Getting Internet on the cut

[Homer 123]

I'd never heard of mi fi until the IT consultant at the school where I work said it would be suitable for boats. Apparently it works on 3G signal, like a dongle but doesn't plug into anywhere so can be moved to the best position for reception. It is available as pay as you go so several SIM cards can be kept and the one with the best signal in any given place could be used. I just wondered whether anybody here had tried and experienced it?

[Ex- Member]

I'd never heard of mi fi until the IT consultant at the school where I work said it would be suitable for boats. Apparently it works on 3G signal, like a dongle but doesn't plug into anywhere so can be moved to the best position for reception. It is available as pay as you go so several SIM cards can be kept and the one with the best signal in any given place could be used. I just wondered whether anybody here had tried and experienced it?

 

 

Quite common now and really works well for us. Our boat is all portholes and it's difficult getting a good signal inside the boat.

 

We got a MiFi unit with a BB deal from 3. We just put the MIFi in the porthole and it will disttribute the signal eaisly to the interior. It can run 5 items, we have run 3 that being 2 laptops and a tablet, we retularily run 2 laptops. Signal is much better tnternally and more freedom of movement. The MIFI unit lasts about 5 tto 6 hours before needing a recharge, so it can be placed anywhere on the boat with no wires at all for a good period.

 

Really happy with it.

[Homer 123]

Ok great, thanks for that. It sounds like the best option!

[Paul C]

As above (posts 1 and 2) really. You've pretty much got the concept of how they work spot-on, and our experiences are very similar to Julynian's. The fact that the device is wireless (Wi-Fi connection to computer(s)) really does help on the canals because often signal is poor, so you want it high up and/or in the window. We've used dongles before and struggled to get decent reception. So far (only a few months) its much better with the dongle. We went for 3's pay monthly option, but obviously pay as you go exists (its quite expensive though). For a time we had 3 and O2 dongles - the 3 dongle consistently outperformed the O2 one for speed. So maybe if you commit to one network (eg 3) you'll save money. For example, we're paying £15.99/month for 5GB. Typical PAYG price is £10 for 1GB.

[Jo_]

I use PAYG with 3 because we have cable broadband at home. So I just buy a month when I need one. We've used the MiFi wireless modem jobby in its various versions for three years now. Always good and we've been with 3 throughout that time.

[Ex- Member]

As above (posts 1 and 2) really. You've pretty much got the concept of how they work spot-on, and our experiences are very similar to Julynian's. The fact that the device is wireless (Wi-Fi connection to computer(s)) really does help on the canals because often signal is poor, so you want it high up and/or in the window. We've used dongles before and struggled to get decent reception. So far (only a few months) its much better with the dongle. We went for 3's pay monthly option, but obviously pay as you go exists (its quite expensive though). For a time we had 3 and O2 dongles - the 3 dongle consistently outperformed the O2 one for speed. So maybe if you commit to one network (eg 3) you'll save money. For example, we're paying £15.99/month for 5GB. Typical PAYG price is £10 for 1GB.

 

 

 

Our deal is 18.99 for 15g which was tthe maximum we could get. If we have surplus gigs at the end of month we use it to download films or TV programs. We downloaded Zero dark 30 last week 1,7 gig so a good way of getting a bit more value from BB contracts.

[Paul C]

I have home broadband too, so don't really need much on the boat, so for us 5GB is enough. Also, ours is a monthly contract. I reckon with the gradual roll out of 4G, then 3G will get cheaper in 6-12 months.

[Richard10002]

I have had a Mifi on Three since Sept 2011. 15Gb per month for about £18.50 inc VAT.

 

I found that I was getting close to the limit, and xceeded it a couple of months ago, so I bought a Samsung Galaxy S3 with The One Plan from Three last month. The phone acts as a wifi hotspot for up to 8 connections, I get truly unlimited mobile broadband, so no limits on watching TV, video, listening to radio, etc.. 2000 minutes phone, and loads of texts.

