Need some advice on what broadband to get

jimmynn

Hi,

I'm heading abroad for a few months. I want to be able to keep in contact with a friend of mine when I'm away. She lives in West Dublin so I'm guessing there's good service coverage there. She doesn't have broadband but she does have a good laptop. Ideally I'd really love to be able to contact her over some sort of webcam/webvideo sort of thing. I don't know a lot about these things but as far as I can tell, my options are

1) Just call her using skype out. (i.e ring her house phone or mobile from skype)
2)Get broadband for her

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> 2a) Mobile broadband

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> 2b) Fixed line broadband

So for "2a" I've a couple of questions:
A) Would the speed of a mobile broadband service be good enough to have a video call or even just a skype voice call
What sort of download limit would one reasonably need to have for say even 1 hours calls a week in total.

For "2b" the questions are:
A) What sort of price are we talking to get fixed line stuff installed. i.e installation and all the gear .... maybe one of those wireless router things for ease of use.
B)Is there any disruption to the house. (She lives with her parents and I don't think they'd like people putting holes in their walls all over the place.
c) Again what sort of cost would you be talking about to run this then.

Now, I've also just had a look online and I've seen some things about skype being used to route other peoples calls and using up bandwidth. If so, would it be unwise to install skype on her laptop in case she left it running and connected to some mobile internet service. i.e would that eat up her monthly allowance.

In a sort of related question, are there any "better" video-calling programs that we could maybe use?

I'm really sorry for being so vauge. I guess that I don't really know the exact questions that I want to ask. It would be great to receive any advice and particularly even to be pointed in the direction of some of the relevant service providers (if that is allowed here) so that I can go and read up a bit on them.

Thanks very much

Ogham

Do her parents have a phone line already?

jimmynn

Hi

Thanks for the reply.

Yes, I think they have a phone line. I presume it's eircom but I don't know. I remember one of the companies (Think it was perlico) advertising a great deal for phone and broadband all in. I was sorta thinking that maybe most of the companies want that i.e. the cost might be reasonable if I got them to change over to a different phone company.

Sort of what I'm looking to do is just get this for her as a present so that we can keep in touch. My sister has an O2 stick for browsing the internet and she thinks it's great. I was just researching a bit on it to see if it would be suitable for a webcam call or skype and although I haven't seen any definite answer, there seems to be some issues with lag or else with bandwidth being taken by users behind a router or something. I don't want to be getting a massive bill from the mobile broadband provider because some other skype users have been routing their traiffic through my stick!!

If the mobile stick was fine then I think I'd prefer that just for a handy life. Otherwise I'd have to go asking her to get her parents to change over. That might be an option if there was a big quality/price difference though

watty

Skype voice is erratic on Mobile. Skype video more so. None "presence" based voice/video calling solutions likely won't be able to call the Mobile user's client.

You're far better with fixed DSL or Fixed Wireless or Cable broadband. Skype is the easiest to use video calling application.

Skype needs to be behind a router. It will eat bandwidth if used on a direct connection. You can get a router/firewall to only allow your own Skype connection on O2 USB Mobile. See Midband forum. DSL usually comes with a Router/Firewall builtin with the Modem. On fixed Wireless & Cable broadband it's often an option extra box.

jimmynn

Hi Watty,

Thanks for that. I've been reading a few things over in the midband forum. I think this is a relevant post that you made yourself ? - http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=59369601&postcount=11
I'm not 100% sure what all the terminology means, but I'm guessing that I should go for one of these wireless routers maybe?

Would something like this
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=334844
be suitable for a mobile broadband?

Would I have issues then with securing the network? How exactly would something like that work? WOuld I just tell my firend to leave the dongle in the router and then plug it in whenever she wanted to connect to the internet.

If I got the router, would the quality be acceptable enough to make video calls from skype, or even voice calls. Voice calls don't really matter because I can always use skype out from my side anyway.


On a related question, and it's just because I never was aware of the skype bandwidth issue before, is it advantageous to use a router in general with a broadband dongle? My sister has O2 but she doesn't use any router or firewall. She has anti-virus installed but may not have a software firewall.

jimmynn

watty wrote: »

Skype voice is erratic on Mobile. Skype video more so. None "presence" based voice/video calling solutions likely won't be able to call the Mobile user's client.

By the way, I wasn't too sure what this part of your answer was telling me.

watty

Skype uses a feature called "presence" to keep the connection alive and inform your contacts of your IP and that you are online. Without such a feature it would be nearly impossible to call a 3G Mobile user. Some systems for VOIP (voice calls via Internet) can do video as well as voice, but don't implement "presence". They need Dynamic DNS setup by the users of fixed Internet with dynamic IP and generally don't work at all to call someone on Mobile at all.

Skype also works with shared IPs and firewalls. Many other systems can't (in the past a nightmare to get voice on MSN working via a Proxy).

Any router you get for O2 / 3G needs a USB port and support for the modem. Software firewalls are useless. Most applications can reprogram them (you may get a dialog box, but people click OK). The router you linked to is for a Bridged DSL modem, Cable Modem or Fixed Wireless ethernet modem. It does have a USB port, but I think only for USB printer or USB Storage to share on the Network. Unless a Router lists a bunch of USB, ExpressCard or PCMCIA modems it supports, it likely doesn't support any. The only 3G/USB Dlink I know is the DIR451, which is not readily available.

