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Monday, January 14, 2013

How to Choose the Fastest, Cheapest, and Most Reliable Mobile Hotspot to Stay Connected Everywhere You Go

January 14th, 2013Top Story

How to Choose the Fastest, Cheapest, and Most Reliable Mobile Hotspot to Stay Connected Everywhere You Go

By Adam Dachis

How to Choose the Fastest, Cheapest, and Most Reliable Mobile Hotspot to Stay Connected Everywhere You GoMobile hotspots are awesome. They pack fast internet access into tiny, pocketable devices so you can stay connected wherever you go, but they vary in cost, speed, and reliability. With so many options in devices and carriers, you might end up paying for more than you need or getting too little and ending up with overages. What's the best way for you to get a affordable and reliable mobile hotspot? We decided to find out.

With the proliferation of 4G mobile technologies and the reduced cost of 3G data, mobile hotspots are no longer luxuries for business people and the wealthy. Anyone can pick up a portable device for under $100 and get service at a low cost, or even for free. You can even turn your smartphone into a Wi-Fi hotspot, negating the need for a separate device. It's a really great time to take advantage of mobile data, but there are so many options to make sense of and chances are you're not even aware of a few of them. In this post we're going to take a look at the best options for getting a mobile hotspot based on your needs.

For Casual Use or Backup Internet Access

Mobile hotspots have low data caps, so even if their speeds can match your hardwired connection, you won't be able to download hundreds of gigabytes without incurring serious overages. For people who live to download, a mobile hotspot won't be more than a supplemental device or something for casual use with, say, a tablet or laptop when away from home. Chances are you don't want to pay much (or anything) for a device you're only going to use a few times a month or in the event of an emergency. In the past you'd be out of luck, but now you have mobile broadband options that'll hardly cost you anything at all.

Freedompop

How to Choose the Fastest, Cheapest, and Most Reliable Mobile Hotspot to Stay Connected Everywhere You GoFreedompop offers 512MB of mobile broadband per month for absolutely nothing. You'll have to put down a refundable deposit of about $100 for a device, but if you send it back before the year is up in the condition you received it you'll get that money back (though you'll have to pay shipping). Freedompop also allows you to earn additional data by completing offers like signing up for car insurance information or answering a survey. You can also earn 500MB of data through referrals. If you'd rather pay, plans start at $10 per month for 1GB and work their way up to $60 per month for 10GB. Casual users will likely prefer the $18 per month plan, which will get you 2GB of data (plus any extra you earn).

Freedompop offers a delightfully tiny little hotspot as its flagship device, but you can also get little USB modems for your laptop and a data sleeve for your iPod touch (to effectively turn your iPod touch into an iPhone). Data is provided over Sprint's aging WiMax network, which offers speeds around 5-7mbps with coverage quality that highly depends on your area. (You can check coverage here.) Because the device only uses WiMax and can't fall back on 3G data, it may be completely useless to those in poor reception areas. If you get good coverage, however, it's a wonderfully free/cheap way to get online in a pinch.

Karma

How to Choose the Fastest, Cheapest, and Most Reliable Mobile Hotspot to Stay Connected Everywhere You GoKarma offers a very similar product to Freedompop. The hotspot hardware is essentially identical, but white in color, and data is provided via Sprint's WiMax network as well. The cost difference? Karma charges $79 for their hotspot and $14 for a 1GB of data. This may seem like a considerably worse deal, but it's not because of one interesting aspect: your data never expires. You don't pay $14 per month, but rather $14 for every gigabyte of data you use whenever you happen to use it. If you're not planning to use the service frequently, this is a great deal. Additionally, you can earn 100MB of free data by simply sharing your connection with others.

Karma suffers from the same network issues as Freedompop, as Sprint's WiMax coverage is inconsistent across the United States. Before you buy, make sure you're covered so you don't end up with a $79 pocketable brick.

