3 Mobile internet - is MiFI better than a dongle?

[mickspangle]

Chaps and chapesses,

 

Question for 3 customers here. I’m currently running one of the old school huwaii dongles on 3, which we’ve had for at least 2-3 years. Essentially its fine, but my new job requires a lot of working from home and connecting into remote systems. I’m starting to get a bit frustrated by the lack of speed and wondered if anyone had tried the MiFi things and been impressed with it’s claims of improved speed?

 

Part of the reason we’ve stayed with the old school dongle is that I’ve stuck it on a pole on the roof to improve signal and this connects to a 3 wireless router – when we renewed our contract we were given a newer dongle, but told that the newer dongles don’t work on wireless routers, so we stuck with what worked.

 

We tend to connect a couple of laptops and mobile phones into the network, which works fine at the moment, so any new thing would have to be able to cope with this (I believe the MiFi does) I just wanted to know what peoples experiences were. I’ll probably go and talk to 3 at some point, but thought I’d get some real opinions before I get a load of sales flannel.

 

Cheers

[Jo_]

Where's your boat? There maybe someone close by who could lend you a MiFi for a try. I would if you were close! And there's about to be a new MiFi out to support the DC-HSDPA upgrade, so drag your feet for a month if you are going that route! My experience with MiFi is that it's very good and my man is a teckie and he also rates it. It runs all the devices in the boat simultaneously. We just hang it in a window.

[GSer]

My 3 MIFI is starting to lose performance especially since Christmas, i'm not too sure if this is down to the 4G 'roll out', but i've given up trying to view any vids and even some picture heavy stuff is just too slow now.

[Ex- Member]

Chaps and chapesses,

 

Question for 3 customers here. I'm currently running one of the old school huwaii dongles on 3, which we've had for at least 2-3 years. Essentially its fine, but my new job requires a lot of working from home and connecting into remote systems. I'm starting to get a bit frustrated by the lack of speed and wondered if anyone had tried the MiFi things and been impressed with it's claims of improved speed?

 

Part of the reason we've stayed with the old school dongle is that I've stuck it on a pole on the roof to improve signal and this connects to a 3 wireless router – when we renewed our contract we were given a newer dongle, but told that the newer dongles don't work on wireless routers, so we stuck with what worked.

 

We tend to connect a couple of laptops and mobile phones into the network, which works fine at the moment, so any new thing would have to be able to cope with this (I believe the MiFi does) I just wanted to know what peoples experiences were. I'll probably go and talk to 3 at some point, but thought I'd get some real opinions before I get a load of sales flannel.

 

Cheers

 

We have the 3 MIFI which works really well.

 

Our boat is all porthole so we have a mini sucker hook that we hang the MIFI from in whatever selected porthole.

 

We run 2 laptops and sometimes a tablet and Ninendo DSas well, it will handle 5 things I recall. It's never given us a problem other than loss of a 3 signal on occasions, not to do with the MIFI though.

 

We're really pleased with it. We no longer have an extended dongle cable running across the boa. The MIFI lasts about 4.5 hours on a full battery and using 2 laptops. Lynn can recharge it by solar gadget or plug in the mains charger which we do mostly. not sure if i charges via usb though?

[wiccan]

In my opinion - Yes it is. We have travelled North, East and West - the MiFi received a signal everywhere and it was stable. I had a single and it was a pain the rear to keep moving it to find a signal and even then it wasn't stable. The MiFi has been in the same spot for a long time and we have not dropped off the network......yet. I like it because we can connect 5 WiFi devices to it at the same time. I have never needed an external aerial or booster - I can receive a signal throughout the boat and even outside.

 

I wouldn't swap mine unless I managed to transfer the phone to a decent network with unlimited data and unlimited tethering (which are slowly becoming available). If you are not on a contract phone or its up for renewell - I'd look at some of mobile phone tarrifs - you might find it cheaper to have a single source for data and calls rather than one for each.

[Paul C]

In my limited experience with both Mi-Fi and dongle - yes.

[wiccan]

Julynian - yes it does charge via USB. i have MiFi e connected via a car 12v socket which has a USB output too.

[Guest]

I have been given to understand that 3 give priority to data via. mobile broadband over data to a mobile meaning tethering allegedly can be not as good as using a dedicated USB modem or a Mi-Fi.

