Three (3) Mobile Internet

sonyhamster

Waiting for pathetic BT to sort me out with some broadband so went to buy a mobile broadband dongle over the weekend.

Three seemed like the best option on their rolling 30 day contract (I figured I could cancel after a month) I was in a decent coverage area so it was a no brainer at the time.

Went to plug it in - first couple of days, absolutely fine. However after that, it went down hill. Slow connection with amazing speeds of just 96kbs - I think the highest was about 300kbs.

Connection kept dropping. Ping - anywhere from 150 to 4000!!! Oddly enough this happened during what I would consider off-peak hours too (after midnight and during the afternoon).

Double checked if there was anything else running - nothing.

Has anyone had any similar experiences with Three or indeed any other mobile internet provider?

instaunt

In the fight for new customers, most broadband providers tend to offer well in excess of what they can actually provide thinking that everyone will simply think "ah, well, I must be the exception because of where I live or the time of day I use it". The past couple of years have seen nearly every provider having an ad removed. Three was one of the latest and they won't be the last.

Your only recourse is to find documentation that promised you more than what you are getting without clear pointers e.g. *'s next to every claim that lead you to terms and conditions saying "only 1% of customer will get this speed". If a salesman sold you it making claims, then I'd take it to the shop and make a fuss.

sonyhamster

instaunt wrote: »

In the fight for new customers, most broadband providers tend to offer well in excess of what they can actually provide thinking that everyone will simply think "ah, well, I must be the exception because of where I live or the time of day I use it". The past couple of years have seen nearly every provider having an ad removed. Three was one of the latest and they won't be the last.

Your only recourse is to find documentation that promised you more than what you are getting without clear pointers e.g. *'s next to every claim that lead you to terms and conditions saying "only 1% of customer will get this speed". If a salesman sold you it making claims, then I'd take it to the shop and make a fuss.

Thanks - that's the plan! The dongle cable stopped working yesterday (loose connection I think), so I'm taking it back today anyway...

Will be having a few words too!

clairelou85_2

I'm currently in a battle with 3 over overcharges.if there is anyway you can get out of your contract do it now!! and please do not accept there wireless dongle.i was never over my allowence with the plug in and managed to use triple in 2 weeks less with the wireless dongle x x gl

sonyhamster

clairelou85 wrote: »

I'm currently in a battle with 3 over overcharges.if there is anyway you can get out of your contract do it now!! and please do not accept there wireless dongle.i was never over my allowence with the plug in and managed to use triple in 2 weeks less with the wireless dongle x x gl

Is the wireless dongle a WiFi thing? I have the USB plug in so only one computer can access at the same time (although I have set it up so that my other half can pick up via my WiFi) albeit very, very slow!

Anyway, I spoke to their 'second tier' technical support and who have supposedly fixed it. I'll be cancelling it soon anyway as the service has been ridiculous.

I'm on a 30 day rolling, so it's slightly easier for me to exit!

Widelats

3 is a nightmare

The server at forums.moneysavingexpert.com can't be found because the DNS lookup failed. DNS is the web service that translates a website's name to its Internet address. This error is most often caused by having no connection to the Internet or a misconfigured network. It can also be caused by an unresponsive DNS server or a firewall preventing Google Chrome from accessing the network.
Here are some suggestions:
Reload this web page later.
Check your Internet connection. Reboot any routers, modems or other network devices that you may be using.
Check your DNS settings. Contact your network administrator if you're not sure what this means.
Try disabling DNS prefetching by following these steps: Go to Spanner menu > Options > Under the Bonnet and deselect "Use DNS pre-fetching to improve page load performance".
Try adding Google Chrome as a permitted programme in your firewall or antivirus software's settings. If it is already a permitted programme, try deleting it from the list of permitted programmes and adding it again.
If you use a proxy server, check your proxy settings or check with your network administrator to make sure that the proxy server is working.
If you don't believe that you should be using a proxy server, try the following steps: Go to Spanner menu > Options > Under the Hood > Change proxy settings > LAN Settings and deselect "Use a proxy server for your LAN".
Error 105 (net::ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED): Unable to resolve the server's DNS address.

Timalay

TBH you're going to strugle to good speed from mobile broadband (the 3G network isn't capable of producing those kinds of speeds with the coverage).

torches_2_go

I had a 3G dongle on a rolling 30 day contract. For the first 2 months the speed was slow, I just put it down to the way that dongles must work as this was my very first dongle. Over the next few months the connection got worse as it took forever downloading anything. when I finally got onto a page and was ready to look at another page it used to disconnect me from the web. I used to be like this for hours getting very little work done.

It finally became impossible to use this dongle. The best thing I did was to get rid of my dongle and go to a different provider.

I would not recommend 3G to anyone.

stilltheone

torches_2_go wrote: »

I had a 3G dongle on a rolling 30 day contract. For the first 2 months the speed was slow, I just put it down to the way that dongles must work as this was my very first dongle. Over the next few months the connection got worse as it took forever downloading anything. when I finally got onto a page and was ready to look at another page it used to disconnect me from the web. I used to be like this for hours getting very little work done.

It finally became impossible to use this dongle. The best thing I did was to get rid of my dongle and go to a different provider.

I would not recommend 3G to anyone.

Please. This probably had more to do with you not doing your research as to who had the best covergae in your area than anything else.

Jimx26

stilltheone wrote: »

Please. This probably had more to do with you not doing your research as to who had the best covergae in your area than anything else.

Agreed, I have had no problems with 3 internet in the 8 months I have had it and regulary get HSDPA speeds. It just depends on location.

Nostromo

Ive found the speeds ok on 3 i just got a 3 sim and used the tethering option on my phone.It was £7.30 and came with 3gb of internet.Was cheaper to just buy another sim when it ran out of data.
But what's the deal with adult sites :rotfl: