[SOLVED] Is there a better approach to this setup?

[JFtech]

I need to run a program on a laptop with a dedicated internet connection separate from my home network. The program downloads 100GB+ of data per month, and it needs a fast, stable internet connection.

My current plan is to buy a laptop, phone, and phone plan with hotspot data, then wirelessly tether the laptop to the phone hotspot and run it that way.

I'm just curious if there might be a better (or cheaper) solution that I’m not thinking of?

 

[bill001g]

This is called read the fine print on the phone contract.

The cell tower only has a limited amount of bandwidth. Most cell towers do not have direct internet connections they use radio links to connect to a more central tower. So you have a fairly limited amount of bandwidth when you consider how many possible users you have sharing it.

This is why you seldom find truly unlimited plans in the USA. They all have some form of data cap. Even the more liberal plans would consider your application against their terms of service and they likely would limit it. Many years ago when they actually had unlimited plans they were massively abused by teens using bit torrent. It was this small group of users were the primary cause of a lot of the restriction we see today.

Now if you are willing to pay for it you can actually have as much data as you want at high speed.

A second major issues is that even if some vendor offers a plan you like you may not get good enough reception in your house. So the first step is to see which services you can even get good signal from.

Unless you live way out of a city you should be able to get both some form of cable tv conneciton and some form of DSL connection. Many of the newer DSL connections are now as fast as many cell phone type of connections. These type of technology will not have a cap

 

[SamirD]

The cheapest and faster way would be to just get a second Internet connection at home. If you have cable Internet, this would just involve a second modem being installed. And this modem would be completely separate from your home network. You could also use a different provider than your home network, dsl, etc.

 

[kanewolf]

I need to run a program on a laptop with a dedicated internet connection separate from my home network. The program downloads 100GB+ of data per month, and it needs a fast, stable internet connection.

My current plan is to buy a laptop, phone, and phone plan with hotspot data, then wirelessly tether the laptop to the phone hotspot and run it that way.

I'm just curious if there might be a better (or cheaper) solution that I’m not thinking of?

How "separate" is acceptable? A router that supports a guest network could be used. The guest network has no connectivity to the primary network but does share the internet link.