Laptop Dongle

[Funky Farmer]

Hi
I'm looking for a good general area dongle. My usual stomping ground is East Anglia but have been known to wander further afield. I have tried Orange and Vodaphone, both of which were very limited, in the case of Orange completely useless. Oh yes, I would like PAYG for preference.

Any recommendations appreciated

 

[Apache Two]

Hi
I'm looking for a good general area dongle. My usual stomping ground is East Anglia but have been known to wander further afield. I have tried Orange and Vodaphone, both of which were very limited, in the case of Orange completely useless. Oh yes, I would like PAYG for preference.

Any recommendations appreciated

I use three and find it to cover 93% of the places I visit.:wacko:

 

[Funky Farmer]

I use three and find it to cover 93% of the places I visit.:wacko:

Sorry to be a bit thick Is three a dongle or the number of dongles you have?

 

[Hobbsy]

Three is the way to go mate! I think they advertise that they have the most coverage too! Don't think you can use it to stream films and tv wherever you go though as they are not all that but can and usually does give very good Internet connection and speed. I've had there phones for years and had two of there dongles and now have there iPad.

 

[Northerner]

Three, which is usually designated as 3 rather than alphabetical is the name of the mobile phone service. Here's a link showing coverage Coverage - Support - Three

However, your best bet is to try to talk to the locals in East Anglia and ask them what reception is like on their 3G smart phones. In theory, in a nice flat place like that it should be fine as there's nothing to interrupt the signals. The poster above is correct. You'll find browsing the web will be fine but downloading and viewing videos on YouTube for instance is pretty poor. Get a decent wi-fi booster to plug into your laptop and enjoy free wi-fi from McDonald's, Tesco and lots of other places these days.

 

[Funky Farmer]

Thanks both I will take a look at that:dance:

 

[wolfie69]

I would get an "Unlocked" dongle - ie one you can use with any network ( home & abroad) - check the Auction sites.

I have an old "3" dongle unlocked with sim cards for all the UK networks. Managed to get one for France a couple of years ago.

But as others have said get a WiFi booster as well.
Cheers
Matthew

 

[vindiboy]

we use 3 Dongles as our only Internet connection, they have been very good up till recently and now they are very bad, slow connection, keep freezing and going off line, we have become so fed up with them that we are having a BT Broadband line put in at the Bungalow, I have checked the reception map and find that we are in a poor reception area now, we did not used to be so something has changed, we are pay and go so no big loss , a good thing about the 3 dongle on pay and go is that we can let them die for up to a year and just enliven them with a top up ,that worked well for us as we did not use them whilst Foreign as we just used to find a WI FI spot or use a Library somewhere for the odd connection to the Web,as the Internet is not important to us whilst on our travels, a text message or two keep us in touch with what is important followed up by a phone call.We have not been travelling for about 3 Months now so I don't know what the Dongle reception is like away from our home area, but as I said earlier it used to be very good.

 

[kensowerby]

laptop dongle

hi i use a 3 dongle with my net book when we are away and works very well, i use a pay as you go unit, if you go into one of their shops you can purchase dongle and sim card for £20-00 and this will give you 3 gig and lasts for 3 months, the normal price is £10-00 1 gig for 1 month, the advantage of the 3 is that i only top up when i am going away.
happy travels
ken:drive::drive:

 

[Funky Farmer]

Thank you all for your help. It seems 'Three' is the way to go :bow:

 

[2cv]

Sounds a bit rude, but I have found using a dongle extender cable rather than plugging directly into a laptop improves reception dramatically. Dangle your dongle out of a window for best results.
I use pay and go O2 and coverage is good generally.

 

[lotusanne]

Sounds a bit rude, but I have found using a dongle extender cable rather than plugging directly into a laptop improves reception dramatically. Dangle your dongle out of a window for best results.
I use pay and go O2 and coverage is good generally.

