dongle wifi in europe (1 Viewer)

[mart]

Can anyone recommend which dongle to buy for travelling around Europe for 6 months ,not going to use it for lots of down loads ,but for emails and keeping in touch with the family.
Or should we just call in to the nearest burger outlet and use theirs

 

[DanielFord]

Can anyone recommend which dongle to buy for travelling around Europe for 6 months ,not going to use it for lots of down loads ,but for emails and keeping in touch with the family.
Or should we just call in to the nearest burger outlet and use theirs

Any unlocked mifi will do, that means you can buy any sim and install it. The cheapest cards are purchased in the country you are in. However, I have found WiFiZero to be a good place to buy foreign cards here in the UK.
Look on ebay for Huaweii (spelling?) units

 

[peterc10]

The term dongle usually applies to a unit that plugs into the USB port of a pc. You can still buy them but most people now use a mifi unit. This stands alone and is connected to your laptop, phone, tablet or all of them, using its own wifi network. Plenty about but make sure you choose one that is 4G and that is small enough to put in your pocket. You will need it "unlocked" so that it can be used on any network. If you buy a locked one you can normally buy an unlock code cheap on ebay.

As for what SIM you use with it, the world is your oyster, as long as it is unlocked. We buy preloaded UK Three Data only SIMs. Three sell them for £30 for a 12Gb one that lasts 12 months, but they can be bought cheaper elsewhere - Mymemory had them for about £24 from memory. They can be used for roaming in most of Europe and some other countries, but generally you will be cut be off for roaming (can be used in UK still) after about a couple of months of roaming. When that happens (or the 12Gb runs out) just pop another one in and start again. Pre-purchase several of them before you go, they only start to run when you first use them.

We use our to attach to my phone and laptop/tablet as well as my wife's iphone and ipad. As long as we get a reasonable signal we use it for facetiming the kids, emails and a bit of web browsing. We usually get through 12Gb in 6 to 8 weeks.

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[davanne]

Whilst waiting to move into our new property we needed wifi at Max's sisters we bought a three sim on a 30 rolling contract we pay £20 a month for 15gb which was ample for us for Internet browsing and emails.
It was very stable using it on their isolated farm which is miles from any mast
We asked when we got it if we were able to use it abroad and the answer was yes. We have yet to put it to the test abroad but so far we are very happy with it. We get a better speed with it than the talk talk internet we have here in the bungalow.

 

[DBK]

If you are really not going to use a lot of data then two or ideally three sim cards from Three should cover you for almost all of Europe. There were gaps (Portugal and Germany for example) but these countries are now covered.
I would also suggest a MiFi and you need to get for it a PAYG Mobile Broadband SIM, don't get a phone sim. You might get away with 1GB cards (£10 each) but a 3GB (£16) one would be safer. However, once you start using it in Europe I bet your usage will increase! We wouldn't be without it - weather forecasts, BBC News website and researching places to visit plus the odd wasted moment on MHF. If you find yourself needing more you can just top up online.

 

[mart]

Thanks everyone for all of the iinfomation, will start looking for a MiFi on ebay

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[Minxy]

Have read of this regarding sims which I wrote:

http://www.motorhomefun.co.uk/forum/resources/three-mobile-broadband-info-preloaded-data-sims.220/

The hurdle you'll have is going over the 2 month (supposed) limit with a single Three sim, so you may need up to 3 to get round that.

If your usage is very low you could get a few of the ones that are free and give 200mb a month and then just swap them as needs be, but this would ONLY works for a very light user.

As for a MIFI there are lots out there and there were some recent threads about this and other similar items:

http://www.motorhomefun.co.uk/forum/threads/mifi-with-aerial.144686/

http://www.motorhomefun.co.uk/forum/threads/alternative-to-a-mifi.144751/

http://www.motorhomefun.co.uk/forum/threads/which-simple-mifi.141978/

 

[PeteH]

As Far as I am aware, You CAN make Skype calls?. (if I am wrong someone will correct me!)

 

[peterc10]

As Far as I am aware, You CAN make Skype calls?. (if I am wrong someone will correct me!)

