o2 mobile broadband on my PC is EXTREMELY slow. What can I do?

mazdaspring

I just bought o2 PAYG mobile broadband to use while I am waiting for Sky Talk+broadband to be installed next 2 weeks. My PC has no wifi. So the o2 broadband is extremely slow. The speed is 53 Kbps like when we first had internet in 10 years ago. Although I bought a package of £15 with unlimited access+ up to 3 GB speed. What can I do about this to boost the signal. it take ages to open 1 email or 1 webpage. Many times the page is loading and gone error because it took too long. It's such a painful. I use 3 mobile broadband before but it's much faster. However I do not want to spend more money to top up on 3 mobile broadband with limited access. O2 packages are much better deal.

Should I use my laptop which has wifi? (I mostly use my PC because it's easier to work with. I only use laptop when I go out and bring it with me.) I have to work on something which require fast internet so it's annoying with this slow connection. Why can't sky install phone line earlier than next 2 week although the BT line is ready to use!!!!!!

herbertthehelper

mazdaspring wrote: »

I just bought o2 PAYG mobile broadband to use while I am waiting for Sky Talk+broadband to be installed next 2 weeks. My PC has no wifi. So the o2 broadband is extremely slow. The speed is 53 Kbps like when we first had internet in 10 years ago. Although I bought a package of £15 with unlimited access+ up to 3 GB speed. What can I do about this to boost the signal. it take ages to open 1 email or 1 webpage. Many times the page is loading and gone error because it took too long. It's such a painful. I use 3 mobile broadband before but it's much faster. However I do not want to spend more money to top up on 3 mobile broadband with limited access. O2 packages are much better deal.

Should I use my laptop which has wifi? (I mostly use my PC because it's easier to work with. I only use laptop when I go out and bring it with me.) I have to work on something which require fast internet so it's annoying with this slow connection. Why can't sky install phone line earlier than next 2 week although the BT line is ready to use!!!!!!

It might be that where you predominately use the mobile broadband is a 'not spot' which has limited connectivity? Best to contact O2 if you are having problems!

M4RKM

You've misunderstood what you've bought. You will never get a 3GB speed, when that is the download limit. You get whatever speed you get on the mobile phone network where you live. The speed can be anything from GPRS (56Kbps) EDGE (120Kbps ish) 3G (anything from 1.2Mbps - 7.2Mbps depending on the network)

Did you research beforehand what speed you would get in your area?

mazdaspring

markymoo wrote: »

You've misunderstood what you've bought. You will never get a 3GB speed, when that is the download limit. You get whatever speed you get on the mobile phone network where you live. The speed can be anything from GPRS (56Kbps) EDGE (120Kbps ish) 3G (anything from 1.2Mbps - 7.2Mbps depending on the network)

Did you research beforehand what speed you would get in your area?

I am sorry about it. It was supposed to be 3Mbps, NOT 3GB.
Anyway, I did research on it but I might have made a mistake. In my area, the max speed is 8 Mbps but that might be a home broadband (which I will get it in 2 weeks time). For mobile broadband, I thought it would be the same but it's actually not.

By the way, when I connect the dongle to my desktop , the speed is 56Kbps because it's GPRS. When I connect it to my laptop , the speed is around 3.6 mbps which is much faster than connecting it to desktop (not sure if it's because the laptop got wireless build in...sorry I might sound stupid because I have no idea bout these internet knowledge things)

However, for the speed 3.6 Mbps, I still notice it's very slower than when I was with virgin media (fiber obtic cable broadband one) which is only upto 2Mbps in speed. Why???? can anyone explain?

Also I got another question below.
The dongle is getting extremely hot when I connect it to computer for over 2 hours.... would it be ok if I connect it for 8 hours a day? I really need to use a lot of internet.

M4RKM

No. broadband speed and mobile broadband speed are totally different. You need to check the mobile phone signal in your area, using the coverage maps.

A little bit of information for you.


Home Broadband uses your phone line, this is either Cable or ADSL, you're waiting for your ADSL activated.
Mobile Broadband uses a mobile phone. The dongle you have is actually a phone, just without the phone capabilities.

Wireless Networking that is built into your laptop, has nothing to do with the speeds of the mobile broadband. The technologies don't communicate with each other, and there isn't a reason why a wireless network would make a mobile network faster. It boils down to one thing IMO

Bear in mind that you must treat this mobile broadband dongle like a mobile phone, because that is what it is. there is a sim card in it, so it's a mobile phone.

Ok, so your laptop is probably in a different place in the house, to your desktop. that is one reason why it could be slower. Have you plugged in a USB extension cable and held up the dongle slightly higher to see if that improves the signal. The second thing I could think of, and this is a long shot as i'm not 100% sure. is that the desktop isn't supporting USB2, so that could be a side effect, but also, there is an option turned off in the dashboard software. I don't know that software, as i'm on a Mac.. .

as for the speed, and why it is slower than virgin, well, again it is MOBILE broadband. Your signal is going through the mobile phone networks, and what is called latency has a huge effect on the visual speed.

if you were on virgin, and send a ping command (it's like a hello, and you want a reply) to bbc.co.uk you'd get a response of less than 30ms most probably. Now, do exactly the same on mobile broadband, and it'll probably increase to somewhere like 100ms. So, that's 70ms slower.

Now, when you're surfing the net, you're constantly sending data backwards and forwards, so, you have to wait that 70ms each time the data is going back and forth. Once the connection is established, and you're only downloading, you should see speeds around the same as what you would normally get. I know I do. So, you get a slower start time, and then it picks up... it's like it has to think a little bit more, but in reality, your laptop is just waiting for information to get back!!

personally, i find no problems, just browsing the net for emails and forums like this on my o2 stick, but I am also well aware of the limitations of it. So it's not idea for video streaming in a youtube sense, and you really do have to stick with doing one thing at once, rather than multiple things


M

mazdaspring

Thank you so much "Markymoo". Your information totally clear up my brain, my knowledge on this wireless internet thing. You are superb!! Excellent information, easy for novice like me to understand.

Yes, my desktop and laptop are in different room. Last night I brought my laptop to sit next to my desktop and connect to the dongle. Yes!! The connection is GPRS, slowest one.

Can you answer me, Cable and ADSL, which is better in speed and else? (just for my knowledge) Thank you so much again