We may have a drawn out move with an interim location for a few weeks/months. Currently we used home based mail and have both PC and laptop on wi-fi off a router.
Any thoughts on it being easier to go to 100% mobile broadband for this period rather than swapping ISPs or locations twice?
I assume I'd just have to get web mail and remember eveyone to notify. Then get the mobile broadband contract that has the best reception for the area we'll be in. Can you have a mobile broadband router and keep the computers on wi-fi that way?
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These days many mobiles, my HTC Wildfire S included, will operate as a portable WiFi hotspot, so the PCs connect to the mobile by WiFi and thence onwards to the interweb via 3G.
Don't expect super data rates though, 1Mbs is still good going in the UK for mobile internet. OK for webmail and suchlike , HD iPlayer could be a bit tricky though.
Plan B would be to use a 3G USB dongle on one PC, and creat an ad-hoc connection to the second, if you needed to PCS connected at once.
Plan C would be a 'MiFi' type 3G wireless router /access point e.g. :-
threestore.three.co.uk/broadband/?mifi=1&id=1184
Last edited by: spamcan61 on Tue 5 Jul 11 at 12:08
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Ahh.... that MiFi is the sort of thing we'd need. Remind me what typical guideline monthly data rates would be needed for family use... no film downloads and minimal music downloading.
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With me and SWMBO doing a fair amount of email/general web surfing, and Spamette Minor using iPlayer/Youtube a fair bit we got through about 250MB a day at Spamcan Towers. I suspect the iPlayer is a good chunk of that, why folk can't just set series record on their PVRs I dunno.
FWIW just did a quick mobile internet speed test via my Vodafone SureSignal (i.e. I have my own little base station in the house), got 2Mbs down 400Kbs up.
In terms of your particular location maybe worth seeing who has the nearest cell site via :-
www.sitefinder.ofcom.org.uk/
Whilst it's not as simple as nearest site = best coverage in your location it's a starting point at least.
Last edited by: spamcan61 on Tue 5 Jul 11 at 12:49
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If you go with the 3 mifi device then you have to use their SIm. I have the original 3 mifi and used it a bit after we moved last year until I got my phone line and broadband.
I mainly used my vodafone 3g dongle in the back of the computer because the original 3 mifi does not charge off usb when it's bring put to use. Do runs flat quickly. I have since unlocked the mifi and stuck the Vodafone SIM in it. It still shows credit from 2010!
For general stuff, if you have a fair signal, mobile broadband is fine but there are limits for data transfer/downloads.
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I used mobile broadband (BT) during a protracted hospital stay last year. As my ISP gives me webmail, and a decent storage limit, no need to tell anyone as I just used the webmail.
But there was a special offer on increased bandwidth, without it, it probably would not have been enough.
Last edited by: Slidingpillar on Tue 5 Jul 11 at 15:55
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The 3 MiFi has been superb so far - I bought a PAYG one (3GB/3 months preloaded) and it has beaten my O2 dongle hollow. I just gave up on the dongle - usually only 56Kbps, and frequently difficult to connect.
The one you need is the E585 - this one goo.gl/b1JVD. The earlier version was all silver and had a colour display, but wasn't nearly as good.
The black one linked above will work while charging on USB. In fact I think the earlier ones did, but you had to restart if you plugged in while using it.
The E585 is very easy to use. Switch it on and it will connect in a minute or so, and becomes a wireless modem router for up to 5 devices. It uses an encryption key of course.
£10/GB/30days on PAYG is OK for email - if you want to use a multiple of that, then you might be better with a contract. I have PAYG for occasional days away from home and holidays, which suits me fine.
Unlike a dongle, it's easy to position high up in a window if the signal's poor. Just don't leave it in a hotel room (a colleague has done this twice).
Just make sure the 3 network has coverage where you are going. On 3G it's faster than my rubbish home ADSL. On HSDPA it fairly flies along.
Last edited by: Manatee on Tue 5 Jul 11 at 23:36
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Manatee's post reads like a 3 MiFi is so brilliant it will work everywhere. Well you need a good mobile signal and for good 3G Internet via a MiFi you need to have a good signal. When O2 and Vodafone start to offer 3G on the old GSM 900MHz frequencies.... now that will be good.