[mickspangle]

Where's your boat? There maybe someone close by who could lend you a MiFi for a try. I would if you were close! And there's about to be a new MiFi out to support the DC-HSDPA upgrade, so drag your feet for a month if you are going that route! My experience with MiFi is that it's very good and my man is a teckie and he also rates it. It runs all the devices in the boat simultaneously. We just hang it in a window.

 

I'm in the badlands known as the western K&A...

 

Thanks for info everyone. It sounds promising.

[oarfish]

If you want a very reliable connection get a dedicated 3G modem and an antenna. They are bloody expensive if you want DC-HSPA+ though. Currently getting 12Mb/s with a half strength HSPA+ connection in Aynho, have had over twice that when somewhere more urban. Rarely drops out and can happily stream HD from netflix or iplayer. 3 don't seem to mess with your traffic much at the moment, which is good. Some mobile providers like O2 and T-Mobile use very invasive techniques that can break a lot of websites as well as killing long running connections (which makes using remote machines fun).

Edited March 8, 2013 by oarfish

[Guest]

I'm in the badlands known as the western K&A...

 

Thanks for info everyone. It sounds promising.

 

Something you 'might' want to consider is to do what I am in the process of doing following a thread I started the other day.

 

I have just got one of these -

 

 

Which effectively will turn your existing USB dongle into a wi-fi hotspot.

 

They are normally £60 but I got mine from here for a lot less.

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/281068027686?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

 

The advantage is they can be battery operated so will work away from any power source and they accept USB modems/dongles capable of accepting an 3G external aerial, I got such a dongle for a tenner again from eBay. The current 'base' 3 mi-fi model will not accept an external aerial connection, though you can get them that will, at a price.

Edited March 8, 2013 by The Dog House

[nb Innisfree]

Chaps and chapesses,

 

Question for 3 customers here. I’m currently running one of the old school huwaii dongles on 3, which we’ve had for at least 2-3 years. Essentially its fine, but my new job requires a lot of working from home and connecting into remote systems. I’m starting to get a bit frustrated by the lack of speed and wondered if anyone had tried the MiFi things and been impressed with it’s claims of improved speed?

 

Part of the reason we’ve stayed with the old school dongle is that I’ve stuck it on a pole on the roof to improve signal and this connects to a 3 wireless router – when we renewed our contract we were given a newer dongle, but told that the newer dongles don’t work on wireless routers, so we stuck with what worked.

 

We tend to connect a couple of laptops and mobile phones into the network, which works fine at the moment, so any new thing would have to be able to cope with this (I believe the MiFi does) I just wanted to know what peoples experiences were. I’ll probably go and talk to 3 at some point, but thought I’d get some real opinions before I get a load of sales flannel.

 

Cheers

We get very good results from our Huawei 585 mifi but will make sure our next one has an external antenna socket.

[mickspangle]

Something you 'might' want to consider is to do what I am in the process of doing following a thread I started the other day.

 

I have just got one of these -

 

 

Which effectively will turn your existing USB dongle into a wi-fi hotspot.

 

They are normally £60 but I got mine from here for a lot less.

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/281068027686?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

 

The advantage is they can be battery operated so will work away from any power source and they accept USB modems/dongles capable of accepting an 3G external aerial, I got such a dongle for a tenner again from eBay. The current 'base' 3 mi-fi model will not accept an external aerial connection, though you can get them that will, at a price.

 

thanks - I'm currently using a dongle outside the boat connected into a wireless router via a usb cable through a mushroom vent, so I effectively have got a wi-fi hotspot already I think. Router works on 12V too. My boat is all portholes, so I'm guessing if I went down the MiFi route I'd have to stick it in a porthole.

I guess my two questions are:

1. is MiFi faster than a dongle

2. will a MiFi in a porthole be faster than a dongle on a 2' pole on the roof of the boat?

 

I think maybe the best thing to do is to try and borrow one and stick it side by side with my dongle and measure network speeds.

[mickp]

Ive used the 3mifi for a couple years with good results.before this i used an o2 dongle which i found poor ,trying to get a good connection used to be a pain .but this maybe down to provider coversge so cant compair like for like

[nb Innisfree]

thanks - I'm currently using a dongle outside the boat connected into a wireless router via a usb cable through a mushroom vent, so I effectively have got a wi-fi hotspot already I think. Router works on 12V too. My boat is all portholes, so I'm guessing if I went down the MiFi route I'd have to stick it in a porthole.

