For this year’s Black Friday spots on the WBIR morning show I decided to look for a handful of devices that I thought were either going to be a big hit over the holiday season or at least had HUGE potential.  This is different from the years past when we did the “shotgun approach” of doing just quick little highlights of tons of stuff… and to be honest, I think I like this better.  I reserve the right to change my mind down the road, but for now… lets dig in.   The first device we’ll have a look at is the MiFi 2200 Mobile Hotspot from Sprint.

    Manufactured by Novatel Wireless for Sprint, the MiFi 2200 Mobile Hotspot is just what you would imagine it is… a mobile spot.  The device itself is roughly the size of a credit card and about a quarter of an inch thick (guessing here), and is about as simple as you can get.  You push a button; it connects to the internet via Sprint’s 3G network and then begins broadcasting an 802.11 b/g WiFi signal which you can connect up to 5 devices to.  Once connected, you can surf till your heart is content… or until the battery dies (approximately 4 hours of constant use), whichever happens first.  Pretty sweet.  The days of driving around town trying to find a restaurant with WiFi are over, now you can go wherever the cellular signal takes you.  Granted, you could do this with an air card of some nature as well, but four of your friends couldn’t join you (okay… so you could turn your laptop into an access point, but really, only an ubergeek would do such a thing).  Also, consider this: there are no drivers to install!  You’ll never find yourself in a bind because you just reloaded the OS on your laptop and it didn’t occur to you to install the air card drivers until after you’ve already hit the road.  You simply connect to it like you would any other accesspoint and you’re off to the races.

Setup and Use 

    The MiFi setup is as straightforward as any other wireless AP.  On first use, you connect to the wireless SSID (Sprint Mifi 2200…) and browse to http://192.168.1.1.  You will be prompted to login with the default login password (admin) and then a setup wizard takes over.

The setup wizard allows you to configure a new login password, followed by the WiFi profiles setup, and then you are finished!

    The WiFi profiles are actually a neat and interesting feature of the device.  The unit comes with three different profile types available for you to choose from (only one can be in use at a time): Open, Secure, and Temporary Hotspot.  Open is just a traditional WiFi hotspot with no security and any device within “earshot” of it can connect.  The Secure profile allows you to configure a protected wireless network with WEP 64, WEP 128 (seriously people… can we please stop referring to WEP as secure?  It’s not… let it go already), WPA Personal/PSK, WPA2 Personal/PSK, or WPA/WPA2 Mixed Mode (which is nice if you’ve got two laptops, one that supports WPA2 and one that only supports WPA. Otherwise, WPA2 Personal is what you should be using).  Think of this as your own little personal wireless network that only you connect to and one that allows you to do sensitive transactions over the air.  The last option, the Temporary Hotspot, generates a WEP 64 key that you can then share with your friends.  This is great if you are hanging out in a public place and want to maintain some control over who connects and who doesn’t.  Keep in mind though that this is using WEP, so I wouldn’t recommend doing anything sensitive over this connection.  It’s merely an option to keep the casual laptop user off your network.  A determined user will be able to jump on given enough time (which really only requires a few minutes if the person knows what they are doing).

When you go back home, or your friends leave, you can jump back in the administration interface and switch the profile back to Secure.  Really cool idea.

    After the initial setup of the device, you can also enable GPS on the unit which opens up some fun functionality.  With GPS enabled you can do searches, based on your location, for things like the nearest coffee shops, hotels, banks, and of course the nearest Sprint store.

The search results will be displayed on the selected provider’s maps page, which can then be used to get directions from your current location.  Very handy idea for those who’ll be using this as their internet access while on the road.

    Additionally you can do things like setup port forwarding, change the wireless IP settings, manage how the unit uses power, AND backup the configuration.  That is a WHOLE lot more than I was expecting.

But is it fast??

    The most common question I’ve been asked since demoing the unit is “How fast is the internet connection?”  Fortunately since it connects to Sprint’s 3G network, the answer is a good one.  I found the connectivity to be roughly that of my home DSL connection (the upload speed was actually faster) and have been able to consistently get just under 1Mb download speeds from the device as compared to 1.14Mb download speed on my Bellsouth DSL.  Now, we’re not setting any records here by today’s standards, but it is certainly fast enough to download a song or two from iTunes while you’re at the park or watch your favorite YouTube or Hulu videos.  From a business use perspective, you’ll be able to connect to your corporate email system or VPN without a hitch.

    Another common question is “What is the range of the wireless?”.  Novatel actually advertises it to be around 30 feet but I would say that is a tad conservative.  As I’m writing this, I’m actually connected to the device which is sitting in another room in my house and is definitely farther than 30 feet away and through a couple walls.  I admittedly only have 1 bar from this distance, as compared to my home wireless AP which has 4 bars from the same distance, but it is working just fine considering the fact that the MiFi has no external antennas and is drastically smaller than the ‘ole Linksys (and much more mobile!).  This is great news for businesses as they could send one device with a sales team to use while they are on the road together and it wouldn’t require them to be in the same hotel room in order to share the connection.  A lower number devices obviously equals a lower total cost of ownership for mobile wireless internet connectivity.