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To cut it short and push through all techno.,
You can go 3g for broadband for a while, BUT it very much depends on your coverage, and you wont know what provider, if any, will provide sufficient signal and access, till you get there.
Maps and predictors are useless.
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I have a PAYG 3g dongle for the laptop for holidays so I guess I can top that up and park up in the area involved to see what signal that gets. I can only think the router based 3g system will be even better for pulling in a signal??
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>> I have a PAYG 3g dongle for the laptop for holidays so I guess I
>> can top that up and park up in the area involved to see what signal
>> that gets. I can only think the router based 3g system will be even better
>> for pulling in a signal??
>>
Potentially there are less design compromises to be made, and for sure the fact that it's not next to your head (absorbing half the signal) helps, so it should be a little bit better.
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Little being the operative word. Location, location location as the agents say. The problem with dongles is you cant move them around, a 2m USB cable helps there.
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>> Little being the operative word. Location, location location as the agents say.
That's why I suggested checking on sitefinder upthread. If you're 100 yds. from a 3G macrocell then there's a good chance you'll get good coverage (unless there's a girt big gasholder in that 100 yds.) If the nearest cell is 2 miles away then you'd be better off with carrier pigeons.
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>> >> Little being the operative word. Location, location location as the agents say.
>>
>> That's why I suggested checking on sitefinder upthread.
And you will notice i said site finders or predictors are next to useless. You could be 200 yards away from a base station and be living in an RF black hole!
Yeah sure the map will give you clues about whole areas to avoid, but if you are depending on it, sitting outside the house with a dongle and laptop is the only sure way. Even then you need to choose your room inside!
My whole mantra about mobile phones is to assume you wont get a signal till you prove you have.
Last edited by: Zero on Thu 7 Jul 11 at 10:36
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Accept what Zero says about the proof being in the actual signal once in the house. However a possible place we might be is 200m from O2, 500m from Orange, 600m from T-Mobile and two masts at 3km & 4km for 3 network.
Last edited by: Fenlander on Thu 7 Jul 11 at 11:01
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mmmm..looks like 3 is probably not a good bet then.
If you click on the O2 site on the sitefinder map what does it give for 'transmitter power' ? hopefully the ' type of transmission' is 3G?
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whoops I meant 'UMTS' not '3G'
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It says GSM transmission 24.5dbW. No good?
Last edited by: Fenlander on Thu 7 Jul 11 at 11:32
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>> It says GSM transmission 24.5dbW. No good?
>>
That's not much cop for mobile broadband :-/
edit; although the sitefinder database isn't necessarily up to date.
Last edited by: spamcan61 on Thu 7 Jul 11 at 11:38
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I am 0.8km (north) away from an O2 UMTS macro cell at 27.79 dBW
I get 111ms ping time, 1.59Mbs down and .5mbs up. (Iphone 4)
My son is 0.7km (south) away from a Vodafone UMTS macro cell at 29.454 dBW and cant get 3G (iphone 4)
Assuming both phones are as deaf as each other - Go figure as they say!
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>> I am 0.8km (north) away from an O2 UMTS macro cell at 27.79 dBW
>>
>> I get 111ms ping time, 1.59Mbs down and .5mbs up. (Iphone 4)
>>
That's an impressively low ping for a 3G network; mine's 350 ish, although that is through my broadband as well as Vodafone's core network so I wasn't expecting it to be particularly low, your data rates are much the same as mine.
I seem to be 6Km north of the nearest Vodafone 3G site (the usual 27.914 dBW), which explains why I need my own cell indoors to even make a 3G phone call, never mind data.
Presumably your son has some substantial Rf reflecting/absorbing structure between him and the site. At least sitefinder gives you some idea which operators are more likely than others to give decent coverage in a particular location, although agreed accurate coverage prediction at house by house level is impossible.
Last edited by: spamcan61 on Thu 7 Jul 11 at 12:54
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From upstairs we would have a line of sight view across a handful of house rooftops then fields to the hill mounted transmitter locations.
