Vodafone to introduce flat rate wireless broadband

Sponge Bob

To_be_confirmed wrote:

It must be great for those people to move away from 12k speeds. I used a comp which connected at about 12 or 14 kbps not far from here

I am truly shocked. I though that eircoms 12k / 16.8k phone line gear was for the Wesht only where we are long used to shoddy service from our so called 'national' utilities . Now I find its also widely deployed in rural Louth and Kildare and nice places like that I simply don't know what to say to ye :eek:

bealtine

Sponge Bob wrote:

I am truly shocked.
[...]
Now I find its also widely deployed in rural Louth and Kildare and nice places like that I simply don't know what to say to ye :eek:

Don't be shocked. They are still rolling out bits of string and calling it a cable.

woodyg

Has anybody used this service around the Smithfield dublin area? I am renting there at the moment so tryin to avoid getting a telephone line and cant install any antenna'a on the roof due to landlord.

So this vodafone offer seems to be the only way i can get a broadband connection. But at €50 a month i want to make sure it works.
A friand of mine works as an engineer for vilacom who do the installs for vodafone masts and he informs me that most of dublin city centre is HSDPA enabled and that in there site tests 1.2mbs a second is getable.

I would like to get confirmation from some one who is getting these.
I also go home to Wicklow quite often so if it defaults to gprs it would be great

Foxwood

uncle_sam_ie wrote:

If I used that V600i sony phone as a modem at home could I connect my two Macs off of it? And, your link to the modem script that you would need to work it with that sony, I'm guessing it's the "Ericsson HSCSD & GSM Scripts" that I would need. Were the scripts hard to install? Is there any thing I should be aware of while installing them?

If you want to share this service between 2 computers, then your best bet would be this Linksys router.

jwt

2 reviews of the linksys router

http://www.cnet.com.au/wireless/routers/0,39028903,40060942,00.htm

http://www.geekzone.co.nz/content.asp?contentid=5659


edit
scrap that
expanysy is in UK sterling


John

uncle_sam_ie

Foxwood wrote:

If you want to share this service between 2 computers, then your best bet would be this Linksys router.

Ya, but can I do it with the phone. The router is too expensive and less mobile then the cell phone option. Also, I've recently bought a Macbook Pro so I'll have to wait until voda comes out with the newer cards.

cgarvey

uncle_sam_ie wrote:

Ya, but can I do it with the phone. The router is too expensive and less mobile then the cell phone option. Also, I've recently bought a Macbook Pro so I'll have to wait until voda comes out with the newer cards.

Yes, Mac OS X has Internet sharing which should do the trick, but you'll need to pick one machine to be the provider, which must remain on (and connected) for the 2nd to get Internet access... http://url.ie/1rv

cold_filter

Hi all, i've really enjoyed reading this thread.

HSDPA will go at 1.2mbps it won't be long before its upgraded quite significantly and rolled out to all of the major towns and cities and the fact that its a mobile broadband solution i think will entice a lot of people

leoc

vodacom.co.za's HSDPA FAQ says this about speeds:

What speeds can be attained on the 3G HSDPA Broadband Network?
Under perfect conditions one would get speeds of up to 1.8 Mbps, but expect to see speeds of between 400 Kbps and 800 Kbps with peaks of approximately 1.2 Mbps.

(Emphasis in original.) A bit disappointing, yes? But still a nice step up from UMTS, at least if the average speed is closer to 800 than 400...

godskitchen

hello one and all i have been your comments for some whle now on the vodafone 3G data card and went out and got myself one today. i need some advice from other users of the cards, when i go to connect its coming back with a 619 error and telling me the same old rubbish of restarting the program and the PC, needless to say neither works!

Has anyone had the same problem? i hear that the tech support is good but i have rang 1800 308020, the number it says to ring, and when i enter my number for the SIM it tells me to call a different number, when i do i am greeted with "i dont know what a data card is"

Cheers in advance guys

leoc

I've been meaning to post something about the 619; it seems to be the biggest fly in the Data Connect ointment at the moment.

The problem seems to arise when the card gets disconnected improperly from the network, though I've known it to happen after WinXP did an apparently clean disconnect. For those who are familiar with computery things, it seems like a stale lock: effectively, the network won't let you connect twice with the same data card (or maybe SIM), so if it wrongly thinks you're already connected it won't let you connect at all. The lockout period seems to vary from a couple of minutes to over 12 hours. Just today I had one that lasted from before 11 last night to early this afternoon. That would be maybe the third or fourth multi-hour 619 outage I've experienced.

