The great plus for me is that I just forget it until about to set off on a trip, then buy a £10 voucher, which lasts me one month.
Now on 3rd week of a trip to Bonnie (wet) Scotland, and whilst accepting that it is very hit and miss, it is a great fallback, and much cheaper than the C & CC wireless system, which I have used once.
Now happily using the dongle at the Delamere Forest site, and it fairly zooming along.
If it is critical that you go online every day, then forget it - however if going online every few days will do, then I think it good value.
As for Scotland, forget it in the Highlands with 3.
Does Braemar count as the 'proper' Highlands? If so, I'm happily using my 3 dongle from the CC site just out of town. Thing is, if you depend on 3's start-up menu to tell you there's a signal in the boonies, forget it. You have to exit their menu, go to network connections and click on 1.3g manually (your dongle's direct connection). I find that if I can get four or five bars on my Orange phone, there is usually a signal strong enough for broadband. You just have to play around a bit. I figured all this out while in Italy with jokey signals. 9/10, I got enough of one to check and send emails.
I'm heading towards Ullapool in a couple of days, will report from there (if possible!)
Hello from Scourie near Cape Wrath in the NW Highlands. I've been contentedly using my PAYG 3 dogle all the way up though it is a bit slow. I DO have to be patient and fiddle a bit to get it to connect. Essential to bypass the 3 start menu by allowing it to come up after the dongle is connected to USB (by supplied cable for extra range). Then exit the 3 menu and going to your Windows start menu. Click on 'connect to'. Go to 1.3g, and click. It may take a while for the dongle to find a signal, but when it does, the light shines solid - browse away! I've been pretty happy with it -
Regards,
Jacquie
Thanks for that info. That 3 Home Page was getting on my blooming nerves.
Would I be right in saying that your dongle is unlocked?
I did try the other networks to see what their signal strength was, and Orange 3G was the strongest near our home, (about 200 yards away from the exchange), whereas 3 was the weakest signal.
MHF still down loaded in only 8 seconds though on HSDPA. Impressive.
Regards,
Jock.[/quote]
Hi Jock - No, it's not unlocked. I think there may be some confusion between roaming in foreign climes outside of sister networks, and how it works in the UK. You won't be charged any more to be using ,say, Orange's network here whereas in France, you would be charged a wack.
I am on 3's PAYG system, but it should be exactly the same for contract. It really can be a faff to connect when the 3 menu tells you there's no network, but once you figure it out the bypass, no worries. I'm amazed to be sitting on a sunny cliff in my van in the blooming farthest reaches, and posting on MHF!
It never occurred to me that you could do this, until I read this thread a few weeks ago. We've just been up to the Yorks coast, & found that the Vodafone software wouldn't establish a connection at all, despite a reasonable signal from the dongle up in the rooflight. (Seemed like a conflict with the new software we'd just installed so we could take a small, cheap printer with us to print walk maps - solving one problem creates much bigger ones!) Anyway, remembered your tip - connection straightaway, every time!
You never know when miscellaneous facts can be useful - forum browsing isn't really such a time-waster after all![/quote]
Crikey - I wish all my posts were as useful. Just hope it doesn't lead to some obscure memory melt-down or the like.
Posting on three (orange 2g rather!) from the forest under catbells in the Lakes (Low Manesty CC). I've never experienced a more gorgeous day (walking the dogs up Borrowdale) in 15 years of the UK. Hope everyone is as blissed out as I am!
Jacquie
I have a THREE dongle on contract which is in dispute as a result of the removal of the Three at Home service. Anyway, forgive me for sounding daft, but are you saying that in an area with no THREE coverage, you simply tell the Dongle to use the Orange network instead, with no extra charges?
Hi Russell -
At the risk of sounding like a modern politician without an original thought,
'Let me make myself very clear',
I have a 3 PAYG dongle. When I am on the road, I load it up with £10 (broadband lite), 1gb to use within a month. In the year since I had it, I have often had to bypass the useless 3 menu. In all that time, I've never managed to use up my monthly allowance.
In Italy and Austria, I bypassed it to use the sister networks when the 3 menu told me there was no network - no problems at all other than lots of shifting to different USB ports and faffing to find a signal at all.
Conclusion:
We're not talking about foreign roaming charges here.
DISCLAIMER: I am NOT an expert - just passing on my personal experience! I have no idea if this is conducive to those with a contract - it may be best to hand over many ££ to their phone-in customer service dept. just to be sure OR give it a try, then log into My3 and see if your account has been zapped into a six-figure debit. Good luck.
XOJ
EDIT:
Here's a more succinct explanation I just found on another website:
Secondly- 3 has the greatest 3g coverage out of all the networks (roughly 90%) as that's all that 3 themselves do so they've invested a lot in 3g coverage (when you're not in 3 coverage it piggybacks onto orange and to a lesser extent o2 to provide signal, but this is only 2g so painfully slow bb). So while it's not going to work for everyone, it's more likely to than the other networks. For the people asking about using it on trains, it's not going to be a particularly good service as you'll be constantly going in and out of signal. Definately no good for streaming, but some internet surfing should be possible.
Hi Jock -
I've just been told that, contract or PAYG, the system automatically 'piggybacks' on other networks (in the UK) when there is no 3 signal, but you may not be able to see this on your menu.
All seems pretty complicated and unclear unless you're a Phd in wireless technology... :roll:
Hi Jock -
I've just been told that, contract or PAYG, the system automatically 'piggybacks' on other networks (in the UK) when there is no 3 signal, but you may not be able to see this on your menu.
All seems pretty complicated and unclear unless you're a Phd in wireless technology... :roll:
The reason I mention it Jacquie, is because over the last two weekends where I haven't been able to get a 3 signal, Rita has had an excellent Orange signal on her phone. Using the method you described, I tried to manually choose the Orange network available, but it came back as "cannot change operator", and with an excellent Orange signal strength, the Dongle certainly didn't piggy back, to my dismay.
I have just tried it again, and it is still a no go for anything other than 3.
It is a black Huawei E160G dongle, with the micro SD card slot.
Jock -
Couple of things;
Don't you have an integrated USB port, or is your laptop an older model that needs USB adaptors - could be a whole different ball of wax in that case?
Is your laptop on Windows XP?
If so, it sounds like you're using the 3 menu to manually change the operator - mine won't work either!
My method is:
-plug your dongle into the USB port
-wait until the 3 menu comes up
-now, click to exit it and wait for it to leave your screen
-go to your Windows start menu
-click on to 'connect to', then double click on 1.3g
-a little message should flash on your blue bar saying 'connecting', then with any luck, connected!
It doesn't always work because the 3 software often freezes up screens. In this case, a complete 'turn off and restart' of the computer solves the problem.
If your wife is getting a strong Orange signal, this should work for you Jock - it's worth one more try!
Let me know what happens...
Jacquie
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