The Orange one 500m away is a UTMS with 29.4dbw... so accepting it's not cut & dried until tested they look the best bet??
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well thats where you would lay your money.
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>>
>> The Orange one 500m away is a UTMS with 29.4dbw... so accepting it's not cut
>> & dried until tested they look the best bet??
>>
That would be a good bet yes, accepting that this isn't exact science. I'd check Orange's coverage map as well, even though as previously discussed that's not accurate at house level.
search.orange.co.uk/ouk/portal/coveragechecker.html?channel=direct/
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My new house of which I'am moving into next week will have Mi-Fi delivered mobile broadband supplying its internet. I have just renewed for 18mth contract 15GB allowance and a free Mi-Fi for £10.99 per month courtesy of 3 Mobile.
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>> My new house of which I'am moving into next week will have Mi-Fi delivered mobile
>> broadband supplying its internet. I have just renewed for 18mth contract 15GB allowance and a
>> free Mi-Fi for £10.99 per month courtesy of 3 Mobile.
>>
I hope the new place has very good 3 coverage!
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Yes, I assume you have tested it.
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It will be fine, trust me!
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>> I have just renewed for 18mth contract 15GB allowance >>
Crikey - I've just downloaded just over 8 GB in one download!
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Would it be worthwile testing the networks data speed with a smartphone if you know someone on the network you want to test? And if so any idea what app would do that?
Last edited by: The Nut on Tue 12 Jul 11 at 22:12
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Speedtest, available on Iphone and Android.
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I have tried Speedtest on my Samsung Android phone. It's either the phone CPU, wifi, or something... but it cannot keep up with a fast connection.
Just tried it now and results are:
- Ping 24ms
- Download 7916kbps
- Upload 3434kbps
Nowhere near accurate.
Last edited by: rtj70 on Tue 12 Jul 11 at 23:05
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I dont think its going to be a problem for using on the Orange 3G network
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Forgot the tread was mobile broadband but my point was the application is a bottleneck ;-) On Vodafone 3G I get:
- ping 143ms
- Download 3.28Mbps
- Upload ... failing for some reason
Vodafone claim I am in an area with very good 3g (I know the masts are close) but the trouble is we are on a bit of a hill too and so the phone often latches on more distant masts.
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Just to update (Zero!)
The 3 Mi-Fi device/contract I have has been tested (been in the house 2 weeks)
I get from the Mi-Fi device;
Best (from the top of my upstairs wardrobe)
Ping: 94ms
Download: 3.5Mbit/s
Upload: 1.5Mbit/s
Average (placed anywhere in the house)
Ping: 100-200ms
Download: up to 2Mbit/s but average is 750Kbit/s - 1.5Mbit/s
Upload - 900Kbit/s
The speeds are ok by me and the cost is reasonable (chepaer than BT standard line rental)
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...The speeds are ok by me...
Until Apple flog a trillion iPhone 5s and they are all added to the network. :)
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>> The speeds are ok by me and the cost is reasonable (chepaer than BT standard
>> line rental)
Whats your data limit on that deal? I bet it wouldnt be cheap on my 60 gb month consumption!
Edit, just noticed yours is for 15gb month.
Last edited by: Zero on Wed 3 Aug 11 at 14:08
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15GB is more than enough for me at present, I have just upgraded as part of being a MB user with 3 mobile and standard price was £18.99 /24 month contract where I get it for £10.99 / 18 month contract.
If and when BT decide better speeds than 2MB max in this area I live now or I go for Virgin Media (expensive).
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Thanks for the feedback nbd. The possibility we'll need this for a few months gets ever closer and we'd decided not to have a landline phone over the period.... broadband is more crucial to us.
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As I was an 3 existing customer, I used my old dongle to test prior to decision in the imminent vacinity.
Another option is to use your current mobile phones to test data browsing in your new area to determine what your current network is like for data or likewise same with friends.
For me that is better than any review or coverage map from persons unknown, but then people dont look too much into what you read on the internet. Point taken, but I would not want to sign up to a 18/24 month contract or even pay £50 for a locked PAYG to eventually find out there is no signal.
