Broadband dongle for 1 week's use?

[John Stumbles]

Our clan is off to Hastings for a week and thinking of getting access to t'interwebs while they're there. BT Openzone or 3G dongle? And if dongle, which and what provider/SIM?

[Gordon Henderson]

If staying in a holiday cottage type thing, check to see if it already has wi-fi. That's a priority for us now, and increasingly popular. No wi-fi, no booking. (Especially in the middles of no-where where mobile coverage is poor)

Gordon

[Roger Mills]

Do they have BT Broadband at home? If so, they probably qualify for free BT WiFi while they're away. If not, they could sign up for free O2 WiFi which they can use at any O2 hotspot as long as they've got the mobile phone with them whose number they gave when they signed up, in order to receive a text with a validation code.

If they want to be independent of commercial hotspots, better to provide their own with a mobile WiFi modem. These work better than dongles, and can be shared by several devices at the same time. I've got one of these, and it works very well:

This particular one is unlocked, and can be used with any data SIM. I've got a Samba SIM in mine - which cost me a quid and works on the '3' network - and on which you can build up credit for free internet access by watching (or pretending to watch while you do something else) their on-line adverts. You can use your home PC and internet connection to 'watch' the adverts - each of lasts for about 2 minutes on average and earns you at least 3.5MB of data. I've currently got about 600MB on mine, having topped up recently during one of their occasional triple points periods. If you can't earn enough via the advert route, you can buy extra data for a modest rate.

Or you can buy a '3' SIM pre-loaded with 3GB of data for about 15 quid.

[Dave Liquorice]

For occasional check of email or streaming of their favorite TV programme(s)? 100 MB could be ample for just simple text email, 1GB or more for streaming lots of video...

Or Bluetooth tether to a mobile and get a bit of data on that account (if it hasn't got data already)?

Need more information about the amount of use it will get during that week and later. Most dongles come with lots of data but this now tends to "expire" if you don't use it within a month. So you can't buy a dongle with say 1 GB use some of it during the holiday(?) then the rest as and when until it runs out, next year the year after...

[fred]

In article , Roger Mills writes

Good advice all round, I've found mifi devices to be less sensitive than usb devices in poor signal areas and the latter can be boosted by attachment to a long (5, 10 even 20m) active usb extension, being waterproofed and thrown over a roof but of course they are single user rather than multi-user unless connected to 3G modem compatible wifi router.

A mifi device will also power down on relatively short periods of inactivity which can be frustrating but there is usually a switch buried in the setup screens to disable this behaviour at the expense of battery life.

Choice of provider will be down to reported signal strength in the area concerned, all the providers lie so don't expect great performance unless the network reports excellent signal both inside and out.

3 seem to offer the best PAYG data deals, Voda the worst after the inclusive sim data has expired.

I think this is the same device as Rog has linked to but cheaper as it includes a sim with 2GB of data. It is of course locked to Voda (which I don't recommend except on contract) but if the signal is good in that area and it is a one off event then it may be one to consider:

Unlock it (search online) or bin it after the trip.

Avoid Voda R212 mifi dongles as they currently have a catastrophic connection bug.

[John Stumbles]

Teenagers ;-|

[John Stumbles]

SWMBO chose the place - it's her regular place to rent - so unless they've changed since last year deffo no interwebs.

(They've only just got a non-CRT TV there!)

[Dave Liquorice]

Lots of smart phones can (well Android ones can, donno about apples), do the MiFi thing as well.

John said "teenagers". My two were getting through more than 3GB/day during the summer holidays... I suspect a MiFi device would be better than a dongle plugged into a laptop, even if you allow that laptop to share it's connection over an ad hoc WiFi connection. No need for the connected laptop to be on for a start.

[Tim Watts]

On Sunday 20 October 2013 16:43 John Stumbles wrote in uk.d-i-y:

Three work OK in Hastings. I've had signal in much of the place when I've been there.

It's not very well surveyed yet - but what's on that map seems about right.

IIRC, station through to Old Town is OK with the odd black spots, and up the top near the castle should have signal too.

[polygonum]

Windows phones can as well (subject to your 3G/4G supplier permitting tethering). Very easy to use.

[newshound]

Before we had windows phones I bought a ZTE wifi hotspot and use the Amazon 3 GB for £11 sim from 3. Although it is *supposed* to expire it doesn't seem to, for me. Handy to have one of these at the moment because I am losing my ADSL broadband when it rains.

[Andrew Gabriel]

Apples will honour the contract's conditions for tethering (usually not allowed or charged extra, except on Vodafone), whereas Android ones seem to ignore this IME and let you do what you want.

[Bob Minchin]

Many pubs are offering free wifi these days with many 'powered by' the Cloud. Once registered with the cloud, you can login anywhere the offers cloud wifi. Hastings coverage includes caffe nero Cutter greggs Hastings hotel Hastings cricket club Superdrug WH smiths and about 20 more

[Andrew Mawson]

John,

If all else fails if you want to pick up emails etc I'm only 6 miles north of Hastings on the A21 and you're welcome to use our connection.

We give guests in our holiday cottages unfettered free access anyway so it's no problem.

Andrew

[Bob Minchin]

Find coverage here

[Michael Chare]

I find the Wifi hotspot of my Android phone very good. I have an app that keeps track of the usage.

With regard to network. Signal availability is the most important issue.

If you use a contract SIM I would ensure that tethering is allowed in the contract.

For PAYG I presume you just risk your outstanding balance.

AIUI '3' don't allow tethering but you might get away with it if your usage is light. i.e. no streaming.

[John Stumbles]

We'll be halfway down Old Humphrey St, off the top of Tackleway on the East Cliff

[Martin Brown]

If you are high up in the middle of nowhere as we were last month then the broadband speed can be OK even up in the Yorkshire Dales.

Three coverage is surprisingly good and I get faster 3G broadband at home than I do wired ADSL. A Mifi ~£40 is probably the way to go with a

3GB or 1GB sim in (£8 or £15 respectively eg on Amazon). Data charges sting a bit so you don't want to be streaming video for long.

There are blackspots with no coverage and their map isn't entirely reliable some places that it things have good signal do not.

Remember to look after your Mifi (mine's a Huawei E5331) and charge its battery once in a while. If you only ever use it once a year then the rechargeable battery will be completely dead by the second year.

You can get free access to BT Openzone/Fon with some ISP deals but getting a decent service out of it is another matter entirely.

Just for email for a week you might get away with bundled 100MB that probably comes with your mobile contract (beware of usage charges).

Plenty of hotels, pubs and coffee shops these days have free WiFi but make sure your setup is bullet proof and secure before connecting.