Internet dongle?

[snowleopard]

Up to now I have used an external wifi antenna to get internet coverage on the boat. I have had no success at all with BT Openzone and most local commercial hotspots charge a great deal, typically £5 per hour.

I recently took a trip with a guy who had a dongle that he said had given him more than a season's use for £15 which surprised me. I know little of what's involved but would like to get up to speed. I have a mobile on Orange which has a USB connection - can I use that to connect my laptop or do I need a dongle as well? Can I add the data charges onto my existing monthly account or do I need a separate account? I have heard you have to pay up front and if you don't use the units by the end of the month they take them back - is that the case with all companies?

 

[dylanwinter]

orange internet everywhere

Up to now I have used an external wifi antenna to get internet coverage on the boat. I have had no success at all with BT Openzone and most local commercial hotspots charge a great deal, typically £5 per hour.

I recently took a trip with a guy who had a dongle that he said had given him more than a season's use for £15 which surprised me. I know little of what's involved but would like to get up to speed. I have a mobile on Orange which has a USB connection - can I use that to connect my laptop or do I need a dongle as well? Can I add the data charges onto my existing monthly account or do I need a separate account? I have heard you have to pay up front and if you don't use the units by the end of the month they take them back - is that the case with all companies?

excellent so far

not been out of range for ages on my journey

I have it on a long usb and chuck it out of the front hatch if the signal is under par

d

 

[watson1959]

Internet connection

Up to now I have used an external wifi antenna to get internet coverage on the boat. I have had no success at all with BT Openzone and most local commercial hotspots charge a great deal, typically £5 per hour.

I recently took a trip with a guy who had a dongle that he said had given him more than a season's use for £15 which surprised me. I know little of what's involved but would like to get up to speed. I have a mobile on Orange which has a USB connection - can I use that to connect my laptop or do I need a dongle as well? Can I add the data charges onto my existing monthly account or do I need a separate account? I have heard you have to pay up front and if you don't use the units by the end of the month they take them back - is that the case with all companies?

Any wifi service will only be as good as the deployment of the wifi network itself (ie the placement of their Access Points). BT Openzone is usually a business class service so if you've had trouble at more than one location that would tend to point to you needing a beter quality wifi antenna. In open spaces, a typical enterprise grade AP will have a range of up to 100m....so that also needs to be borne in mind. At the marina I use, however, I've found that by far the biggest limiting factor is the presence of other boats creating a weaker signal (lots of metal around!).

You could also search for something to boost the gain on your antenna. Also some help tips on the microsoft site: http://www.microsoft.com/athome/setup/wirelesstips.aspx

As you say, hotspots can be expensive so you might want to look to see if your operator (Orange) can offer you a monthly data bundle to add to your account. You need to be very clear with them what you want to use it for and give an estimate of your usage (browsing? email? downloading files?) so they can ensure you have an appropriate bundle. Should be no reason at all to make you pay up front....unless you have a bad credit rating .....and as you have a boat thats quite possible LOLOL

 

[earlybird]

I recently took a trip with a guy who had a dongle that he said had given him more than a season's use for £15

Vodafone did supply a PAYG dongle on which the unused credit lasts indefinitely, but that deal is no longer available for new customers, although existing dongles continue to operate.
That might be what your friend has.
AFAIK, all current deals have to be topped up on a monthly basis.

 

[vyv_cox]

Vodafone did a PAYG dongle that could be recharged at £15 per time. I have one and have used a remarkably small amount of its capacity. Perhaps because of this they withdrew it, although I believe existing ones continue under the same arrangement, and current ones are on a monthly tariff of £15.

 

[Vara]

It sounds to me as if your mate is running on the old Vodaphone PAYG sim card which was £15 for 1 gig of data with no expiry date. No longer available unfortunately..But I've got one for the net book .

A dongle is quite handy as you can put a USB extension cable on it to optimise reception in iffy reception areas, and is simpler than tethering a phone.

The best deals at the moment seem to be with 3 who will give you a 3 month duration PAYG sim with 3 gig limit for £2O.69 IIRC. (Dongle extra).

This site gives some more info;

http://www.uswitch.com/broadband/compare/pay_as_you_go_mobile_broadband/

Might be an idea if you're going down the dongle route to buy an unlocked dongle from E-Bay so that you can do some rate tarting in the future as the market in mobile broadband is changing all the time.

 

[pvb]

The non-expiring Vodafone dongle was the K3565, I have one and it seems to work OK. You can only top it up £15 at a time, but the credit lasts indefinitely, rather than only for 30 days as the current ones do. If you're a light internet user, it's ideal. Although discontinued, you can still find them (try eBay, search for K3565).

 

[Vara]

The non-expiring Vodafone dongle was the K3565, I have one and it seems to work OK. You can only top it up £15 at a time, but the credit lasts indefinitely, rather than only for 30 days as the current ones do. If you're a light internet user, it's ideal. Although discontinued, you can still find them (try eBay, search for K3565).

I'm fairly certain that it's the sim card which carries the contract not the dongle, so if you go down that route make sure you get both.

 

[laika]

I too confirm what others have said about the vodafone dongle. New ones the credit expires after 60 days whether used or not.

Whether you can use your phone to connect your laptop depends on the phone, the firmware, your contract, and how much you respect the Terms and Conditions of your contract.

You certainly need a data allowance and for every deal I've looked at this does indeed expire.

