Guest JudgeMental Posted August 24, 2009 Share Posted August 24, 2009 I need to get a dongle for my daughter as she is away to Uni soon :-S Her phone contract is with 02. any ideas please as to the best value dongles at the moment ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basil Posted August 24, 2009 Share Posted August 24, 2009 Hi Judge, you don't say what basis, i.e. PAYGO or Contract but the 3 dongle is still available FREE on PAYGO on the payment of the £4.95 pp. It is the latest dongle and can be easily unlocked to work on any network if you don't want to use 3. See http://www.3dongle4free.co.uk/index.asp?mscssid=%7B6CB4A25F-3C14-478C-83C1-C9B3EBCCC074%7D Bas P.S. I ordered one and it arrived in 5 days as stated. P.P.S. If you have BT Broadband you can now have one as part of the option 3 package, it's free to use up to 1Gig /month and has a one off £9.99 charge up front. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JudgeMental Posted August 24, 2009 Share Posted August 24, 2009 Basil - 2009-08-24 12:48 PM Hi Judge, you don't say what basis, i.e. PAYGO or Contract but the 3 dongle is still available FREE on PAYGO on the payment of the £4.95 pp. It is the latest dongle and can be easily unlocked to work on any network if you don't want to use 3. See http://www.3dongle4free.co.uk/index.asp?mscssid=%7B6CB4A25F-3C14-478C-83C1-C9B3EBCCC074%7D Bas P.S. I ordered one and it arrived in 5 days as stated. Sorry basil......not sure really? But I was thinking monthly contract? don't know really whats the cheapest way? I would think for motorhoming (infrequent use) pay as you go would be best? but she will probably be hammering it! *-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basil Posted August 24, 2009 Share Posted August 24, 2009 Hi again Judge, not sure if the following would help See http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/phones/cheap-mobile-broadband#payg Bas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hopesy Posted August 24, 2009 Share Posted August 24, 2009 Is it her first year ie staying in halls as they often have broadband installed? If she has braodband in her cell sorry i mean room she may not want a contract dongle and pyg will suit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rupert123 Posted August 24, 2009 Share Posted August 24, 2009 JudgeMental - 2009-08-24 12:36 PM I need to get a dongle for my daughter as she is away to Uni soon :-S Her phone contract is with 02. any ideas please as to the best value dongles at the moment ? Eddie I have a 3 one which I pay £7.50 a month for with a 5gb a month download, this was on a special offer but I note they have a load of differant deals at the moment. It works well when you can connect but depends on where you are, I found it does not work much outside the area's around large towns, nowhere in Scotland except Glasgow and Edinburgh, will not renew for m/h use but should be fine if, as i assume, she will be city based. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
potjoe Posted August 24, 2009 Share Posted August 24, 2009 HI,we have the 3 one and its good and only £7.50 per mthy and have the router from 3 as well and at £34.25 very good value and works all over the place.I also have a 3 dongle from e/bay unlocked with a 02 sim total cost £20.00 for one year. You can get a 3 phone think SP2 that you use as a modem as well for about £20 per mthy or less,hope this helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Kirby Posted August 24, 2009 Share Posted August 24, 2009 EddieI'm not sure what kind of use you are envisaging, but if general net surfing and e-mail, then I doubt whether the dongle will be a necessity. Not saying it won't be a desirable extra, but so far as I know most, if not all, of the universities have extensive IT departments, and new students are usually logged on to the university networks on, or shortly after, arrival.If she will be in halls, I would expect there to be a LAN jack in her room, but failing that, workstations in university libraries, and at a lot of other common facilities, have LAN jacks to which the students can freely connect. I would also expect WiFi to be widely established. It may be worth enquiring what internet access she will be given on arrival, and what the restrictions on use may be. A Googlemail or Hotmail account, or similar, should be all she will need for endless hours of vital communication. The rest, should just be there. Have a look at the university website. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JudgeMental Posted August 24, 2009 Share Posted August 24, 2009 she can pay £100 for the year for wifi in her cell/room *-) I was just thinking a dongle may offer more flexability...