Yes you can with a Data SIM. Not used Skype for years though so not sure how good it would be.

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[gus-lopez]

As Far as I am aware, You CAN make Skype calls?. (if I am wrong someone will correct me!)

I would assume so as I used 'viber'on my 3 data sim last week in France.

 

[Kevan]

We are on a contract with the three network at home and when we are away never have any trouble getting a signal in France or Spain

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[treetops1]

Never had any problems up to now in France .We have a Huawei and get 20g for £13 a month with 3.

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[Rapido924f]

We have an unlocked Huawei bought on eBay for £35 and use a 3 sim. just bought a 24GB sim on Amazon for £30 for a year

 

[xtab]

I bought the TP-Link M7350 which is a 4g unit and use one of the 25GB special offer data sims from Amazon. Works well, although you do need to know how to set it up for 3's roaming providers the first time you use it outside UK. Haven't had any 4G connections yet in France or Spain but it's only been a couple of weeks and I've kept away from cities where there seems to be the most chance of 4G.
One possible downside to the TP-Link device is that you can't add an aerial, although TBH the signal everywhere has been fine without one, even in some remote places in Spain.

 

[mart]

Thanks to all for you posts, i have now got a Huawei off ebay ,unlocked, with a data sim. Will be trying it out next week,thanks again

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[Minxy]

Some info here on sims for anyone interested:

http://www.motorhomefun.co.uk/forum/resources/three-mobile-broadband-info-preloaded-data-sims.220/

 

[marrod23]

We are on a contract with the three network at home and when we are away never have any trouble getting a signal in France or Spain

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Hi i am also on a contract with three & when i come to use it in france & spain it says admin & to add a password has anyone else had this problem happy travels Rod

 

[Minxy]

The standard MIFI password is admin to get you into the settings ... is that what you mean?

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[Minxy]

Yes it could be the MIFI key which is usually inside the back cover but it wouldn't normally say 'admin' for that.

 

[marrod23]

Iv'e tried the ssid key & the wifi code it works perfect in uk but not in europe i can take it back to 3 in taunton but wondered if any funsters had the same problem happy travels Rod

 

[Minxy]

Iv'e tried the ssid key & the wifi code it works perfect in uk but not in europe i can take it back to 3 in taunton but wondered if any funsters had the same problem happy travels Rod

What exactly is the problem? If you type in:

ID: admin
password: admin

can you get into the settings?

If it won't work it could simply be that the APN needs changing to "3internet" ...

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[DBK]

Iv'e tried the ssid key & the wifi code it works perfect in uk but not in europe i can take it back to 3 in taunton but wondered if any funsters had the same problem happy travels Rod

Have you enabled "roaming"?

 

[lilyput]

Excellent advice, thanks! Have just bought a Huawei mobile WiFi E5330 from Ebay for £15 and it is tied to EE. Would you suggest I unlock it using the Ebay unlocker's code. Also is there a list of APNs available? Would the APN of local French providers be required? Thanks in anticipation - Liliyput

 

[Minxy]

Excellent advice, thanks! Have just bought a Huawei mobile WiFi E5330 from Ebay for £15 and it is tied to EE. Would you suggest I unlock it using the Ebay unlocker's code. Also is there a list of APNs available? Would the APN of local French providers be required? Thanks in anticipation - Liliyput

Yes, just get a code off Ebay for 99p, its quite easy to unlock them, you just need a sim from another provider to use with it then. You can get lists of the APNs on the internet quite easily depending on who you decide to go with. Can't say about local French providers as we always use our '3' sim abroad now which connects automatically to the network.

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[lilyput]

Thanks for that MG!

 

[lilyput]

This is the main reason we bought a MH - lovely Lily!

 

[colyboy]

I am at present using Huawei Mobile WiFi and a one off "3" SIM card . Can pick up WiFi almost anywhere.

Colyboy

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[Huwmari]

All the above is very interesting but we have had no trouble (and no expense) in finding either a tourist information office or bar/café etc with free Wi-Fi when on our travels. Job done.