Your Smartphone

How to Choose the Fastest, Cheapest, and Most Reliable Mobile Hotspot to Stay Connected Everywhere You GoIf you already have a smartphone, you already have a (potentially free) mobile hotspot at your disposal. Modern Android and iPhones come with a built-in option to turn your cellular data connection into Wi-Fi for up to five other devices. On many plans this can cost up to $25 extra per month. While this nets you a fair amount of extra data, it's a hefty price to pay for using the limited data you've already purchased. Fortunately, you have a few workarounds.

PdaNet for Android and iPhone allows you to tether for the one-time cost of the app ($0-29), rather than a monthly fee. iPhone users will need to jailbreak, but Android owners just need to install the app. Some carriers pay attention to unauthorized tethering and may warn you to stop, but we've only seen this happen to people who still have unlimited data grandfathered into their plans. PdaNet can attempt to hide your tethering activity by serving up mobile sites instead of desktop ones, but that isn't necessarily ideal if you're tethering your phone to your laptop.

If you don't want to risk incurring the wrath of your carrier, some carriers actually offer free hotspot access if you have a shared data plan. To sign up for a shared data plan, you need more than one device (or it won't be cost-effective). If you don't share a plan with your family or significant other, find some friends and sign up with them. The more devices on your account, the cheaper each month will be for everyone. You'll have to do a little extra work to collect payments each month, but webapps like WePay help solve that problem.

Of course, with a shared data plan you'll need to actually share data. Most plans cap out at 20GB total, so you'll need to make sure that's going to be enough for all involved. If it is, check out what your carrier has to offer. AT&T provides a wonderful mobile share data plan calculator. Verizon has a similar offering. Multi-person plans at Sprint and T-Mobile offer unlimited data already, so sharing it is kind of irrelevant. Either way, you have options if you use a major carrier. Third-party carriers like Virgin Mobile, who resell Sprint's network, generally charge extra for a hotspot ($15/month in the case of Virgin), but not always. Ting, for example, offers free hotspot access on all supported phones regardless of your plan.

What it comes down to is this: if you're a casual user or just need mobile data for emergencies, you'll want to utilize a carrier that offers hotspots for free or via mobile share. If you're not, consider a tethering app instead.

For Moderate or Frequent Internet Access

When casual data usage won't cut it and you need as many gigabytes as you can get (or, at least, a lot of them), smaller carriers often won't do the trick. This makes picking the right one pretty difficult because you have many options and even more variables. When you're planning to use a lot of cellular data you want to know where you can get the most comprehensive coverage, the fastest speeds, and the most data for the cheapest price. (Fortunately, you don't have to figure out the best hardware because each carrier will stick you with their flagship mobile hotspot and call it a day). To figure out your best option, we're going to answer those questions.

Who Provides the Best Coverage?

How to Choose the Fastest, Cheapest, and Most Reliable Mobile Hotspot to Stay Connected Everywhere You GoFiguring out who has the best data coverage in the United States is a tricky question because you could be talking about various generations or just one. For our answer, we're going to look at LTE since it's fast and where the market is heading with pretty much all US carriers. That said, we'll also consider who offers solid 3G coverage for fallback purposes. First, let's take a look at the rankings (from best to worst):

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  • Verizon offers the widest LTE coverage of any provider and their 3G coverage is very comprehensive.
  • AT&T offers the second best LTE coverage in the country with very comprehensive 3G coverage (on par with Verizon). If you live in a big city and mostly travel to larger cities, AT&T's LTE coverage should be sufficient.
  • Sprint offers paltry LTE coverage, as the company initially bet its money on WiMax (a competing "4G" cellular data technology). That said, Sprint's WiMax coverage helps bridge the gap and its 3G coverage is decent.
  • Clear also utilizes WiMax, but is in the process of building out an LTE network. Their WiMax coverage is decent, much like Sprint's.
  • T-Mobile currently offers no LTE coverage, but it's coming. Their "4G" data technology is really just higher-bandwidth 3G data technology, but the coverage is quite good.
  • When it comes to coverage, Verizon will get you the best for LTE and 3G but AT&T is also a solid option if you're in a larger city.

    Who Has the Fastest Network?

