Wi-fi in the car?

[kandb]

I am not technically advanced. We are considering driving down to WDW from NJ. It will be a lot better if the kids had wi-fi on their ipad mini's. Is there a way to do this? We have a wireless router in our house that they connect so but obviously not one in our 2004 minivan. We also have 3 cell phones but have only 6G data. Maybe we can up the data and have them use the cell phones? Would we have service the whole way down on I-95 or would it be iffy? Thanks for any advice/help.

 

[OKW Lover]

There wouldn't be any wifi service on your drive down I-95. If the kids are playing games that require an internet connection then they are out of luck. There will be cell data available all the way though.

 

[rwdavis2]

You can set up a phone to be a wifi hot spot but you will use up all the data and then some.

 

[EvilDrPorkchop21]

Cha CHING!

Turn on the hotspot feature on your iPhone, it will broadcast WiFi for your kids to connect too. This will use all your cellular data, and will add up quick.

 

[kandb]

You can set up a phone to be a wifi hot spot but you will use up all the data and then some.

Cha CHING!

Turn on the hotspot feature on your iPhone, it will broadcast WiFi for your kids to connect too. This will use all your cellular data, and will add up quick.

Thanks for the info. How about if we had "unlimited" data on our cell phones. They watch videos on you tube and such. Will they be able to do this if we set one of our phones on hotspot feature?

 

[sam_gordon]

There are a number of ways to accomplish this. One is utilizing the hotspot on your phone. You can also get mobile hotspots, and ATT makes a device that plugs into the ODBC port (where mechanics can plug in and get data off your car) and becomes a hotspot.

 

[gdrj]

Thanks for the info. How about if we had "unlimited" data on our cell phones. They watch videos on you tube and such. Will they be able to do this if we set one of our phones on hotspot feature?

I have unlimited data on my phone BUT using it as a hot spot does not count towards that. I would check with cell carrier. Since they have unlimited data on their phones, I think they might survive. They should also be able to download a movie to their iPad and watch without Wi-Fi.

One thing that we invested in was a car outlet adapter. It converts car chargers to regular plug and depending on model you purchase you can plug in up to 4 regular 110 plugs plus USB plugs as well. It was useful to charge phones, IPad, GPS, laptops all at once.

 

[Clifton Tesh]

Go to the local Walmart or target and buy a Verizon prepaid WiFi Hotspot. It's about $50, plus the data charge. You can load 5 gigs of data on it for $60. If the kids use up all 5 gigs, it won't start using excess data and run your phone bill through the roof. Straight talk and cricket also have WiFi hotspots but their service is not too reliable.

If you go to a Verizon store, they sell the same prepaid hotspots and will be more than willing to help you set it up.

 

[sam_gordon]

One thing that we invested in was a car outlet adapter. It converts car chargers to regular plug and depending on model you purchase you can plug in up to 4 regular 110 plugs plus USB plugs as well. It was useful to charge phones, IPad, GPS, laptops all at once.

Huge thumbs up to this. We got one for a trip a couple years ago and it gets used weekly if not daily. We got ours from a truck stop. It basically looks like a power strip, but it plugs into a cigarette lighter.

 

[kandb]

Go to the local Walmart or target and buy a Verizon prepaid WiFi Hotspot. It's about $50, plus the data charge. You can load 5 gigs of data on it for $60. If the kids use up all 5 gigs, it won't start using excess data and run your phone bill through the roof. Straight talk and cricket also have WiFi hotspots but their service is not too reliable.

If you go to a Verizon store, they sell the same prepaid hotspots and will be more than willing to help you set it up.

Thanks for the advice!

 

[Clifton Tesh]

Thanks for the advice!

You're welcome.

 

[tobikaye]

Just know that using multiple devices with the prepaid hotspot, the speed may be slower than they are used to, especially in a moving vehicle.

 

[Ladygoldenhair]

Four kids using data is a TON of data. I would get the dinosaur DVD player out with 2 screens, we bought a Walmart one for $59 and have it for years and many trips. I stopped at Red box and got DVD's you can drop them and pick up more anywhere. Don't forget you may need your data for yourself; GPS WAZE AP, making or changing reservations, weather radars.
Gosh when we were kids and even my kids, kids didn't need the internet, we were going somewhere special and understood to conserve money at truck stops and Mini Marts. We packed our drinks and snacks, ran into use the bathroom and get some stretching walking about.

Record or download to the device a few movies, then delete and upload a few others before the drive home. The movies and youtube suck up too much data, your free data isn't going to cover the streaming I would bet. Also, the signal drops will frustrate the kids.

Carry fuses in case those 4 devices short a circuit, we have done that before. Keep an eye on the battery charge too. You just never know on the road what goes wrong.

 

[sam_gordon]

Gosh when we were kids and even my kids, kids didn't need the internet,

I was thinking about this the other day. When I was growing up and we'd take road trips, I'd always have a book (or two or three). Obviously I didn't "need" the internet. But how can you "need" something that wasn't invented? Did the people who lived in earlier days not "need" indoor plumbing? After all, outhouses and chamber pots took care of issues. In the early 1900's people didn't "need" planes. Yes, I know these are extreme examples. Heck, when I was growing up, we didn't "need" DVD players with two screens in the car.