 

£29 up front for the phone, and £31 per month on a 24 month contract.

 

Three seems to have pretty good coverage across most of the network, so the best of all worlds.... I think.

 

I'll cancel the Mifi in August, and save the £18 per month thereafter. Already cancelled the Giffgaff £10 per month phone contract so, after September, my costs remain the same, for what seems to be a much better deal.

 

I guess what I'm saying is to think about what you might really need before committing to a Mifi deal.

 

BTW - Only Vodafone works in Heckington near Sleaford - but there are no canals there.

[tillergirl]

another vote for the mifi dongle on 3..........15gb for £18.59 a month............

[Trix]

I so I bought a Samsung Galaxy S3 with The One Plan from Three last month. The phone acts as a wifi hotspot for up to 8 connections, I get truly unlimited mobile broadband, so no limits on watching TV, video, listening to radio, etc.. 2000 minutes phone, and loads of texts.

 

 

I have the same but when i went to get the other half a phone I was told they are no longer doing the one plan , not a real problem as she can link to mine except i take it to work

 

but I have looked on the net and they are still advertising it so i guess the salesman possibly was mis informed

Edited February 12, 2013 by Trix

[Ex- Member]

I have the same but when i went to get the other half a phone I was told they are no longer doing the one plan , not a real problem as she can link to mine except i take it to work

 

 

 

Not only that you can't tether or there's limits on tethering, there's been a couple of threads regarding this.

[Ange]

Not only that you can't tether or there's limits on tethering, there's been a couple of threads regarding this.

 

I had a sorry saga with 3 before I finally got the One Plan sorry saga thread (but with a happy ending)

 

You have to be very very careful - to be clear tethering and/or wireless internet is only allowed on 3 via the One Plan unless you buy an add on that only allows you 1gb per month.

 

Fortunately I won our case via the misselling route - but when I went back to Tesco to get our new phone the saleswoman was insistent that we didn't need the One Plan until I put her right (she had to phone 3 to confirm). I don't think it was malicious misselling, the sales men/women don't actually know enough about what they're selling.

 

The thing that flummoxed me was that we wanted to upgrade our contract to a more expensive one and the operative at 3 was adamant that it wasn't possible despite 2 hours of me cajoling and shouting in equal measure. Bonkers.

 

ETA we can connect wirelessly but we always have the phone tethered to charge it because switching on the mobile AP sucks the battery dry. Worth bearing in mind if you're planning on connecting via an Android phone.

Edited February 12, 2013 by Ange

[Richard10002]

I have the same but when i went to get the other half a phone I was told they are no longer doing the one plan , not a real problem as she can link to mine except i take it to work

 

but I have looked on the net and they are still advertising it so i guess the salesman possibly was mis informed

 

Bought mine 21st of January at the Traffird Centre, Manchester. Still advertised online as of last night.

 

Not only that you can't tether or there's limits on tethering, there's been a couple of threads regarding this.

 

My understanding is that there is no download limit on The One Plan, and tethering is allowed. Where have you seen that there is a limit?

 

On the unlimited deal that isn't The One Plan I have seen terms which say that it is limited to the amount a phone could download if it was downloading 24 hours a day for the whole time - which is pretty much unlimited without being tethered.

[Ex- Member]

Bought mine 21st of January at the Traffird Centre, Manchester. Still advertised online as of last night.

 

 

 

My understanding is that there is no download limit on The One Plan, and tethering is allowed. Where have you seen that there is a limit?

 

On the unlimited deal that isn't The One Plan I have seen terms which say that it is limited to the amount a phone could download if it was downloading 24 hours a day for the whole time - which is pretty much unlimited without being tethered.

 

 

 

You're right, ange reminded me, there were other phone offers thoough that tethering wasn't allowed. We were originally going to go for the one plan, but went with the 15gig one instead, I can't remember why now, it might have been as ange pointted out, it's not an ideal hotspot, I'm unsure though weather you can pu the 1 plan sim into tthe 3 HiFI unit. I hink also we wanted use of the phone, and if it's sttuck up in a porthole window for signal purposes then it's not much use as a phone.

