Today [2]

Today I installed a WiFi access point to my car, to be able to use internet when on the road without every time playing with 3G USB sticks or establish a connection manually over the mobile phone.

Tested it with laptop, seems to work with laptop's own WiFi NIC in about 8 meters, 25 feet radius around the car. For those interested, this is how I made it and what it costs here:

First, I took an old Nokia N95 phone and inserted a dedicated SIM card which has a flatrate 3G Data pack. I downloaded and installed JoikuSpot Premium WiFi tethering for S60 and set it up on the phone.

I 'taped' N95 to glove compartment of the car using Velcro, and connected its charger to car's electricity system so that it is always charged when the motor runs. JoikuSpot application is running, and phone stays always on, so as long as the car is used in regular intervals to charge phone's battery, the access point is always active.

Prior to this job today I had tested that N95, fully charged and JoikuSpot access point active (i.e. 3G data connection always on), the battery lasted almost 65 hours. It's not very much but you have to remember 3G data connection 'eats' battery faster than normal use. This means that I need to use the car about two hours in every three day period to fully charge the battery. If not and the battery runs out, phone must be manually turned on and JoikuSpot restarted.

Signal strength is surprisingly good to 8 meters, as I mentioned. This snip is 5 meters, about 15 feet from the car:



Time needed: 45 minutes
Costs:
JoikuSpot Premium €9
3G Data flat 3.6 Mbps €29.95 per month
Mobile phone: Any Symbian S60 phone, mine was free, old extra phone

My car has / is a WiFi access point and I'm a happy man!

Kari

EDIT: For those who are interested in testing this, JoikuSpot is also available as a free light version. It is OK for testing, but not good in serious use (encryption not possible).

Kari you smarty pants.. lol Congrats !!!... :).. thanks for sharing your info.

Kari said:

Today I installed a WiFi access point to my car, to be able to use internet when on the road without every time playing with 3G USB sticks or establish a connection manually over the mobile phone.

Tested it with laptop, seems to work with laptop's own WiFi NIC in about 8 meters, 25 feet radius around the car. For those interested, this is how I made it and what it costs here:

First, I took an old Nokia N95 phone and inserted a dedicated SIM card which has a flatrate 3G Data pack. I downloaded and installed JoikuSpot Premium WiFi tethering for S60 and set it up on the phone.

I 'taped' N95 to glove compartment of the car using Velcro, and connected its charger to car's electricity system so that it is always charged when the motor runs. JoikuSpot application is running, and phone stays always on, so as long as the car is used in regular intervals to charge phone's battery, the access point is always active.

Prior to this job today I had tested that N95, fully charged and JoikuSpot access point active (i.e. 3G data connection always on), the battery lasted almost 65 hours. It's not very much but you have to remember 3G data connection 'eats' battery faster than normal use. This means that I need to use the car about two hours in every three day period to fully charge the battery. If not and the battery runs out, phone must be manually turned on and JoikuSpot restarted.

Signal strength is surprisingly good to 8 meters, as I mentioned. This snip is 5 meters, about 15 feet from the car:



Time needed: 45 minutes
Costs:
JoikuSpot Premium €9
3G Data flat 3.6 Mbps €29.95 per month
Mobile phone: Any Symbian S60 phone, mine was free, old extra phone

My car has / is a WiFi access point and I'm a happy man!

Kari

EDIT: For those who are interested in testing this, JoikuSpot is also available as a free light version. It is OK for testing, but not good in serious use (encryption not possible).

Very ingenious, Kari. I'm impressed! Good job.

You ought to do this as a tutorial.

CarlTR6 said:

Very ingenious, Kari. I'm impressed! Good job.

You ought to do this as a tutorial.

Can not take credit of this. I got the idea after reading this article. Please notice that the article is almost two years old, about an older version of JoikuSpot.

noyb said:

Attachment 73349

You can still make a tutorial of it to make it easy for others to find the info. You did it and you are relating the steps you took to get it up and running..

So glad you got to talk with her. Spend time with her every chance you get. You will both benefit.