We have really CRAP bdbnd yet my son can connect with his smart phone ?

flynnboy

One more question.....what happens if I take out a contract with a company and then move abroad ?

ED E

flynnboy wrote: »

One more thing guys, now it seems I might be able to use a smart phone....... I have no idea about them nor what the costs are, can any of you give me an idea of what charges I might expect ? I don't mean the call charges as obviously that depends upon how many I make but what are the other charges and what is 'roaming' all about ?

To tether(share) your internet with the PC or just use the phone by itself?

Roaming is when you're away from your own network so you use an alternative one, paying A LOT more than normal for everything.

flynnboy wrote: »

One more question.....what happens if I take out a contract with a company and then move abroad ?

Thats called fraud.

niallb

I thought I replied to this yesterday, but it seems to have gone astray.
Get yourself a longer USB cable or an extension. The cost is a fraction of what getting another dongle would cost you,
and no matter what company you are with, they all have small black spots. 3G is just like that, so let yourself work with it.

Move the dongle around until you get a blue light, and see what you need to do to get the dongle and PC to that spot.
I used a little router with a USB port to allow me put the dongle in an upstairs window, and then connected the PC to the router with a wifi card.
I've found like others here that moving the dongle even a meter can make a huge difference.

If you put your stepson's phone exactly where the dongle is, and leave it there what kind of signal does it show?
Most of them will have a little marker to show what kind of connection they are using.
A letter "E" is the same as the green light on the dongle, "3G" is the equivalent of blue, and "H" is the pale blue.
If the dongle is green, and the phone says otherwise, changing dongle will help, but if the phone says "E" too, you need to move the dongle.
DON'T do speedtests on a roaming mobile phone. It pulls down a lot of data to do the measuring.
If you know somebody with an Irish O2 mobile, that would be a better bet.

Don't take out another contract if you're thinking of moving abroad - you will have to pay the balance one way or another.
Try to sort out your existing dongle by moving it to the right place and the right direction before switching.
It's just like rabbits ears on an old TV!

If you do switch try to see can you get away with a PAYG deal.
I use Three for mine because there's no problem only paying for it one month a year.

flynnboy

Hi Niall,

Thanks for that.

"A letter "E" is the same as the green light on the dongle," so of his phone says 'E' he is connecting on 2G ?

I am between x2 Voda masts that do 3G in Dunkineely and x1 o2 mast in Mountcharles that does not do 3G. My window with the Dongle is closer to Dunkineely and Mountcharles is on the opposite side of the house: so would it not make more sense to change to Vodaphone ?

Is there no such thing as an external aerial that can boost the signal ?

flynnboy

ED E wrote: »

To tether(share) your internet with the PC or just use the phone by itself?

Roaming is when you're away from your own network so you use an alternative one, paying A LOT more than normal for everything.



Thats called fraud.

Well, I don't believe it would be 'fraud' as such.... people's lives do change and I don't think anyone would put their life plans on hold just to see out a phone contract..... My question is not sinister and very simple, if you are in the middle of a contract and decide to make a life change and move abroad, does anyone know what happens, do you simply have to pay some kind of charge to the company - or what ? I'd probably be better advised asking one of the companies.

flynnboy

niallb wrote: »

I thought I replied to this yesterday, but it seems to have gone astray.
Get yourself a longer USB cable or an extension. The cost is a fraction of what getting another dongle would cost you,
and no matter what company you are with, they all have small black spots. 3G is just like that, so let yourself work with it.

Move the dongle around until you get a blue light, and see what you need to do to get the dongle and PC to that spot.
I used a little router with a USB port to allow me put the dongle in an upstairs window, and then connected the PC to the router with a wifi card.
I've found like others here that moving the dongle even a meter can make a huge difference.

If you put your stepson's phone exactly where the dongle is, and leave it there what kind of signal does it show?
Most of them will have a little marker to show what kind of connection they are using.
A letter "E" is the same as the green light on the dongle, "3G" is the equivalent of blue, and "H" is the pale blue.
If the dongle is green, and the phone says otherwise, changing dongle will help, but if the phone says "E" too, you need to move the dongle.
DON'T do speedtests on a roaming mobile phone. It pulls down a lot of data to do the measuring.
If you know somebody with an Irish O2 mobile, that would be a better bet.

Don't take out another contract if you're thinking of moving abroad - you will have to pay the balance one way or another.
Try to sort out your existing dongle by moving it to the right place and the right direction before switching.
It's just like rabbits ears on an old TV!