More shortly, but first, it would be quite useful if you (godskitchen) could mention

1. what make and model of card you're using
2. what kind of profile you're using (3G only, 3G preferred or GPRS only)
   
   and
   
3. what kind of GPRS and/or 3G reception you've been getting

godskitchen

Thanks for the reply leoc

Make/model of card is Huawei E620
Profile is 3G Preferred
Reception 5 Bars for GPRS and cant get 3G

I have tried a Vodafone Pre Pay SIM in the data card and it works fine!

So i am guessing its a problem with the sim somewhere?? would it have made a difference that i put the sim in a phone before the Data Card?? i cant see how it would though!

DonegalMan

godskitchen wrote:

when i go to connect its coming back with a 619 error

My son got this when he first tried to connect, rang Vodaphone on 1800 308020 and they said the card wasn't activated properly for GPRS/G3 so they had to reactivate it, 5 mins later he was up and running.

godskitchen

Right i will give them a call in the morning and let you all know how i got on!
fingers crosed!

leoc

Vodafone's Data Support Team at 1850 287 000 are probably the best people to call. Unfortunately, it's strictly an office-hours service.

Tubbritt

Hi Guys.

Just throwing this one out there. What do you think the chances are of Vodafone eventually offering the Sky TV package across the 3G data cards / Windows Media Player ?.

I think that would be useful !!!!.

Also just to let you know, I’ve been recommending this data card access to a few friends, all of which who joined up. One thing I noticed today though was one of my mates got a new card, with a new sticker on it.

3G / HSDPA was printed on the card, and in the DVD style case the card comes with, there was a new leaflet listing the access speeds and details of 1.2mbit/s access using HSDPA coming in at the end of the year.

Yeah I know you all knew this was coming, but hey… looks like Vodafone have cleared out the old stock and are now selling the same model number cards with the new stickers, and details.

Roll on HSDPA :-)

Regards.
James.

DonegalMan

leoc wrote:

Vodafone's Data Support Team at 1850 287 000 are probably the best people to call. Unfortunately, it's strictly an office-hours service.

That's why I gave the 1800 308 020 number, my son was trying to sort his card out on after 6:00 p.m., the Data Support Team number was closed but a very nice and helpful lady on 1800 308 020 sorted it out for him

Patrickof

Tubbritt wrote:

Hi Guys.

Just throwing this one out there. What do you think the chances are of Vodafone eventually offering the Sky TV package across the 3G data cards / Windows Media Player ?.

I think that would be useful !!!!.

James.

Personally I think broadcasting the TV service over a 3G network would be a terrible idea. It's already available via satellite where it doesn't eat into bandwidth that can be easily used for other traffic.

Though, if you're a sky subscriber (with movies maybe) then can't you get sky via broadband anyway?

Incidentally while I'm here, make sure everyone has a look at their first datacard bill. Mine came yesterday, at a whopping €640 inc VAT for the month of July. To be fair to Vodafone, when I rang them they immediately accepted that the account was just probably set up wrong and they'll remove the charges asap.

Just shows though how overpriced the old pricing was prioir to July if traffic that would cost have €640 is now €49.......

Sponge Bob

Voda wil get extra spectrum to broadcast alongside 3G without touching the 3G spectrum. Its called DVB-H spectrum and will be released to mobile operators (only) this year.

Patrickof

Ah thats good, from my memories of a vodafone backbone map a lot of the "out of town" base stations were only on a 2 meg link, so the less TV over 3G the better.

godskitchen

Thanks for all your help guys and for the numbers, I gave the Data Support Team a call this morning and the conversation went like this "Hell I got a data card yesterday, im getting a 619er" Voda:"whats your number for the SIM" I tell him the number, he calls back my name, Voda:"ok sir reboot the laptop with the card in an all will be well, thanks for calling"

That was it, very happy this morning when it worked!

As for the service im very happy, I can’t get 3G where I am living but the GPRS is connecting at 5 bars and is very stable, and I am seeing speeds of around 44.1kbps / 55kbps. Ok so it’s not setting the world on fire but I will take it over my old dial up connecting at 14.4kbps, I downloaded firefox on my old connection, it took over an hour, on the Vodafone connection it took just over 14 minutes.

