Terms I am confused about laptop and the mobile stick.
By suspenseful
@suspenseful (40192)
Canada
June 16, 2009 10:18am CST
I am thinking of getting a laptop, and sometime I will be using it other then at home. Now my cell phone company is offering a connection stick and says that by using it, you will get 7.2 Mbps. Now I am not sure about this MBPS, as to its speed. It is the fastest one would get on dial-up, is it equivalent to slow cable or dsl?
They say it is fast, but I am used to cable and that is plenty fast. So what speed is it or how fast is it really fast or are they talking about people who have slow dial up connections and anything that does not take an hour to download is fast?
3 people like this
9 responses
@callarse1 (4783)
• United States
29 Jun 09
Well you have to consider other companies and what you plan on doing.
You said you plan on writing and researching for your novel and looking for videos on youtube. I believe the standard speed for broadband and cable is around 100MBPS (megabits per second). What you will have to do is look at file sizes. For example many of the songs I download are around 5--20 MB so 7.2 MBPS would download anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes. To me, what you need to do the 7.2 MBPS would be good, but if you want it faster then you should look for other companies to see if they can offer bigger than 7.2 megabites per second.
Are you wanting to use it for traveling or something? Or are you wanting to use it in your home? You should be able to set up a wireless network with your cable internet connection at home which would make the mobile internet stick not necessary. Cheers!
Pablo
2 people like this
@suspenseful (40192)
• Canada
7 Jul 09
I planned to use my lap top when I went traveling and also in my living room at home. So it would be for both purposes. I know that when we travel, we usually stay at a motel and that has free wireless connection, but if I stayed where there was no free wireless and where I could not use someone else computer or they did not have wireless, I would have to use a stick. So it would be mainly for back up.
I know when my sister-in-law and her husband went traveling, they lived in a trailer and it cost them an arm and a leg practically to email us.
2 people like this
@suspenseful (40192)
• Canada
29 Aug 09
You're welcome. I was thinking in case we went someplace, and did not want to 'steal' another person's internet connection. I know because our niece was here and she did not feel right about using the neighbor's wireless connection, so I just let her unhook my husband's connection (he cannot use the net anyway because his hands do not work) and let her use our internet connection.
@callarse1 (4783)
• United States
11 Jul 09
Oh I see. You could always check others plans. Sometimes people use dial-up as a back up with their laptops (because you can hook the landline up to the laptop). Sometimes hotels have free computers or free wireless internet. Thanks for the best response!
Pablo
2 people like this
@cynthiann (18612)
• Jamaica
16 Jun 09
Sorry I do not know - this is Greek to me!
2 people like this
@suspenseful (40192)
• Canada
18 Jun 09
Very simple. Had the house renovated, friends dusted and washed the house while we were away for three weeks, stuff in the freezer section of the fridge thrown away, including the softened butter, the package of frozen green beans, the jar of walnuts, the jar of almonds, the ginger, and the package of avocado paste, but I notice in the refrigerator side I guess someone considered that margarine with its trans fat is good for me so it is still there.
1 person likes this
@suspenseful (40192)
• Canada
18 Jun 09
Sorry wrong discussion. It is that I am thinking of getting a lap top and want to know if that speed they offer is equivalent to dial or to slow cable or dsl speed.
1 person likes this
@mtdewgurl74 (18151)
• United States
16 Jun 09
My computer goes between 1.0MBPS to 11.0 MBPS all depending on how good of a connection my wireless picks up. It is way faster then dial up. I know I had dial up.. hated it. So I would say that it would be fast. My mom has a laptop with the same wireless connection and it is really fast on hers.
2 people like this
@suspenseful (40192)
• Canada
24 Jun 09
That makes me feel a lot easier. I always assumed that the mobile stick was sort of a fast dial up, and I know that I hated it when we had it and as soon as cable became available even though it was more expensive, we went right through to it. in the long run, cable was more economical because we did not have to take time out to go to the library to find information and since the stick is just as fast then I do not have to resort to going to the library for research.
1 person likes this
@suspenseful (40192)
• Canada
29 Aug 09
That's okay. I finally figured it out. It is just that that terms as to speed were rather confusing. I just think in terms of cable, dsl, and dial up.
@gitfiddleplayer (10362)
• United States
16 Jun 09
Dial up is slow, no matter what they say. I would check the connection speed in the store before you get it home.
2 people like this
@theonerm5 (365)
• United States
7 Jul 09
Usually with network connections it deals with bits but windows displays this information in bytes. 1 byte is equal to 8 bits. 7.2MBPS = 900 Kilobytes per second. Dial up connections are only 56KBPS which equals only 7 Kilobytes per second. The slowest cable connection I've been on is 3MBPS or only 375 Kilobytes per second.
7.2MBPS is a high speed connection and should be more than enough to satisfy your needs. I've done fine on half that speed before.
2 people like this
@suspenseful (40192)
• Canada
30 Aug 09
I like the internet to be very fast. It is not as if I just do email, but i do a lot of research and looking up things and also downloading audio books (in the public domain of course) and some of these are novels. I have not down loaded a large reference book yet, but give me time, i WILL. All I understand is cable, dsl, and dial up so the stick is not that clear to me.
@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
11 Jul 09
Despite the myriad of conflicting responses that you seem to have had, 7.2 Mbps is a very fast connection. It is actually faster than you can use normally, because the transfer spped depends not only on your speed but also the speed of the server that you connect to. Sites such as Microsoft or Adobe will support this and the connection will be excellent, but many sites will appear to be the same if you use 7.2 Mbps or 1 Mbps.
2 people like this
@danishcanadian (28954)
• Canada
27 Aug 09
I am glad I found this discussion three months later, because I was wondering about the same thing. I would love to have one of these remote internet sticks for those times when i am on the road, or away from home, and would like to access the internet, for whatever reason. I'll have to go back through here and look at the answers you've received so far.
1 person likes this
@faisai (1138)
• Hong Kong
16 Jun 09
7.2Mbp is quite fast actually. If you only view web pages or even youtube, that should do you just fine. If you need to download large files from time to time, things may be different.
My broadband connection is rated at 25Mbps and that is the lowest my ISP is offering. It is now pushing connection of 100Mbps. In practice, I seldom see the need for such high bandwidth because I don't actually have that much to download.
You can do some Maths. 7.2Mbps simply means 7.2 Megabits per second and can translate into 700 kilobytes per second. So, if you need to download a DVD, that will need around an hour and a half to complete.
2 people like this
@suspenseful (40192)
• Canada
16 Jun 09
I will do more then just view web pages, and I would be downloading from youtube. Most of the time, I will be doing a lot of research for my novel, but I do like audiio books and audio so I would be downloading that as well as pdf files. So for me, fast is the essence.
1 person likes this
