I am looking into getting a WiFi dongle, like the Huawei with a sim car, to use when we are in the caravan in France and also at some sites in the UK which have slow and open networks.
Are these worth getting to access decent Multi purpose WiFi. I am not very tech savvy so apart from the initial cost what what Amount of data would I need, how long would that last and any ideas of the cost of data on a local net work.
OR is it just the same cost to use my phone 5giga bytes as a hot spot.
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You don’t really need a separate dongle if you have a phone you can tether to. I have an iPhone and can tether other devices to it and use it as a hotspot. This has always worked very well for me so I have never bothered with anything else. I have 10GB a month on my contract which I find is plenty for my needs but I don’t stream video or anything like that. I use it for checking emails, using the internet, using google maps to find directions to places we want to visit and checking the forecast etc, so I would say I am a light user.
I got a Huawei's mifi costs £9 per month for 20gb. So far this year its been used in Spain, Portugal, France, Birmingham, Coventry and gt malven plus other places. I surf the net download books and magazines ect. I also use it at home as it can go anywhere down the garden e t.
Its suites usI don't use my phone data as I have pay as you go.
Sennen
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We have the Huawei Mifi from Three with an unlimited data card in it so can be used fro Internet and also downloading for Firestick. Cost is £20 a month on a 12 month contract. Cost is £29 on a one month rolling contract.
The Huawei dongle Mifi does nothing with site wifi, it works by using a mobile phone signal to create a localised private wifi hotspot.
This can also be done with most mobile phones, if your mobile provider allows you to "tether", the in term for the phone turning into a wifi hotspot.
It raises the two points, you need to have brought into an mobile phone provider's scheme an adequate amount of "data", and if using a mobile a right to "tether".
As already said, you can simply buy a standalone SIM containing enough data entitlement.
As a generalisation I would say the sites wifi is hardly worth the hassle chasing, if its viable use it otherwise look after yourself using this data over the mobile phone network. Again a generlisation, remote area mobile data signals through France seem to have better coverage than we have here.
I used for years chase wifi, but have in recent years gone much more extensively to using my phone in tethering mode.
Again as mentioned, streaming video etc hoovers up data so go there with caution if at all, but streaming from site wifi is also a near hopeless dream, there is rarely the bandwidth to support that.
Quote: Originally posted by iank01 on 20/5/2019
We have the Huawei Mifi from Three with an unlimited data card in it so can be used fro Internet and also downloading for Firestick. Cost is £20 a month on a 12 month contract. Cost is £29 on a one month rolling contract.
That would sort your internet needs whilst you're away in the van, but at £240 a year it seems very expensive to a cheapskate like me - especially when (for most people) there will be long periods of time when it isn't being used.
I might do much the same thing, but use a Three PAYG sim.
------------- SamP
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Ours is £108 per year of which 3 months in Spain in winter 6 weeks in may/June, 8 weeks in sep/Oct 2 weeks xmas plus another 6 weeks spread over rest of year so we feel it pays us to have mifi plus I connect a laptop and tablets to it.
Quote: Originally posted by iank01 on 20/5/2019
We have the Huawei Mifi from Three with an unlimited data card in it so can be used fro Internet and also downloading for Firestick. Cost is £20 a month on a 12 month contract. Cost is £29 on a one month rolling contract.
That would sort your internet needs whilst you're away in the van, but at £240 a year it seems very expensive to a cheapskate like me - especially when (for most people) there will be long periods of time when it isn't being used.
I might do much the same thing, but use a Three PAYG sim.
You can buy the 12Gb 12 month sim for about £30 if you shop around. We did this previously and it worked well for us.
For the last few years I’ve used a Three data sim which has been excellent. They’re about £44 on Amazon for 24gb valid for 24 months. I recently changed my mobile phone provider to Vodafone and get 100gb for £20 a month. I have been assured by Vodafone that this data can be used abroad and there is no fair usage policy with Vodafone so the whole 100gb is available.
We’ve been using my phone for the last 1 days away in this country and have used about 17gb, but we haven’t skimped at all. We’ve even used it to watch TV with an amazon fire stick.
If it works this well abroad, I’ll be more than pleased.
Quote: Originally posted by Whatamess on 21/5/2019
For the last few years I’ve used a Three data sim which has been excellent. They’re about £44 on Amazon for 24gb valid for 24 months. I recently changed my mobile phone provider to Vodafone and get 100gb for £20 a month. I have been assured by Vodafone that this data can be used abroad and there is no fair usage policy with Vodafone so the whole 100gb is available.
We’ve been using my phone for the last 1 days away in this country and have used about 17gb, but we haven’t skimped at all. We’ve even used it to watch TV with an amazon fire stick.
If it works this well abroad, I’ll be more than pleased.
Nora
Good value however for the £20 you could have got a sim on a 12 month contract from Three for £20 a month for unlimited data. Firestick can use a lot of data
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My brother has the Huawei E5885 as he has multiple people using it ( kids downloading stuff here and abroad /France)
since December ive been using it in my house as my only broadband connection , its good enough to run a smart TV netflicks etc
it was about £130 to buy but it also acts as a power bank with huge power reserves if your off grid
i link it to a 3 mobile unlimited data sim for £20 month
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New forest and IOW (in T5)
New Forest
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Reading the above posts, shows me that there will be a massive demand for the SpaceX Starlink service when it rolls out in the next couple of years or so.
Hi
Very interested in this thread as our Three contract does not allow tethering abroad. Some years ago we bought a MiFi 3G and managed to purchase a data SIM from an Orange shop in France. Quite a palaver as passport etc. required. Once the data ran out (rather quickly, we thought) we could no find another Orange shop to do a top-up and could not do it online, either.
So, can anyone recommend just a data SIM for use in a MiFi that allows more than one connection? Just for general use, not for Firestick etc. and which you can easily top-up.
Three data sim. We’ve been tethering two tablets while abroad.
Iank01, yes I could have paid Three £20 a month but with Vodafone I get unlimited calls, unlimited texts and 100gb data for £20. Three have a fair usage policy under which you can only use 19gb per month abroad and I wouldn’t need it at home so £20 a month would have been very expensive on top of my phone contract which was £32 a month.
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Topic: Mobile WiFi in France
via mobile 20/5/2019 at 8:36am
