3 Homefi not mi-fi

[Horace42]

1 hour ago, Boredrider said:

The Homefi has two aerial sockets.I

Is this a TV type roof aerial or a car type aerial ? and why two ?

and what does it pick up ? and everywhere ?

Edited January 6, 2018 by Horace42

[Nev]

13 minutes ago, Horace42 said:

Is this a TV type roof aerial or a car type aerial ? and why two ?

and what does it pick up ? and everywhere ?

 

[Horace42]

Is there a picture that someone can give or point to, that shows all the items needed to use the internet, to make phone calls, lap tops, tablets, for emails, printing and scanning, and watch TV when afloat anywhere.   I can see that a TV, laptop, phone, printer, scanner is required, but all the bits to connect them together to interface with the outside world is confusing'

   

[OldGoat]

3 hours ago, Horace42 said:

Is there a picture that someone can give or point to, that shows all the items needed to use the internet, to make phone calls, lap tops, tablets, for emails, printing and scanning, and watch TV when afloat anywhere.   I can see that a TV, laptop, phone, printer, scanner is required, but all the bits to connect them together to interface with the outside world is confusing'

   

The 'ultimate' solution for simplicity of explanation is to connect them all using WiFi - so a picture is not necessary. As with everything in life it's not necessarily that simple.

All the above devices can have WiFi built in and do if your budget is big enough - it's when folks say "I only am prepared to spend xx" that the challenges start

Your location also may have problems - good quality phone signals are not  available everywhere

You may not want to spend a lot on network connectivity (it seems daft to me to watch  tv over the internet - but many folks watch  programmes via Netflix and the like and ignore BBC and the like completely.

If you put constraints on costs then the picture you want gets a (little) bit more complicated.

 

 

[Horace42]

19 hours ago, ditchcrawler said:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/p/Vodafone-4g-Mobile-WiFi-R216-Android-Huawei-Smartphone-Apple/1041236605?iid=292330636072

 

It seems I have a couple of these things already, but they were called 'dongles' - one from 02 - given to me by my grandson to make my laptop mobile, and not realising what it was I got another one from EE to get me a temporary broadband connection at home for vital emails when Virgin failed to deliver a new optic cable connection on time (expensive mistake that was) - I am back on BT cable -  I have not used either dongle since.

I have now have a smart phone as well - which I gather from what I have just learned here, is not much more than a dongle with a screen/keyboard - where the 'smart' refers to the required skill of the user....

[rusty69]

6 minutes ago, Horace42 said:

it seems I have a couple of these things already, but they were called 'dongles' - one from 02

If they are old dongles you may want to check they are 4g compatible if you wish to use 4g as opposed to 3g.

[OldGoat]

13 minutes ago, Horace42 said:

It seems I have a couple of these things already, but they were called 'dongles' - one from 02 - given to me by my grandson to make my laptop mobile, and not realising what it was I got another one from EE to get me a temporary broadband connection at home for vital emails when Virgin failed to deliver a new optic cable connection on time (expensive mistake that was) - I am back on BT cable -  I have not used either dongle since.

I have now have a smart phone as well - which I gather from what I have just learned here, is not much more than a dongle with a screen/keyboard - where the 'smart' refers to the required skill of the user....

A dongle needs a physical connection to a PC,  and can only be used by one PC at a time whereas a mifi / wifi device has an onboard battery and a wireless connection to a number of PCs or devices.

[Horace42]

4 hours ago, Nev said:

 

Thanks Nev for taking the trouble to post a link. 

 

[Horace42]

16 minutes ago, OldGoat said:

A dongle needs a physical connection to a PC,  and can only be used by one PC at a time whereas a mifi / wifi device has an onboard battery and a wireless connection to a number of PCs or devices.

27 minutes ago, rusty69 said:

If they are old dongles you may want to check they are 4g compatible if you wish to use 4g as opposed to 3g.

The box label says 4GEE WIFI MINI  - so I guess it is OK 

....fully portable with internal battery - that has to be recharged to keep it going  - if I remember rightly

[rusty69]

1 minute ago, Horace42 said:

The box label says 4GEE WIFI MINI  - so I guess it is OK 

Ah, ok. When you said dongle, I assumed it was the usb type of yesteryear which physically plugged in to the computer without using wifi

[Mac of Cygnet]

5 hours ago, rusty69 said:

Ah, ok. When you said dongle, I assumed it was the usb type of yesteryear which physically plugged in to the computer without using wifi

Whaddya mean "yesteryear"?   I have two, and use them all the time  on the boat, hung by an extension lead in the window on the curtain rail.  They work fine.  Like Lady G, I too don't have a smartphone, but have the very same Samsung phone as her link shows, bought unlocked from Tesco for £10 6 years ago.  The one in the link is £70!  Have I got an appreciating asset?

