SWharton Posted March 15, 2016 Report Share Posted March 15, 2016 I am thinking of getting the Cricket Motorola Moto E to use solely as a hotspot. Cricket has a 10G/month plan for hot spots and it is the best in pricing I can find. I would use it only 6 months of the year when we are traveling. Is there a difference between using a cell phone vs. a "hotspot modem"(I use Straight Talk right now). Does a phone work as well as a hot spot modem? Any other suggestions? Concerns? Thoughts? Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TCW Posted March 15, 2016 Report Share Posted March 15, 2016 ...Does a phone work as well as a hot spot modem?...From previous discussions on this forum, my answer is it seems to depend on the modem and cellphone being compared and possibly the carrier. I had a Pantech hotspot modem through Millenicom, on the Verizon system. which worked very well for me other than an issue with the batteries swelling. That issue was caused by the heat of constantly charging because it was always plugged in and the added heat of using a Wilson Sleek amplifier much of the time. I now have a Pantech ADR930L phone that I use as a hotspot. It will not recognize a 1X signal and does not like a 3G signal for an internet data connection. The modem worked fine on both. And yes, there are still lots of places that 4G is not available and I seem to be good at finding them. The phone seems to slow down after a short period of time when used as a hotspot even on 4G and has to be rebooted. If I tether the phone to a router, this slowdown does not occur. I am sure others will be along to tell you how great their phone works as a hotspot, but as I said, I think performance depends on the make and model of the phone just as it did for stick modems and hotspot modems/mifis. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pieere Posted March 15, 2016 Report Share Posted March 15, 2016 I bought the Kyocera Hydra View form Cricket for the hot spot as a replacement for my outdated Samsung Galaxy Express. It has worked well for me, but had it for only about 1&1/2 months! The coverage map is about the same as most others since they were bought by AT&T! 10 gb and the hotspot service is $70.00 monthly! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SWharton Posted March 15, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 15, 2016 This is the type of info I am looking for. My Straight Talk Hot Spot is ATT and I have been very happy with it for 2 years. My problem is that spend $70/month for 7G. The Cricket offer is so much better especially since I just switched to W10 and have forced downloads. My only problem is my current phone isn't supported as a hot spot. I figure on ordering the $29.95 Motorola Moto and just use it as a hot spot. I just went to order the Moto and they are out of stock. I'll try again next week. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pieere Posted March 16, 2016 Report Share Posted March 16, 2016 S. Warton; if you go to the settings>then Updates & security>then advanced settings>you can select and option there to delay auto updates! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SWharton Posted March 16, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 16, 2016 Ah!!! Thanks..................I had read(a while ago) that you couldn't stop the updates and this was to me, a major negative. I guess enough of us complained. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SWharton Posted March 17, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 17, 2016 Well I went to turn off the updates. I have the Home version and there isn't an option to stop W10 from updating. I did read that you could tell W10 that your internet connection was "metered" and it wouldn't update. I haven't looked for that yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pieere Posted March 17, 2016 Report Share Posted March 17, 2016 S. Wharton you need to click> advanced Options> then notify to update. You need the Updates as Malware; Trojans and rootkits can infect your computer! Read the post on it form RV today, Malvertising! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SWharton Posted March 17, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 17, 2016 I did check off notify but the implication is that the download is still done, just no install until I authorize it. I am trying to stop the downloads until I have the bandwidth to do the download. If I say my internet is metered I am under the impression no download will be done. Is this a correct understanding? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pieere Posted March 19, 2016 Report Share Posted March 19, 2016 There is some threads about using a metered connection to stop the downloads. Start a new thread here and ask the question! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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