    How to Choose the Fastest, Cheapest, and Most Reliable Mobile Hotspot to Stay Connected Everywhere You GoNetwork speeds are a little easier to measure, but they vary depending on the device you own and where you live. Back in 2010, Verizon had the fastest 4G service because they were the only network with LTE. Though that has changed, Verizon still often wins out. Gizmodo tested a few LTE devices on various networks and Verizon generally came out on top. PC Magazine tested 4G networks in Houston and found AT&T's to be the fastest. According to Android and Me, AT&T wins on download speeds and Verizon on uploads. Basically, you could research this topic to no end, finding different tests revealing different results with different devices in different locations. Too many variables make this a difficult question to answer.

    So what do you do? If you can visit a nearby store for each mobile provider you're considering and run a couple of speed tests, you'll get the best idea of what performance will be like for you. If you can't use the coverage maps listed above to see if AT&T or Verizon offer more towers near you. Both networks are very fast, to the point that people can't seem to figure out which one is speedier than the other, so go with the one that services your area (and frequent areas you visit) best.

    What's the Cheapest Plan for the Largest Amount of Data?

    How to Choose the Fastest, Cheapest, and Most Reliable Mobile Hotspot to Stay Connected Everywhere You GoOf all three questions, the cheapest plan is the easiest to answer because all you have to do is compare price for 4G service. First, let's take a look at who offers the cheapest rate for 10GB of data per month (with both 3G and 4G data, unless noted):

    1. Clear: $50 (Unlimited data, but WiMax only)
    2. Freedompop: $60 (WiMax only, no 3G)
    3. Sprint: $80 (but you get 12GB, as Sprint's only plan lower than that is 6GB for $50)
    4. Verizon: $80 (if using a dedicated mobile hotspot)
    5. T-Mobile: $80 (but no true 4G)
    6. AT&T: $50 for 5GB of data (which is the maximum for a single data-only account) or $140 for 10GB of data (by utilizing a mobile share plan)
    7. Karma: $140 (although Karma's intent isn't to offer monthly service)

    Ultimately, Clear is the way to go if you don't mind a contract and are okay with WiMax-only coverage. Freedompop offers the next best value for WiMax only. If you want actual LTE coverage, you ought to go with Verizon. You might save money on a plan if you're using your smartphone as a hotspot, but if you're looking for dedicated hardware you'll save the most on LTE using Verizon.

    When it comes to devices, they're all pretty cheap. You can get hotspots on contract for about $50. Karma offers the cheapest off-contract hotspot for $79. Freedompop is technically cheaper because you pay a $100 deposit, but you might not get that back if you keep the device for over a year or lose some of the packaging. Wherever you go, plan to budget at least $50.

    What's the Best Deal Overall?

    Overall, your best option will depend on your priorities. Here's how it all breaks down:

    Verizon wins out as the best on average. You get the best LTE coverage, what will likely be the fastest network in your area, and you won't pay a ton more per month to get it. If speed and coverage are a priority, Verizon is the best choice.

    Clear offers the best value, if their coverage supports you. Unlimited data for $50 a month is a great deal if you don't mind the slower speeds of WiMax and their coverage area supports you. Clear also plans to build out an LTE network, so things may get even better in the future. If you're looking for the most cost-effective way to get plenty of 4G data, go with Clear.

    Ultimately, what you choose depends quite a bit on your personal needs but the good news is you now have lots of options when it comes to fast mobile hotspots. If you weigh these choices well, you should have no problem finding the best carrier and plan for you.

    Photos by Valentina R. (Shutterstock), Thomas Le Bas (The Noun Project), and Aleksander1 (Shutterstock).

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Meet Red October: The Global Cyber-Espionage Ring That Spent 5 Years in the Shadows

January 14th, 2013Top Story

Meet Red October: The Global Cyber-Espionage Ring That Spent 5 Years in the Shadows

By Eric Limer

Meet Red October: The Global Cyber-Espionage Ring That Spent 5 Years in the Shadows There are plenty of cyberweapons floating around out there, like Stuxnet, Flame, and that whole gang. Now, Kaspersky has turned up a cyber-espoinage operation its dubbed "Red October," and it's up there in the big leagues. But unlike its cohorts, it doesn't look state-sponsored. This is a freelance job, and it's professional grade.

