Free 3 broadband dongle

Simon · May 20, 2009, 10:43:16

Apart from all the coffee and pies you'd buy!

Rik · May 20, 2009, 10:43:53

Pies, yes, coffee, no.

Simon · May 20, 2009, 10:47:03

I'm sure you'd find something! Oh, food again!

Rik · May 20, 2009, 10:56:38

The stumbling block was drink.

Gary · May 20, 2009, 11:21:56

Quote from: Sebby on May 19, 2009, 22:09:50
That's not so bad when you look at mobile phone data charges abroad, usually around the £7.50/MB mark. If you were using your phone as a modem, the 3 dongle would work out significantly cheaper.

Quote from: Rik on May 19, 2009, 17:41:21
I never drip pearls of wisdom from my dongle, Q.

It's difficult to say, without a reference point, but the reception here seems poor on this dongle, just 4 bars, so I wonder if the 3 network is more patchy than it might be. Perhaps I should also get a Vodafone one and compare?

3 roam onto Orange when they are out of range of their own transmitters, it used to be O2 then they moved to Orange.3 are like T mobile not known for great reception even though they say otherwise, Rik. Orange has pretty good 3G coverage but Vodafone is the best I think in the UK.

Rik · May 20, 2009, 11:22:47

Thanks, Gary, that may be the solution for me, then.

psp83 · May 20, 2009, 13:19:53

Got mine today. not tested it yet, will do that later tonight.

talos · May 20, 2009, 13:22:02

And me !
Itching to play with it, hope it works

Steve · May 20, 2009, 13:45:28

Mine didn't work at work today. I discovered I'd left it at home

Sebby · May 20, 2009, 14:20:41

Quote from: Gary on May 20, 2009, 11:21:56
3 roam onto Orange when they are out of range of their own transmitters, it used to be O2 then they moved to Orange.3 are like T mobile not known for great reception even though they say otherwise, Rik. Orange has pretty good 3G coverage but Vodafone is the best I think in the UK.

My experience (and somewhat of a general consensus as I understand) is that Orange have the worst coverage out of all the operators. I've been on T-Mobile in the past and found the reception excellent. I believe you're right in saying that Vodafone are the best in the UK in terms of coverage.

psp83 · May 20, 2009, 14:49:24

well my one connects and gets 6 bars, only trouble is, my3 seems to be down (cant access through idnet either)

Rik · May 20, 2009, 15:01:15

We must have caused meltdown, Paul.

Glenn · May 20, 2009, 17:33:58

3 have the largest 3G coverage in the UK, it is increasing as new masts come online with their partnership with T-Mobile.

Rik · May 20, 2009, 17:36:13

So they don't use Orange, presumably, Glenn?

psp83 · May 20, 2009, 18:58:31

I'm posting using my 3 dongle at the mo

Rik · May 20, 2009, 19:02:53

So you are.

psp83 · May 20, 2009, 19:08:31

back on idnet now, much faster

the 3 dongle is fast enough though, loaded the forum within 4 secs.

psp83 · May 20, 2009, 19:24:49

and a FYI. the 3 dongle works on Windows 7 RC.

Den · May 20, 2009, 19:51:21

My main mobile phone is Vodafone but I must admit in the Wrexham area O2 edges it into 2nd place. Over the UK Vodafone is most likely the best, RedCare for intruder alarms now use Vodafone for their secondary signal (It was owned by BT so they always used O2) and now DualCom use Vodafone for their primary signal which shows how good they feel Vodafone is.

Glenn · May 20, 2009, 20:02:59

Quote from: Rik on May 20, 2009, 17:36:13
So they don't use Orange, presumably, Glenn?

I'm not sure who they peer 2G calls with now, but when I'm working in Amersham it's at MBNL's office who are the management company setup to rollout the network, Ericsson engineers are actually doing the work. Their website is a little out of date, there is not full coverage at the moment.

drummer · May 20, 2009, 20:47:36

Need some advice here folks.

Installed the 3 dongle without any credit, so it'll be ready for whenever I need it. Before the dongle light goes green though, I get the device connect/disconnect bongs about three times, so I checked Event Viewer and sure enough, there were quite a few SideBySide errors (event IDs 32 and 59).

According to MS, this is because I don't have Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable Package installed (although I notice there's a 2008 version). I don't have .NET Framework installed either FWIW.

Can I expect any problems if I install Visual C++ and should I install the 2005 version, the 2008 version or the 2008 SP1 version? Just created an Acronis backup in the event it all goes belly up.

Would the .NET Framework be a better solution?

melbob · May 20, 2009, 22:53:12

ok i have mine. i hope the service is as good and as quick as delivery.
will report back...........

Rik · May 21, 2009, 09:41:02

I get the same chimes, Drummer, probably for the same reason. I thought it was just Windows detecting the two devices (removable drive and modem) and getting them connected correctly. As the dongle is on my netbook, which I run as 'light' as possible, I don't have .NET or C++ runtime. Given it works fine without, I'm inclined to leave well alone - if they needed either of those packages, they should have said so.

drummer · May 21, 2009, 18:50:12

Thanks for that Rik. You're a man after me own heart as I keep the lappy free of any superfluous doodads and the last thing I want to do is add a new app if I don't really need to.

Now if I could just stop those Event errors appearing...

Rik · May 21, 2009, 18:55:02

I've found that, by leaving the dongle connected, or connecting it before I boot the machine, the errors go away, Drummer. It looks like a sloppy bit of coding by the developers.