Laptop Wireless Internet on the road

[hotpnt]

Hi, have recently opened new accounts with connect & masterpart, only problem seems to be that the old spares catalogues/price lists are now replaced with web based look-ups, not ideal when your in a customers house trying to find a part number/price,
So been looking at USB Sim card internet access, do many of you use them?, how good are the connections in rural areas? (ie I have a 3 phone that only gets a 3G reception in less than 5{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} of my area, the rest of the time it is on roaming)
There seem to be 4 options

1st, O2, £25 a month with data card

2nd Vodaphone, £67 for modem then £12.77 a month (18mth contract) for 3GB a month or Free modem at £25 a month

3rd Orange, £25 again, free modem

4th, 3, £10 a month for 1GB, £15 a month for 3GB, but whats the coverage like

anyone had any experience with these devices??

thanks

[kwatt]

Re: Laptop Wireless Internet on the road

Data on 3G is flaky… period. 🙁

Or, at least, decent data transfer rates to qualify the remark.

Go outside the M6/M1/M25 (Orbital) corridors or out of a major town/city and you will almost certainly have “issues” IME.

K.

[hotpnt]

Re: Laptop Wireless Internet on the road

yeah, thats what i was expecting to hear, have had a 3 phone for 10 months now, but in my area, (approx 30 miles by 15 miles) there is only one town with 3G service, all other calls are ‘roaming’ ie using another network, but hey, they have given me 3 free phones to try to make the reception better!,

[Penguin45]

Re: Laptop Wireless Internet on the road

I still have a dial-up on the lap top and a cable…….. Those customers who don’t have computers usually let me plug in if neccessary. 1p/min and they pay! 😀

Chris.

[hotpnt]

Re: Laptop Wireless Internet on the road

yeah, thats not a bad idea actually, dial up, i can see the pros of it, but, as im only now venturing into the ‘other’ brands would it not make me look a bit amaturish to have to look up online a price for say a zanussi door boot or interlock?

[wsts]

I use the 3 mobile BB around the east mids and S.Yorkshire and it works fine nearly all the time, just about always on the fastest speed too, well worth 15 notes a month.

[Penguin45]

Re: Laptop Wireless Internet on the road

Don’t you charge £17 for a lock? 🙂 As you get into it, the popular prices get stuck in the back of the mind……

People are funny – if I need to look at Masterpart, I just ask the customer if they’re on-line and most will let me use the system – the dial-up is a “just in case”. The “oldies without” are usually fascinated, anyway.

Chris.

[hotpnt]

Re: Laptop Wireless Internet on the road

so do you use their PC then? or do you use your own laptop?

[johnnyj]

Re: Laptop Wireless Internet on the road

I use T mobile 3GB for£15 I get a discount on that as the missus works for them, most of my area has 3G coverage i usualy check my phone to see if i am in a 3G area before i log on as it is woefuly slow otherwise.

[goosegreen]

Re: Laptop Wireless Internet on the road

Have had a good look round at all the options for mobile net access and was going to go for the Vodaphone option until I called my mobile provider Orange for my free phone upgrade today. I was offered the same plan I was on for £5 less and a free modem, 3Gb per Mth for £15 on a 24 Month contract. My next question is: How do you power your laptops when in the van, As the battery life on mine is about 1 hour, I was thinking should I buy a low wattage inverter rather than a dedicated car adapter, as they look to be quite expensive!.

Goose

[admin]

Re: Laptop Wireless Internet on the road

I just brought new toshiba laptop equium u300 😀 . 3, £10 a month for 1GB, i get a good coverage here.the new laptop i use you can just shut down the lid when its on and it goes into hibanate mode , open lid fires up again, after i put pass word in ,and back on line i go , the battery last all day and more like this, and recharges in hour, & half,

canufixit

[wsts]

Re: Laptop Wireless Internet on the road

goosegreen wrote:Have had a good look round at all the options for mobile net access and was going to go for the Vodaphone option until I called my mobile provider Orange for my free phone upgrade today. I was offered the same plan I was on for £5 less and a free modem, 3Gb per Mth for £15 on a 24 Month contract. My next question is: How do you power your laptops when in the van, As the battery life on mine is about 1 hour, I was thinking should I buy a low wattage inverter rather than a dedicated car adapter, as they look to be quite expensive!.

GooseI have mine running on an inverter that I got for £15 from Maplin and it works superbly, universal laptop chargers for the lighter socket are about £11 delivered from ebay.

[goosegreen]

Re: Laptop Wireless Internet on the road

This is my 1st lappy £250 from Novatech, Made in China so expect water in the base at some point 😆 Not a bad spec,: 1.75 Athlon, 1gb ram 120Gb drive. Battery time not to good but I have to justify buying one by getting the cheapest I could. If I can prove its worth having I like the look of that thin Apple one. One of my daughters has already shown an interest in the Novatech and is encouraging me to upgrade as soon as possible. Will nip down to Maplins on Sunday and pick up an Inverter.

Goose

[hotpnt]

Re: Laptop Wireless Internet on the road

back to my orgional post for an update, i looked around, 3 was the cheapest by far but from my own experience of having a 3 phone i know the coverage is poor at best, most of the time it relies on roaming to other networks,
So i looked at o2, £25 a month, too dear
So i went with vodafone,(£15pm) 2G or 3G depending on where you are, but in my first week of testing with the free usb modem, (which, if you live here where all the houses are made of 2′ thick granite walls, also comes with a long usb cable so you can put it out the window if you need too) seems to be getting a good signal
Basically if you can get a mobile signal outside then you can get a connection, as a comparision for anyone else looking, 2G gives same as a dial up connection, and if you get on a 3G signal its not far off broardband, so, good result if you are in a rual area,

[goosegreen]

Re: Laptop Wireless Internet on the road

Just ordered the modem from Orange, But I was wondering how you can keep track of your download quota. Orange quote unlimited usage but with a fair use policy 0f 3Gb.

Goose

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