Traveling to Houston to play with my 18 month old Luvey (granddaughter) right now and so excited that I can connect to the internet now while traveling. The train is supposed to have free Wi Fi but when I tried it before I couldn't get it to work. So I brought my little connection do that from home...and it works! Hurrah!
Hi Babs...how long does the train journey take to Houston from where you live? I often use my laptop on the train or more recently my Ipad
That's great, isn't it? I have used my hotspot for the same thing, and have even gotten online while in the car, with my wife driving. No longer do I have to worry about whether a hotel has a good connection or not, either. Things have gotten so much better in that way, as hotel connections had long been a point of contention.
Traveling is one of the reasons why my husband is considering to buy a laptop to replace the old desktop at home. We are travelers and we usually travel abroad and locally. And since my husband needs a computer every day (for his work in the office) he would suffice with the smart phone which gives him difficulty in using. And maybe when he finally gets a laptop this year then he will have peace of mind when we are abroad or even in a local resort.
Nope...not crowded at all, have both seats to myself and just finished watching a movie on my laptop. Will be in Houston in less than an hour.
I love my laptop. Once I got that I donated my Desktop to my daughter who's a teacher and uses it in her classroom.
Okay, @Ken Anderson , prepare thyself to laugh at Mari... but ... uh... what's a hotspot, and how do I get one? Okay, I'm not THAT naive to think it's something tangible I can just go out and buy but I mean on which technology could I find it? If it's SmartPhone, it's no wonder I don't know about it because I won't touch one of those. I'd so love to be able to use my tablet in the car on road trips, or at hotels that have lousy wifi. So I guess what I'm asking is if it's a certain kind of gadget I'd need, or a service I'd buy for what I already have. Okay, you can stop laughing now... it wasn't THAT doggone funny!
I didn't know what it was called either Mari. When we moved to our new place I was looking for cheaper internet service and found it through this neat little device. I can't stream movies, etc. But I can do the things I like doing besides that...and it only cost me $23. per month. I had to pay something for the little device...I'd have to check my file box to find the receipt on that. I had no idea it would hook me up to the internet away from home too. Now I'm loving it even more!
I don't know which providers or devices include it, but I am grandfathered to a Verizon hotspot that gives me unlimited data. We run three televisions, two computers (or more), and a couple of Rokus through our Verizon hotspot, which acts as our Internet provider. Verizon no longer offers unlimited data, nor does anyone else as far as I know, but Verizon does offer a hotspot, as does US Cellular, and I'm sure others as well, and you can get a pretty reasonable amount of data with your plan. You will need to watch your data though because unless you have unlimited data, overages can be expensive. Ask your cellphone provider about an Internet hotspot through your cellphone. There are also stand-alone hotspots available, but I don't have any experience with them.
Some of the tablets are cellular, and they will work on LTE, just like the cell phones do, @Mari North . My iPhone also has a hotspot and we can use that if we are away from a wifi connection. When we went to Washington State last fall to be there for my son's open heart surgery, sometimes we connected with the hospital wifi, and when it wasn't working good, we just used LTE. Comcast has Xfinity wifi that anyone who uses Comcast can connect with , any place where there is Comcast service, and you are close to one of their hotspots. I am not sure if any of the other internet services have that available, but they might. I totally LOVE traveling on a train, and have loved that since I was a little girl. The longest train trip that I took was from north Idaho out to Richmond VA, when my daughter was in the military and stationed at Ft. Eustis. For most of the trip, it was not crowded, and since I am short, I had no trouble sleeping across the seats in my row. During the day, I went up to the vista dome (observation car) where you can look out in every direction and see what is in front and behind the train as well as on the sides. I would truly love to take another trip across the country by train, and even better, to go on a vacation that way ! They offer special rates for seniors; but if you are going very far, it is still really expensive.
I would love to do that also, Yvonne. The scenic routes can be expensive! I also have the same situation with my iphone and IPad . When I'm out I'm in LTE. Many places though like malls, airports etc let you connect to their wireless. My devices even recognize places I've been and I connect automatically. San Jose airport for one and Nordstroms at the mall.