Playing FFXI on a mobile WiFi hotspot

[shen]

I'm going to be staying at my relatives for awhile and I'm trying to play FFXI on my laptop via a mobile WiFi hot spot. They have a Virizon Jetpack MiFi 5510L as their main internet connection (they're out in a rural area), and my laptop is running WIndows 8.

When I'm connected by WiFi, my wireless internet connection occasionally goes to "limited access." It's not too bad for regular internet browsing, I just turn the WiFi off and then back on and reconnect. However, it's impossible to do any FFXI events since my connection will just stop. The connection speed seems to be great, speedtest.net shows me getting a constant 25 Mbps down / 5 Mbps up.

Alternatively, I tried tethering my laptop to the device and used ethernet over USB. Unfortunately, PlayOnline/FFXI doesn't really like this. As soon as I start connecting, POL stops responding. I tried switching from WiFi to ethernet over USB after I got into FFXI, and it also stops responding instantly. Normal internet browsing still works fine, although when I go to view my connection settings my computer takes forever to pull it up.

Either method would work for me so long as I can just get on FFXI lol. I've never had this problem with any other WiFi device. Any suggestions? Thanks

[orinthia]

Do any other machines get dropped as well? See how stable a connection they can get while plugged in (try an internet radio station or some other long-stream to see/hear breaks), maybe attempt to have that machine share the connection instead.

Though, it really just seems like the hotspot's service is... spotty. Any idea where the cell tower is? Could maybe try making a little dish for the hotspot and point it in that direction, like out of a pringles can, tin foil, or something. The tower might be far enough away that the connection just isn't very strong, so it might need help to maintain it.

Just some thoughts, the extent of what I've done is just trying to get a wifi signal at range with weak routers. I don't get 4g in my home, and 3g latency is pretty bad here, but works.