A router with Firewall (virtually all do have them) is great addition for even a single user, even if you use the ethernet rather than the WIFI. If it has WPA and you put a long random key in AES or WPA2 mode it's near impossible for someone else to use it. Even basic WPA (TKIP) with a long random key is good. The seriously broken WIFI security is WEP key mode.

I loathe to put a specific list of USB 3G Routers without having tested them. Other people report that the Cradlepoint, Solwise, Draytek and Dovado UMR are fine. I've tested the Dlink DIR451 which is USB or PCMCIA. I tested Linksys WRT543G (PCMCIA), Dovado PCMCIA and Netgear MBR814 (PCMCIA).

But for Skype video you really need real broadband, not mobile. THe UPLOAD speed is the limiting factor at BOTH ends.

jimmynn

Hi again,

Does that mean that if I fire up skype and my friend back in dublin has hers running too, I just won't be able to see the little green icon beside her name telling me that she's online or does it mean that I won't be able to call her at all.

I think the gist of what you're telling me anyway is that the mobile dongle isn't really an option for me?

Thanks.

jimmynn

Hi

Thanks for all that above Watty. I was writing my last post as you were editing your last one to include the extra info.

I'm thinking maybe the way to go might be to just get her the cheap meteor dongle (or maybe even the O2 as from what I've read that seems to be the most highly rated) so that at least she can email me easily. Then if I want to call her I can just use skype out from my end and ring her mobile or house phone.

I'll suss out maybe getting her to ask her parents to switcvh over the phone and get broadband, but then it's kinda awkward because they'll be paying for it. I just awanted to be able to hand her the dongle and say "here you go - all sorted".

jimmynn

Hi

Me again. I've gone out and done some research during the day. I went to the O2 store and they said that they have a new modem which allows for up to 5.3 Mb/s

http://www.o2online.ie/wps/wcm/connect/O2/Home/Explore+Services/Services/O2+Broadband/Buy+Broadband+now/

The girl in the shop said she uses it for skype and it's fine. She was a salesperson though. Now one other thing that she mentioned was that it was possible for me to get a student broadband package for 13.05 a month with a 10Gb limit.

I also went looking for routers. None of the staff in the mobile phone shops really knew what I was talking about. They didn't have any in PC world. I never tried Peats but looked at their website jsut there and they do have one.

Am I correct in saying that the reason I should have a router are
1) A hardware firewall to protect me
2) Stop other peoples skype traffic coming through me
3) Lower latency (Not 100% if this is true...watty mentioned QoS in his post above before editing and I looked that up and I believe that somehow that priortises traffic for applications tahat need low latency.)

Would people recommend that I just take a chance on the student broadband package with this increased upload speed modem from O2?

As for the stopping of others from using my bandwidth over skype, I have two questions if anyone knows the answers:
1) Can I get some sort of software firewall to try to prevent this. I know Watty said they were useless but are they just useless because people do silly things with them or allow other applications to do silly things
2) Does the skype only eat bandwidth when I am actaully on a coll myself, or can it start doing it if skype starts automatically on startup

Thanks for all the help so far. Nearly there now

jimmynn

Hi,

Just an update on what I've been doing. I know this is veering towards what should probably be in the "midband" section but I don't want to start a new thread.

Went to O2 store and Meteor. Also went to Peats to ask about 3G router. The guy there told me I didn't need a router. Well I talked to one guy and he told me to ask the second gut because he'd know. Second fella said I wouldn't need it. However he also told me Skype wasn't peer-to-peer, and took a bit of an attitude when I said I thought it was. He did recommend meteor service if I did go down the 3G route as he said that Meteor have their own infrastructure but all of the others work off vodafone's. (I don't think that this is 100% correct from what I've read in other threads here.)

So I went to meteor. They offer download with a 5Gb limit for 16.99 on a 1 year contract. However the fella in that shop told me that their modem is capable of 7.5Mbps both up and down. (When I looked up online I found that it's theoretically capable of 5.6Mbps upload so he wasn't too far off but still not correct).


So my choices are,

O2 student deal 13.05Euro a month plus 49Euro for the modem. That's with a 10Gb limit. 12 month contract. (Now I'm not actually a student any more but I can get a student to buy it with me and give my credit card details. They said I could do this in the shop). Without the student deal it would be 25Euro plus 39 for a 7.5 Gb limit.

Meteor deal 16.99 a month plus 29Euro for the modem. 5Gb monthly limit. again 12 month contract.

I don't think that my friend would need much more than the 5Gb limit in any case as she only has dial up at the minute.

I realise that skype can eat up the bandwidth, and again this may be slightly off topic for this forum, but are their any other similar programs that I could use instead that aren't peer to peer? If I used video chat in gmail (I think that's possible) would that protect me from having other callers use up my bandwidth?


There's not much difference in price between the student deal and meteor when you consider the cost of the modem. O2 = 205.60 and Meteor = 232.88. Assuming of course that usage stays below the 5Gb limit.

All help is greatly appreciated.

Ogham

If you can get o2 at the student price - than the cheaper price and double the data cap makes it the obvious choice.

jimmynn

Hey Ogham,

Thanks for the reply. My only issue I suppose is the quality one. I don't think that my friend will use over the 5 Gb limit anyway. Both offer 7 day returns....I may get them and try them both and leave back the one that I feel gives the best service.

I'll just have to check that they won't charge me a months rental or anything