Mobile Wi-Fi Box

To mobile Internet users, connection is everything. At present, users have two choices: connect to a Wi-Fi hotspot or connect to a cellular network. As technology advances, we now have a third choice: mobile Wi-Fi.

NYTimes reports a new kind of mobile gadgets that allows users to bring Wi-Fi networks with them anywhere they go. How does it work?

[A mobile Wi-Fi box] requires the insertion of a PC laptop card provided by a cellular carrier like Verizon, Sprint or Cingular. The card provides the Internet connection, courtesy of those companies’ 3G (”third generation”) high-speed cellular data networks. The box just rebroadcasts that connection as a Wi-Fi signal so that all nearby computers � not just one privileged laptop � can go online.

I think this is a really cool idea. For a single user, the monthly fee for a dedicated 3G connection can be expensive. Using a mobile Wi-Fi box, multiple users can share a single connection and thus lower the average connection cost.

Nevertheless, there can be some negative side effects to mobile Wi-Fi box, e.g. network security. While many people have wireless networks at home, but many of them are not secured. If people are to “carry” their wireless networks with them everywhere they go, unsecured networks will be easy targets for cyber criminals.

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