Which do you prefer?

ChicagoBlue2

ChicagoBlue2

Veteran Traveler
Premium Member
Joined
Nov 21, 2013
Messages
12,688
Reaction score
1
Here's a question for you all. Which do you prefer? A home WiFi, a travel WiFi, or both? For me personally, I prefer my travel WiFi, because it has a stronger reception than the home WiFi I occasionally use, but here's the thing-- the home WiFi has two different Internet providers-- Comcast and AT&T, and I've been told they won't conflict with each other (Because the AT&T WiFi is wired into the AT&T box just outside the back door), but I have my doubts about that-- there have been multiple issues, up to and including the ntouch VP not working properly, and despite the ntouch VP being a good upgrade, we still have problems, which is why I prefer ntouch PC and ntouch mobile, as they run far smoother than it does, and it's generally not supposed to, but it is what it is.

Now my question is this: do you prefer a home WiFi or a travel one? And why? Comments welcome :)
 
Bottesini said:
Home. More reliable in my experience.
Click to expand...

That generally is the case, but not here-- there's always a good chance the WiFi's will stop working at any given moment, and it HAS happened before, which is why I cannot trust them too much, except for one, which seems to be the best home WiFi around here, and it does have security, but the one on the 2nd floor does not (The Comcast box itself has security inside of it), and if I'm doing banking business, I would prefer to use a secure WiFi than that of one that's NOT secure, and since my travel WiFi already came with a password included, I don't bother with it-- just leave it as is, and hope I don't lose it (I haven't yet done so).
 
Mark, why do you have two service providers at your home? What kind of security do they have--WEP, WPA, WPA2?

Your travel (I presume you mean mobile) WiFi is password protected, correct? What do you mean you don't bother with it?
 
Reba said:
Mark, why do you have two service providers at your home? What kind of security do they have--WEP, WPA, WPA2?

Your travel (I presume you mean mobile) WiFi is password protected, correct? What do you mean you don't bother with it?
Click to expand...

My bad. I forgot to mention that part. Each person has the right to choose what they want to have here, but really, their options are limited-- it's either Comcast or AT&T, and quite frankly, I didn't agree with that (I don't own this house), but it's not my decision. Now, to answer your question about WiFi protection, the AT&T ones DO have WPA2, as does my mobile hotspot, so I don't need to change or configure much with it. The one that's connected to the Comcast box on the 2nd floor, that one isn't protected by security, but the Comcast box itself DOES have heavy security on it already-- I saw it when the tech person was working on it-- it's some serious protection. I also didn't mention that my cell phone has a private hotspot (For which I pay just $10/month for), which I use in an emergency, but mainly I'll use the one I'm paying regularly for. My phone's hotspot has AES security, which means it has both WPA/WPA2 security.

Update: I just checked my phone's mobile hotspot, and it says WPA2 PSK. That itself is some serious security. I don't know of many WiFi routers that have the PSK portion added to it. I only know of WEP, WPA, and WPA2. This WPA2 PSK is fairly new, but I sense it's the strongest there is. Before I updated my phone, it used to have WPA/WPA2 combined, but I don't know if WPA2 PSK is the same as that or not? I know that WPA/WPA2 equaled AES, but I don't know if WPA2 PSK is AES or not. I just got done checking my hotspot for travel, and those WiFi's around the neighborhood, and ALL of them have WPA2 protection, which would show that I have serious protection on my phone. In fact, I don't even know if other wireless phone companies allow their customers to set up this kind of security-- I also don't know if many WiFi routers have that kind of option, either.
 
Last edited:
markengland29 said:
Here's a question for you all. Which do you prefer? A home WiFi, a travel WiFi, or both? For me personally, I prefer my travel WiFi, because it has a stronger reception than the home WiFi I occasionally use, but here's the thing-- the home WiFi has two different Internet providers-- Comcast and AT&T, and I've been told they won't conflict with each other (Because the AT&T WiFi is wired into the AT&T box just outside the back door), but I have my doubts about that-- there have been multiple issues, up to and including the ntouch VP not working properly, and despite the ntouch VP being a good upgrade, we still have problems, which is why I prefer ntouch PC and ntouch mobile, as they run far smoother than it does, and it's generally not supposed to, but it is what it is.

Now my question is this: do you prefer a home WiFi or a travel one? And why? Comments welcome :)
Click to expand...

Depend.

There is different routers types of WIFI as A,B,G,N, and AC.

I prefer N over A,B, and G for long range and speed.

Travel? You mean MIFI/hotspot? You use it as home only but not travel a lot? It's bad idea and eat up your usage quick if you use it as VP or Netflix a lot.
 
The Highlander said:
Depend.

There is different routers types of WIFI as A,B,G,N, and AC.

I prefer N over A,B, and G for long range and speed.

Travel? You mean MIFI/hotspot? You use it as home only but not travel a lot? It's bad idea and eat up your usage quick if you use it as VP or Netflix a lot.
Click to expand...

Yes, I do mean a hotspot. I actually use it for both home and travel, and the hotspot I have from Clear/Sprint is a prepaid one, so I'm not worried about usage, cause the price stays the same. Now, as for my phone's hotspot, that one I have to be careful with, cause I can't use it too much, and only in an extreme emergency.
 

Attachments

  • ClearSpot.jpg
    ClearSpot.jpg
    83.4 KB · Views: 5
Home. Because it's connected up to my proper cable modem and if the Wifi ever fails, I can just use my network cable to connect my stuff.

I had a portable wifi box (basically a 3G modem) for a month while I was waiting for my cable to be hooked up after I moved. It was pathetic. Bad signal, slow speeds, it was better than nothing but not by very much!
 
metalangel said:
Home. Because it's connected up to my proper cable modem and if the Wifi ever fails, I can just use my network cable to connect my stuff.

I had a portable wifi box (basically a 3G modem) for a month while I was waiting for my cable to be hooked up after I moved. It was pathetic. Bad signal, slow speeds, it was better than nothing but not by very much!
Click to expand...

Inside a home it's not great, but when you travel, depending on your location, it's not too bad. Now, I was recently on a home visit, and it didn't work down there, but my phone's mobile hotspot did, and I was able to access my VP before heading to the Amtrak.
 
If I really desperately need to get on the internet while travelling and I can't do whatever it is with my phone, I use my tethering connection on my phone.

But usually if I'm travelling, I'm trying to get away from it all and want to enjoy my trip, not all the usual crap on the internet.
 
metalangel said:
If I really desperately need to get on the internet while travelling and I can't do whatever it is with my phone, I use my tethering connection on my phone.

But usually if I'm travelling, I'm trying to get away from it all and want to enjoy my trip, not all the usual crap on the internet.
Click to expand...

Yes, one would like to enjoy their trip, but for me, the Internet is a necessity, because of various reasons. If I don't have WiFi, I can use 3G on my phone, but it eats up my battery, though, but I DO have a 4G portable WiFi I can use.
 
Back
Top