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Goatsbeard's profile

Tutor

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12 Messages

Monday, December 4th, 2017 7:11 PM

Hotspot in rural area?

Hello,  I am pretty new to the ability of smart phones other than make a call/answer a call. I keep reading an seeing the word hotspot and someone somewhere at sometime said I could use a hotspot on our computers for internet service. Presently we have excede and use the speed up within 1-2 days. I am installing a Uniden cell phone booster to receive service inside our home if that has anything to do with adding a hotspot. I would like to do away with my landline thus one reason for adding a cell phone booster. Can someone tell me how or if a hotspot can/will work in our situation and give some layman terms of what it can do. At the extreme there are 3-4 computers/iPads, 3-4 smart phones on at one time. Thanks for your help.

ACE - Expert

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64.7K Messages

6 years ago

A hotspot is simply a device that acts as a router for other devices to connect to the internet. Other devices such as computers, tablets, phones, etc connect to the hotspot over wifi and that hotspot is connected to the internet. If you have excede and already have a device that provides wifi, you technically already have a hotspot. Another kind of hotspot is one that connects to the internet over the cellular network. Many phones have the ability to be a hotspot themselves. Whether or not a cellular based hotspot would work for you depends on many factors, one of which is how much data all of your connected devices consume but if you need a booster to receive cellular signals, you likely aren't a candidate for a cellular based hotspot.

Tutor

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12 Messages

6 years ago

Thanks,  So after boosting the cell signal up to where theoretically up to 30 devices can use the booster then the cell hotspot could not handle the load? Being in the rural south we have satellite (excede) internet or dial up, of course the same with tv (Dish network) Can you think of any way to speed up our signal, share the service with mostly 2 computers and 1-2 cell phones? I guess sharing the voice is also out? I was hoping to do away with the landline and the excede Internet with adding this cell booster. It would be ok for our cell bill to go up since we are doing away with the landline bill along with the excede internet bill. Just trying to reduce our bills and improve our service. Being a senior citizen surviving on a fixed income we need to save where possible. Thanks for your help and time.

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