One thing I would advise everyone connecting with GPRS to do is get yourself ONSPEED, you will not believe how much faster web browsing is, im seeing savings of 6 which is amazing! (Anyone who has used on speed before will know what this means)
I also had ONSPEED on my dial up but this blows it out of the water, I was not that impressed with it on dial up but with GPRS it’s just like 512k broadband, there I said it, its like broadband!
You can download ONSPEED on a weeks trail to see for yourself.

Tubbritt

Hi Patrickof.

Just shows though how overpriced the old pricing was prioir to July if traffic that would cost have €640 is now €49.......

Just curious, how much bandwidth did you actually end up using over the month ?.

Kind Regards.
James.

DonegalMan

Foxwood wrote:

The T&Cs mean that if (when?) Vodafone block ports that you're trying to use, you don't have any comeback.

Anyone got any idea what ports they might be blocking?

I installed the Linksys router today in my son's house and a fine little router it is*.

It's working fine going out but I can't seem to get it to accept incoming stuff like PC Anywhere/Remote Desktop/Remote Access to the router itself over the Web - doesn't even respond to pings .

I don't think it's a router issue, I have the router Firewall disabled and DMZ pointing to one of the linked PC's set up exactly like I have with a couple of other Linksys routers on ADSL.

(*One niggly little point that might catch other people out, the setup Wizard wouldn't work right, kept asking me to install the card in the router even though it was already installed and connected to the Net; I had to use the Web interface to get it working properly; even then, when I loaded up the Web interface, I got status as 'Not Connected' - but the Connect button was disabled; sat trying to figure out what to do next but the Connect button enabled itself after a minute or so; had to reconnect a second time due to messing about with the local IP address and the same thing again, had to wait a minute or so for the Connect button to become enabled, seems to be some sort of delay thing on the Web interface; also 'Connect' seems to mean 'Connect the card to the router' as the card was actually connected to the net (blue light flashing) even though the Status page was saying Disconnected.)

Urban Weigl

DonegalMan, I have to agree, the router is a very nice piece of hardware.

Thankfully I did not have the problem with the set-up wizard, as I tossed the CD in the trash, and went to the web interface (192.168.1.1) to configure the router instead. As a rule, I never touch CD's that comes with hardware (printers, scanners, etc). Instead, I go to the manufacturers web site and download the latest firmware/drivers, or in the case of a router, go to the set-up page. I do this because in my experience, CD's that come with hardware often contains old or buggy versions of driver software. Anyway, sorry for rambling:

I believe the problem you are describing is the result of Vodafone's policy to block all incoming ports. The good news is that outbound ports are not blocked, so you can set up the connection, you'll just have to set it up the other way around, e.g. connect from the PC that's on the Internet through Vodafone, instead of connecting to it. You could also use a VPN of some sort, for example Hamachi (www.hamachi.cc).

Sponge Bob

as Voda use 10. addresses server type services will not work from the public internet. If you had a public address not a 10. you could forward port 3389 INWARDS

Urban Weigl

Sponge Bob wrote:

as Voda use 10. addresses server type services will not work from the public internet. If you had a public address not a 10. you could forward port 3389 INWARDS

Hmm, I always get assigned a proper IP address when I connect, not one in the 10. or 192.168 range.

smellslikeshoes

I had the same problem as your having donegalman it wouldnt recognise the card as being in the router. Dowload the latest version of the linkys firmware and it should sort it out for you.

DonegalMan

Urban Weigl wrote:

Hmm, I always get assigned a proper IP address when I connect, not one in the 10. or 192.168 range.

Same here, current IP address is 207.n.n.n

bminish

DonegalMan wrote:

Same here, current IP address is 207.n.n.n

Yes but do a traceroute outwards it's routed via 4 different blocks of RF1918 space, very messy indeed, I posted about it here
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=51825892&postcount=12

Perhaps Voda's Techs hacked together something that worked and backed quietly away !

.brendan

Urban Weigl

In the US, that is common practice amongst many larger ISP's. For example, Cox Cable uses IP addresses in the 10. range on their internal network (they show up if you do a traceroute). The reason they are doing so is to conserve public IP addresses.

The fact that Voda have a firewall set up to block incoming connections has nothing to do with them using 10. IP addresses on parts of their internal network. Not saying it isn't messy.