Vodafone suresignal & mobile broadband

securityguy

mr_fishbulb wrote: »

Hmmmm I wonder if it would work if you plugged the ethernet cable into one of these 3g routers:

That won't solve the NAT problem, if indeed it is a problem.

kwikbreaks

I'm not 100% sure it is - I suspect the Vodafone agent thought the OP was talking about somehow connecting a dongle to the Sure Signal directly or maybe trying to operate the phone as 3G on the thing which also may well not work as it probably only supports voice.

Easiest option would be to try but re-reading suggests the OP may not have a 3G router but just the dongle so it would be an expensive trial.

securityguy

kwikbreaks wrote: »

Easiest option would be to try but re-reading suggests the OP may not have a 3G router but just the dongle so it would be an expensive trial.

You can usually share out an internet connection from a laptop that has a 3G connection. And the OP might have a smartphone that can act as a personal hotspot, which would be another way to test it.

kwikbreaks

The SureSignal needs ethernet not WiFi I think.

I suppose it might be possible to bridge the 3G modem to a laptop ethernet but you'd still need to set up DHCP.

Certainly the easiest way would be with a 3G router but if it didn't work it would be pretty much a waste of money.

Best solution would be to switch from a Vodafone phone to Three as obviously that must be working OK as the broadband is.

whenIretire

Hi kwikbreaks - yes, you're right. I don't have the right router to try at the moment, which is why I posted as I didn't want to go to the expense of getting the right router and dongle to find that it doesn't work. And yes, the suresignal does require an ethernet port.

I only started to think about it as I have recently switched my mobile from vodafone to three and found that I get great reception and when I use my phone as a modem I actually get faster speeds than the fixed broadband.

Unfortunatley my OH can't switch from vodafone to three as he still has 18 months left on the contract. Added to that the vodafone is actually done through talk talk which does free diversion from his business talk talk landline to the mobile so he wouldn't want to change.

So at the minute I think I'll have to stick with what I've got but if I ever get my hands on a cheap router and dongle to try it with I'll give it a go and post results.

Thanks for all the replies.

Lifeforms

a dongle (mobile broadband) is not designed for always on internet. So surely the obvious thing would be that the even if you got it working with the dongle, the suresignal will not be operational when you need it. Fine if you're calling out and can then turn it all "on" but what about incoming calls when you don't know when they're coming?

kwikbreaks

You can use dongles for always on - I do that at my holiday caravan using a MiFi that takes an external antenna. Whenever I'm there it's on. Background usage is pretty minimal.

redux

How many minutes of calls would be expected to come in on the Vodafone number?

If it's not a vast amount of minutes, but is for just being on call or something like, how about get a 3 payg SIM in a spare phone, and divert the Vodafone number to it? The diverted calls use the bundle of inclusive minutes, which is why I was wondering how many.

There's a choice between divert all calls, which would need remembering to do and undo when getting home and leaving, or a (semi-)permanent conditional divert on out of range. That might mean an occasional call coming in on that phone while out of range somewhere else, so maybe take the other phone when leaving home as well just in case.

If a large number of outgoing business calls from home are needed as well then this idea might need more work