Samba Mobile Broadband - Is it Really Free?

demeter

1gb of credit went from my account yesterday (i think it was something my son did on the ipad). I'm down to 700mb but seem to be getting more ads to view now. If I run out of credit I'll start using the 3 gb 3 month 3 PAYG sim I bought a couple of months ago from Amazon at £12. The Amazon prices change occasionally but I noticed that the price for a ipad micro sim was sometimes £1 less than a full size sim. These can be used as full size sims with an adaptor. Also Amazon has inexpensive sim cutters for cutting full size sims down to micro sims if needed.

There were some posts saying that Samba usage appears to be high than expected and the counter on my MiFi does seems to be a bit lower that the Samba reported usage. I will monitor the counters more carefully and compare the two. There are valid reasons why they could be different.

I find the date usage report on Samba useful and until yesterday I though that I would manage indefinitely on the free data credits from viewing the ads - but maybe not if my son keeps using it up.

andyt8

chanz4 wrote: »

does credit expire?

Credit earned by watching ads does not expire. Credit bought does expire. PLUS the sim will be deactivated if its not used for a period. (go and check the details on their website but I think 30days for bought credit and 90 days for non-use of sim)

Bealer

Has anyone been de-activated because of data overdraw, and then gotten re-activated when watching enough ads?

macelee

I have been using this service for about 10 days. The dongle arrived 2 days after my order. It was fairly easy to set up. I inserted the SIM card, plug the dongle on a Windows laptop, and waited for the driver to install. Then I disabled my wifi (on many laptops, there is a key combination to do that, such as Fn+F2) and connected via 3G. I already accumulated some credit before the arrival of the dongle so I had not problem getting on to the internet. BTW there is no need to install the software for browser.

I browsed several web sites (text plus a small number of photos) for about 30 minutes. The total consumption came in as only 10 MB. I use Firefox browser with an addon that blocks most ads on the internet. I guess that helped to reduce the traffic. Collecting credit was fairly easy. I always do that from a window in the background while I am on wifi. I collected about 800 MB in just more than a week. But after that the number of ads seem to have reduced significantly.

Today I even tried to set up the dongle on another Linux-based laptop running Fedora. It was just marginally more difficult. After inserting the dongle to a USB port, the system automatically mounted a small file system (containing the Windows software for Samba mobile which of course is of no use for Linux). For this reason, I needed to 'eject' that file system so that my computer can interact with the mobile-broadband hardware. Then I get a connection from the NetworkManager with its settings already done properly.

Overall, it is a nice service particular suitable for those who already got a stable internet connection but want to use a mobile-broadband occasionally while moving.

I plan to take the dongle with me while on vacation for several days. I will report back if there is any interesting experience.

Uplink

macelee wrote: »

Today I even tried to set up the dongle on another Linux-based laptop running Fedora. It was just marginally more difficult. After inserting the dongle to a USB port, the system automatically mounted a small file system (containing the Windows software for Samba mobile which of course is of no use for Linux). For this reason, I needed to 'eject' that file system so that my computer can interact with the mobile-broadband hardware. Then I get a connection from the NetworkManager with its settings already done properly.

Well... I reported the dongle to the creator of "USB modeswitch", so once that hits the distros it's going to be even easier

fuzzgun19

I havent had any new ads for days now.. what's going on?

It looks like you can't earn by logging out either?

banger9365

loads off new ads,to me
nike
the beatles
fisherprice
and a few more

Inigo_Montoya

I think they have changed the website to try to stop you watching multiple ads at the same time

I seem to get message like 'duplicate session' or I just don't get credited

those new ads with pop up windows are also rather annoying

Nookster

Yeah, no multi-tabs, no logging out trick etc. The all you can eat buffet is over.

I didn't sign in all yesterday, logged in today, got one Waitrose ad and that was it! :rotfl:.

Makes me wonder if this is because I've had too many ad impressions, also I've not used my stick in a month and have over 3GB on it.

I wonder what the criteria is for allocating ads to users is, is it an algorithm based on ads viewed, credit remaining, how much you've used the stick etc?

Ooh, because it was the "first ad I'd watched this week" I got an extra 10MB, a good thing too as there's nothing else for me to watch!

jwatson16

Use code POR22 to get £5 off when you buy a sim card and dongle together.