*If you want to keep up the charade that you can't check your e-mail because of no wireless connection, then go on to something else.
Or at least don’t read it if you want to continue to have the excuse/reason that you couldn’t check your e-mail and do remote computing was that you didn’t have Wi-Fi connectivity.
Welcome to our second installment of “gadget week.” A while back, we wrote about what we thought was a pretty cool new blending of cellular and Wi-Fi technology into a single device, typically referred to as “MiFi.” And, even though we are still awaiting the promised test units for Verizon’s MiFi, we think we came across something even cooler.
Thanks to a posting in response to the earlier newsletter, we started checking out Cradlepoint’s products. The first device that we’ve tested is simplicity itself. The PHS 300 is just under 3-inches by 5-inches – and it only has two connectors. One is for an AC power adapter to charge the battery, and the other is a USB slot for your cellular modem. (A wide variety of modems are supported.)
So Steve finally had the opportunity a couple of weeks ago when on “vacation” to give it a test. As always, he had his notebook , but the vacation house he was visiting had no broadband connectivity. And as usual, there were at least two notebooks along.
The product is almost too simple. You plug in the modem, turn on the power, and connect. Assuming you have the correct password, you can even store the login. No need to “dial” to connect. That’s already accomplished.
Throughput was, of course, limited to the cellular system, but performance was very acceptable. And being a full-fledged Wi-Fi router, it provided a reasonable firewall. Range and number of users supported clearly outpace MiFi. In fact, since this industry is so woefully short of acronyms and abbreviations, we believe that the ability to support a small community of users merits the name “WeFi” for this technology.
The sole caveat is that we’re still concerned about the metered service for some cellular providers. Even though 5GB per month is a lot of data, it’s not “unlimited.”
Nevertheless, this definitely gets a “thumbs-up” from us.
Next up for testing? The Wi-Fi router that Cradlepoint provides that is normally connected to a broadband service but automatically falls back to a cellular connection in the event of a broadband failure.