I guess my two questions are:

1. is MiFi faster than a dongle

2. will a MiFi in a porthole be faster than a dongle on a 2' pole on the roof of the boat?

 

I think maybe the best thing to do is to try and borrow one and stick it side by side with my dongle and measure network speeds.

 

At present we are away from our boat and have a 3 router (D100) with a Huawei E156G dongle, alongside this we have a 3 Huawei E585 MiFi, both sit in the window and the speeds seem identical for both (we take them with us on the boat and plug the dongle into an external aerial) Though our router no longer works with the later faster dongles we find the old E156G download speed fine given a reasonable signal, the later dongles only give fast speeds if a suitable signal is available otherwise they are no better than the older type. When I have visited a 3 shop they have extolled the virtues of faster dongles but didn't seem to grasp the fact that these speeds are dependant on getting a rare first class signal.

Edited March 8, 2013 by nb Innisfree

[mickspangle]

Ah. Now that is interesting, as it sounds like you've got the same set up (we've got the D100 router and probably the same dongle).

 

Sounds like the MiFi would be marginally better at most. Tend to get ~100k on our mooring, so not terribly fast to begin with.

[nb Innisfree]

Ah. Now that is interesting, as it sounds like you've got the same set up (we've got the D100 router and probably the same dongle).

 

Sounds like the MiFi would be marginally better at most. Tend to get ~100k on our mooring, so not terribly fast to begin with.

I would reccomend a mifi with an ext aerial socket though, then you have the ability to improve your signal with various aerials.

[BargeeSpud]

If you are going for a MIFI dongle without an ariel, stick to your service provider's products or at least go for a well known, tried & tested "named" product such as already posted. Avoid the obscure internet suppliers, don't end up like I have. Out of pocket.

Edited March 8, 2013 by Spuds

[nb Innisfree]

If you are going for a MIFI dongle without an ariel, stick to your service provider's products or at least go for a well known, tried & tested "named" product such as already posted. Avoid the obscure internet suppliers, don't end up like I have. Out of pocket.

 

For future reference could you tell us what make and model of mifi?

[BargeeSpud]

For future reference could you tell us what make and model of mifi?

Go Baby Mobile. Link

 

The claim that it can be used with any dongle from any network is false & if you buy it & your dongle doesn't work, you'll have a fight to get your money back.

Edited March 8, 2013 by Spuds

[dmr]

I think the speed is limited by:

1 Signal strength available.

2 Data capacity of the local mast against number of users.

3 Quality of the dongle.

 

Unless your dongle is old or defective a newer model will probably not improve things as 1 and 2 will be the limiting factors.

 

I think your current setup of dongle and router is probably optimum for serious use.

It has the advantage that you can put the dongle outside on a pole if the signal strength is marginal, whilst keeping the router indoors.

You cant really do this with a mifi.

If you believe the new dongle is better (tested by direct connection to PC) then:

If the router will not accept the latest dongle then is there a firmware upgrade available now?

If not will there be a firmware update in the near future?

If not can you get a different router from a company that does keep up to date with the latest dongles?

 

.............Dave

[Ex- Member]

Go Baby Mobile. Link

 

The claim that it can be used with any dongle from any network is false & if you buy it & your dongle doesn't work, you'll have a fight to get your money back.

 

 

Confirmed it did not work on our 3 dongle even though they had a you tube video showing how to connect and use the 3 dongle.

 

They weren't very helpful either, and gave us some rigmarole way of connecting which never worked. We sill have the go baby, We've kept it as a back up if there's a problem with 3 or want to use another network, It might well end up on e-bay.

[nb Innisfree]

Go Baby Mobile. Link

 

The claim that it can be used with any dongle from any network is false & if you buy it & your dongle doesn't work, you'll have a fight to get your money back.

 

Cheers.

[john6767]

I had a Go Baby, not happy with it at all. Got aTP Link router which works well.

[mickspangle]

Fair enough. I might just stick with what I've got then, and wait until I find someone nearby with a MiFi to compare and contrast.

 

Thanks for the advice everyone