Question about portable Internet devices

[MarioKirby]

If this is in the wrong board, then mods are free to move it.

So, in about a week, my family is going on a trip to Maryland to visit my mom's family. We'll be staying at my mom's dad's house for about two weeks.

The reason I'm posting is because my grandfather, as far as I know, doesn't have Internet access at his house. Now, two weeks isn't that long of a timeframe to go without Internet, but I would like to have access to the Internet in case I get bored on a day where we're doing nothing. So, I would like to get some kind of device that would allow me Internet access to my laptop despite my grandfather's place not having one, if that is even possible. If also possible, I'd rather it be not too expensive.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

[Steampunk]

Depends on what you're wanting to do. For just messaging, email, etc, Android phones have a feature that lets you make a portable hot spot using the phone's cellular connection. Hope you've got unlimited data though, because that will eat your data plan up pretty fast depending how much time you spend on it. It's also contingent on the area having good cellular infrastructure to connect through.

Also, when I was living in Jordan, I got a Wifi dongle that let me connect through Orange. Don't know if you or your parents (whoever pays your phone bill) would be willing to add a data plan for a dongle for just a week, but you might be able to get a "pay as you go" plan that won't go on your phone bill. Be warned though, the signal strength and ^/v load speeds won't be as good as actual Wifi. Using too much data will also make the dongle heat up pretty bad, which can mess it up.

Can't guarantee either of these will work if you want to do online gaming, torrents, etc, but they will do the "every day" internet stuff just fine. My Orange Wifi handled You Tube pretty well too, but video streaming will eat your data pretty fast too.

Edited July 10, 2013 by Dieselpunk

[Esau of Isaac]

If your grandfather doesn't have internet then you're pretty boned unless you head to somewhere nearby that has Wi-Fi. McDonald's tends to have free Wi-Fi, maybe there's one nearby?

[MarioKirby]

Depends on what you're wanting to do. For just messaging, email, etc, Android phones have a feature that lets you make a portable hot spot using the phone's cellular connection. Hope you've got unlimited data though, because that will eat your data plan up pretty fast depending how much time you spend on it. It's also contingent on the area having good cellular infrastructure to connect through.

Also, when I was living in Jordan, I got a Wifi dongle that let me connect through Orange. Don't know if you or your parents (whoever pays your phone bill) would be willing to add a data plan for a dongle for just a week, but you might be able to get a "pay as you go" plan that won't go on your phone bill. Be warned though, the signal strength and ^/v load speeds won't be as good as actual Wifi. Using too much data will also make the dongle heat up pretty bad, which can mess it up.

Can't guarantee either of these will work if you want to do online gaming, torrents, etc, but they will do the "every day" internet stuff just fine. My Orange Wifi handled You Tube pretty well too, but video streaming will eat your data pretty fast too.

Yeah, I just would like to have the Internet connection for visiting the websites I normally attend. I probably should have specified that.

I don't have an Android phone, so option #1 won't work. I can try pitching option #2 to my parents, but I don't think it'll work out. Thank you for the suggestions, though.

If your grandfather doesn't have internet then you're pretty boned unless you head to somewhere nearby that has Wi-Fi. McDonald's tends to have free Wi-Fi, maybe there's one nearby?

I figured this was going to be the most likely case. If worse comes to worse, I'll just deal with it and find something else to occupy my time.