If your phone/software is capable of connecting your laptop to the Internet (some aren't, some are, some are but only with a fair amount of bother which you might not think is worth it) in order to use it with Vodaphone or Orange they want you to purchase what they both call a "tethering pack". Not a physical "pack" of anything: it just gives you some data for (in voda's case) £15 a month. £15 a month is an awful lot compared with the £5 you might pay for 500MB for data on a "smartphone" plan and which would cover many people's frugal browsing and email for a month. So if you've already got a "smartphone" which you've paid for data for or if you move onto a plan for one, can't you just use that data allowance to connect your laptop from time to time? Not according to the Ts&Cs. The charge is related to what they think you'll pay, not what it costs them.

So what prevents people with capable phones from using their smartphone data allowance from their laptop? Respect for the Ts&Cs of course, but if the phone was bought from the service provider (e.g. as part of a subsidised contract deal) there might be (I don't know: I bought my phone unlocked direct from Google) something in the phone's software which might help the company police their policies.

 

[BrendanS]

It's very easy to turn on wifi hotspots on many phones now, and tethering is allowed in many plans. In fact, on the 3 One Plan, you can have unlimited data downloads and tethering allowed. I use this on my iPhone, but I still have the latest 3 dongle as the download speeds are very fast compared to the phone equivalent.

 

[lenseman]

I would like to add that Vodafone in their wisdom have cut down on the available usage, whether original or later dongles.

Originally, the dongles gave 3Gbytes for £15 and then Vodafone stopped the unlimited time and introduced the £15 for 3 Gbytes per month (as others have said above).

About 4months ago, Vodafone sneakily reduced the allowance to 2Gbytes per month at a rolling charge of £15.

 

[pvb]

I'm fairly certain that it's the sim card which carries the contract not the dongle, so if you go down that route make sure you get both.

The SIM is integral to the dongle, and isn't (easily) removeable.

 

[jimi]

I've got the PAYG Vodafone dongle and reckon I've used £20 in 3 years, you'd rack that up in a week on some wifi charges!

 

[SJF]

Up to now I have used an external wifi antenna to get internet coverage on the boat. I have had no success at all with BT Openzone and most local commercial hotspots charge a great deal, typically £5 per hour.

I suggest you try a different wifi setup before switching to a 3g dongle. I'm now 2/3rds of the way through a 3 week trip along the South Coast (UK) (currently in the bag at Salcombe on a BTOpenzone - Internal laptop wifi card can only see the expensive wifi spark network but the bullet can see several BTOpenzones and other secured networks) having been down to Falmouth and using a Ubiquity Bullet 2HP and 8db omni antenna hauled up to just under the spreader there has only been 1 overnight stop in 2 weeks where I have been unable to connect using either BTOpenzone / BTFon spots or other open access points.

It was my poor exprience with a 3g dongle that led me to investigate other connectivity solutions and I'm pleased with my decision. I haven't resorted to my 3g dongle since I purchased the bullet at the start of the season. Thoroughly recommended (although can be a little tricky to configure initially).

SJF

Edit: I found out about the Bullet from Panbo which may be of interest to you.

 

[steve350]

Virgin payg sim.http://http://www.virginmobile.com/vm/promos/AddictSIMO.html It's free, the credit doesn't expire and no monthly contract. I believe the fair usage policy is 25mb per day. Put it in an unlocked dongle (ebay) and you have internet access.
The Vodaphone dongles with unexpiring cedit are still available on ebay. They go for about £50, which is expensive, but they come with £15 credit pre installed. Search for "vodafone unexpiring".

 

[Dave99]

I am on a network beginning with T! Someone rang me up a year or so ago and tried to sell me a data dongle. At the time I didn't need it but remembered they offered me a good deal.

So a few months later it became a handy item, so I rang customer services and said that I thought I was offered a package for £5 per month.

Anyway I have a usb dongle which they sent me with a separate sim and I think it costs about £6.50 for unlimited data in the UK. It also picks up wi-fi from the same network in certain places too I think.

As for the pay as you go ones... not sure how long the credit lasts, so I guess it depends what you need it for.

Also in respect of connecting phone to laptop - its called tethering and I used to do this with one of my phones on my last contract. I had unlimited data for emails anyway... it worked fine although didn't let me make calls at the same time on my nokia.

I prefer the dongle and would say it is definitely worth the money - esp given that the are no limits on it.

 

[Vara]

The SIM is integral to the dongle, and isn't (easily) removeable.

Sorry PVB thats wrong, dongle is shipped with sim separate and is easy to fit/remove.

Relevant page from book of words.

Whilst some of the e bay dongles say they have the everlasting sim, most of them don't.

Clue seems to be in the price, £60 seems to be the going rate for the right one.

 

[pvb]

Sorry PVB thats wrong, dongle is shipped with sim separate and is easy to fit/remove.

Strangely, my K3565 dongle came out of the sealed box with its SIM already installed! Maybe others don't.

 

[snowleopard]

Lots of interesting ideas here. My phone has web access but virtually unusable on the tiny screen. I have a wifi dongle that I hang up on deck with a foot-long antenna. I can often see BT Openzone or BTFon hotspots but I have never yet managed to get a connection with one. I get a 'connected successfully' message but it always shows up as 'local use only'.

What drives me potty is that Vista insists on dropping the network I'm trying to connect to in favour of the most powerful PAYG hotspot, even after I have told it not to. Absolutely infuriating. The same thing happens at home - when I try to access my HomeHub it always connects to the associated Openzone connection and demands a password. I have to manually re-connect every morning.

 

[jimi]

Another option is the 3g Kindle. the web browser is a bit clunky, but perfectly adequate for weather and news