3G BB expierience

Ratchet

i may have no other choice then use one of the 3G offers for net access.

never used this service and wonder how people find it ?

Sponge Bob

a lot better and a lot cheaper than dial up (if you get rid of your phone line and use it more than 180 hours a month )

better than satellite

be careful of the o2 offer, their cap is 2Gb and they charge about €900 a GB if you bust it. Voda are much better.

oscarBravo

I use Vodafone's offering quite a lot. It works quite well here in Mayo for my needs. When it's on GPRS, it's like a good quality dialup; when it's on 3G it's like mediocre broadband.

I've noticed the 3G doesn't work as well in built-up areas. Specifically, it was very slow when I tried to use it in Mullingar, and on the two occasions when I've tried to use it in Dublin, it didn't work at all.

Blaster99

Expect random disconnects, general connectivity problems (sometimes it doesn't work at all), random failures to send e-mail (it seems Vodafone intercepts SMTP through their own relay and then decides to reject it), sometimes there's a lot of packet loss, poor pings, and speeds in the region of 200kbps.

It's pretty cool to be able to connect to the internet practically anywhere, and that somewhat makes up for the service. But as a proper broadband service, forget it if you have real alternatives.

DingDong

Has anyone tried play online poker with it or and sort of online gaming with it.

godskitchen

DingDong wrote:

Has anyone tried play online poker with it or and sort of online gaming with it.

I wouldnt, i have been on enay a few times bidding on items, only for the connection to freez, its still connected, only nothing is being sent or recieved.

Over all the service is spot on, its 1000000x better than dial up and it will soon be real broadband speeds once the network is upgraded, if im right in thinking this type of connection will never be for a gamer or someone who needs low pings. but if you just want to surf in comfort anywhere then there is nothing better!

Sponge Bob

it will never be low latency (low pings) so gamers and voip users will always get a crap service.

it will do vpn and secure sites like online banks (just about) .

it will be fine for certain downloads (not torrents ) and web and email and will work in most of the country albeit mainly at dialup speed as 3g ( or over 50k) speeds will only be available to 20% of the country with that coverage growing slowly .

If you are right under the 3g mast it could be 1.5mits though.

Patrickof

It's fine for poker (paddy power site anyway).

Blaster, you mention random SMTP rejects, I cannot send out emails via the voda servers at all. At last, someone else who's having the same problem?

I'm pushing them through a 3rd party server that I have a login for but its not ideal. Any ideas if voda are doing anything about it? Once we mention to voda data support that we use the linksys they claim they don't support it and won't help us.

Foxwood

Patrickof wrote:

Once we mention to voda data support that we use the linksys they claim they don't support it and won't help us.

So don't mention it. It's not relevant to your problem with SMTP.

Patrickof

I know its irrelevant to the problem, but when they ask us to fire up the vodafone dashboard (as they assume if we have a pcmcia card then we must be using their software) we have to say we don't use their crappy interface.

I'll just open a ticket with them again.

Blaster99

I can send e-mail sometimes, but it often doesn't work. How hard is it to setup an e-mail relay properly? Not very.

DaBreno

I also have Vodafone 3G, handy for those of us outside BB exchanges. Not cheap but it rattles along at a good pace(Im fortunate enough to be at the edge of a 3G area). The service Im using comes with a 4Gig cap for the month so heavy downloads and VOIP are out. Id recommend it over dial-up and Satellite, but just check if you are in a 3G area first otherwise you are stuck with GPRS. The modem can be used with Desktop and laptop.

DingDong

Patrickof wrote:

It's fine for poker (paddy power site anyway).

Blaster, you mention random SMTP rejects, I cannot send out emails via the voda servers at all. At last, someone else who's having the same problem?

I'm pushing them through a 3rd party server that I have a login for but its not ideal. Any ideas if voda are doing anything about it? Once we mention to voda data support that we use the linksys they claim they don't support it and won't help us.

Cheers I have NTL but interested on having BB you can use anywhere.

DingDong

Is there only the one type of modem for this service(usb one) and is it better to order online than going into a vodaphone shop.

DaBreno

I dont think its the only one, the gave me Usb coz I have a Dell laptop and their previous modem didnt work with Dell.
I paid €129 in the shop for it, didnt check online.

uncle_sam_ie

DingDong wrote:

Is there only the one type of modem for this service(usb one) and is it better to order online than going into a vodaphone shop.

This is what I use. http://www.elara.ie/products/detailsfull.asp?productcode=ECE1121637 It costs more, but you'll be able to also connect it to DSL or cable if it becomes available.

DingDong

I was hoping for a PCMCIA card just because it would be handy to slot into my laptop

1huge1

I'd be much happier if 3 ireland launched a 3G card seeing as they have over 80% of the population covered with 3G which is a lot higher than vodafone and are the only netowkr to offer 3G in the town i live in.