MiFi gained a lot of attention these days, dubbed the main reason for the problems at the presentation of iPhone 4. It is a convenient way to have mobile internet everywhere with you. It is a compact wireless (Wi-Fi) router, which uses a cell-phone network (3G) for internet connectivity.
The concept is several years old, with traditional WiFi routers’ manufacturers implementing a GPRS/EDGE/UMTS/CDMA modules in some of their products. These routers are very convenient for setting up mobile sites like mobile teams, outdoor events, etc. where only the presence of electricity is needed. Like traditional routers, they usually offer combined wired and wireless access.
MiFi is an enhancement of this concept – it’s a self-sufficient device, designed by Novatel, that has its own battery. You can carry it in your pocket or bag, and use wireless internet about 10 meters (30 feet) around. The battery has enough capacity to provide about 5 hours of active internet access and 40 hours of standby. It automatically switches into standby when it detects it is not in use, thus saving power. It can be accessed by 5 devices simultaneously (wireless only, no wired ports), sharing the same internet connection. And when the battery is down, you can plug it in an electricity outlet with the provided adapter, or charge it from your laptop via USB, to continue surfing.
Mobile computers are everywhere now. Many people need to connect to networks (wired or wireless) in more than one place – at home and at work. One of the annoyances of current Windows interface is that you cannot easily store connection profiles – the way you can in MacOS X (called “Locations”) for quite a long time.
There is a workaround for that, involving a simple preliminary network setup + creation of a shortcut. I will briefly describe it here in 3 steps (you will have to repeat for each connection profile you would like to create). Here is how it goes:
[preparation]
Open a command prompt (click START – Run… then type cmd and click OK),
type md %windir%\netsettings (or copy it from here and paste it in the command prompt with a right-click) and hit Enter. Don’t close the command prompt yet.
Make all network settings for the current profile (e.g. Office) – go to Network Connections, select the appropriate connection (wired and/or wireless) and set IP-address, network mask, default gateway, DNS servers, etc.
Execute in the command prompt the following command netsh -c interface dump > %windir%\netsettings\office.txt
and hit Enter.
Create a shortcut on your desktop by minimizing all open windows, right-clicking on an empty place on the desktop and selecting New -> Shortcut…
In the new window that opens, type (or better paste) the following netsh -f %windir%\netsettings\office.txt
and click Next…
Type a name for the profile (for instance Office settings) and click Finish.
Repeat steps 1-3 for as many profiles you need to create, changing office.txt with home.txt (etc.) in steps 2 and 3. Give each profile shortcut a distinguishable name.
You can now switch between different network profiles by simply clicking the appropriate icon on the desktop!
Note that this approach creates a full network profile (including settings for all network interfaces – wired and wireless), so in rare situations you might need to create different combinations of settings. It is also useful to have a setting with all connections set to auto, in case you need to access networks in hotels, airports and other public places.
MiFi gained a lot of attention these days, dubbed the main reason for the problems at the presentation of iPhone 4. It is a convenient way to have mobile internet everywhere with you. It is a compact wireless (Wi-Fi) router, which uses a cell-phone network (3G) for internet connectivity.
Mobile computers are everywhere now. Many people need to connect to networks (wired or wireless) in more than one place – at home and at work. One of the annoyances of current Windows interface is that you cannot easily store connection profiles – the way you can in MacOS X (called “Locations”) for quite a long time.
