Mobile Dongles

[leehack]

I need to get hold of a dongle to provide temporary internet connection for a charity i'm part of. Having a dedicated broadband line installed is on the agenda at the moment, however a temporary solution is required so mainly emails can be collected in the interim as there may be installation problems.

It's been a good few years since i had one of these, so don't know too much about them tbh. Can anyone offer any advice or recommendations on what i need to look out for or any services they'd recommend.

It will be almost exclusively used in a fixed office, so i am presuming it's a good idea to confirm good network coverage in said area as a first step. If my 3G phone has a good signal in the office, would that constitute a good enough test for reliable connectivity.

Any advice appreciated. Thanks.

[NormanRouxel]

Consider the Mi-Fi from 3. Instead of being a dongle that goes directly into a computer this is a small mouse sized device that receives a 3G signal and lets you connect up to 5 devices via wi-fi. You can position it where the 3G signal is best instead of being restricted to the reception where your computer is.

I've got one for emergency use because I live in a country house with 75cm thick walls and being able to relocate it to an upper floor to get a good signal is very useful.

It's also useful when out and about as I can connect a PC at the same time as my wife with her Mac.

[completerookie]

Norman, the mind just boggles.
living in an old house with massively thick walls, and as for your antics with your missus dressing up in her mac.

Seems like you now appear to be one of those "lord of the manor" with ancient rights, relocating everywhere, making connections with everyone wherever you like.

if its not "lord of the manor", then the only other thing I can think of is a "member of parliament"

[Duncan Rounding]

I have two dongles (3 and Vodafone) - both work well, but coverage can vary dramatically depending where I am - hence having two. They're both PAYG - 3 is cheaper but the coverage is generally limited, Vodafone is more expensive but has better coverage (for me at least). In good coverage areas the speed from either is very good at about 2.5Mb + but there is some noticeable latency on both of them compared with fixed BB.

I remember Chris Ashdown mentioning a router that takes a mobile dongle as well some time back - might be an option.

if I was to start looking again now I would certainly look at the device Norman mentioned (not sure if that's available on PAYG though) if you want more than one computer online - but coverage is the most important thing.

[guccij]

Whatever you get, avoid an O2 sim. Coverage is terrible. We have a router from these guys http://www.zoom.com/products/mobile_broadband_qa.html - ours is the last one shown on that page.

We stick a dongle in it with a PAYG Swiss or UK sim and it gives wifi to the iPads, my Blackberry, and the boys' laptop. Works in the car as well.

We tend to use it if one of us is working outside the office for the day, and always in Switzerland (since the b**tards switched off the free wifi locally grr).

[pinbrook]

I also use 3. Mainly because they did an offer yonks ago and the dongle was free, otherwise I would have bought an unlocked dongle from eBay.

For me the coverage has been fine - Inc some areas where o2 was patchy and 3 was ok.

[pinbrook]

I've got one for emergency use because I live in a country house with 75cm thick walls and being able to relocate it to an upper floor to get a good signal is very useful.

Any reason this is better than a homeplug?

[leehack]

Some great help and advice there guys and gals, thanks very much for replying, much appreciated. As this will be a fixed location, network coverage in the area is going to be key as to who i choose i guess.

[chris ashdown]

I remember Chris Ashdown mentioning a router that takes a mobile dongle as well some time back - might be an option.

.

It's a DRAYTEK router which so i understand is one of the top makes, must admit we have never had any problems and get good performance with a network of 8 users going through it

[guccij]

We have that Draytek router too - have never had to use the USB dongle though, as when the main ISP has gone down or dropped out, it switches to our backup ISP.

[leehack]

So in summary, does this sound right:

a) Work out data usage to decide on the package required
b) Check network coverage in the area as this will be in a fixed location, if a mobile on a certain network doesn't work very well in the area, then a dongle won't
c) Dongles seem much of a muchness, all seem to be between £20-40, shouldn't really matter which one
d) Decide whether contract or PAYG is best

How's that sound? anything missing?

[Duncan Rounding]

That's fine but make sure that you test 3G browsing on a mobile (youtube would be a good test) inside exactly where you expect to locate the dongle. Signals can vary so much.

If it's temporary then PAYG might be best.

[NormanRouxel]

Any reason this is better than a homeplug?

Jo,

The Mi-Fi doesn't have a LAN connector so it has to be via wireless if you want to use it remotely.

Nearly everything from a mobile phone shop is returnable within a week or so which may be useful if coverage is useless.

[Sean Williams]

We were on a satellite at home, but have now binned it in exchange for a dongle from 3.
We have 80cm thick walls ( Norman) so a WiFi router is essential - we also bought a Zoom: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Zoom-3G-Wire...sr=1-1-catcorr

We decided against MiFi as it wasn't flexible enough.
Don't bother plugging the dongle in to the PC to 'see how it works' as it just wastes time - shove in to the Zoom and off it goes, all on it's own!

Chose 3 as they are the only network to offer 3G in our area.
Speed always capped at 1Mb, but that's fine.
Compared with satellite it's far preferable as the lag is very small.
I'm very satisfied with it, but then being in a remote location, (in Wales where they've only recently discovered electricity of course) the local load on the transmitter isn't too high, although it is noticeably less responsive at peak times.
We're on a PAYG monthly repeating deal that gives approx 5 Gig. We never use more than 1.5, including iPlayer use. Seemed to be the best value and also flexible as you can cancel it at any time.
I'd recommend it.

[Darren B]

I have recently seen some PAYG expire everymonth so if you dont use your £10 / £15 £20 its gone at the end of the month instead of rolling over. keep an eye out for that