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broadband on the move?

Ian_L

By Ian_L
in Boat Equipment

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Beeno Engager

Beeno

Posted
Posted

Hi Ian,

 

I've just got a "web pod" from T-Mobile. It's £30 p/m on a 12-18 month contract, upto 1.8 Mbs in a good area and you can downlaod up to 3GB a month before being bumped up to a bigger tariff. It will work to some degree where ever there is any T-mobile coverage. I'm using it to post this in Shardlow and I'm getting 1.5 Mbs.

 

I would highly recommend it.

 

Mark

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Ian_L Engager

Ian_L

Posted
  • Author
Posted
Hi Ian,

 

I've just got a "web pod" from T-Mobile. It's £30 p/m on a 12-18 month contract, upto 1.8 Mbs in a good area and you can downlaod up to 3GB a month before being bumped up to a bigger tariff. It will work to some degree where ever there is any T-mobile coverage. I'm using it to post this in Shardlow and I'm getting 1.5 Mbs.

 

I would highly recommend it.

 

Mark

 

Thanks very much for that Mark. I'll take a look.

Cheers

Ian

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Blake Engager

Blake

Posted
Posted
Hi Everyone,

 

can anyone recommend an internet service provider that provides broadband through wireless, wifi, radio-hotspot thingymajigs please?

 

Cheers

Ian

AS we went through Bath last week there was this guy sitting under a dripping tree with his laptop! Its good fun to switch on and see if there is a network you can hook into - is it illegal? We have a deal of a package of 56mb with 3G - it seems to be enough. On the other hand we could go back to latter writing

LOL Victoria

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reg Experienced

regDonate to Canal World

Posted
Posted (edited)

I am in the second day of trying out my new T-Mobile 3G Usb modem. So far have only been able to connect via gprs at 56k but have not yet found a suitable spot to connect at faster speed.

Package costs approx £30/month for 18 months (through carphone wharehouse) with a 3Gb monthly allowance.

very neat little item and installed on windows without any problems, software for windows installs itself directly from the sim card.

 

Any tips on finding good areas to access 3g on the canal system?

Edited by reg
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Breals Proficient

Breals

Posted
Posted

T-Mobile have a 3G coverage map on their website. But local conditions also dictate where you can get it - annoyingly I can only get a faint GPRS signal on my home mooring, whereas 300 yards away there is a good 3G signal on the visitors moorings.

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Lady Muck Veteran

Lady Muck

Posted
Posted

Coz we use for work - we're actually using two datacards. The old style one I find useful where you can only get gprs - we have a transmitter for that one that sticks on the roof. The new usb one is great for places where we can get the new superfast '3 and a half g' , it's almost like having broadband, it flies along, I can use skype with it and it works in the back cabin where even my mobile can't get a signal. Because it's usb we can use it with the desktop p.c.s without needing an adaptor.

 

The only problem with the new ones is that theres no booster ariel available, so if you are in a place with poor gprs coverage only it's not so good. I do know that boaters phone (mentioned in this thread) are working on it. So we have both types at the moment. I'm not sure the old style pcmcia cards are available anymore anyway. If you have a new laptop it will have an express card slot instead ofa pcmcia slot, anyway.

 

I think it's really worth checking what the coverage is going to be like before you shell out. We can practically see the 3g mast from our mooring!

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dccruiser Rising Star

dccruiserDonate to Canal World

Posted
Posted

Just dug out an article in may 2007 waterways world , they mention t-mobile web and walk ( internet only data card) at £29 a month unlimited access , or £7.50 a month for anyone with an existing t-mobile talk package

 

they also mention the orange 2.5g (gprs) access at £1 a day for infrequent users(midnight to midnight daily pass)

 

personally as i am also in Shardlow i know what i will be chasing up! .... currently i use a blackberry but thats really only useful for keeping up on emailsand very limited browsing... so it will be in the sale column soon!

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Lady Muck Veteran

Lady Muck

Posted
Posted

I could never get rid of the Blackberry though! It's essential for me to keep on top of emails witghout the faff of getting everything out, plugging it in and trying to get a connection. Especially if you find yourself crusing through an area with poor gprs coverage there is no quicker efficient way of communicating. I get sent a lot of .jpegs of samples (I design shoes) that have to be approved right away, so's not to delay things. Sometimes they can take an age to download if we are in a gprs area on the laptop, whereas I can view them almost instantly on the Blackberry and confirm them right away. Then theres an issue of power, they use so little of it.

 

I really would keep it for as bit if I were you, like me you might find you still need it.

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BORNJOYFUL Engager

BORNJOYFUL

Posted
Posted (edited)

anyone got three.co.uk ??

obviously they have 3g and they offer for 320 a month quite a bit of online and download.

also we had an orange card that was £1 for 24hours- use it 3 mins it is £1 use it 24hours it is £1.