Of course, no one will suffer irreparable harm if they don't have access to the internet for hours (or days). But I don't see anything wrong with trying to find a workable solution either.

 

[monorailsilver]

We drove from CT and my dh used the wifi on his work phone for waze and I would connect to the iPad to check traffic/hotels.

My oldest had a phone then but her friends were in school on the drive. We brought a lap top, movies and portable eve players for movies (3 kids). They were fine with that and did not need wifi continuously or at all during the drive. 2 of my 3 have phones now and they know they can't watch you tube, Netflix, etc... If they are not in wifi and they survive.

They also have tons of iTunes $$ so they buy movies from time to time. I also got them activity books and did a huge scavenger hunt (not jaunt your typical things like a stop light) and made them take an electronics break from time to time.

You probably won't need it since most games they can play with out wifi. Also, I was in Walmart a few weeks ago waiting for someone to get my son his game for the Xbox and the $5 movie bin was there. I happened to see a movie that we like and it had a sticker in it that said watch from any tv, phone, tablet, computer. It's a did but we logged into some website, put in the code and voila, we can watch the movie from our smart tv, iPad, etc...

Good luck in figuring it out. On your stops they can use the wifi assuming there is wifi available.

 

[boufa]

YouTube is a DATA HOG. Much worse than anything else. We traveled from Cleveland to Maine, and then Boston over the summer. I have a 15gb plan. Watch a netflix show everyday at lunch. Never have data plan problems. I saved my data for the trip...and it was close to the beginning of our cycle, so we had most of our data available to us. I set up my phone as a hotspot. The kids were using there WiFi tablets ... late in the day on the second day of driving I get a text from AT&T, that I had used 75% of my data. What!!!

When we stopped for gas, I looked at each of their devices... and my youngest daughter's tablet was showing 9 gb of Youtube...in 24 hours!!! My other daughter was watching netflix and she had only used less than 1gb in roughly the same amount of time. I locked out Youtube from her device (I have a parent app lock!), they enjoyed netflix, and some music streaming over the next 9 days, and we didn't go over our plan. YouTube is a killer.

 

[kandb]

Just know that using multiple devices with the prepaid hotspot, the speed may be slower than they are used to, especially in a moving vehicle.

Thanks, I am learning so much

 

[kandb]

I was thinking about this the other day. When I was growing up and we'd take road trips, I'd always have a book (or two or three). Obviously I didn't "need" the internet. But how can you "need" something that wasn't invented? Did the people who lived in earlier days not "need" indoor plumbing? After all, outhouses and chamber pots took care of issues. In the early 1900's people didn't "need" planes. Yes, I know these are extreme examples. Heck, when I was growing up, we didn't "need" DVD players with two screens in the car.

Of course, no one will suffer irreparable harm if they don't have access to the internet for hours (or days). But I don't see anything wrong with trying to find a workable solution either.

Yes, I agree the only problem will be 3 complaining children.

 

[kandb]

YouTube is a DATA HOG. Much worse than anything else. We traveled from Cleveland to Maine, and then Boston over the summer. I have a 15gb plan. Watch a netflix show everyday at lunch. Never have data plan problems. I saved my data for the trip...and it was close to the beginning of our cycle, so we had most of our data available to us. I set up my phone as a hotspot. The kids were using there WiFi tablets ... late in the day on the second day of driving I get a text from AT&T, that I had used 75% of my data. What!!!

When we stopped for gas, I looked at each of their devices... and my youngest daughter's tablet was showing 9 gb of Youtube...in 24 hours!!! My other daughter was watching netflix and she had only used less than 1gb in roughly the same amount of time. I locked out Youtube from her device (I have a parent app lock!), they enjoyed netflix, and some music streaming over the next 9 days, and we didn't go over our plan. YouTube is a killer.

Thanks for the advice.

 

[Ladygoldenhair]

I was thinking about this the other day. When I was growing up and we'd take road trips, I'd always have a book (or two or three). Obviously I didn't "need" the internet. But how can you "need" something that wasn't invented? Did the people who lived in earlier days not "need" indoor plumbing? After all, outhouses and chamber pots took care of issues. In the early 1900's people didn't "need" planes. Yes, I know these are extreme examples. Heck, when I was growing up, we didn't "need" DVD players with two screens in the car.

Of course, no one will suffer irreparable harm if they don't have access to the internet for hours (or days). But I don't see anything wrong with trying to find a workable solution either.

I think we don't need it in a different way, there are many electronics in their hands already if trying to connect to the internet. Using downloads of music, games, movies and books on those electronics would avoid complaints of continual drops in the connection, and stress of managing data plans while traveling. Lots of alternatives to the Internet.

We using the internet during traveling started and I was on the road working we bought an iPad that had cellular, before that I had a "jet pack" so I could take it to Disney before we had wifi in the values for free. I added bills to the budget, had contracts with guidelines, and data that was costly.

Instead of trying to make internet work to be an option, I was more frustrated in my choices. It is like cruising, do you need to buy the internet packages $$$$ or cut the cord to the cyber world and keep your money and have fun in other ways.