Free wireless internet and cheap 3G broadband article discussion

Paddy_Charlie

sadiedoll wrote: »

You're not a Three mobile customer already, are you? If so, all broadband is half price at the moment.

Also, whether you are a customer or not, go through Quidco - I chose the 3gb tariff and will be getting £37.50 cashback.

www.quidco.com

Not a customer but going to go with 3

ivorysky

That's exactly what I would like to do, cbartliff, but unfortunately I'm stuck with Vodafone. They offer 120MB for £7.50/month via a phone sim, or 3GB for £15/month via a USB modem. I rang them to ask if I could add the £15/month option to my phone contract and was told it wasn't possible.

Phil

cbartliff wrote: »

This talk of USB dongles is unnecessary. For anyone with a cheap Bluetooth USB device (£6) or built in Bluetooth on their laptop and a 3G phone can set up to use the phone's built in Modem. I pay 3 £5 per month for unlimitted access to 3's 3G "mobile broadband". You just pair the computer and phone and set up a dial-up connection using dial up networking. For 3, the number is *98# and you need to set up the dialer to set the APN.
I even got my Asus Eee mini laptop to connect to Three! This is all perfectly legal it's just that the phone companies don't seem to be pushing this as there's a big support issue in getting set up. Search Google for your service provider and APN or Modem Settings.

I've heard this is unwise as they don't want people doing this and they charge you if they detect you are using a laptop instead of your phone? How long have you been doing this or is it just very occasionally?

sadiedoll

Its great for the money - set up took a couple of minutes, very easy.

Speed is fine for general browsing etc. I'd give downloading a miss - I'm just using it for broadband whilst travelling/out and about - less than £50 a year is fine for me.

clio

Sadiedoll
whats the surfing speed like , are you getting 1 meg and above??
i,m down in plymouth would 3 or vodafone or even t mobile be better for me.

sadiedoll

clio wrote: »

Sadiedoll
whats the surfing speed like , are you getting 1 meg and above??
i,m down in plymouth would 3 or vodafone or even t mobile be better for me.

I was getting above 1 meg earlier when I ran speedtest. Used the connection for a couple of hours and it seemed to remain constant.

Back on my wired connection now - might try using the 3 modem later to see if the speed drops in the evening when there's more traffic. There's a network coverage map for the broadband, somewhere on the 3 website.

HCT153

Hi

Wonder if anyone can help with this. I know very little about computers so please excuse the basic nature of some of the questions (!)

We have a desktop computer with Tiscali broadband (and a wireless router) which works just fine.

We also have an old (about 7 or 8 years) Acer laptop which has Internet Explorer loaded onto it but which we have not used to connect to the internet and so there is no ISP software on it.

I travel in the UK about once or twice a week and would like to have access to the internet on the move using this laptop. I don’t want to use internet cafes as I want to have access to the documents on my computer at the same time (and also library-based cafes are often full or restrict the amount of time you can spend on-line).

From what I can understand there seems to be two basic choices:

(a) Get a device from a retailer to enable wireless connection and then use it at internet hotspots. Question – do I need to sign up to an ISP to do this? If so, can I load my Tiscali software onto my laptop and use that (assuming my wife isn’t connected to the internet on our desk top)? Or am I able to use the ISP of the establishment I’m in (say Wetherspoons or Starbucks)?

(b) Alternatively I can subscribe to a paid service (or use a PAYG service) which will enable me to access the internet anywhere that there is a mobile signal.

On cost grounds I’m tempted towards (a) rather than (b) as long as I don’t have to take out a separate ISP subscription. If I do have to pay for a separate subscription then (b) seems the better route as I can access the internet in a much wider array of settings.

Grateful for any observations or help anyone can offer with this

Saeed

HCT153 wrote: »

Hi

Wonder if anyone can help with this. I know very little about computers so please excuse the basic nature of some of the questions (!)

We have a desktop computer with Tiscali broadband (and a wireless router) which works just fine.

We also have an old (about 7 or 8 years) Acer laptop which has Internet Explorer loaded onto it but which we have not used to connect to the internet and so there is no ISP software on it.

I travel in the UK about once or twice a week and would like to have access to the internet on the move using this laptop. I don’t want to use internet cafes as I want to have access to the documents on my computer at the same time (and also library-based cafes are often full or restrict the amount of time you can spend on-line).

From what I can understand there seems to be two basic choices:

(a) Get a device from a retailer to enable wireless connection and then use it at internet hotspots. Question – do I need to sign up to an ISP to do this? If so, can I load my Tiscali software onto my laptop and use that (assuming my wife isn’t connected to the internet on our desk top)? Or am I able to use the ISP of the establishment I’m in (say Wetherspoons or Starbucks)?

(b) Alternatively I can subscribe to a paid service (or use a PAYG service) which will enable me to access the internet anywhere that there is a mobile signal.

On cost grounds I’m tempted towards (a) rather than (b) as long as I don’t have to take out a separate ISP subscription. If I do have to pay for a separate subscription then (b) seems the better route as I can access the internet in a much wider array of settings.

Grateful for any observations or help anyone can offer with this

Option A would probably be less expensive unless you need internet all the time whilst you are out and about. For option A, check if you notebook has wireless buiilt in. If it doesn't then it is quite cheap to buy a USB device which gives you wireless capability, or you can get an wireless expansion card if your laptop has a expansion port. Read the specification of your laptop and if you have a free USB port/expansion port you can use this. These devices can be picked up for as little as £10 these days. On your second point, there is no need to install any ISP software on the laptop, you simply go into Starbucks or whatever and use their wireless internet for free. If an establishment does not have free wireless, they will usually have a paid service, akin to using a cyber cafe albeit on your own laptop which is what you were looking for.

The 3rd option is to get a PAYG or contract from a mobile phone company for mobile broadband, which is expensive, and I'd only suggest that if you are travelling around a lot and need braodband on the move all the time.

Hope that answers your questions and saves you some cash!

HCT153

Have now checked the lap top. It has one USB port - is that enough for me to get the necessaty USB device to wireless-enable it? Also the processor is a Celeron 900 - will that be sufficient?

Many thanks

espresso

Yes...........