After a stressful weekend from my Hughes.net modem dying and doing without internet for two days already, I spent some more time on the phone Sunday with Hughes trying to get service restored sooner than 10 days. They helped all they could, but besides the wait, I realized how much the service call plus replacing my out-of-warranty modem was going to cost. Not a good feeling!
So. . .I called Verizon and had a very productive talk about the MiFi 2200. We’ve wanted something mobile to take camping with us since getting the Casita in 2008, so now seemed to be a good time to make a change.
We drove off to visit the nearest Verizon store and had an extremely knowledgeable and helpful representative helping us. I was concerned about the MiFi not having a jack for an external antennae, but don’t know for sure how much we’d need one or how much good it would do. So — we decided to get the MiFi, starting with the 5G/$50/mo plan. That’s the same usage plan with Hughes for $59.95. And if we need to increase the limit, we can do 10G/$80/mo. So far, so good.
Oops, they didn’t have any new MiFi units in stock! Oh, no — another wait to have internet at home. But (wait for it), they have a loaner for people to use while waiting for a new unit to arrive in 3 days via FedEx.
Considering that our cell fons sometimes don’t get a good signal at our house in the woods between two hills, I was glad to be able to check out this unit before committing to buying one. OMG, once I got everything running, my email downloaded even faster than at the Library. And definitely faster than Hughes.net. Can you picture me drooling or hyperventilating or something? We expect to have some connection issues at times (as we had with Hughes), but I wonder if somehow it’s built to do more with a weaker signal.
When we went out to the grocery store yesterday, I took my laptop & MiFi with me to see just how “mobile” it really is. Other than some interference around the airport, it just hummed right along.
Our new MiFi should be delivered TOMORROW! YEAH!
Thank you for stopping by to follow my adventures (& misadventures) since Jume 2011 as I travel & live fulltime in a 17' Liberty Deluxe Casita (a molded fiberglass travel trailer). This is a history of my experiences & hopefully will provide help to others with the same dreams. Hope to meet you down the road sometime.
I've been very happy with my Mifi, although it has been loading things much more slowly the past couple of days. That could be due to astral or even solar influences, so I'll see how it goes. I had been using an air card and that was mostly unsatisfactory. I hope you like the Mifi. I watch the usage though - YouTube is a glutton for bandwidth as are any kind of videos. I listen to music (Pandora Radio) and it doesn't seem to use much.
ReplyDeleteI love your Casita all covered in snow, ours looked like that a lot this winter.
ReplyDeleteI just stopped by to say Happy Birthday!!!
Patti
Happy Birthday Glenda, I just now found your blog, I had a header like yours when we were snowed in, Have you heard, they are starting a Dinner Train in Columbia, maybe sometime ewe can meet there on a weekend at either Cottonwoods or the Fair Grounds,the fairgrounds in only $12 to camp and you can pirate the wi-fi from Cottonwoods which is next door, We were at the Good Sams Rally there in Oct. It is a good half way point between us and KC. Be safe out there. Sam & Donna....
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