Advice needed on wifi options at a location with no internet connection

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redMGB

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#257093 14-Sep-2019 16:54

Hi,

I am with SeniorNet in Palmerston North. We are moving from dedicated premises to using rented halls and other venues around PN. Not all of these have an internet connection (or a reliable one) and we need that for presentations, small workshops and one-on-one help sessions, and for admin work. We have successfully used a tethered smartphone, and smartphone hotspot for presentations, but I'm not sure if that solution would work for a class of 6 people learning Gmail (for example). Would a dedicated mobile data/wifi device be a better option? This has to be portable and quick and easy to use - and it needs to work.

Does anybody have some suggestions as to what would work for us, and what provider might have useful options to make this work? (I like some of the data options that 2Degrees offer, is anything else likely to be better)?

Thanks.

........................John.

hio77

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#2317832 14-Sep-2019 17:06

Sounds like the perfect usecase for a mobile broadband option.

I'd just get yourself something like a B618 and you will be set.

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K8Toledo

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#2317908 14-Sep-2019 19:00

hio77:

Sounds like the perfect usecase for a mobile broadband option.

I'd just get yourself something like a B618 and you will be set.

Provided no Stop Sell is in place? :P

robjg63

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#2317909 14-Sep-2019 19:04

hio77:
Sounds like the perfect usecase for a mobile broadband option.

I'd just get yourself something like a B618 and you will be set.

He is talking about a 4g mobile broadband router.
Maybe check if the premises has mobile broadband.
Spark, skinny, Vodafone 2 degrees etc

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hio77

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#2317927 14-Sep-2019 19:39

K8Toledo:

hio77:

Sounds like the perfect usecase for a mobile broadband option.

I'd just get yourself something like a B618 and you will be set.

Provided no Stop Sell is in place? :P

I was recommending the device iteself, not a spark connection in this instance.

that simply wouldnt be right for this usecase, it would get geolocked.

However, with a standard sim (eg the 2d ones OP is eying up) it would work well.

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coffeebaron

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#2317958 14-Sep-2019 22:56

How much data do you need per month? What's your budget on monthly spend?

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redMGB

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#2318016 15-Sep-2019 09:53

"How much data do you need per month? What's your budget on monthly spend?"

Our needs are variable, but I would estimate an average of only 1 or 2 GB per month, but maybe a peak of 5GB some months. We aren't a 40 hour a week organisation! Our budget is as low as we can make it - we're a non-profit group. I was thinking of a mobile account for this of, say, $30-40 per month.

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hio77

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#2318028 15-Sep-2019 10:43

Which fits in perfectly with dropping a normal sim into a solid modem.

As you already noted, hotspotting does work, but stability wise, it's not the best option.

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michaelmurfy

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#2318060 15-Sep-2019 12:16

2degrees offer data sharing with their plans so for example, if you have a mobile with them on account you can share some data to another sim (prepaid) that is in a wireless router. This means you could allocate a few gb of your plan to the wireless router and still use the sim for your own personal calls etc.

If you like, I do have an older Skinny 4G router (can't remember the model sorry however @hio77 can likely guess the model) that I have been using for this. I am happy to preconfigure it for 2degrees so you can pop a 2degrees prepaid sim into it and share data. Yours for the cost of shipping.

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hio77

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#2318066 15-Sep-2019 12:43

B315.

I recommend the B618 for the efficiency and performance gains though.
Particularly if you possibly end up in 2.4ghz dense locations.

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redMGB

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#2318096 15-Sep-2019 13:59

Thanks to everybody for their comments on this. I now know the way to go forward with this. I'll look out for that B618 (or similar), and look at 2Degrees for our data. All I have to do now is convince our committee to spend the money - shouldn't be too difficult.