Short-term ISP in Champaign, IL

June 11, 2014 11:44 AM

I moved to Champaign last weekend (will be here until mid-August) and my plan to use the library as my ISP is already wearing on me. It seems that everyone hates Comcast—I haven't been able to reach customer service to ask about options, so I get that already. My post-August plans are up in the air, therefore I don't want to sign a 12 month contract even if it can be transferred to another location. What are my options for short-term internet access?

Note: I've already looked for unsecured wireless connections—apparently, everyone in my building/neighborhood knows how to secure their setup.

Caveat: for the past several years, wi-fi has been included in rent. The last time I had to personally deal with this, I had a land-line and a dial-up connection. In other words, assume I'm clueless.

posted by she's not there to Technology (4 answers total)

Why not offer your next door neighbor 40-50 bucks to split their internet for the next couple months?
posted by rockindata at 11:56 AM on June 11, 2014

Would a prepaid mobile hotspot work? I used to use a T-Mobile hotspot (something like this) that I paid for month to month, and it mostly worked fine for email/MeFi/surfing with not a lot of streaming. I had one connection problem with it during that time but it was fixable; you can see my AskMe about it in my post activity. I simultaneously had a T-Mobile phone on a contract, back when T-Mobile had contracts, but the hotspot was on a whole separate account. If it turns out you can't or don't want to use it after August, you could just unload it on Craigslist.
posted by clavicle at 12:13 PM on June 11, 2014 [2 favorites]

I can't remember who offers DSL in Champaign (AT&T, maybe?), but I used it for years and was happy with it.
posted by MsMolly at 5:32 PM on June 12, 2014

This list of wi-fi hotspots might also be useful. Pretty much all of downtown Champaign is covered. You could always go grab a table at the Esquire and set up camp.
posted by MsMolly at 7:42 AM on June 13, 2014