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Whatever we do, and it's going to happen in a couple of weeks, I'll have to get an unlimited contract. Was amazed to see we had a perfect signal in the remote area of Scotland on our hols so put £10 (1GB) credit on the 3 dongle. Used it in just over an hour. Browsing Rightmove, few Youtube videos and a couple of forums... no music of film/video downloads though.
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>> put £10 (1GB) credit on the
>> 3 dongle. Used it in just over an hour.
Assuming that's 1G bytes, not bits, I make that equivalent to an hour's constant downloading at 2.2Mbps. Not bad!
Last edited by: Focus on Fri 2 Sep 11 at 12:02
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>> few Youtube videos and a couple of forums... no music of film/video downloads though.
But you did download (or rather stream) some YouTube videos. There's where most of your data came from.
Over a fast enough connection you could download that much data in no time at all.
Last edited by: rtj70 on Fri 2 Sep 11 at 12:07
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>> Over a fast enough connection you could download that much data in no time at
>> all.
Well like I said it would take an hour at 2.2Mbps; you can't get that much faster over the phone network. Any idea what you were getting Fen?
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No idea on speeds but the laptop was loading pages about as fast as our home setup which runs a lowly 2.2 out here on the end of the string.
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This is going to need arranging soon and I'm still puzzled by the advice on the 3 website where they say 1GB will give you...
•Send 1000 Outlook/HTML Emails
•Surf the Web for 10 hours
•Download 5 four minute videos
•Download 32 four minute music tracks
Do you think they mean you can have either of these things not all for your 1GB?
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I was thinking of this 12GB payg MiFi for £122... no good if we can use the allowance in 12hrs though!
threestore.three.co.uk/broadband/?mifi=1
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Are you really going to be using 1Gb per hour for 12 hours every day? Most broadband packages have fair use policies too. For my BT Infinity service it is said to be 100Gb/month. But if you're going to be downloading 12Gb per day then you would fall foul of the limits ultimately imposed.
In reality, you're surely not going to be using 1Gb/hour for hour on end are you? AlthoughI see the 12Gb last for 12 months... and it won't last anywhere near that.
Last edited by: rtj70 on Mon 5 Sep 11 at 13:23
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As I said above the hours use was browsing Rightmove, few Youtube videos and a couple of forums... no music of film/video downloads though.
To me that's pretty light internet use. The only thing I can think of is perhaps there was a large Windows update it did without me noticing.
We'll be out of this house in 3wks and hope to get the rental place in 2wks so there's an overlap. Have no idea if we'll be there for 6wks or 6mths but very reluctant to go through the hassle of signing up for a home phone and fixed broadband in case it really is a short period.
I think we'll just have to go for the 12GB pre-pay chunks and change the way we use the net.
Something else that puzzles re us apparently using our 1GB in an hour. Daughter has 1GB per month on her Android phone and despite always being on the thing never hits the limit. Weird.
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The Youtube content viewed will have amounted to a fair bit of the usage I would think. You say no video downloads but you did watch video and that is no different to downloading.
If it was viewed in HD, one hour could easily be 1Gb.
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The more I look into the more I think I was cut off way too early on the 3 dongle allowance. Just checked and our home broadband is capped at 10GB monthly. Despite using it freely from 7am-midnight every day we've not exceeded the 10GB in any month over the past 2yrs... so it's near impossible that the same useage pattern could get through 1GB in an hour.
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In the end thought the threat of running out of data allowance and constant inevitable threats to the teens not to view videos etc just too much hassle. Signed with BT for fixed broadband as they will migrate it to our eventual permanent house with no charge and under the same contract.
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You've probably made a wise choice. I used mobile broadband for a few weeks when I moved in here (Vodafone) using a USB dongle. Fine for a few weeks but costs would soon mount if for longer.
I still have a few £s left on it after more than a year - they don't do PAYG like that anymore for new customers. Even used the SIM in a MiFi whilst in Greece too.
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Going 100% mobile broadband - spamcan61
