Problem with Three PAYG Dongle

WLM21

A couple of years ago I bought a Three dongle and a 3GB SIM card, for internet use on my laptop. I only used it a few times.

My wife decided she wanted to use the laptop, while staying at a friends, but before going decided to make sure everything still worked.

No ! nothing worked.

Luckily, I thought, I had another 1GB SIM which I have never even opened.

I put this in the dongle, plugged it in to the computer, but again it isn't working.

On the wee 3 Connect window, just above the Connect button, there is a message saying, no service. Does this mean, there is no signal, or is the dongle faulty, or indeed the new SIM card.

My wife is now giving me grief, although I don't know how the problem could be my fault.

What needs to be done to fix it, or should I just buy a new dongle

PS My wife has an old iPhone (version 3 I think) .. Could she connect to the internet on the laptop, via the phone, with some sort of cable ?

gjchester

WLM21 wrote: »

A couple of years ago I bought a Three dongle and a 3GB SIM card, for internet use on my laptop. I only used it a few times.

..

What needs to be done to fix it, or should I just buy a new dongle

It's probably not the dongle per se.

Assuming you have some signal on three at your location then best guess is the SIMS's have expired from non use. If time is short go in to a Three shop and get them to put in a new SIM, and subscribe for a month. Will be £10 plus maybe the cost of the sim)

If time is not as pressing see if you can get a free sim from Three to test it, you only need it to see the signal not do anything useful on it then buy a preloaded one on Amazon or Ebay from £6 or £7 quid and throw it away after a month of use or when the data has expired.

WLM21 wrote: »

PS My wife has an old iPhone (version 3 I think) .. Could she connect to the internet on the laptop, via the phone, with some sort of cable ?

Possibly, Apples can do tethering but it needs the network to allow it (I'm on Tesco and the option does not appear), and they will charge you for it.

Buzby

3UK dongle sims will not work in a phone. They are data only and will show no service. As to your existing dongle SIM, if this was PAYG, it will have expired. If you have any credit remaining, use this to purchase a £5 data package whic lasts a month.

If you have no credit, a top-up voucher or online credit will allow you to do the same thing.

gjchester

Buzby wrote: »

3UK dongle sims will not work in a phone. They are data only and will show no service. As to your existing dongle SIM, if this was PAYG, it will have expired. If you have any credit remaining, use this to purchase a £5 data package whic lasts a month.

If you have no credit, a top-up voucher or online credit will allow you to do the same thing.

Didn't know that about the SIMS.

Sims do get turned off but usually that's after 6 months to a year, and a Three have a £10 a month top up