While Red October has only recently been discovered, it's been working behind the scenes for a long time. According to its domain names and various details dug up from the executable code, it's been doing its thing since 2007, if not earlier. And what is its thing? Harvesting loads of classified information from high-profile targets across the globe—including the United States, but mostly in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. And it's got quite the stash.

Red October has been infecting targets through vulnerabilities in MS Word and MS Excel. Once there's a foothold, the infected devices call back to command servers for customized packages of malware signed with victim-specific 20 digit codes. From there, it collects data straight from government institutions, embassies, research firms, military installations, and energy providers, nuclear and otherwise. Over the past half-decade, Red October has been able to dive deeper and deeper into classified intel by using its ever-growing store of pilfered credentials, logins, and other handy tidbits to intelligently guess its way through security.

Part of the reason it's especially dangerous is that it's not confined to infecting, stealing from, and keylogging workstations. The malware also has to capability to get into mobile phones (iOS, Windows Mobile, and Nokia) connected to infected machines and snag a copy of their contacts, calls, messages, and browsing history. It can also scrub enterprise network equipment and removable disk drives, copy entire email databases from Outlook storage and POP/IMAP servers, and it can even take deleted files off USB sticks using its own recovery mechanism. Red October doesn't mess around.

What it can get is one question, but who it's run by is a very different one. According to Kaspersky the exploits are probably Chinese in origin, and Russian slang in some of the code implies the operators speak Russian. Or they're running an in-depth long-con to make people think they do. Most of the command & control servers and domains that can be found are located in and around Germany and Russia, but an intense chain of proxies is still effectively masking the operation's real home base. And while it rivals state-sponsored projects in size and complexity, its never been known to tangle with or team up with them in any way. Red October is a solitary hoarder, sitting in some cyber-shack alone, surrounded by heaps of top secret info.

Likewise, it's still up for grabs what all this espionage is for. There's no evidence to suggest this is a state-sponsored affair, and it seems to be just trucking along, collecting as much classified information as possible just to have it around. Infections are most prominent in Russia (35 infections) but Afghanistan (10), Iran (7), the United States (6), and even Switzerland (5) are on the map as well. But there's no telling what's been done with any info. It could be being sold, acting on in some covert way, or just stockpiled for the right moment for...something.

It's hard not to imagine a man sitting behind a large desk, his face obscured by shadow, tapping his fingers and chuckling to himself sinisterly, watching his own private store of the world's confidential information grow before his very eyes as he ponders what do with it all. And that might not be too far off from the truth. This isn't just a game for nation-states to play; it looks like there's a free agent in the mix, and he/she/they/it/ is every bit as competent as the big names. [Kaspersky]

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Slatest PM: Clarence Thomas Speaks!

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Monday, January 14, 2013

Your daily PM briefing from The Slatest (@slatest), your trusty news companion.

By Josh Voorhees (@JoshVoorhees)

Obama's Final First-Term Presser: Washington Post: "President Obama vowed Monday that he would not negotiate with Republicans over the federal debt ceiling, warning that Social Security checks would be delayed and the nation could enter a new recession if Republicans do not agree to raise the limit on government borrowing. In the final news conference of his first term, Obama said Republicans were threatening to hold 'a gun at the head of the American people' and that he would not trade spending cuts, as Republicans demand, for an agreement to raise the federal debt ceiling."

Gun-Control Hints: New York Times: "Obama disclosed that Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. had already presented him with proposals to combat gun violence and promised to unveil them publicly later this week. He said his package would include a ban on assault weapons and on high-capacity magazines, as well as expanded background checks. But he declined to say how hard he would push for an assault weapons ban, and acknowledged that it and other gun measures might not pass."

"I Like a Good Party": Politico: "'With respect to this truism about me not socializing enough, patting folks on the back and all that stuff, most people who know me know I’m a pretty friendly guy. And I like a good party,' [Obama] said when asked about how his lack of a personal connection to senior Republicans was souring the tenor of debt ceiling and sequester talks. ... House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) played golf with Obama once, and they nearly struck a grand bargain on taxes and spending over drinks afterwards. Obama professed to have a blast, but now Boehner has vowed not to negotiate with the president one-on-one after a series of less productive encounters — highlighted, Republicans say, by lengthy Obama lectures and much eye-rolling."

