and she reports nothing but positive things about it and she has been the envy of all the other people there! Seems she has been sharing the signal because, at last check, I see 8GB of use!!! This will be the acid test of my "unlimited" plan.
Regards,
Gordo
I would like to buy a spare battery....anyone know if they are out yet?
im not kosher with 5 gb, i have a sprint data pack for my treo (no data limit) and i use it to tether internet to my phone. why doesnt sprint remove the 5 gb limit on the router?
I currently have the unlimited plan with Verizon and went to check on getting the MiFi. The salesman told me that my plan wouldn't be altered but I have a feeling that Verizon will figure out how to change my data plan in the upgrade. These comments are very illuminating.
@YukonDawg sounds like you have the sweet deal at $55 / mo. for home and mobile. How is the mobile coverage?
I was able to sign up for sprint mobile broadband back when it was unlimited.
I'd like the ability to non-broadcast the router name. I don't want to worry about hackers finding it.
Flaky service overall, I have to reboot every time I drop signal as I will roam in 1X without a reboot. The manual is weak. When it works, I'm averaging 760, but I go in and out of service range constantly in the NE. The option to recharge only from USB should be a no-brainer. Disabling the WIFI when USB charging is stupid, stupid, stupid.
I got one from Verizon and it's only the personal version that has the 5GB limit, enterprises does not..
It's very neat, and because I live in an area where stoopid AT&T does not offer 3G my iPhone is using Verizon's 3G network to make my phone fly.
Not sure I would buy it if I was spending my own money, but for free it's definitely cool :)
~j
The mifi works great and the best part is that you can have multiple users connected to it at the same time. At just $100 it is totally worth it. Besides this isnt meant to replace your everyday cable connection.
The battery life is great. The wifi range is decent for what I typically use it for (DSi, iPod Touch, 2 laptops, etc). I do like the fact that it's possible to send SMS through the device as well when it's tethered. I'm also on Verizon, which means the one feature of it I'd like to use, the GPS, is disabled with no means of turning it on. I don't see any reason why such a feature, which is part of the hardware itself, needs to be restricted by the service provider. One feature I'd like to see, however, is access to the GPS data over the air. It doesn't have to be glamorous but it would be nice for geotagging and other similar applications. Have the application connect to the MiFi either via a raw connection or even an HTTP query. The more standards-compliant, the better.
There should be an Ethernet port on it, to allow you to share an Ethernet connection via WiFi if you've got one, like in a hotel room, since its most likely faster than the WWAN connection.
It should be possible to charge it via USB without tethering it. Either two different cables, without the data pins connected, or a button, or a switch on the cable or something. See jkkmobile's hack re. cutting a couple of the wires to make this work.
I have one as my primary internet connection. I am in my first month and I have had to pay close attention to make sure I don't exceed the 5gb limit. Not a bad thing though because it makes me log off and do other things.
I would like to see an accessory battery or an extended life battery released. I have never been able to get more than 3 hours before the battery die and having to stay plugged in seriously defeats the purpose of the device.
I would also like to see Sprint dump the data cap or charge a few bucks for each gb over 5. If they want more people to buy this, they are going to have to listen to what the people want and it's not data caps.
(go away for a month, and miss some of the best "how would you change" threads...)
1) GSM/GPRS/EDGE/UMTS/HSPA version with both T-Mo-USA and AT&T 3G bands, as well as Euro/Asian bands (so, clearly not a Sprint product anymore). But Itd settle for just quadband GSM/GRPS/EDGE and AT&T 3G.
2) built in SIP server, so you can use its access to the voice network your PDA/netbook/laptop/wifi-phone/etc. (even though the current hardware probably doesn't actually access the voice network -- that would be part of this change)
3) same as #2, but with SMS and MMS -- via a built in Jabber server
4) 8-12 hours of battery (I'd let it be a bit bigger to accommodate that)
5) possibly dual SIM cards, so you can mix its use between carriers
6) available with each carrier subsidized, and available unlocked/unbranded/unsubsidized