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Kirby Posted August 24, 2009 Share Posted August 24, 2009 In terms of being to use a laptop pretty much anywhere, it would, but at somewhat greater cost, I think. Might be useful if she goes on field trips, as long as they are confined to UK. If using a dongle outside UK, you'll need a mortgage! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J9withdogs Posted August 24, 2009 Share Posted August 24, 2009 I have a T-Mobile dongle, and coverage is sparse at best. Mostly it's useless. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lennyhb Posted August 24, 2009 Share Posted August 24, 2009 Hi Eddie, Taking into account how students use the net, they don't take much notice of file download size & are also prone to down loading videos etc, the £100 for the uni internet is probably the cheapest option. If you take out a monthly dongle contract at 10-15 quid a month (not sure what deals are around at the moment) it will still be more expensive & if you go over the data limit it costs a arm&leg. Also uni networks are usually very fast & connect via their intranet to their servers which gives very fast downloads for course work. First time I've heard of uni's charging for internet in halls both the uni's my girls went to were free but at a 100 quid it's still a bargin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JudgeMental Posted August 25, 2009 Share Posted August 25, 2009 Thanks everyone, best to go with uni deal then. OK now where is that list.........memory foam mattress topper/ 2 mugs/cutlery/dads camping fridge etc etc etc..... *-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rowan Lee Posted August 25, 2009 Share Posted August 25, 2009 "P.P.S. If you have BT Broadband you can now have one as part of the option 3 package, it's free to use up to 1Gig /month and has a one off £9.99 charge up front." We've had BT Broadband ever since I can remember, pay a lot of money for it too - for a good service, I have to say. My husband has just rung them up to get our £9.99 dongle and guess what? Yes, it's "Brand New Customers Only"!! He has gone to take a few valium and lie down in a darkened room. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basil Posted August 26, 2009 Share Posted August 26, 2009 If you have had BT Broadband for ages you are, presumably, out of contract just tell them that you wish to renew your contract as a new customer for 18 months (as I did) or you will cancel and you will get not only the £9.99 dongle but a new Black High Speed hub and if you are very lucky a new VOIP phone as well. If they don't know how to do it tell them you will change to different provider and can they put you through to someone in the team that deals with retaining business, sounds to me like you got an Indian call centre who follow a script and don't know the wrinkles. Bas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rowan Lee Posted August 27, 2009 Share Posted August 27, 2009 Basil, Bernard did ask to speak to a supervisor but was told there was no point, they would just say the same. He did threaten to cancel the whole bang shoot but it fell on deaf ears. So he rang the complaints number, but when he got through to the automated switchboard, none of the numbers were for complaints! He chose "Sales" on the basis that they would answer more quickly, and they told him more or less what you suggested, only trouble is that our contract doesn't expire until February. Yes, we have been BT customers ever since broadband was invented, but we renegotiated our contract back to "option 3" some time ago when we found we were still paying extra for "option 4" which no longer existed! So we will just have to wait till February, by which time no doubt the dongle offer will have been discontinued. However, since dongles and mobile broadband deals get better by the day, maybe we will end up better off in the end. Meanwhile, we'll just have to carry on with the Vodafone contract dongle - £15 a month for 3Gb. Yes, I know that's not a bad deal at all, it's just the principle of the thing with BT that rankles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
libby Posted August 27, 2009 Share Posted August 27, 2009 I write to BT HQ quite regularly complaining about a cost or an added feature, and usually have it removed. They have a habit of introducing a feature then removing it but still with the cost charged, as I believe it was said. The free or cheap weekend calls have a charge which can be dearer than a collection of calls at the normal rate and that charge is when you are away as well. I refuse to pay some charges and threaten to changing ISP and so far I'm winnng especially with the dongle access available. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