 

Annoying you can never get what you want from these phone companies. 15gig is just enough for our needs though as I can download films and stuff from my office.

[pearley]

I use a Wireless Pointer from T-Mobile with an external antenna. It has a 7.5GB 'fair use' policy for £15 a month though I'm getting 50% discount - for having a T-Mobile phone? The fair use bit means that if I go over they send me an email telling me that I can only use it up to 4pm without the speed being affected. Depends how much stuff I've downloaded from the i Player.

 

I swore I would never use 3 again after the lousy service from them when I changed from Vista to W7.

 

Regards

Pete

Edited February 13, 2013 by pearley

[NB Alnwick]

We have always struggled with this - back in the early days we spent a fortune trying to get good mobile reception on the boat - nowadays we stick our mifi dongle outside on a stick with 3m of USB cable to provide power - despite a battery life of 4 to 5 hours it always works better on mains power.

 

The ideal solution is to have a internal mifi unit attached to an exterior antenna. I found this on eBay - anyone here have any experience of the Huawei E586 ?

[bottle]

Mi Fi, Wi Fi, 'dongle', internal, external, up a pole, nothing will make any difference if the transmitted signal is not there.

 

I have been in the same place for the last three months, 'dongle' on a stick,'dongle' in many different locations on the boat, external aerial etc.

 

The download speed has varied considerably, usually in the 5 to 10 Kbs region (did hit 100 Kbs for a split second once) for a lot of this afternoon has been about 500 bs.

 

ps. i can see two tower blocks festooned with transmitters and a stand alone transmitter all within half a mile, do not know if they are my phone companies.

[Paul C]

Mi Fi, Wi Fi, 'dongle', internal, external, up a pole, nothing will make any difference if the transmitted signal is not there.

 

 

In theory, if the signal is simply 'not there' lower down, then extending a pole up and up will eventually put the dongle into an area where the signal is. I realise sometimes there's a practical limit to how high one can extend their aerial/etc though.

[smileypete]

Mi Fi, Wi Fi, 'dongle', internal, external, up a pole, nothing will make any difference if the transmitted signal is not there.

 

I have been in the same place for the last three months, 'dongle' on a stick,'dongle' in many different locations on the boat, external aerial etc.

 

The download speed has varied considerably, usually in the 5 to 10 Kbs region (did hit 100 Kbs for a split second once) for a lot of this afternoon has been about 500 bs.

 

ps. i can see two tower blocks festooned with transmitters and a stand alone transmitter all within half a mile, do not know if they are my phone companies.

 

What aerial have you tried? The Ofcom Sitefinder will tell what network the transmitters are for.

 

The download speed could be due to user overload, what sort of speed do you get late at night or in the morning?

 

cheers, Pete.

~smpt~

[Paul C]

Mi Fi, Wi Fi, 'dongle', internal, external, up a pole, nothing will make any difference if the transmitted signal is not there.

 

I have been in the same place for the last three months, 'dongle' on a stick,'dongle' in many different locations on the boat, external aerial etc.

 

The download speed has varied considerably, usually in the 5 to 10 Kbs region (did hit 100 Kbs for a split second once) for a lot of this afternoon has been about 500 bs.

 

ps. i can see two tower blocks festooned with transmitters and a stand alone transmitter all within half a mile, do not know if they are my phone companies.

 

 

Another thought has occurred, looking again at your data rates - do you get mobile phone coverage in this place? Speed of 5-10kbps is slower than the old 2G standard of initially 9.6kbps, then 14.4kbps. They made a few enhancements (HSCSD and another I can't remember the initials of) which resulted in a reasonably reliable 28.8kbps pretty much anywhere a 2G mobile phone signal was present. If you've occasionally seen 100kbps then this suggests 3G coverage too, albeit for a brief period.