Can we watch while you dangle your dongle out of a window!!:lol-053:

 

[Funky Farmer]

Sounds a bit rude, but I have found using a dongle extender cable rather than plugging directly into a laptop improves reception dramatically. Dangle your dongle out of a window for best results.
I use pay and go O2 and coverage is good generally.

Yikes!!!!!!! I am 70 you know.

 

[julie1]

Hi
We use 3 as well. We've had the dongle unlocked and now buy 3 mobile broadband sim cards off e-bay. We get 3gb data for 90 days which usually lasts us about 60-70 days (we don't do much downloading though, just surfing and e-mails). They cost around £12.50 each.
We don't usually bother with a dongle abroad as we just use internet cafs, local libraries and wifi.
Julie

 

[John H]

Hi

We use Three too. Since we are in the motorhome most of the time, it is our only internet connection (apart from limited free wi-fi). Like 2cv, we use an extension cable and the service is very good in virtually all places we go in the UK (including downloading). We have a monthly contract, which is a little more expensive than a long-term contract but we spend about half the year on the mainland of Europe where we do not use the dongle because of expensive roaming charges. When in Europe we use free wi-fi (which seems to be more easily available in most places we visit than in the UK) or if we are on campsites they often have wi-fi for free or at a cost which is similar to using the dongle in the UK. But in answer to your original question, Three seems to be the way to go - we got ours because everybody we spoke to recommended it and that also seems to be the popular view in this thread.

 

[Byronic]

The 3 Mobile Broadband Network apparently uses the Orange Network transmission masts, so reception should be similar except that I can't find out if they actually use the same antenna. East Anglia may be relatively flat but such are the vagaries and variables with 3g reception that nothing is guaranteed, just a few metres position change can make a marked difference in signal reception.
I've been with 3 since rollout and the service has improved over the years, but at peak usage times eg when kids get out of school bandwidth gets used up and signal strength appears to weaken.
o2 UK PAYG Mobile Phone tariff have Free Talk and Web starting @ £10 which gives 500MB Free Internet and 300 Free Texts I use this as alternative to 3, and just tether the phone to a laptop using Bluetooth.

 

[Doodles]

3 all the way

We use a 3 wireless dongle which can run several laptops or other wireless devices at one time.You can pick them for a decent price on ebay if you keep an eye out.The service is great and never have a problem running several systems at once i.e couple of laptops and kids on a ipod or whatever.Look for Huawei E5830 which is a good make.

 

[wolfie69]

The 3 Mobile Broadband Network apparently uses the Orange Network transmission masts, so reception should be similar except that I can't find out if they actually use the same antenna. East Anglia may be relatively flat but such are the vagaries and variables with 3g reception that nothing is guaranteed, just a few metres position change can make a marked difference in signal reception.
I've been with 3 since rollout and the service has improved over the years, but at peak usage times eg when kids get out of school bandwith gets used up and signal strength appears to weaken.
o2 UK PAYG Mobile Phone tariff have Free Talk and Web starting @ £10 which gives 500MB Free Internet and 300 Free Texts I use this as alternative to 3, and just tether the phone to a laptop using Bluetooth.

Hi - some confusion here I think - Orange & T-Mobile merged and now share Mobile Networks. Mobile operators have been encouraged to share Masts, but they don't Share "Antenna's" or network. So you may get two or more Mobile networks sharing the same Mast but each offering different capacity / quality of signal etc.

Matthew

 

[Byronic]

Hi - some confusion here I think - Orange & T-Mobile merged and now share Mobile Networks. Mobile operators have been encouraged to share Masts, but they don't Share "Antenna's" or network. So you may get two or more Mobile networks sharing the same Mast but each offering different capacity / quality of signal etc.

Matthew

I did state that they shared masts but I couldn't find out if they shared the "same antenna." It was the case that 3 used the Orange masts, so I take it they don't now?

 

[antiquesam]

I found I needed a new Tomtom while away, and managed to register and download the new European map onto it using the 3 dongle while driving through the Lakes, so it does work reasonably well.