Internet dongle users?

[tony g]

Hi my mrs lad has moved to a flat for work reasons. No phone line yet and prob doesn't want one. So internet options are on the list. Anyone have experience with the dongles you pay phone companies for ? Are they ok for normal browsing and facebook etc?
He has a Vodafone acc on phone, but can he use a dongle from another provider too?
Annoying thing is we have the full BT package at home but theres no hot spot nearby to take advantage of for free! Typical.
His new location is Newmarket
Cheers

Tony

[triumphdolomiteuk]

You can use an iPhone (and probably most smart phones) to set up your own wifi hotspot as long as the phone has data connectivity (3G or 4G). If there's no signal for the phone then a dongle isn't going to work either. If you have to go down the dongle route, they do work quite well, probably a download speed of at least 6Mb/s, which is fine for general browsing. Forget streaming movies though, that would eat up data in no time and you'd end up topping the dongle up every week.

[tony g]

I like the dongle idea best as its a prepaid thing and the phone data doesn't go through the roof and incur unexpected bills.

Cheers

Tony

[Toledo Man]

It should be sufficient for normal browsing & FB. Andy makes a good point about using a smartphone as a hotspot providing the phone is so equipped and there is a decent signal. Unfortunately, most ISPs require you to take a phone line along with broadband which can be a bit of a bind if you don't want the landline.

[Carledo]

My missus has a "My-Fi" which she uses when we go down to the caravan. this works her phone, I-pad etc and my Kindle no problem but reception is sometimes a bit hit-and-miss since it relies on mobile phone signal. And it costs £7 a month for only 1 gig of data and if you go over, you get charged first and told later. Her Facebook addiction and messaging means she can get through her months allowance in less than a week! This is with Vodafone, other networks may vary. It might be cheaper and more practical to get a landline installed and do it right! My Plusnet bill at home with unlimited internet and free anytime landline calls is less than £7 a week.

Steve

[tony g]

Steve thats going to be plus the bt landline yes?

Tony

[Carledo]

No, I pay my line rental to Plusnet as well, its all included in the deal.

My step daughter has just done an even better deal with Sky that includes all sorts of sattelite packages as well for much the same money. But she knows someone in the shop!

I guess you would need to make a one-off payment to BT to install the landline in the first place. The price for this varies widely from about £40 to re-establish an old connection, to the over £2k a mate was quoted to take a new line 3 miles into his remote Welsh hill farm!

Steve

[Galileo]

Part of my day job for a large charity is being responsible for networking nature reserve site offices, and a lot of those sites are far flung places with no/poor telephone lines, and sometimes that includes mains electricity. I've found that by far the best option for some of these has been the Three mobile offering. Depends on how much bandwidth you use, but an office with a couple people in it cope with 15GB a month, which is about £20 a month depending on the contract length and device you get. If you've got more than one laptop/PC to connect then a mobile wifi box is better, but more costly. Obviously if there is no Three mobile signal about then the more expensive providers are still an option.

http://www.three.co.uk/Discover/Devices ... lour=White
http://www.three.co.uk/Discover/Devices ... lour=Black

Tooway satellite is another option, but you're looking at a long term contract to cover the cost of the kit and installation in, we go through Avonline as a provider, but this page gives you the info.

http://www.tooway.co.uk/