I'm retiring at the end of this month, and we're off in the caravan soon for an unspecified bout of touring.
Although free of the office, I've been retained to write a few features every month, and we also have a holiday cottage which we let to guests.
So I need Internet access to forward my articles and check my e-mails for potential bookings.
I don't want to get tied to a Smartphone and monthly contracts as usage will be very light, so I'm considering wireless Broadband via my laptop and a dongle.
Can anyone help with recommendations, feedback or suggestions? Any response gratefully received
We use a three pay as you go Mi-fi, this provides 3g Internet access via a Wi-Fi Hotspot, so if you have more than one laptop or other device that you want to connect to the internet you can use them at the same time.
a 3g, 1 gig ,pay as you go dongle, works for me when we're out and about with the caravan. have managed to access the web nearly every where we've been, quite fast speeds too,. comprable to home based access.
i find it ideal for checking e-mails etc
------------- no tin tent outings booked as yet ,just another cruise in Sept' booked so far
I've tried most of them and now stick with the T-Mobile PAYG device. This has worked pretty much anywhere I need it to (improved coverage since merger with Orange network too), plus if it's for infrequent use, the £2 a day rate might be preferable (£7 a week, & £15 a month options also).
Most 'dongles' tend to need a top-up of £15 which runs for 30 days then expires, so if you've only used it for a few emails, it's a bit of a duffer. The T-Mobile top-up stays on your account for a minimum of 180 days and you just opt for your likely useage when you use it.
Before you write off using a mobile phone on contract, if you have a mobile phone, ask yourself how much you use it.
If you are topping up £20 a month, you could get a smart phone on T-Mobile for free with unlimited landline calls, unlimited internet access plus bundled mobile call minutes and texts. Given the phone you get for free is likely to be worth around £200 if you bought it sim free, you may be better off on a 2 year contract than buying a dongle and then paying for top ups on that in addition to your mobile phone top ups.
I have a dongle with 3 and find it useless, I have only once got a signal on site with it. I now tether wirelessly to my mobile and get excellent coverage.
The other option is to use WiFi. Many sites now offer this, though some charge heavily for it. If you have broadband from BT you can use BTopenzone (found in a lot of pubs and fast food outlets) and BTfon for free.
Beware of tethering a laptop via a mobile phone. I did this with my Blackberry on O2 as I have unlimited access. However when you tether a phone it does not always use the same gateway service as I found out to my cost. When I use the Blackberry handset to surf it uses Blackberry services when it is tethered it uses the O2 gateway which is not included in the unlimited access. After a week away tethered I came back to a £70 bill.
------------- Nigel
March 2012 - Dove Meadows
6th July Moving to Hayle
You need to look at coverage in the area you're going to be in mostly, for me Orange turned out to have the best coverage for most of the places I needed it so I got the cheapest contract which was £5 per month - part of the year I hardly use it but even so at that price it's still cheaper than any PAYG and since the merger with T-mobile coverage and access is a lot better.
I first got a 3 dongle and I too found it almost useless to useless - I now just keep it in case the orange doesn't work.
I tend to avoid free WiFi due to the lack of security - anyone using the same WiFi can hack your computer - I don't need that with an e-commerce site!
------------- Caravanning is a way of getting a cheap holiday out of an expensive hobby
We use a Vodafone Dongle with the Laptop when we are away but got heavily stung when we went from Northern Ireland, into Donegal and they connected us to the Vodafone Irish Network. It cost me £9 to download just 3 emails.
It only left us with a couple of quid on the Dongle and by the time I had contacted Vodafone, my credit ran out and we had to wait until we were back in Northern Ireland before I could afford to contact them via the Mobile Phone and get a top up put on the Dongle.
So be careful what networks and areas you are in!!!
We use an Acer netbook with standard Wi-Fi built in. Most Little Chefs and other eateries have free Wi-Fi now, and if you are with BT on your home phone, you can sign up to Openzone which is present at a lot of public places, rail stations, shopping malls etc etc.
Burger King have it at their motorway sites, don't know about regular sites.
Mobiles seem to be relatively expensive to use as a gateway.
The reason we take the Laptop and Dongle away with us on our trips, is so that we can use the Internet from our unit of an evening.
The idea of having to go somewhere, be it a "Fast Food Outlet" or a "Public Place", just to get online, rather negates the idea taking the thing with us in the first place.
Wi-Fi and BT Openzones are fine if I had a reason to be in those places other than to just to connect to the Internet, but I am sure that I am not alone in the idea that the Mobile Internet has to serve us wherever we happen to be when we are doing whatever we happen to be doing and if I can get a signal with my Mobile Phone, then that is where I also want to be able to connect to the Internet. So while we also have Wi-Fi and Bt Openzone, they are rarely, if ever, used and the Dongle is used every evening if I can get a UK based connection.
I'm Sitting in my caravan in sunny eastbourne on my tablet, wife on ebay on laptop,daughter on her laptop on facebook all connected via my htc wildfire smart phone 15 per month, just checked, been using all week no charges,excellent coverage with t-mobile.
Quote: Originally posted by simon9792 on 19/8/2011
I'm Sitting in my caravan in sunny eastbourne on my tablet, wife on ebay on laptop,daughter on her laptop on facebook all connected via my htc wildfire smart phone 15 per month, just checked, been using all week no charges,excellent coverage with t-mobile.
How did you manage that, I am paying £20 for mine?
I used my mobile for internet access at home for a while too when my phone line was down. Not as fast as broadband, but a lot quicker than dial up was.
I did have a blackberry charging me 20 per month, I hated the blackberry so I bought a unlocked smart phone, that meant I could drop the 5 charge blackberry charge for their email service, as that was not part of the contract , so a result 15 contract which includes a flexible booster for unlimited internet.
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Topic: Keeping in touch via e-mail
