droid or mifi?

[eezie]

I would like mobile internet access. I am thinking of changing my verizon phone to an android so I can access the net with my computer via the phone.

Is this effective? Adequate speed?

The alternative is to keep my old cellphone and get a mifi modem.

How do the access speeds compare?

Price is substantially different. About $30/month for unlimited net access w/android and $60/month for 5 gig w/mifi 2200.

Thanks,

eezie

 

[mrspeedmaster]

I have a Mifi. There is no comparison in terms of battery life and usability. You can also charge via USB and battery are $10 on ebay.

The clear advantage with a Mifi is there are no proxied ports. It is just a regular NAT which supports things like VPN pass-thru, UDP streaming,etc...

With phone tethering, I can only do things like surf the web (port 80/ SSL port 45), email. Basic Internet stuff.

With a MIFI, you can do port-filtering, port-forwarding.

With port forwarding, you can run a webserver from your laptop and people can access it if they you give them the IP or use dynamic DNS. In the admin, you can even host your own DNS server. LOL.

 

[Zenze]

I have a Mifi. There is no comparison in terms of battery life and usability. You can also charge via USB and battery are $10 on ebay.

The clear advantage with a Mifi is there are no proxied ports. It is just a regular NAT which supports things like VPN pass-thru, UDP streaming,etc...

With phone tethering, I can only do things like surf the web (port 80/ SSL port 45), email. Basic Internet stuff.

With a MIFI, you can do port-filtering, port-forwarding.

With port forwarding, you can run a webserver from your laptop and people can access it if they you give them the IP or use dynamic DNS. In the admin, you can even host your own DNS server. LOL.

True, but personally I would never want to run a server off of a mifi connection. I don't know why you wouldn't just set it up somewhere with a good connection and can have it always on. You can always ssh to it if you need to modify anything.

I would go for the phone, unless you are actually planning on running a mobile webserver from a wifi connection
With the droid you will most likely be able to do anything you need to, its a cheaper plan, and you have a awesome new phone that has a ton of other functionality as well. You may even find you don't need the laptop f

The only thing that I would question is if a mifi connection has better speeds. But I doubt it does, its 3G either way...

 

[mrspeedmaster]

True, but personally I would never want to run a server off of a mifi connection. ..

I wouldn't either but it can be done.
The other advantage/or requirement I should say is VPN connectivity.
My work issued me an iPhone, iPad, and MiFI because I need Cisco VPN connectivity. Phone tethering doesn't allow passthru.

Other reasons:
Skype, Web-Ex, Reverse remote login (VNC).

I am always on web-ex calls so I use a MIFI. Again, I had problems with every tethering options (We pay the extra $30 a tethering and tried them with all the carriers - ATT,Sprint,Verizon).

I have Skype hooked up in my car so I do video-conference while I drive. Can't do that with phone tethering.

BUT. ....
Phone will be cheaper and be good for 97% of the population.

 

[eezie]

Well, I bought a droid this past weekend. I like it. Got an app online for tethering. It uses PDA net. Works quite well. Verizon salesperson talked about a $15 month fee for tethering with a data limit. I guess I don't need that.

Also trying to use something called textplus. Can't figure it out. How do I uninstall the app?

Thanks,

eezie

 

[Zenze]

Well, I bought a droid this past weekend. I like it. Got an app online for tethering. It uses PDA net. Works quite well. Verizon salesperson talked about a $15 month fee for tethering with a data limit. I guess I don't need that.

Also trying to use something called textplus. Can't figure it out. How do I uninstall the app?

Thanks,

eezie

Nice! I personally wouldn't have gotten PDAnet and would have just rooted the phone and used the free app, but PDAnet is a good app anyway and worth the money if you don't want to root the phone. Certainly worth the money vs paying for tethering. Personally I don't know why any of the companies even charge for tethering, your paying for unlimited data anyway why do they care how you use it?

Anyway the way I uninstall apps is push menu when your in the market and bring up the list of all the apps you have downloaded. Then just select the right one and push uninstall.

 

[eezie]

pda net is not working at all sites. Says secure pages are blocked w/free edition. Is there another way? What is rooting and how do I do it?

Thanks,
eezie