Jump to content

Wi Fi Card?


Recommended Posts

A little of the back ground story first. I like listening to the internet radio, (Slacker), at work after everyone leaves and I like to get my Bengal updates at McDonalds at lunch time, both through my laptop. The IT guy at work is a dick and turned off the wireless internet connection in the office and McDonald's connection is down half the time anymore. I had lunch with a co-worker this week, (not at McDonalds), and he said he has a wireless card he sticks into his laptop, said it runs him about $15 a month through ATT. Could someone enlighten me? If I get one, will I be connecting to ATT's network? Anything that avoids visibility on the company's network is what I'm trying to accomplish, thanks.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

They have a mobile internet connection.  It's a USB device that plugs into your computer which then connects to the (hopefully) 4G network of the mobile carrier from which you purchased it\signed a contract.  You're connecting to the internet via the same network that your cell phone would use, so it would be completely separate from your work network.

 

Most carriers also have mobile hotspots that are little bricks that you can sit next to your computer and does the same thing, kind of like your wireless router at home.

 

And I can't speak to whether your IT guy is a dick or not (a lot of them tend to be), but in his defense, streaming content sucks up a ton of bandwidth...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Anything costing only $15 /mo isn't going to give much data usage, probably a gig at most, so streaming stuff might be sketchy.

There is a wifi card which is an external card that would replace the internal wifi card, so if the it rules allow you to install devices on your laptop then it would undo the crippling of the internal wifi by replacing it with an external one. No monthly fee.

If you don't have permissions to install devices on you laptop, then none of this helps you. You are hosted.

Wifi card = replaces internal wifi card requires mcdonalds or other wifi source

Mobile broadband card = requires a monthly fee! is limited in data usage! sometimes requires a contract

Step one is to find out if you are able to install usb devices on your work computer. If so decide on there above options.

Option 2 is to do all of this via your phone instead of computer or get a tablet.

I am skeptical of the $15 cost. Unless it's a super low amount of data per month. But who knows.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

a mobile broad band card is what i'm looking for. the laptop is mine and has it's own network card.

 

i'm not a big data user unless listening to slacker ten hours a week counts as data usage, then there's probably not a good solution. 

 

thanks for the help.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I picked  up the Samsung LTE Mobile HotSpot PRO at the T-Mobile store over the weekend. T-Mobile has a 'free the music' promotion, (or something like that, unlimited music streaming), so Slacker doesn't count against my plan. I'll watch my usage and see if it's true. I got it up and running Sunday, works just like I had hoped.

 

I appreciate all the input.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I picked  up the Samsung LTE Mobile HotSpot PRO at the T-Mobile store over the weekend. T-Mobile has a 'free the music' promotion, (or something like that, unlimited music streaming), so Slacker doesn't count against my plan. I'll watch my usage and see if it's true. I got it up and running Sunday, works just like I had hoped.

 

I appreciate all the input.

 

nice find. i always forget tmobile exists, i even used to work there...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...