Buying a dongle.

[deerhound]

I would like to buy a dongle so that I can use the laptop when away in motorhome. I have been offered several providers some I have never heard of. My mobile phone is Vodaphone and it seems to get a signal on most sites I visit, Is this a good way to decide? ie if mobile works get Vodaphone dongle? I would imagine it is cheaper than the cost of Wi-fi thingy? (?)

[LordThornber]

Hi James, yes that is the logic I deployed when choosing my dongle. Superb coverage with Orange, (I have been with them 14 years +) made it a no brainer for me.

 

I pay £5 a month after 50% discount for being a contract customer. 500mb and that's tons for me. No charge for the dongle.

 

Martyn

[Robinhood]

Unless you are naturally a heavy user of bandwidth, then the issue with the dongles currently available is that in the main they need either a subscription (monthly charge) or (if pay as you go) any top-up expires in a short space of time (typically a month). The cost of use abroad is also generally prohibitive.

 

I was lucky enough to pick up a Vodafone PAYG dongle at the time where the top-ups were non-expiring, and Vodafone have continued to honour that for the devices marketed at that time. It is used irregularly, but works well in areas where there is a Vodafone 3G signal (but considerably less successfully if the signal is GPRS).

 

It has proved invaluable for checking emails and a bit of light surfing, and has only recently (some years after purchase) been topped up for the first time. For this particular device £15 buys 1GB of unexpiring use (subject to it being used every six months or so to keep it active).

 

Though they haven't been widely available for some time, you can still sometimes find them for sale (there are some on eBay at the moment), and even if it hasn't yet been activated, the unexpiring arrangement will be honoured. If you are an occasional user, you may find this a cost-effective solution (as I've indicated, the initial 1GB content lasted me ages), though you'll need to do your own sums.

 

You do need to be careful, however - there are similar (but later-marketed) devices for which any top-up expires after a month (though you get 3GB for your £15 on these).

 

Specifically, the one I've got is the Vodafone K3565 (you can search for this), but I wouldn't buy one that didn't confirm it had the unexpiring top-up arrangement. (All K3565 should not expire, but the subsequent K3565R, which has the expiring top-up arrangement, and looks exactly the same except for the R after the number, is sometimes referred to as a K3565 in adverts).

 

Whatever, we still find it better to use wifi (depending on cost) under many circumstances, particularly abroad, but the dongle is a good fallback.

[Dave225]

I know a lot of people try to look for free WiFi hot spots, or cafes where they can get 'free' access for the price of a cup of coffee. But I do accept that it is not always convenient to carry a laptop everywhere you go on the offchance. If you have a regular mobile phone Contract then you can often get a good deal, as mentioned by the OP but if like me, you are a very irregular PAYG user then the Companies tend to be expensive. In addition we spend a lot of time in Europe and I have yet to hear of a good deal that covers that. We still tend to just pay the site fees to get WiFi access, as this is usually the easiest and often as economical as any others. Some are extortionate I accept, but the sites we tend to use seem reasonable. If the former, then a trip to Macdonalds can be as good as any.

 

If anyone does know of a good Europe wide cheap internet access medium then i for one, would be delighted to hear about it.

[ips]

mrs ips has a t mobile on contract for £15pm 3G and I think 3gig things or summat a month which is plenty, before that she had a t mobile pay as you go which was also good and you have flexibility of buying a day a week or a month. Its been very good to date with regards to coverage / use etc