vodaphone usb modem

[cazz]

Hi

 

Has anybody got the vodaphone usb modem and if so is it any good.

I understand you dont need a mobile phone to use this and it is very quick.

 

 

Cazz

[bottle]

Hi Cazz

 

I expect you have been here Vodaphone it uses the mobile phone system, 3G but if that is not available uses GPRS.

 

Therefore it works in exactly the same way that a 'phone would but you do not have the use of a 'phone.

[Dave45]

Hi

 

Hav just bought this vodaphone modem and it is as fast as any broadband. Ive tried it on my laptop on boat and at the house on pc and it is just as quick.

cost 49.99 and 25.99 a month for 250mb which is enough for my needs.

Hav found no differance than normal broadband and would recommend this to anyone

 

Dave

[chris w]

Hi

 

Hav just bought this vodaphone modem and it is as fast as any broadband. Ive tried it on my laptop on boat and at the house on pc and it is just as quick.

cost 49.99 and 25.99 a month for 250mb which is enough for my needs.

Hav found no differance than normal broadband and would recommend this to anyone

 

Dave

 

I presume you mean 250 Kb

 

Chris

[Dave45]

I presume you mean 250 Kb

 

Chris

 

 

Hi

Nope 250mb

 

Dave

[DHutch]

Am afraid im with chris on this one.

 

3G (or 3-G) is short for third-generation technology. It is used in the context of mobile phone standards. The services associated with 3G provide the ability to transfer simultaneously both voice data (a telephone call) and non-voice data (such as downloading information, exchanging email, and instant messaging). In marketing 3G services, video telephony has often been used as the killer application for 3G...

...It also allows the transmission of 384kbps for mobile systems and 2Mbps for stationary systems. 3G users are expected to have greater capacity and improved spectrum efficiency, which will allow them to access global roaming between different 3G.

 

ADSL Max is only "upto" 8Mbps!

 

 

 

Also, Cazz, have a look at these past threads:

- http://www.canalworld.net/forums/index.php..search=vodaphone

 

 

 

Daniel

[MikeV]

Daniel,

 

Dave is referring to the download limit - 250Mbytes per month.

 

They also do an "unlimited" service for £45 per month although they state may move you to a different tariff if you exceed 1Gbyte per month.

 

I have a Vodafone phone and have found coverage poor away from main conurbations, so you may hit issues with internet access as you travel in the more rural areas. My wife's Orange phone seems to get a signal more often than my Vodafone one.

 

I presume to get better coverage you could invest in a long USB cable and put the modem at the top of a pole?

 

//Mike

Edited January 20, 2007 by MikeV

[carlt]

I pay a pound a day on Orange payg for unlimited access. It's supposed to be a limited offer but I've been using it for 3 years now. It's not available for contract users and it's GPRS only, but, as I've yet to find a 3G signal I don't worry about that too much. I haven't got a USB thingy yet but I am tempted.

 

The other disadvantage is you've got to buy it each day and if you forget it sucks your credit dry if you're surfing after midnight.

[Dave45]

Daniel,

 

Dave is referring to the download limit - 250Mbytes per month.

 

They also do an "unlimited" service for £45 per month although they state may move you to a different tariff if you exceed 1Gbyte per month.

 

I have a Vodafone phone and have found coverage poor away from main conurbations, so you may hit issues with internet access as you travel in the more rural areas. My wife's Orange phone seems to get a signal more often than my Vodafone one.

 

I presume to get better coverage you could invest in a long USB cable and put the modem at the top of a pole?

 

//Mike

 

Hi Mike

 

Hav not had problems so far but do with phone hav to go out side of boat sometimes

 

Dave

[chris w]

Be aware that 250MB download limit per month is equivalent to only 6 minutes a day @ 384Kbps (1 byte is made up of 10 bits). This may be sufficient for your needs of course because you probably won't download every day but it will get used up very quickly if you start downloading big files.

 

Chris

[nbmrdavid]

We've had one for almost a year now and used it over most of the system above Birmingham and it has been very good. Only occasionally have we not got a signal.

[stuart]

Check out the threads for T-Mobile 3G - I use one for work, unlimited internet access @ 384Kbps for £25 per month.

[Lady Muck]

I've got one and I even manage to run my business via it - and post on here! It's just lucky theres a mast near our mooring, but I can usually get a good connection whilst cruising!

[Neil@CanalVoyagers]

1 byte is made up of 10 bits

 

1 byte is 8 bits by the way. It's a binary system, so groupings are made at 2^x (i.e. 4, 8, 16, 32).

[Theo]

Daniel,

 

Dave is referring to the download limit - 250Mbytes per month.

 

They also do an "unlimited" service for £45 per month although they state may move you to a different tariff if you exceed 1Gbyte per month.

 

I have a Vodafone phone and have found coverage poor away from main conurbations, so you may hit issues with internet access as you travel in the more rural areas. My wife's Orange phone seems to get a signal more often than my Vodafone one.

 

I presume to get better coverage you could invest in a long USB cable and put the modem at the top of a pole?

 

//Mike

Best not to have more than about 3m of USB cable.