Happy Monday and welcome back to The Slatest PM, where your afternoon host—somewhat surprisingly—managed to avoid both the flu and and serious injury during his family ski trip. Follow him on Twitter at @JoshVoorhees and the whole team at @slatest.

The Sandy Hook Promise: New York Times: "Several parents whose children were killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting joined the national debate on gun violence on Monday, gathering [in Newtown] to begin sketching their response to the massacre by helping start a nonprofit organization intended to help prevent the kind of bloodshed that turned this quaint New England community into a national symbol of grief. In some of their first public statements since the Dec. 14 shooting ... the families of 11 of the children and adult victims appeared at a news conference and called for a national dialogue around issues of mental health, school safety and what their organization, called Sandy Hook Promise, described as "gun responsibility.'"

New York Gun Control: Wall Street Journal: "New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and lawmakers are close to a deal on gun-control measures that would make New York the first state U.S. to pass new firearms restrictions after the Newtown, Conn., school shooting. The package includes provisions to ban high-capacity ammunition clips, a stricter assault weapons ban and increased penalties for some gun crimes. It could be voted on as soon as Monday, said state Sen. Jeff Klein, the chamber's top Democrat in a power-sharing arrangement with Republicans."

Saying Sorry: Associated Press: "Lance Armstrong apologized to the staff at his Livestrong cancer foundation before heading to an interview with Oprah Winfrey, a person with direct knowledge of the meeting told The Associated Press. ... Armstrong addressed the staff Monday and said, 'I'm sorry.' The person said the disgraced cyclist choked up and several employees cried during the session. The person also said Armstrong apologized for letting the staff down and putting Livestrong at risk but he did not make a direct confession to the group about using banned drugs."

Reddit Co-Founder Faced Jail Time: Boston Globe: "During plea talks held in the months before his death, federal prosecutors told Aaron Swartz and his attorney that the computer prodigy must spend six months behind bars and plead guilty to 13 federal crimes in order to resolve the criminal case short of a trial. Swartz’s lead defense attorney, Elliot Peters, said today that both he and Swartz rejected the plea deal offered by the office of US Attorney Carmen Ortiz, and instead were pushing for a trial where federal prosecutors would have been forced to publicly justify their pursuit of Swartz."

When the Law Is Worse Than the Crime: Emily Bazelon asks Why was a prosecutor allowed to intimidate Aaron Swartz for so long?

Record High Military Suicides: Associated Press: "Suicides in the U.S. military surged to a record 349 last year, far exceeding American combat deaths in Afghanistan, and some private experts are predicting the dark trend will worsen this year. The Pentagon has struggled to deal with the suicides, which Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and others have called an epidemic. The problem reflects severe strains on military personnel burdened with more than a decade of combat in Afghanistan and Iraq, complicated by anxiety over the prospect of being forced out of a shrinking force."

Apple Cuts Orders For iPhone Parts: Wall Street Journal: "Apple Inc. has cut its component orders for the iPhone 5 because of weaker-than-expected demand, people familiar with the situation said Monday, indicating sales of the latest smartphone haven't been as strong as anticipated. ... The move came as the company has been facing greater challenges from Samsung Electronics Co. and other makers of smartphones powered by Google Inc.'s Android operating system. Apple has set the agenda for the smartphone market since it released its first iPhone in 2007."

The Latest From Mali: AFP: "Islamist forces on Monday seized control of a town in a fresh attack on Mali's government-held south and vowed to strike 'at the heart' of France as it waged a fourth day of airstrikes against them. French warplanes hit Islamist positions in Douentza, 800 kilometres (500 miles) north of the capital, residents reported, after bombing munitions and fuel stockpiles as well as bases in the key cities of Gao and Kidal over the weekend." The Associated Press, meanwhile, offers a closer look at the west African nation.

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