Mobile Internet Access

gypsylady

gypsylady

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Has anyone tried the 'new' internet dongles?

We are thinking about changing our Internet provider to one of those dongles from the mobile companies.

That way we will still have Internet access when 'tripping'.

Have looked at the carphone warehouse deal for a new laptop with dongle at £29 per month.

How much access will this give? Are there any other charges to consider? What sort of UK coverage is available? Any problems on campsites like tuning the TV seems to cause us?

Any help gratefully accepted.

June
 
:Cool: Hi there. I converted our son & daughter over to the THREE dongle last year. They think it's great.
A friend in Spain has the Vodafone Dongle. He is very happy with it.
Most providers, Vodafone, Three, 02 etc allow use abroad. But be aware of the possibility of extra costs when roaming over there. Fair useage can also apply. :Wink:
 
Hi,

We use a Three dongle - good speed and roaming costs are probably better than most I think. In France/Portugal/Spain earlier this year we got good coverage and costs were £3 per MByte. Used for emails this was pretty reasonable - beware the Windows auto download of updates though!!! Being a bit of a newby I got caught for £50 before I realised what was happening::Doh:

Disadvantage of Three in the UK is that the dongle (unlike the Three phones) does not default to GPRS if there is no 3G coverage (it does across the Channel though) - so out of 3G areas you have no internet access; unfortunately this seems to be the case in most places we wanted to go this year - Lakes, Wales etc.::Sad:

Cheers

Mike
 
Pronto said:
Disadvantage of Three in the UK is that the dongle (unlike the Three phones) does not default to GPRS if there is no 3G coverage (it does across the Channel though) - so out of 3G areas you have no internet access; unfortunately this seems to be the case in most places we wanted to go this year - Lakes, Wales etc.::Sad:
Click to expand...

:Cool: You can change the settings to get connected. :Wink:
 
See below for a comparison site. Be careful picking a package, not shown in the comparison is what you are charged if you go over your limit. Some providers they will sting you if you exceed your quota with one or two charging over £15 a MB yes FIFTEEN ££ :Eeek:. 3 at the moment seem to me to offer the best deal and if you go over your monthly limit you only pay 10p a MB

Mobile Broadband<<

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Vodafone dongle

Hi, Weuse a vodafone dongle which is £7.50 a month for 3GB. We use it mainly for internet surfing and e-mails although we sometimes download music. We have never got close to the limit and the coverage is excellent. Prior to this we had a T mobile dongle but the coverage was nowhere near as good. We never use the dongle abroad as the roaming rates are still quite expensive. However, there is a heck of a lot of wifi internet available in France/Spain/Portugal. Hope this is useful to you. Tony.
 
This is of great interest to me as I have recently (in the past month) gone over to mobile internet ....have a Vodaphone dongle and it has worked fantastically even in very remote areas of Cornwall (not known for the best reception?).
Absolutely delighted with it!!
You do have to be careful re downloads though as they use up a lot of the 3GB allowance that I have (£15 per month). A warning does come up on the screen and you can check your usage as often as you want.
Vodaphone was our choice as they are the best and cheapest (or so we have been told!) for Spain and we spend 3 months of the year there.
ps can someone please tell me if I can somehow hold off automatic downloads whilst touring??
 
Hi

Jimis right but it is very hard to go over 3 gig download, you would have to be streaming video / music to do so.

I use mobile internet solely now and have set up forums/blogs and run mu photographic business using it. At the weekend I uploaded a 38meg album in an hour - fantastic. Because I must have internet access, due to business we have Three which is the fastest but does sometimes goes slow and when that happens we switch to T Mobile which is the most consistent for GPRS. Three and GPRS are apparently merging to create the best mobile internet company going


stew
 
Jim said:
Some providers they will sting you if you exceed your quota with one or two charging over £15 a MB yes FIFTEEN ££ :Eeek:. 3 at the moment seem to me to offer the best deal and if you go over your monthly limit you only pay 10p a MB
Click to expand...

:Cool: Both our son and daughter are on Three with the 3GB at £15 a month. They have never in the last 12 months gone over. They are pretty heavy users. :Wink:

Our friend in Spain is charge 45 Euros a month. Fair useage comes into play which kicks him off. He then has to re-connect.
 
Last edited:
Voda dongle

Pop into livechat if you have any questions, I will be here until 12.30. Tony

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Have a Vodafone dongle, use it for work, never used it in France. Was annoyed that York did not have 3G same as most of North Wales, as far as I know, no limit...
 
gypsyrose said:
This is of great interest to me as I have recently (in the past month) gone over to mobile internet ....have a Vodaphone dongle and it has worked fantastically even in very remote areas of Cornwall (not known for the best reception?).
Absolutely delighted with it!!
You do have to be careful re downloads though as they use up a lot of the 3GB allowance that I have (£15 per month). A warning does come up on the screen and you can check your usage as often as you want.
Vodaphone was our choice as they are the best and cheapest (or so we have been told!) for Spain and we spend 3 months of the year there.
ps can someone please tell me if I can somehow hold off automatic downloads whilst touring??
Click to expand...


if you're using windows XP......
open control panel....
click on automatic updates
then choose how you want to download or switch off downloads but dont forget to turn it back on again later.

dont know about vista but it will be similar.

john
 
Using T-mobile with a PAYG phone. Can get a 5/6 day pass with unlimited usage for £2.50 Just link to my laptop and away you go. Coverage so far appears quite good
 
We have a THREE dongle - pay £7.50 a month for 3gb. We have now moved into our fifth wheel fulltime and moved the business from the house into an industrial unit. Tried the THREE dongle on the works computer, works fine so have now cancelled Broadband at £14.99 per month and now the dongle does both, we just unplug and bring it home with us in the evenings. More than happy with it, but a word of caution, a replacement dongle is £800.00, so it wouldn't be a good idea losing it!!!!