FWIW, I use PlusNet Mobile with the dongle, which piggybacks on EE and which I get at half price because all our home stuff is PlusNet.

[Richard10002]

7 hours ago, Horace42 said:

Thanks Nev for taking the trouble to post a link. 

 

I’ve got the same aerial as in the video, but it’s connected to a Netgear MiFi and needed a couple of converter leads from the fitting on the end of the aerial cable to the input on the MiFi.

If you’ve got a Huawei MiFi with one or two aerial inputs, (the Vodafone MiFi’s are almost certainly Huawei), you’ll probably need a converter lead - I think the technical term is patch lead.

[Canal Cuttings]

Quote

not sure what bluetooth is, I just want stereo earphones

Bluetooth is a way of connecting lots of different types of equipment without using cables.  Very handy if you are moving around while wearing earphones.  It only works over relatively short distances.  Named after King Harald Bluetooth who "united" different types of Scandinavian tribes into the Danish kingdom!

[LadyG]

4 hours ago, Canal Cuttings said:

Bluetooth is a way of connecting lots of different types of equipment without using cables.  Very handy if you are moving around while wearing earphones.  It only works over relatively short distances.  Named after King Harald Bluetooth who "united" different types of Scandinavian tribes into the Danish kingdom!

yes, I kinda guessed that, but not sure how I get it, I'm sure my phone [not a smartphone] does'nt have it, and neither do my earphones[which are not stereo]. Somewhere it said that I can get Radio4 over the mifi, again I am perplexed, do I just get b/tooth earphones and nothing else? I have BT wifi at the moment, and a laptop. I'd like stereo. In fact its esential if I buy a tablet.

Edited January 7, 2018 by LadyG

[LadyG]

5 hours ago, Richard10002 said:

 

If you’ve got a Huawei MiFi with one or two aerial inputs, (the Vodafone MiFi’s are almost certainly Huawei), you’ll probably need a converter lead - I think the technical term is patch lead.

Somewhere I got the idea that one aerial outlet on the mifi modem thingy is for a vertical signal, and one for a horiontal, like tv aerials, or maybe pointing in different directons [E/w and NS for example]

The omni directonal aerial in the video clip has two co axials, which confirms my [feeble] thought process.

Edited January 7, 2018 by LadyG

[rusty69]

10 hours ago, Mac of Cygnet said:

Whaddya mean "yesteryear"?   I have two, and use them all the time  on the boat, hung by an extension lead in the window on the curtain rail.  They work fine.

I also have one , but it is no longer used, superseded by a mifi. I also have a nokia dumb phone in daily use, a nokia 101, and a nokia 6310i , which although over ten years old still has bluetooth on it.

I am tempted by the new nokia 3310. Smartphones are brilliant devices, but I wouldn't be without a dumb phone in addition (or at least a spare battery for charging the smartphone)

Edited January 7, 2018 by rusty69
Changed to Nokia 101

[ditchcrawler]

19 minutes ago, rusty69 said:

I also have one , but it is no longer used, superseded by a mifi. I also have a nokia dumb phone in daily use, a nokia 100, and a nokia 6310i , which although over ten years old still has bluetooth on it.

I am tempted by the new nokia 3310. Smartphones are brilliant devices, but I wouldn't be without a dumb phone in addition (or at least a spare battery for charging the smartphone)

And the 6310i takes an external aerial which means I can leave it sitting in its cradle and get a better phone reception that I would standing on the roof in the rain

[rusty69]

10 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

And the 6310i takes an external aerial which means I can leave it sitting in its cradle and get a better phone reception that I would standing on the roof in the rain

Same here.Its a Thb car kit, but must admit it has been a bit sketchy recently with the supplied speaker. I will have to try it with my separate bluetooth speaker, but recall last time I tried connecting it to bluetooth whilst the car kit was on, it didn't work.

Edited January 7, 2018 by rusty69

[ditchcrawler]

6 minutes ago, rusty69 said:

Same here.Its a Thb car kit, but must admit it has been a bit sketchy recently with the supplied speaker. I will have to try it with my separate bluetooth speaker, but recall last time I tried connecting it to bluetooth whilst the car kit was on, it didn't work.