If you do switch try to see can you get away with a PAYG deal.
I use Three for mine because there's no problem only paying for it one month a year.

Niall, if there is no 3G then the light will not go blue, so in that case how will I know when I get a better signal ?

Turtle_Tommy

flynnboy wrote: »

Well, I don't believe it would be 'fraud' as such.... people's lives do change and I don't think anyone would put their life plans on hold just to see out a phone contract..... My question is not sinister and very simple, if you are in the middle of a contract and decide to make a life change and move abroad, does anyone know what happens, do you simply have to pay some kind of charge to the company - or what ? I'd probably be better advised asking one of the companies.

If you are in the middle of a contract and you move abroad, you are still going to have to pay to terminate the contract. The cost would be your monthly charge multiplied by the amount of months left in your contract. If you are thinking of moving abroad in the near future, you definitely shouldn't sign a new contract.

flynnboy

Turtle_Tommy wrote: »

If you are in the middle of a contract and you move abroad, you are still going to have to pay to terminate the contract. The cost would be your monthly charge multiplied by the amount of months left in your contract. If you are thinking of moving abroad in the near future, you definitely shouldn't sign a new contract.

I know what you are saying Tommy, for that resaon I have been thinking I might not bother with a Smart Phone until and if we decide to move abroad. My only problem then would be, if I bought one in another foreign country wouldn't it be in their language, or do these things have choice of language facilities ?

Turtle_Tommy

flynnboy wrote: »

I know what you are saying Tommy, for that resaon I have been thinking I might not bother with a Smart Phone until and if we decide to move abroad. My only problem then would be, if I bought one in another foreign country wouldn't it be in their language, or do these things have choice of language facilities ?

Smart phones usually have a choice of languages. On my one, I can change my language to whatever I want to, in my settings.

flynnboy

Turtle_Tommy wrote: »

Smart phones usually have a choice of languages. On my one, I can change my language to whatever I want to, in my settings.

That sounds good Tommy. If this is the case then the obvious choioce is to wait and if we do move abroad get one over there, and hopefully the broadband reception will be better also

Turtle_Tommy

flynnboy wrote: »

That sounds good Tommy. If this is the case then the obvious choioce is to wait and if we do move abroad get one over there, and hopefully the broadband reception will be better also

If you do move, the broadband in whatever country you go to is bound to be better than Ireland! In the meantime, you could always buy prepay broadband from one of the mobile networks if you won't want any contract.

Thephantomsmask

If your son is browsing with opera mini as you said then he is browsing faster because opera mini routes web pages via it's own proxy and compresses them to a few kb. I'm using it on this thread currently on an iPhone, the same page loaded on iPhone safari takes far longer to load as it doesn't compress the data.

flynnboy

Turtle_Tommy wrote: »

If you do move, the broadband in whatever country you go to is bound to be better than Ireland! In the meantime, you could always buy prepay broadband from one of the mobile networks if you won't want any contract.

Thanks Tommy, I've looked into that and Voda do a pay as you go at 3 euro per day, which is far too much, on balance I think I will probably just suffer o2 until we go :eek:

Turtle_Tommy

flynnboy wrote: »

Thanks Tommy, I've looked into that and Voda do a pay as you go at 3 euro per day, which is far too much, on balance I think I will probably just suffer o2 until we go :eek:

There's also 7 day (with 2gb data for €10) and 30 day (with 5gb data for €20) plans available from Vodafone. However, Meteor and Three offer more data with their prepay plans, for the same price, than Vodafone.

niallb

If your son has "E" up on his phone, then he's not faster because he's on 3G, but EDGE can vary from 40k to 200k or so a second, so he may just be getting better reception. 3G does not go through walls as well as the 2G signals - which is why being near a window matters.
There probably is some 3G signal in most 2G areas which is why the suggestion to lock the dongle to "HDSPA only" or 3G only is worthwhile when there are both about. Forget about buying broadband by the day. All the networks do good deals for 20-30 euro a month as an addon.

The best thing you can do is ask your friends what network they are on, and ask someone with a Vodafone phone, a Three phone and someone with a meteor/emobile phone to visit so you can see what kind of signal they get. The comreg maps are notoriously out of date, and all the networks are upgrading masts at the moment as they are about to launch 4G.

There are external antennas. I still have one from the days when the nearest 3G mast to my house was outside Navan.
It mounts on a pole outside and the cable plugs into the dongle. The E220 doesn't have a socket for an antenna though.
The old square black O2 one does. If you're not going to be there for long, just put up with what you can get.

