How to Get Online Away From Home or Work

E ver since the days of the fax machine and
clamshell PC, I've delighted in the concept of
working away from home or office.
I have fond memories of lugging those clunkers
from the back of my car in and out of motel
rooms through bone-chilling blizzards and driving
rain -- adding to the carry-load, certainly, but
bringing freedom.
With many of us now accumulating multiple
connected mobile devices, including laptops,
tablets, cameras and phones -- all of which can
accompany us on sojourns out of the workspace
and home -- one might ask: What's the most
efficient and cost-effective way to keep online
while away from the economical, unlimited
Internet pipes available at our fixed locations?
Here's what you need to know.

Step 1: Determine how much Web browsing and
email data you use in a month.
Are you streaming or downloading multimedia, or
just browsing the Web and checking email?
If all you have is one smartphone that you use to
check email and social networks, you can survive
on a domestic data add-on from your smartphone
wireless carrier, which will be a good combination
of always-available convenience an arguably
reasonable price.
For example, one hour of navigation directions
per day and 1,500 Web pages and 1,500 text-only
e-mails per month will often add up to less than 1
GB, which is often an entry-level phone plan
offering.
Tip: Data counter apps are available in app
stores. 3G Watchdog for Android , for example,
will let you calculate real-time usage.

Step 2: Determine how much video or
multimedia you use.
One hour of streaming video per day can add up
to 7 GB per month. This is often more than
wireless carriers allow before throttling, or than
they will sell you at a reasonable price.
Two hours of streamed music per day requires 4
GB of data a month; 15 minutes of video calling
per day requires 1 GB of data a month.
If you don't look at video, you'd be surprised at
how little data you use. However, if you do, or
you want to, and want to do it without being
gouged, you need to improvise a bit.

Step 3: Look for free WiFi hotspots.
Use your wireless mobile network for non-data-
intensive Internet, like email and Web only, and
then find free hotspots for media downloads.
Free hotspots can include hotel lobbies; bars;
Starbucks; McDonald's; and your cable company --
look for the CableWiFi identifier.
Tip: Boingo is a WiFi on-the-go service that
provides access to free and paid hotspots for a
monthly subscription.

Step 4: Pool resources with others.
If you, your coworkers or your family use multiple
smartphones, tablets, e-readers, iPods and so on,
you can avoid multiple payments to wireless
carriers, or hotels and the like, by creating one
connection that everyone hooks up to.
Look for the term "MiFi," or Mobile Hotspot, from
your wireless carrier.
Tip: Verizon will sell you a prepay Jetpack Prepaid
LTE hotspot for US$99.99 and then pay-in-
advance service of $90 for 10GB valid for one
month.

Step 5: Tether your devices to your phone.
Mobile phone networks offer a tethering option
by which you can purchase a tethering add-on
that lets you connect tablets and PCs to your
smartphone wirelessly. The phone acts as
modem.
Tip: Sprint offers mobile hotspot add-ons that
range up to 6GB of shared data for $49.95 over
and above your existing plan.
Step 6: Use your laptop as connection.
I've written about this recently: Your PC connects
to the hotspot and the brood connects to the PC,
saving configuration time and money.

Step 7: Choose satellite services in remote
areas or at sea.
If all you want is your Twitter feed and there
aren't any hotspots or mobile service where you
spend time, Inmarsat's IsatPhone Pro is easily
configured with free incoming tweets in an SMS
text-like readout on the phone's handset.
Prepay SIM cards, newly available in the U.S.,
start at around $90 and last two years. The phone
itself costs $660 on Amazon.
More data-intensive broadband solutions are
available from Inmarsat's BGAN service. If you
need to ask the price on that one, you can't
afford it.

Want to Ask a Tech Question?

Is there a piece of tech you'd like to know how to
operate properly? Is there a gadget that's got you
confounded? Please send your tech questions to
me , and I'll try to answer as many as possible in
this column.