mobile internet

julie03

i have just ordered a new smart phone and i have 100mb of usage for internet a month

what does that mean in terms of time using the internet
will be mainly using internet browsing fb and email, wont be downloading music as i have my ipod but will transfer some over initially from pc and will also be playing the odd game with a friend.

i have no idea what that converts too a month.

Neil49

Facebook can be a big user of data as it involves the transfer of photos etc and if you are a big user with plenty of friends then the volume involved could be high.

I urge you to download a data usage app as soon as you can.

If it is an Android phone then get this off Google Play Store. Such apps allow you to monitor the volume of data usage and can be set from your monthly start date and warn you when you are reaching your allowance limit.

100 m/b isn't a lot to play with so you should aim to connect your phone via free wifi wherever possible and always when at home (assuming you have wifi there of course!) Also be aware that Facebook can update without your knowledge so you should adjust the settings to stop this and only allow them when you want them to update, preferably via wifi.

I use Onavo (on an android phone) but there are plenty of others out there and I'm sure you get further responses to guide you on this

Lifeforms

You need to find out just what that covers.

Some cover downloading of actual items, ie pictures to save, tv, video, music, and then "browsing" is not counted.

if 100mb covers everything, that's not a lot for a month really. But I have 250mb, and I never go anywhere near it, because I have the one where browsing is not counted.

I find having a data app absolutely useless on my phone. It can't differentiate between what is counted, or not counted, so don't use it for data. (it counts other things like text, and phone mins, which I do find useful, hence keeping it)

Updating apps usually refer to any app, not just facebook specific, but in google play store you can set it to only update over wifi alone, which saves usage.

julie03

i have set up my internet connection at home , does that automatically overide the moblie internet, you can tell i have never had a smart phone before

OGR

Can't speak for Windows Phone but in Android and iOS yes it will. You will know because you will get a little wireless icon with the bars showing the signal strength.

When you are on mobile data you will have an E, 3G or H icon. The different icons denote which type of connection your phone has been able to make.

If you are worried you can turn off mobile data in the settings and then turn it back on when you need it. That way none of your apps will use data without you knowing. I know newer HTC phones come with a power bar that lets you turn off mobile data from a desktop widget but not sure about other makes at the moment.

Kernel_Sanders

julie03 wrote: »

i have just ordered a new smart phone and i have 100mb of usage for internet a month

Are you kidding? That's less than 13MB for a whole month! Don't even think about watching TV on it; the lowest bandwidth BBC iplayer setting will gobble that up in less than 3 minutes.

jayme1

Kernel_Sanders wrote: »

Are you kidding? That's less than 13MB for a whole month! Don't even think about watching TV on it; the lowest bandwidth BBC iplayer setting will gobble that up in less than 3 minutes.

She obviously means 100MB we 'techno-knowledgeable' people have to gently educate the less knowledgeable.

What Kernel Sanders means is you have 100Megabytes of data (written 100MB) when you wrote 100mb the lowercase 'm' means Milli and the lowercase 'b' means Bit (a Bit is 8 times smaller than a Byte), so you actually said you have been given 0.0000000119209289551MB of data, which is very very tiny :cool: (probably not even enough to load a single letter of an email/webpage)
So as you can see it is very important to use the correct case of letters to prevent these humorous mistakes.

julie03 wrote: »

i have set up my internet connection at home , does that automatically overide the moblie internet, you can tell i have never had a smart phone before

Yes on all mobile operating systems when connected to any wifi it will use that instead of any mobile network data, 100MB isn't a lot but it should be fine for a month of light to medium email and facebook and a little web browsing, any online video or maps is a no no though.

Im_just_careful

If it is a an Android phone then I suggest "Network Traffic counter".

This gives alarms if you go over your data allowance.

I don't know a similar product for the iPhone but there is a counter in the "general" section of the settings.

Kernel_Sanders

jayme1 wrote: »

What Kernel Sanders means is you have 100Megabytes of data (written 100MB) when you wrote 100mb the lowercase 'm' means Milli and the lowercase 'b' means Bit (a Bit is 8 times smaller than a Byte), so you actually said you have been given 0.0000000119209289551MB of data, which is very very tiny :cool:

Indeed, I should have realized that allowances are nearly always quoted in MB or GB whereas speeds are usually in bits. It might be easier to understand if you state that 8Mb=1 MB and 8Gb = 1GB, but this is only true if the binary definition of the metric is used; if it's the decimal,then comparisons are even more difficult!