my name is mwd

Today and tomorrow I have been and will be attending WhereCampEU, a geo hacking unconference. We were warned in advance that the wifi might be iffy, so I used this as an excuse to finally get a Mifi, which I’d been pondering getting for a while:

The Mifi is essentially a 3G data only device that you connect to over wifi. So you can turn it on, put it back in your bag, connect your laptop to it over wifi, and it talks to the wider Internet over 3G. It’s like the USB dongles that people use for mobile Internet access, but as it uses wifi you can share that connection if you like, and it’s less fiddly than having something sticking out the side of your laptop all the time.

I’ve used it in anger today in London during the first day of WhereCampEU, and it’s been great. The LED based user interface is confusing until you realise that it’s just little tardy – if after pressing any of the buttons you imagine there’s an hourglass for two to five seconds, then it makes sense. After connection though it’s anything but tardy. Both the brief use in Cambridge, and today just of Euston Road in London, and I got nice fast broadband rates. An there’s not much in the way of configuration – just use the supplied cryptic wifi password and you’re online.

The Mifi comes on the Three network in the UK (not seen it on any other provider here yet). Three’s coverage isn’t as good as other networks, but when it does work it’s meant to be fast (up to 7 Mbps in some areas), and my limited experience seems to back that up. It’s fifty quid on pay as you go, so not as cheap as a USB dongle, but given the convenience, and that you can’t use a USB dongle with iPhones or iPads, I think it’s a better option.