Vodafone data

[bopdude]

Does anyone use Vodafone's data card or this or similar for internet on the move ? They have recently cut their prices and upped the cap to 3 gig p/m. I'm thinking of getting this or similar as my new job will involve me being away from home and being the sad git I am, I don't think I could face no connection with my cyber worlds :p

Any thoughts or alternatives, has to be mobile. i.e no dial up etc

EDIT: looking at the 3G coverage from their own page doesn't look good, how can companies market the toys if they can't give the service ?

[DocDutch]

bop, just use a bluetooth connection with your phone (I know it'll be dialup speed so no gaming until you find an unlocked wlan network) and just use your mobile as the modem.

easiest and if you are on a contract mobile cheapest just make sure its a normal number not an 0845 jobbie but then saying that some mobiles let you do those as a normal call which is covered on the included minutes

[bopdude]

Thanks mate, I'll have to look at the options, if any, that are available to me

[dragon]

Originally Posted by bopdude

Does anyone use Vodafone's data card or this or similar for internet on the move ? They have recently cut their prices and upped the cap to 3 gig p/m. I'm thinking of getting this or similar as my new job will involve me being away from home and being the sad git I am, I don't think I could face no connection with my cyber worlds :p

Any thoughts or alternatives, has to be mobile. i.e no dial up etc

EDIT: looking at the 3G coverage from their own page doesn't look good, how can companies market the toys if they can't give the service ?

Watch out data can get expensive (i tried the new mobile internet bundle) but due to a problem with their billing system it charged it instead of coming out the bundle (although hopefully that little problem is all sorted now)

Only popped the laptop on for all of 5 minutes to check a webpage for a mate and forgot about windows update. ended up costing £9 (this was on a phone with the 120mb mobile internet pack on)

I actually now have that modem you linked to with 3gb /month usage on t-mobile

If your in HSDPA coverage the speeds can be excellent 400kps - 1mbit/s throughput is usually achievable and I've managed to hit 1.5mbit/s before.

Also the modem will fallback to 3G if theres no HSDPA and if theres no 3G it will fallback to GPRS (which although is very slow its better than nothing)

T-mobile were doing the modem free on the 12month contract during august also their FUP is slightly different it just states that if you go over 3gb they reserve the right to cap your speed and ask you to upgrade package, and if you constantly go way over and ignore their warnings they can chuck you off.

vodafones one states that they reserve the right to charge you for data over 3gb and at around £2 per MB I'd be a bit worried about going over.

[bopdude]

Originally Posted by dragon

Watch out data can get expensive (i tried the new mobile internet bundle) but due to a problem with their billing system it charged it instead of coming out the bundle (although hopefully that little problem is all sorted now)

Only popped the laptop on for all of 5 minutes to check a webpage for a mate and forgot about windows update. ended up costing £9 (this was on a phone with the 120mb mobile internet pack on)

I actually now have that modem you linked to with 3gb /month usage on t-mobile

If your in HSDPA coverage the speeds can be excellent 400kps - 1mbit/s throughput is usually achievable and I've managed to hit 1.5mbit/s before.

Also the modem will fallback to 3G if theres no HSDPA and if theres no 3G it will fallback to GPRS (which although is very slow its better than nothing)

T-mobile were doing the modem free on the 12month contract during august also their FUP is slightly different it just states that if you go over 3gb they reserve the right to cap your speed and ask you to upgrade package, and if you constantly go way over and ignore their warnings they can chuck you off.

vodafones one states that they reserve the right to charge you for data over 3gb and at around £2 per MB I'd be a bit worried about going over.

Thanks for the pointers I agree that the over the tariff's price is very scary, espeacially, like you say, if you have wu running

[dragon]

Originally Posted by bopdude

Thanks for the pointers I agree that the over the tariff's price is very scary, espeacially, like you say, if you have wu running

Yep totally forgot about it plugged in 3g phone pulled down 3mb on WU before i'd even noticed it was running

+ an antivirus update and at £2 per mb it racked up quite quickly

Although I should hopefully be getting it taken off my bill since It was supposed to be £1 for upto 15mb in a day for the first time they charged me and have the mobile internet for the 2nd time they charged me. (different days)

and it said you could us a laptop on their website it only said messaging / p2p didn't count towards your allowance but I made sure i closed all the I'm/ p2p apps before i connected and still ended up getting charged for about 4.5mb that should have come out of the bundle.

I rang C/s and moaned about that and they said they would take it off my bill so waiting to see what happens when the DD goes out.

Its a known issue since lots of people are moaning about being charged for data at £2 per mb that should have come out of either the new mobile internet pack and £1 per day rates it seems something went wrong with their billing system upgrade

In the meantime I got myself a proper data tarrif to use instead. (i like yourself am sad and can't stay away from the internet for any longer than I absolutely must)

I'd recommended the e220 usb modem over the datacard since then if you change laptop and your new one doesn't have the card slot your still ok to use it... Also it will work with OSX and most pc's with a usb port (providing they have 2k/xp/vista) I think it can be made to work on linux but i think i heard somewhere its far from a plug and play experience with linux.

The windows drivers are on the modem itself as well (it shows up as a drive in "my computer" which then has the driver on for the modem part)