[clbrof]

Hi all, not sure if this has been mentioned yet as I didnt read every post.

 

Basically I initially bought an 02 dongle. 1gb = £10 a month. Only one laptop could be connected though. And it was really pricey!

 

I looked at then mi fi boxes. However they had set max data per month and were really pricey! I think £20 per month and 15gb per month from 3. And the mi-fi box was £50???

 

 

What I have now is by far the best.

 

I bought a 3 sim (monthly, rolling contract, can be cancelled whenever, £25 per month), which has thousands of mins and unlimited texts AND UNLIMITED INTERNET (including tethering, which is the important bit, as it allows laptops and other devices to access its internet).

 

I then bought a cheap Samsung Galaxy for about £50 new which has the ability to create a wifi spot around it. Allowing all the phones and laptops on my boat to have unlimited internet. I like to waste away watching youtube and other things.

 

Skype is usable too via the wifi I have on my boat (video calling).

 

If you only check emails and the news (without images or videos) then get a dongle. If you want to use the internet like you do at home, have a phone that can turn into a portable wifi spot and insert the 3 One Plan Sim

Edited February 13, 2013 by clbrof

[bottle]

In theory, if the signal is simply 'not there' lower down, then extending a pole up and up will eventually put the dongle into an area where the signal is. I realise sometimes there's a practical limit to how high one can extend their aerial/etc though.

 

Agreed, dongle on a six foot pole does improve the signal bars by one. I know the bars as an indication are about much use as a chocolate teapot.

 

 

What aerial have you tried? The Ofcom Sitefinder will tell what network the transmitters are for.

 

The download speed could be due to user overload, what sort of speed do you get late at night or in the morning?

 

cheers, Pete.

~smpt~

 

The aerial came from one of the specialists cannot remember which one, I to think it could be overload as the speed reduces even more at school chuck out.

 

Not up early or late.

 

 

Another thought has occurred, looking again at your data rates - do you get mobile phone coverage in this place? Speed of 5-10kbps is slower than the old 2G standard of initially 9.6kbps, then 14.4kbps. They made a few enhancements (HSCSD and another I can't remember the initials of) which resulted in a reasonably reliable 28.8kbps pretty much anywhere a 2G mobile phone signal was present. If you've occasionally seen 100kbps then this suggests 3G coverage too, albeit for a brief period.

 

Mobile phone (same company) is very good can 'H' sometimes mainly 3g inside the boat. in fact phone and dongle side by side and the phone will be better. (though of course that is downloading mobile sites and not the full sites)

 

Dongle indicator led shows connected to 3g+ still crap download speed.

[nb Innisfree]

We have always struggled with this - back in the early days we spent a fortune trying to get good mobile reception on the boat - nowadays we stick our mifi dongle outside on a stick with 3m of USB cable to provide power - despite a battery life of 4 to 5 hours it always works better on mains power.

 

The ideal solution is to have a internal mifi unit attached to an exterior antenna. I found this on eBay - anyone here have any experience of the Huawei E586 ?

 

Be careful, some Huawei 586 models don't appear to have an external socket. Models 587 and 589 do have one and they are 4g.

[bottle]

Update:

 

Now have a connection that is in the region of 900Kbs, yes nine hundred.

 

Explanation:

 

I am with Orange (phone and dongle), the reason for the phone being better than the dongle is because the phone connects automatically to the strongest signal, Orange or T-Mobile but at the moment dongles do not.

 

By disconnecting my dongle from the wi-fi and connecting direct to the computer I can select manually which one to connect to.

 

Hence the new speed.

[nb Innisfree]

FWIW when I was on Orange/Tmobile my phone would switch from Orange to Tmobile only when the signal dropped to two bars or less, i.e. it wouldn't automatically switch just because the Tmobile signal was stronger but when the Orange signal was ready to drop out. That was on 2g mind.