What is hotspot?

[MsNoItAll]

Im going to purchase a kindle fire. I have no internet or wifi at home. What exactly is hotspot on a cell phone? If i get this srv on my phone will i be able to use it for my kindle? Shld i just splurge and have wifi installed at home? Do I have to have a land line to have wifi?

[chris m]

What is a hotspot not? Not a good spot

[KnightSaber2000]

Having WiFi at home is a big technological leap to have at home..
Man, I remember the 1990's when my laptop was connected to modem by wire, and the modem is connected to the telephone line.. and only one computer can be connected to internet at a time (we only had one phone line)..

A WIFI modem is the type of modem that converts the telephone line into wireless signals..

WIFI signals are designed to work in limited distance or radius within few meters or feet (any further, the FCC will shut it down or forced to be called something else)..
the area where the WIFI signal is reachable is called a Hotspot for that particular WIFI signal..

Some fast food restaurants like burger king, have a WIFI service in their establishment, so you can access the burger king hotspot and use their WIFI.. some are locked with passwords usually provided in their printed bill, and some are free to use without password..

If you want WIFI at home, usually the internet service provider (usually the phone company) can send their technicians to set up the WIFI for you (i.e. create a personal hotspot for you), of which your main role is to choose a name for your Wifi hotspot and assign a password (so other random people would not be able to access to your internet)..

People don't use the term hotspot because hotspot is not an accurate term..
hotspot have several other meanings in computer world, but 9 out of 10 it involves internet communication, and from that odd, 9 out of 10 it involves WIFI..

If you can receive radio inside your car, it means that your car is within the hotspot of the radio-station.. got it?
the word hotspot is a poor attempt by the business world to simplify terms to the regular people but becomes a confusing term by itself!!

Usually hotels and restaurants put big signs 'WIFI hotspot available here', or an internet company claims to have the largest hotspot coverage.. which usually means WIFI..
Most hotels (that I stayed in) provided the name of their WIFI and a password to gain access to their internet services..

Now many devices can access the internet that way, like your phone, kindle and many more..
so one possible meaning is that the phone can access the WIFI hotspot, provided you have the name of the WIFI hotspot and the access password..

Most people are familiar with Modem Wifi but WIFI hotspot can be generated by other means and by other devices.. which brings me to the second possible explanation to your 'cell phone and hotspot' question..

Most smart mobile phones nowadays can create its own WIFI hotspot like Samsung Android phones and iPhones.. provided that your mobile phone account has an internet access..

But in the mobile phone world, the more proper term for phone hotspot is 'Tethering'..
in both the iphone and the android, you go through the settings, activate the tethering feature and the WIFI feature, and a small radius around the phone (usually too weak to penetrate doors and walls compared to regular home WIFI modems)..

So in theory, your Kindle can access the internet using the tethering feature on the smart phone anywhere on the planet, as long you are in the area coverage of the mobile phone company and have an active internet account with them..

So buy a smart phone that has the tethering and purchase a plan with the mobile phone carrier to have internet access.. in the tethering option, you can assign a hotspot name and a password..
And you may encounter some terms like edge, 3G, UMT, LTE which usually translate how fast is your mobile phone internet being LTE as the fastest and EDGE is very very very suicide-inducing slow speed..

Unfortunately, mobile phone internet is much much more expensive than home-modem internet..
they usually come in packages like 5GB per month (that's your total usage per month) which means if you are a fan watching videos on the internet, your plan may expire much sooner before the end of that month..

If you compare the home-modem internet packages and the mobile phone internet packages, it is far much cheaper and faster in the home modem internet packages, and they usually don't set such narrow limits like 5GB per months..

But if money is not much of an issue, the mobile phone internet is more convenient..

If you are NOT in the market to buy an expensive smart phone, there are several devices (usually offered by the mobile phone company) that creates WIFI hotspot without the need to buy expensive smart phones.. they have different names for it depending on the company (dongle, portable modems, portamodems)..
Basically you purchase a sim card from the mobile phone company and insert it in those devices that creates WIFI hotspot - just like smart phones..
Some use power from computers using USB, some are only connected to regular house electric power supply and some are connected to the car using the lighter socket..

Hope that helped!!

[Jack]

Hotspot on a phone is a device which allows other phones to use your mobile data like a wifi router

[Cool]

A hotspot on a cell phone allows any WiFi enabled device to use the internet provided by your network provider on mobile. For example if you are using AT&T and you have internet bucket enabled in your contract, then you simple turn on the Data traffic on mobile, then go to settings>more..(under Wireless & Network heading)>tethering & portable hotspot>portable WiFi hotspot. First time use requires configuration, set it up and turn on. And after it is turned on, you can connect any device, including Kindle Fire, Laptop or computer with WiFi to it and use internet on that device. SO the answer to your question is "Yes, you can use internet on Kindle Fire connecting it to WiFi hotspot of your smartphone"

=Shld i just splurge and have wifi installed at home? Do I have to have a land line to have wifi?
If you can install, it would definitely provide you with better speed. There's no requirement of landline in case of broadband providers.

Before getting the Kindle Fire, you need to know what makes it the best option, take a look here at this discussion:
http://compare-e-readers.com/IsHdxGreat

The Kindle Fire HDX is the best option to go for, you can find every feature on it to be really good, I.e the quad core processor, full 1080p screen, dual WiFi antenna providing with better speed, the Digital Dolby audio speakers provide you with awesome sound quality and features like "Mayday" make a technician available to you 24*7 right on your screen real easy.

Hope this helped!