602 Posted August 28, 2009 Share Posted August 28, 2009 Hi OT, but Uni related. My PC ghurru tells me that students have found a way of closing their lap-tops without switching them off. The advantage is that they can go from lecture to lecture without having to reboot. The disadvantage is that closing the lid stops the cooling fan working. If left for any time (lunch), the PC fries itself beyond economic repair. I don't know what I'm talking about, so maybe somebody can tell us more. Whatever, warn Junior about a potential frown from Dad. 602 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lennyhb Posted August 28, 2009 Share Posted August 28, 2009 In the power settings you can select what you want the laptop to do when you close the lid. If you select do nothing it will carry on running, the fan will run as normal. You will find the settings here: control panel\power options\advanced Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel B Posted September 2, 2009 Share Posted September 2, 2009 Eddie - just be ready for when your little girl comes home during the vacations and expects your home broadband to perform as well as her University one ... it will seem like dial-up by comparison! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JudgeMental Posted September 2, 2009 Share Posted September 2, 2009 Mel B - 2009-09-02 7:47 PM Eddie - just be ready for when your little girl comes home during the vacations and expects your home broadband to perform as well as her University one ... it will seem like dial-up by comparison! Coming home........Who said anything about coming home! I thought that was it! :-S Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel B Posted September 2, 2009 Share Posted September 2, 2009 Oooo ... you're in for a rough time!!! :D It won't be just 'one' coming home per year, it'll be several - at the end of each term/semester, plus probably the odd weekend in between and she'll no doubt expect Daddy to go and collect her and take her back each time ... and Mummy will get lumbered with a load of washing to do for good measure ... and Daddy will be on 'taxi' duty too .... You have my sympathies M'Lord! (lol) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JudgeMental Posted September 2, 2009 Share Posted September 2, 2009 Mel B - 2009-09-02 10:48 PM Oooo ... you're in for a rough time!!! :D It won't be just 'one' coming home per year, it'll be several - at the end of each term/semester, plus probably the odd weekend in between and she'll no doubt expect Daddy to go and collect her and take her back each time ... and Mummy will get lumbered with a load of washing to do for good measure ... and Daddy will be on 'taxi' duty too .... You have my sympathies M'Lord! (lol) read my other post.......I'm oft to spain for the winter ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4petedaniel Posted September 3, 2009 Share Posted September 3, 2009 Basil - 2009-08-24 12:48 PM Hi Judge, you don't say what basis, i.e. PAYGO or Contract but the 3 dongle is still available FREE on PAYGO on the payment of the £4.95 pp. It is the latest dongle and can be easily unlocked to work on any network if you don't want to use 3. See http://www.3dongle4free.co.uk/index.asp?mscssid=%7B6CB4A25F-3C14-478C-83C1-C9B3EBCCC074%7D Bas P.S. I ordered one and it arrived in 5 days as stated. P.P.S. If you have BT Broadband you can now have one as part of the option 3 package, it's free to use up to 1Gig /month and has a one off £9.99 charge up front. I also ordered one but I am confused by the small print as I read it you need to top it up with £10 each month which for the amount of time I need it is very expencive Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basil Posted September 3, 2009 Share Posted September 3, 2009 4petedaniel - 2009-09-03 9:46 AM I also ordered one but I am confused by the small print as I read it you need to top it up with £10 each month which for the amount of time I need it is very expencive Hi, not quite that's how I read it origionally, however you top it up as you require it but once you top up that top up will stop after the month time period. Once it expires you don't have to top up until you next want to use it, I find that reasonably ok for holiday use but probably not for continual use at home. I believe there is also a clause that requires you to use it once in 9 months or they may take away the number so you have to phone and get another one, but I believe that is common with most mobile numbers. Don't forget to change your top up to an 'Add On' as soon as you top up or you will be paying the mb rate which is not very cost effective. You can also 'unlock' the dongle and use it with any other providers Sim card so you get the dongle free but can take advantage of any other offers available. Bas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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