Idea to help Fire Victims....Internet Kiosks (EVDO card help???)
 

What if I used a few laptops with a few EVDO data cards
and turned the HugMobile into an internet Kiosk / charging station for techno-starved Fire Evacuees???

Seems like a perfect combo to me: Free Hugs and email access. Definitely 2 of my basic spiritual food groups!

Does anyone know:

1) How hard is it to network an EVDO connection to 1 or 2 other laptops?

2) If I was gonna start a new data plan outright, do you have a suggestion for a company?
is Sprint/Tmobile/ATt&T better?

3) Is there a better way to do this?

Nice idea, but seems like a major undertaking. Thank goodness they predict that 80% of the fires will be under control by Saturday. The weather is helping out.

Not hard at all on the networking side. There are little boxes that do just this, you just slap your EVDO card in it, configure a couple things, and it's a mobile Access Point.

However, a couple holes.

1. Are the cell networks in the area jammed yet? I've heard reports that they are. If so, EVDO may not be very useful.

2. Even if the cellular networks are holding up to the voice traffic, I'm assuming more than a couple folks are hammering away at the data side of things. This can get SLOW. Sharing an evdo connection is already somewhat painful, so it might not be workable in a 1x-like speeds situation

Good luck either way though!

-Phil

Great points. Thanks!

And it looks like all areas will be cleared for entry today, so the evacuation centers will be mostly empty by tomorrow.

So, this idea is gonna get shelved for now.

Thanks!

Halcyon I would go with Verizon. I travel all over and have not found one place that it couldnt connect. Even way out in the desert. However, speeds are highly lacking when you start dropping in bars. And I could not even imagine networking computers on it. Doesnt seem like it would be fast enough.