Nigel and Pamala
 
£800????? The dongles around at the moment that I've seen certainly don't cost anywhere near that - where did you get this info from???

The dongles (many of which are HUAWEI Modems) change hands for around £100 or so off contract, expensive certainly but not to my knowledge £800.......:Eeek:

Laurie

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sundowner said:
but a word of caution, a replacement dongle is £800.00, so it wouldn't be a good idea losing it!!!!

Nigel and Pamala
Click to expand...

:Cool: You would only need to buy a pay as you go dongle at £49.99 and put your old sim chip into it. :Wink:
 
johnsandywhite said:
:Cool: You can change the settings to get connected. :Wink:
Click to expand...

Tried that - didn't work:cry:

My understanding from Three is when you are out of a 3G area (they don't have GSM capability in their network) is that you are 'roamed' onto (I think) Orange. Three won't pay for data transfer on that network, so although the dongle will work for SMS messaging, it doesn't work for data transfer on the internet (although the dongle often indicates that a connection has been achieved i.e. a solid green light).

It does work OK for internet connection out of the UK - I've used it succesfully in France on GPRS. If somebody can let me know the settings to allow GPRS internet data transfer in the UK I'll buy them a (very large) beer - it was a pain in the **** ealier this year, I went to the Lakes expecting to be able to use the dongle and ended up paying through the nose for WiFi access at the Keswick C&CC site.

Mike
 
Pappajohn ...bit late seeing this...I use Vista but thanks for that info ...dare say I can adapt it to vista instead of XP!! Thanks!! :Smile:
 
My mobile phone is a vodafone contract package.

If i want to get a vodafone dongle does it come with a new sim card? I assume I can include the monthly cost in with my current deal?
 
euro said:
My mobile phone is a vodafone contract package.

If i want to get a vodafone dongle does it come with a new sim card?
I assume I can include the monthly cost in with my current deal?
Click to expand...

Yes.
Don't know.
 
tonycliff said:
Hi, Weuse a vodafone dongle which is £7.50 a month for 3GB. Tony.
Click to expand...


Cheapest I can find Vodafone is £15 per month and they are advertising that as half price.. down from £30 per month
 
hello


We bouht this three offer for £7.50 a month for 18 months back in May 2008. Tried it out at home & it worked no problems whatsoever. It connected every time so we did not return it. Thought it would be useful when our home internet provider Orange was down which it often is. We were away from home for about 8 weeks but on our return when tried last week it never connects. If 3 did roam on to Orange then this area is a good 3G area and that must have been how it was connecting but if they have changed their roaming partner to Tmobile as I have read elwhere that they now have then this area is not a 3G area. I have asked 3 to explain why we cant connect now but no joy as yet.

Has anyone else had this happen. We are a bit annoyed because we now have a product that isnt doing all that it was when we decided to keep it but still have to pay for it. I know we can use it out & about but we also would like to have been able to use it here as

Traveller

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I find this thread facinating - but don't understand a word of it!
We need a new laptop for general use at home, we also need a TV for our new MH.
Could I buy a laptop, then plug this dongle into it, to turn it into a TV for the MH? Any idea on cost? Not interested in having internet or phone access when away from home - that half the joy of being away for us!
Ta lots
 
paul&stella said:
I find this thread facinating - but don't understand a word of it!
We need a new laptop for general use at home, we also need a TV for our new MH.
Could I buy a laptop, then plug this dongle into it, to turn it into a TV for the MH? Any idea on cost? Not interested in having internet or phone access when away from home - that half the joy of being away for us!
Ta lots
Click to expand...

You can use a dongle to receive TV on a laptop but it is a different type of dongle to that which is being discussed in this thread.

You need a TV adapter which plugs into a USB port. Places like Dabs & PC World sell them and you can find them on eBay. There are analogue and digital versions available but not sure if you can get one with both analogue and digital tuners built in.

Graham
 
Hi,

I have read some of the threads where people have been thinking or have actually given up there landline broadband connections and gone over to using a mobile dongle, i really can't see the logic. Why not just change your landline supplier to TalkTalk and the broadband is free, then you can buy a dongle if you wish but you still have the landline broadband for free ?? and it is normally a lot quicker
 
Braunston said:
Hi,

I have read some of the threads where people have been thinking or have actually given up there landline broadband connections and gone over to using a mobile dongle, i really can't see the logic. Why not just change your landline supplier to TalkTalk and the broadband is free, then you can buy a dongle if you wish but you still have the landline broadband for free ?? and it is normally a lot quicker
Click to expand...

Don't you still have to pay someone for the landline though?
For instance BT or other supplier will still charge in the region of £10 pm
 
Hi, I've just changed to Mobile Broadband.. I got a deal with THREE. an 18mt contract at £15 month including a new HTC TYTN-II PDA phone (excellent piece of kit) with 300min/texts. As a THREE customer mobile phone customer, I get half price on the USB Dongle.
That means £7.50 for 3GB download ! We have found excellent coverage whereever we have gone and I'm so impressed that now I have cancelled our home land line broadband, and cancelled our BT phone - no more standing charge!
My wife and I are both home all day and both use the Internet a lot. I have set up an AD-hoc wireless network which means that Our desktop PC has the dongle plugged in and my laptop and PDA access the internet through a wireless network. The THREE network gives us a 3.6Mb link, which is faster than our old land-line broadband and with both my wife and I using the link at the same time we have not noticed and issues with Internet speed.
3GB download seems enough, the most we've used in a month has been 2.8GB so far.
We find that using BBC iPlayer seems to be slower then with the old land-line and we get more stops in the film as iPlayer gets more data.

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