Please tell me about hotspots?

[heycal]

I have an iphone 8 and service with verizon, and a 2013 mac air, and live in the New York area. I'm currently doing work remotely that requires receiving, sending, downloading large video files on my mac, sometimes like 1 or 2GB or so. I also zoom with others while one of us screens a video for the rest. This works well enough, if not great, with my home internet connection.

I also sometimes travel to a small island off the coast of Bar Harbor, Maine, to a family house. While there, for general internet needs, I walk to the local library and sit outside to use their wifi connection when I need to check my email and such. I get the sense that the wifi there is a touch worse/slower than it is at home, and that large video files like the ones I'm working with now could cause some trouble, and besides, it's not in my house so I can't hang around out there for hours looking like a hobo.

Meanwhile, my cell phone works on SOME places on the island, but only rarely in our house. I know other family members have experimented with these "hotspot" thingys, and had enough success with them to download maybe a book on their kindle or check email or other such simple things like that. I didn't pay much attention to it all since I wasn't in need of internet all that often while there. But if I go this summer, I shall be very much in need of it, and plenty of it.

So... my question is thus: Is there a hotspot device or other gadget or service I can use in our house that provides me enough power/speed/processing whatever you call it to send, receive, and work remotely with large video files via zoom and such? To bring fast, reliable, awesome 2020 performance to a somewhat remote place 3 miles out in the ocean?

 

[velocityg4]

The mobile hotspot relies on the same connection your phone relies on. The only real advantage I see is you could mount an antenna outdoors. Then run it to your hotspot. In order to receive a better signal from the mobile internet provider.

Just be sure to get a hotspot which supports an external antenna. Then you can mount your outdoor directional or high gain omni-directional antenna.

Starlink is supposed to get started this year. Although I imagine it will be limited. Maybe in the next couple of years. You'll be able to have a good satellite internet connection.

 

[heycal]

It sounds like you are saying I can't really get high speed/performance internet on an island with poor cell service from my carrier Verizon, at least without getting an antenna, which sounds possibly expensive and tricky to mount. Is that right?

 

[jaytv111]

Maybe the other carriers are better on the island, it's possible, usually Verizon is the best coverage but there are places other carriers are better (but rare).

The other people certainly aren't using mobile satellite internet today, unless they were in direct sight of the sky and had a giant satellite receiver and they spend about $10,000+ a month for service, this is the kind of satellite service like news reporters use when they don't have cell or wired internet in remote places.

 

[heycal]

I know longer term residents have some sort of internet service on the island, but I'm not sure of the details, nor how good it is. Since I would only be going up for a couple of weeks, I didn't want to try to get service installed, with all the costs and headaches that could entail.

 

[jaytv111]

The island could have wired internet, since it's not that far off from the mainland.

Sometimes really mobile workers carry around 2 or 3 cellular devices on different carriers and when one service is crap in an area they just try the next one. Great for redundancy! I actually kind of do that but I have AT&T service on my iPhone and I signed up for T-Mobile prepaid on my iPad Pro with cellular, so I can actually switch between the two, except I've barely traveled at all with my iPad (or I've had wifi everywhere anyway).

Also I know Long Island Sound tends to have full cell coverage, I've been on ferries between LI and CT and see LTE service, not full bars, but usually somewhere in the middle. So it appears cell service still works off of land and I guess the furthest from land the ferry would be about 9 miles.

 

[0128672]

Reliable high-speed internet is a work-in-progress in rural Maine, including smaller island communities. I know the area OP is asking about in Maine, and I think it's going to be a challenge to get what you're hoping for, this summer at least.

 

[heycal]

Thanks, folks. The island definitely poses a challenge from past experience, and this summer I would need even better internet service than usual, so if some sort of hotspot or other gadget doesn't exist that I can bring with me, I might be out of luck.

 

[jaytv111]

Thanks, folks. The island definitely poses a challenge from past experience, and this summer I would need even better internet service than usual, so if some sort of hotspot or other gadget doesn't exist that I can bring with me, I might be out of luck.

Well there are mobile hotspots, yes. But the cell coverage looks to be the limiting factor. You can go to Verizon‘s site and browse for mobile hotspots easily.

Personally I’ve been using my phone and iPad as hotspot devices.

 

[heycal]

So, really, it's as simple as if you don't have great cell coverage, a hotspot can't really help you?

