Keith Shirley

Sometimes I just want to be able to connect my laptop to the mobile Internet without having dongles hanging out or resorting to cables. JoikuSpot allows me to do that and even share the connection.

What it Does

In a nutshell – JoikuSpot installs on your mobile phone (in my case a Nokia N95) and rebroadcasts your 3G connection as a WLAN hotspot.

In other words:
Laptop -> WLAN connection to Phone -> 3G Connection to Provider -> Internet

Why would you want to do this?

There are a couple of reasons:

- As mentioned – it reduces the amount of stuff hanging off your PC. I use a tablet PC and this allows me to leave the phone in my pocket. I can’t do this with bluetooth for all my devices.

- The WLAN connection can be shared. You can have multiple PC’s connected to the Internet via my phone. This is great in an emergency when your boardband link goes down.

Does it work?

It works great most of the time. It can be a little slow to start and every now and then it stops working but I’ve used it repeatedly for hours at a time. Used in connection with Psiloc Connect which I’ve mentioned previously it’s great on journeys. Psiloc connect picks up the best signal available and provides Joikuspot with a stable access point.

Is it secure?

Any WLAN link is not going to be completely secure. The JoikuSpot software is designed to be able to setup a VPN link. If you are working with any kind of sensitive data then you should consider that.

You should also setup a password for the WLAN hotspot. It will keep out the opportunists BUT only WEP security is available on the wireless link. If someone is determined to connect to the hotspot then they will. You still need firewall sofware on your PC.

Is it expensive?

There is a free version available but for me it was of limited use – you can’t check POP email with it (webmail is OK). The full version is currently 15 Euro on their shop.

Note: When I first bought the software it was over  a very slow GSM link in Achill Island. I was having problems getting the shop to work with the free version – but fair play to the providers – they listened to my comments and should have fixed it by now.