[Silkhay]

Be aware that 250MB download limit per month is equivalent to only 6 minutes a day @ 384Kbps (1 byte is made up of 10 bits). This may be sufficient for your needs of course because you probably won't download every day but it will get used up very quickly if you start downloading big files.

 

Chris

 

Chris,

 

I think you are getting your speeds confused with your data file sizes. Somebody has already mentioned the number of bits in a byte so I won't.

 

The speed of your connection has no impact on your download limit, slow connections just take longer.

 

This 250 Mbyte limite is the volume of data you can download. I page of MSword document is approximate 25 Kbytes so for one meg, sorry 1 Mbyte, you can download 40 pages (ish).

 

Although photographs are big, sensible use of format and compression makes them not much bigger than word pages, perhaps twice as big.

 

Even quite large and complex project plans don't go much over 4 Mbytes, and how many of those do you download every month.

 

The only time you may eat up your allowance will be if you download a lot of music.

 

You've really got to be an avid browser / downloader to exceed 250 Mbytes.

 

regards

 

martin

[Nemesis]

How do Vodaphone get away with charging £25 per month for 250MBytes when t-mobile will provide unlimited download for £20 per month.

 

250MB is not a lot in this day and age. I let Microsoft's auto updater update my laptop the other day (Windows XP and Office 2003). The update download was 180MBytes !!!

 

Also, keeping virus scanner, spam scanners etc. up to date consumes a fair amount of download allowance every month.

 

I easily average arong 1GByte/month through my t-mobile Web-n-Walk proffesional package.

 

I am sitting here right now, connected to the net via my 3g mobile at around 300kbits/second and have consumed 4MBytes of download in the last hour.

 

NO, I DON'T HAVE ANY COMMERCIAL CONNECTION WITH t-mobile, just a customer.

[Silkhay]

How do Vodaphone get away with charging £25 per month for 250MBytes when t-mobile will provide unlimited download for £20 per month.

 

250MB is not a lot in this day and age. I let Microsoft's auto updater update my laptop the other day (Windows XP and Office 2003). The update download was 180MBytes !!!

 

Also, keeping virus scanner, spam scanners etc. up to date consumes a fair amount of download allowance every month.

 

I easily average arong 1GByte/month through my t-mobile Web-n-Walk proffesional package.

 

I am sitting here right now, connected to the net via my 3g mobile at around 300kbits/second and have consumed 4MBytes of download in the last hour.

 

NO, I DON'T HAVE ANY COMMERCIAL CONNECTION WITH t-mobile, just a customer.

 

Can't answer that one, I too have nothing to do with the mobile phone industry. I just wanted to clarify the point on what the limit applied too. but I would guess they "get away with" it because that's what customers will pay.

[chris w]

1 byte is 8 bits by the way. It's a binary system, so groupings are made at 2^x (i.e. 4, 8, 16, 32).

 

Each data character is 8 bits so strictly there are 8 bits in a byte, but you forgot the 2 bit CRC (cyclic redundancy code) at the end of each byte so the total is 8 + 2 = 10 bits per character "word" transmitted.

 

Chris

 

Best not to have more than about 3m of USB cable.

Quite right, the USB official spec is 5 metres max for full-speed USB devices and 3 metres for low-speed devices. You can extend (expensively!) by adding hubs in series. A maximum of 5 hubs, each with 5 metres in between them, plus 5 metres at the end going to the device = 30 metres max. (28 metres for slow-speed devices)

 

Chris

Edited January 24, 2007 by chris w

[chris w]

Chris,

I think you are getting your speeds confused with your data file sizes.

No, I understand the difference very well.

 

Somebody has already mentioned the number of bits in a byte so I won't.

yes, me: 8 for the data word byte + 2 for the CRC = 10 bits per data "word"

The speed of your connection has no impact on your download limit, slow connections just take longer.

I realise that. I was merely translating into how many minutes it represented per day/month etc at 3G speeds to give a more easily understandable idea of what 250MB really means.

This 250 Mbyte limite is the volume of data you can download.

I know.

 

Although photographs are big, sensible use of format and compression makes them not much bigger than word pages.

Most photos are sent as jpeg files which can't be compressed further as the jpeg format is a compressed format already (well maybe by 1% more, for the purists)

 

You've really got to be an avid browser / downloader to exceed 250 Mbytes.

Just my humble opinion, but I don't agree with that statement. It is very easy to exceed 250MB, even the 2GB limit imposed by some Internet Providers is easy to exceed even without any music downloads.

 

Chris

Edited January 24, 2007 by chris w

[CJT]

Check out the threads for T-Mobile 3G - I use one for work, unlimited internet access @ 384Kbps for £25 per month.

 

 

The T-Mobile deal is excellent!

 

BUT........

 

I got the T Mobile card a few weeks ago and it didn't work on my 2 1/2 year old toshiba laptop. Kept crashing everytime the card was installed. After what seemed to be hours on the phone with their tech support , T-Mobile admitted defeat; evidently there are a handful of Acer and Toshibas which are just not compatible.

 

I'm now thinking of the Vodafone USB modem. All the posts here are very positive. Does anyone have a negative experience other than the cost and the download limitation on the cheapest contract?

 

Chris