Please though, do yourself a favour and get a longer USB cable too - it'll give you a much better chance of connecting.
If it's only for a few months it might make the difference between getting 40k a second and over 200k a second even if it's still just on EDGE.

flynnboy

Thanks Niall and Tommy for all of your advice, which is very much appreciated. I think on balance we have basically decided we are going to be moving so I think I'll get a longer cable to see if I can improve things, if not I'll just grin and bear it until we can get out of here.

Thanks again

TheChizler

flynnboy wrote: »

Thanks Niall and Tommy for all of your advice, which is very much appreciated. I think on balance we have basically decided we are going to be moving so I think I'll get a longer cable to see if I can improve things, if not I'll just grin and bear it until we can get out of here.

Thanks again

Any of the Euro shops should be your friend here, don't go spending 10s of Euros on a cable.

niallb

TheChizler wrote: »

Any of the Euro shops should be your friend here, don't go spending 10s of Euros on a cable.

Darn right! You should be able to get one that's nearly 10 feet long (3m).
Get the single longest cable you can find rather than trying to get a few extensions. Each socket adds resistance, and it can get to the point where there isn't enough power to drive the dongle reliably.

I lived in a 200 year old cottage for a few years, and those walls would have stopped anything.

If you can't move the PC, but are close to the window, you might try putting the cable through the window, as being outside can make a big difference.
Might only suit in good weather, but it might really help.
Apart from that, the higher up it is the better, and if you can run it straight up from the PC if there's access to the next floor or attic, it can make a big difference.

flynnboy

Guys ! Hello modern world ! This is fantastic, my wife went into Vodaphone in Donegal today and bought a mobile Wi-Fi, I installed it and guess what........ yeeeahhhh I can connect in an instant, I can't believe it, I've been tearing my hair out here with this o2 ****e and screaming at the computer screen for over 4 years ! When we first came here Voda' just would not work, this is testament to the fact that obviously Voda' have up-dated their masts and o2 have fallen behind ! I have even watched a video this evening - UNREAL !

I am so happy !

Thanks again for all of your input; and BTW we have taken out a Pay-As-You-Go package which is cheaper than the ****e o2 Bill Pay contract we had that was like watching paint dry !

Pro Hoc Vice

flynnboy wrote: »

Guys ! Hello modern world ! This is fantastic, my wife went into Vodaphone in Donegal today and bought a mobile Wi-Fi, I installed it and guess what........ yeeeahhhh I can connect in an instant, I can't believe it, I've been tearing my hair out here with this o2 ****e and screaming at the computer screen for over 4 years ! When we first came here Voda' just would not work, this is testament to the fact that obviously Voda' have up-dated their masts and o2 have fallen behind ! I have even watched a video this evening - UNREAL !

I am so happy !

Thanks again for all of your input; and BTW we have taken out a Pay-As-You-Go package which is cheaper than the ****e o2 Bill Pay contract we had that was like watching paint dry !

Pity your son did not visit ages ago lol.

flynnboy

Too TRUE ! I am one happy Bunny !

Turtle_Tommy

flynnboy wrote: »

Too TRUE ! I am one happy Bunny !

It's great that you finally have a fast internet connection! I know what you mean when you say O2 have fallen behind with their network coverage. Where I live, there's great 3g coverage from Meteor, Vodafone and Three while I can only pick up a 2g signal from O2. I also had horrible speed from O2 for ages until I changed to Meteor about a year ago when I found out how fast they are in my area. O2 still haven't upgraded the mast to 3g since then and I don't think they're ever going to, considering they're now upgrading masts to 4g.

flynnboy

They are BACKWARD (O2) They have made my life hell for the past 4 years or so!

This evening I can hardly believe what I have been doing - messaging/posting pictures/listening to Video ALL AT THE SAME TIME ! Unreal..... when we first came here Vodaphone Dongle would not even work -just shows you how far behind o2 have fallen. This is just GREAT !

IrishStuff09

Great to hear, what kind of speeds are you getting? Can be checked on speedtest.net

Pro Hoc Vice

flynnboy wrote: »

They are BACKWARD (O2) They have made my life hell for the past 4 years or so!

This evening I can hardly believe what I have been doing - messaging/posting pictures/listening to Video ALL AT THE SAME TIME ! Unreal..... when we first came here Vodaphone Dongle would not even work -just shows you how far behind o2 have fallen. This is just GREAT !

Be careful of download limits, now its downloading at real speeds it might actually get near limits. The cost to go over can be huge.