 

both these services allow your phone to connect thru your laptop to internet but there is also option to connect with just the phone- personally cannot imagine using such a small screen!

 

thanks tania

Edited by BORNJOYFUL
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DHutch Veteran II

DHutchDonate to Canal World

Posted
Posted

Im not away from sources of suitable wires very much, but i can use my phone (nokia6230i) to surf the web as an when the need arises, either directly on the device itself (which is fairly poor) or on a laptop/desktop via the USB, which is actaully pritty usable.

- Although with that, there is the boot-strapping problem of geting nokias software onto the pc, which is easy with the net, less so without.

 

Also, if you where using it daily it would get pritty pricy and standard contract prices.

 

 

Daniel

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  • 2 weeks later...
IAN A Explorer

IAN A

Posted
Posted

Bearing in mind all the comments I have just (yesterday) acquired a t-mobile usb modem (from T-mob shop in bath) ( I was offered it for £15, asked for a better deal and got it free) on a 12month £29/m contract - they assured me I could return it within 14 days if I didn't get a good connection ! coverage map was ambiguous. as it happens, i normally get 1.8Mbps, often better. (all without moving!!) really easy to install, up and running in less than 5 mnutes - brilliant. Happily recommended.

 

before I was using a 3 phone as a modem, easy o install, but never better than 300kbps and a lot more expensive for a lot less traffic.

 

Hope this helps someone !

 

Ian

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dccruiser Rising Star

dccruiserDonate to Canal World

Posted
Posted
I could never get rid of the Blackberry though! It's essential for me to keep on top of emails witghout the faff of getting everything out, plugging it in and trying to get a connection. Especially if you find yourself crusing through an area with poor gprs coverage there is no quicker efficient way of communicating. I get sent a lot of .jpegs of samples (I design shoes) that have to be approved right away, so's not to delay things. Sometimes they can take an age to download if we are in a gprs area on the laptop, whereas I can view them almost instantly on the Blackberry and confirm them right away. Then theres an issue of power, they use so little of it.

 

I really would keep it for as bit if I were you, like me you might find you still need it.

 

 

Very good point , i must admit i was just thinking about surfing from my home mooring , but you are right the blackberry has never failed me anywhere so far so it would be a bad move to get rid and as you say goes days on standby and requires no setting up. the other consideration is being on a cruiser which is obviously not as secure as a narrowboat , it is a lot less obvious than having a laptop out and can be taken off to the pub!

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Lady Muck Veteran

Lady Muck

Posted
Posted (edited)

I would imagine bandwidth might be a problem if two of you are using it, could be so slow it would be unworkable, it may only work if you are in an area with the fastest connection - if you are not in London, I'm not sure how many of the 3G masts have been upgraded yet.

Edited by Lady Muck
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RupertG Contributor

RupertG

Posted
Posted
mmm thats a bit of a bugger, I dont fancy 2 x £30 a month. Looks like Heidi will have to stop her studying when I come on here for my daily boat fix !!!

 

While M'Lady Muck is most certainly correct that on a slow link sharing a connection can double the pain, all is not lost. It costs nothing to try running two laptops off one 3G card, and if you're both doing stuff like browsing the web it's not so bad (if either of you are heavy file sharers or addicts of online streaming media, then all bets are off).

 

Windows XP makes it quite easy. Pick the computer you want to connect to the Internet over 3G, go to My Network Places from the Start menu on that computer, and choose 'Set up a wireless network for home or small office' from the Network Tasks panel in the top left of the window. Follow zer orders it gives you. That will set up that computer as a wireless router, and then you can connect to it as easily as you do your home wi-fi.

 

I've done this several times, most commonly at airports with a group of pals where one of us has a work-paid 3G network connection and the rest of us don't fancy shelling out for the airport's fanciful wireless rates. Doesn't take very long - and if it doesn't work, then nothing's lost.

 

In the dim and distant past, I've done things like set up a room of ten PCs off one dial-up 40k connection (and enough twisted pair to hang the entire front bench) and it all worked surprisingly well...

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  • 1 month later...
Yamanx Rising Star

Yamanx

Posted
Posted (edited)

Woohoo!

 

I decided to upgrade my internet connection whilst on the boat, I use my mobile as a modem via bluetooth to my laptop. But its really expensive and very very slow.

 

So I bought one of those Vodafone 3g data cards from Ebay, unlocked for forty quid. Then got a PAYG Orange sim card for a quid. After a bit of mucking about, calls to Orange help desk (Which was a waste of time), some internet time and googling.

 

I now have mobile broadband, PAYG for £5 for unlimted access for seven days or £1 a day if I buy it just for a weekend. It access' 3g broadband if available, if not it defaults to GPRS which is still faster than my old method and at a fraction of the cost.

 

And NO BLIMMIN CONTRACT!

Edited by Yamanx
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