 

[jaytv111]

Well it’s not so simple, like a lot of things in life. I’ll list some options:
1) Use your phone, it’s a perfectly fine hotspot by itself
2) Buy a hotspot device, those also work well and the convenience is not needing to drain your phone battery or plug in your phone as they have their own batteries.
3) Buy a hotspot, but look for one with an antenna port and figure out if you can haul around a big antenna. Don’t know much about this, I would think such devices might be hard to come by though.
4) Buy a hotspot, and here’s an option that hasn’t been mentioned: buy a cellular signal booster too. This is different than an antenna, it actually actively boosts signal. But people typically use them in houses for poor reception in a house.
5) I guess if the sky is the limit, find a car with a hotspot built in, buy it and ferry your car to the island, some cars have hotspots specifically so a family could all connect over WiFi and have a “boosted signal” experience.

But ultimately, yes, the cell signal, while it can be boosted, is going to hit a limit at some point. I would guess if other people used a hotspot device in various places on the island in some small capacity it should work okay, but obviously this is not the most reliable internet solution around, wired fiber optic internet is the most reliable solution for internet.

All you can really do is test it out if you have some spare money to buy a hotspot, and you’ll have to sign up for a plan or get prepaid, and you could cancel it if it doesn’t work out. Here is the Verizon shopping page for mobile hotspots: https://www.verizon.com/internet-de...&mboxSession=b234327379ff40f28a590192fee45706

 

[heycal]

Well it’s not so simple, like a lot of things in life. I’ll list some options:
1) Use your phone, it’s a perfectly fine hotspot by itself
2) Buy a hotspot device, those also work well and the convenience is not needing to drain your phone battery or plug in your phone as they have their own batteries.
3) Buy a hotspot, but look for one with an antenna port and figure out if you can haul around a big antenna. Don’t know much about this, I would think such devices might be hard to come by though.
4) Buy a hotspot, and here’s an option that hasn’t been mentioned: buy a cellular signal booster too. This is different than an antenna, it actually actively boosts signal. But people typically use them in houses for poor reception in a house.
5) I guess if the sky is the limit, find a car with a hotspot built in, buy it and ferry your car to the island, some cars have hotspots specifically so a family could all connect over WiFi and have a “boosted signal” experience.

But ultimately, yes, the cell signal, while it can be boosted, is going to hit a limit at some point. I would guess if other people used a hotspot device in various places on the island in some small capacity it should work okay, but obviously this is not the most reliable internet solution around, wired fiber optic internet is the most reliable solution for internet.

All you can really do is test it out if you have some spare money to buy a hotspot, and you’ll have to sign up for a plan or get prepaid, and you could cancel it if it doesn’t work out. Here is the Verizon shopping page for mobile hotspots: https://www.verizon.com/internet-devices/?adobe_mc=MCMID=67646805090553890030566121807386452811|MCORGID=843F02BE53271A1A0A490D4C%40AdobeOrg|TS=1593133114&mboxSession=b234327379ff40f28a590192fee45706

Given that house has poor cell reception, but is not entirely lacking it, option 4 -- hotspot with a cellular signal booster -- might be the best way to go, and the one that isn't an incredible hassle or huge expense.

Thanks for the link. The wrinkle with the "test it out" plan is that the island is far away, and very time-consuming and expensive to get to. If I can't be reasonably sure something is going to provide enough juice while I'm there to receive and download video files and do zoom screen shares while watching said videos and the like, I may have to skip going there this summer, or at at least, go at a time when I have little work to do.

 

[Taz Mangus]

It’s called Broadband/Fiberoptic internet.

Given that house has poor cell reception, but is not entirely lacking it, option 4 -- hotspot with a cellular signal booster -- might be the best way to go, and the one that isn't an incredible hassle or huge expense.

Thanks for the link. The wrinkle with the "test it out" plan is that the island is far away, and very time-consuming and expensive to get to. If I can't be reasonably sure something is going to provide enough juice while I'm there to receive and download video files and do zoom screen shares while watching said videos and the like, I may have to skip going there this summer, or at at least, go at a time when I have little work to do.

Call your wireless carrier and request a cell signal booster, they might even provide it free of charge. T-Mobile gave me cell signal booster free of charge.

 

[heycal]

It’s called Broadband/Fiberoptic internet.


Call your wireless carrier and request a cell signal booster, they might even provide it free of charge. T-Mobile gave me cell signal booster free of charge.

Good idea about trying to get one for free.

What is called "broadband/fiberoptic internet"?

 

[Taz Mangus]

Good idea about trying to get one for free.

What is called "broadband/fiberoptic internet"?

Ignore my comment about broadband/fiberoptic internet.

 

[Ambrosia7177]

You might also want to consider the concept of "throttling"...

I have been a hotspot user for about 8 years now, and it has been a life-saver - although no islands have been involved.

At the esame time, it is not uncommon for carriers to liit yoru download speeds.

On my AT&T hotspot, I think the download speeds are decent, but I know hotels that i stay at often throttle the hell out of the download speeds - must be to limit all of the porn people download in adjacent rooms!

So part of your problems downloading video might be limits on download speed more so than poor reception.

Just a thought...