Okay… what’s it cost?

    Posting prices of things always gets a little tricky with blogs so I’ll say “as of this writing”; the local Sprint corporate store has them for $199 with a $100 mail-in rebate and the online Sprint store has them at $249 with an instant $100 rebate and a $50 mail-in rebate… either way you cut it, they are $99.  Both the online store AND the local store are offering a $59 per month data plan for the unit with a 2 year contract and the local store also offers a $79 per month plan if you just want to pay monthly with no contracts.  When you consider the cost of DSL plans today and then throw in the mobility factor, that’s a pretty good deal in my opinion.

So what’s the final word?  I personally think this is an awesome device and a great value for personal or business use (especially business use actually).  Given the size, price, and the overall functionality of the unit I don’t think you could go wrong picking one of these up for yourself or a loved one this holiday season.  Check one out and let me know what you think!  Also, keep an eye out for the spot on WBIR (and on this blog), it will be airing Thanksgiving morning at around 6:40AM-ish.  Till next time!

– Dan Thompson

P.S. Special thanks to Alissa Phillips, store manager at my local Sprint corporate store, for letting me borrow a MiFi 2200 Mobile Hotspot!

    I’ve had fun talking about the OS in BETA form (First Impressions and Introducing Win 7), but our work isn’t finished yet.  Stay tuned for articles in the near future discussing “XP Mode”, which I mention in today’s spot, as well as some insight to the deployment and management of the new operating system.

– Dan Thompson

– Dan Thompson

      The discussion focuses on what we’re telling people online that we shouldn’t be, and it’s a valid question to consider while you’re interacting with the online community.  Seemingly harmless statements like, "It’s so nice to be on vacation," could lead to bad circumstances for you and/or your family.  How well do we know our online "friends"?  How comfortably should we be telling the world that our houses are unoccupied for a week? This man learned the hard way (link). 

      And this is nothing new, but our online image is as good as reality.  The trend for employers to do online searches of potential employee’s names keeps growing as we represent ourselves online more and more.  Bashing somebody’s product or brand could come back to haunt you.  To take it one step further, there’s at least one documented case of an employer requiring job candidates to reveal usernames and passwords for their online/social media presence.  These companies are trying to see what kind of people they’re hiring and use the web to peek into our lives. Yikes!

      So should we just not talk about ANYTHING online?  I recently posed this question to Martin Roesch, the CEO of a well respected network security company I follow on Twitter who openly discussed current business travels in Europe online.  His response was that he didn’t think he fit the profile of someone who would get broken in to since his house is well secured and though HE was out of town… the rest of his family was not.  For others though, this might not be the case.  He later made a good point that "people should use their judgment about the risk profile that they live within" and act accordingly.

      As a full disclosure, I recently discussed my own vacation to the Southwest on Facebook, but I did NOT mention it on Twitter.  I just don’t know a large majority of my followers and don’t feel comfortable sharing that type of information with them.  That’s my level of comfort, though… what’s yours?

For other things to consider, check out the video and let me know what you think.  Am I too paranoid?

– Dan Thompson

P.S. Special thanks to Mr. Roesch.  I promise I’ll stop cyberstalking you now.

   As I have mentioned before, this whole thing started back in 2005 when the US Congress passed the “Deficit Reduction Act of 2005” which mandated the move from analog TV to digital by February 17, 2009.  Along with this mandate came $1.5 billion (see the irony?) in funding to give to the American people to help them purchase converter boxes so they wouldn’t be left with “snow” after the great switch.  The next great twist in the story comes with the election of President Obama.  He and the current Congress decide that the people aren’t ready, and so push the deadline back to June 12, 2009.  I’m pretty sure it’s going to happen this time.  =)

   So why make the change in the first place and how in the world could this possibly help reduce a deficit?  Great question.  The FCC’s knee jerk response to the first part of that question is that it provides a better viewing experience for everyone, and allows for more channels.  You didn’t know they cared so much, did you?  Keep reading and you get to the good part.  They also mention that these freed up frequencies will be used for emergency responders like police, ambulance services, etc… AND some of it will be sold off to private companies. Ahhh… there we go.  Turns out the FCC turned that $1.5 billion investment into $19.6 billion by selling off some of the analog channels… the largest purchasers being AT&T and Verizon Wireless.  What are they going to do with it?  Awesome question.  Heard of 4G yet? Verizon plans to increase the speed and footprint of it’s network with part of the frequency block it purchased into what is now being called the “4G” network (due out 2010).  There are also rumors of more “TV type services” being relayed to phones as well talk of public WiFi offerings from both companies.  Faster phones, faster internet connections, and cool new stuff on our phones? I’m in.  It’s looking like our dear old friend Mr. Analog (or at least the airspace he used to occupy) isn’t going that far after all.

Take a look at the spot and let me know what you think, oh, and don’t forget to rescan those channels!

– Dan Thompson

– Dan Thompson

– Dan Thompson

— Dan Thompson