 I Actually have 2 of these phones, both a bit poorley, maybe I could get one good one out of the two. The best one the buttons play up. a disaster for sending texts

[rusty69]

1 minute ago, ditchcrawler said:

 I Actually have 2 of these phones, both a bit poorley, maybe I could get one good one out of the two. The best one the buttons play up. a disaster for sending texts

Just tried firing mine up, but it keeps turning back off. 

[Boredrider]

3 hours ago, LadyG said:

 Somewhere it said that I can get Radio4 over the mifi, again I am perplexed, do I just get b/tooth earphones and nothing else? I have BT wifi at the moment, and a laptop. I'd like stereo. In fact its esential if I buy a tablet.

If you want radio 4 through a mifi you need a device (typically a laptop, tablet, or smartphone) that is connected (wirelessly usually) to the mifi, and thus on the internet.  The device receives R4 from the internet and plays it either through the internal speaker, or through wired speakers/headphones/earphones that are plugged into the device.  Alternatively, the speakers/headphones/earphones can connect to the device through Bluetooth, providing both items are Bluetooth capable. 

If you receive R4 through the internet in this way, it will eat into you data allowance on the mifi, although for audio only its not too bad.

[matty40s]

Just watch 3 network if you have a deal with them.

I took the 40gb wifi deal with binge netflix at £16, first month all was well, the data stopped at 40gb the day before the set monthly contract date ended, so I just used my phone to tether everything rather than buy a top up. Same next month.

I checked my account just before new year to find £58 had been taken rather than £16.

The data had reached 40gb the day before the cut off again, and they had let it run, and the extra 4.2gb cost me £42 !!!!!!

I called to complain and they said I hadn't asked to be limited to 40gb - I pointed out that it had worked the first two months so why was it allowed to happen?

They then said they sent me 3 text messages warning me - I asked how I was supposed to read a text message on a wifi unit without a screen tucked away in a cupboard - in fact, how would i know one was sent - they couldn't understand this - I had to explain what a mini unit was.

I also complained about the ridiculous price of 4GB of data - something I could have topped up for £5 - they circled back to the first two arguments again.

I threatened with the the ombudsman - put on hold for 10 minutes and eventually was guaranteed cut off at 40gb and refunded most of the fee - no apologies though.

[Dartagnan]

5 minutes ago, matty40s said:

Just watch 3 network if you have a deal with them.

I took the 40gb wifi deal with binge netflix at £16, first month all was well, the data stopped at 40gb the day before the set monthly contract date ended, so I just used my phone to tether everything rather than buy a top up. Same next month.

I checked my account just before new year to find £58 had been taken rather than £16.

The data had reached 40gb the day before the cut off again, and they had let it run, and the extra 4.2gb cost me £42 !!!!!!

I called to complain and they said I hadn't asked to be limited to 40gb - I pointed out that it had worked the first two months so why was it allowed to happen?

They then said they sent me 3 text messages warning me - I asked how I was supposed to read a text message on a wifi unit without a screen tucked away in a cupboard - in fact, how would i know one was sent - they couldn't understand this - I had to explain what a mini unit was.

I also complained about the ridiculous price of 4GB of data - something I could have topped up for £5 - they circled back to the first two arguments again.

I threatened with the the ombudsman - put on hold for 10 minutes and eventually was guaranteed cut off at 40gb and refunded most of the fee - no apologies though.

Thank you.  My wife got the 100GB homefi deal yesterday in NI.  The salesman warned the wife about this issue and told her to ring 3 when set up and for them to cap the account at 100GB of data for this very reason 

[b0atman]

On 05/01/2018 at 11:53, Boredrider said:

We have just bought a 3 Homefi router.  The best deals seem to be available only from a 3 shop, and not offered online.  For a monthly contract its £60 for the router and £30 per month for 100Gb.  The 12 month contract is £30 per month for 100Gb with no charge for the router.

When in use on the boat, the router can be powered direct from 12V, to save using the inverter.  We have an external aerial with two connections into the back of the router, and have seen speeds in excess of 50Mb.

did 3 shop supply the external aerial ? if not where from and what price name please.

[Boredrider]

1 minute ago, b0atman said:

did 3 shop supply the external aerial ? if not where from and what price name please.

No, Ebay is your friend, search for 3G 4G MIMO aerial.  Make sure the leads are long enough for wherever you are going to site the aerial and the router.  The 3 Homefi has Female SMA connectors on the rear, so you need leads or adaptors that terminate in male SMA, not TS9.