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Clive Long
9th-March-2006, 07:14 PM
Hi,

Does anyone use a "3g" card in their laptop for mobile communications? What's the performance like on your network? Can you ramp up huge bills without knowing?

Would it be possible to have the SIM in a standard phone haddset and sling a cable (or Bluetooth) between the handset and the laptop - rather than buying a dedicated SIM and PMCIA card for the laptop?

These public Wifi spots - I think I have seen them at Starbucks - how are they charged for? Expensive?

Ta,

Clive

DavidB
9th-March-2006, 09:18 PM
Does anyone use a "3g" card in their laptop for mobile communications? What's the performance like on your network? Can you ramp up huge bills without knowing?Used one for a couple of years. They are about 5-10 times quicker than a standard GSM/GPRS modem, but nowhere near as quick as broadband.

They are more expensive than broadband. An unlimited tarriff is about £70 pcm, and a 400MB tarriff about £40.

They are not as reliable as broadband either. The connection can be poor in the middle of a large office. The cards hang on average once a week. The support is pretty bad until you get through to the dedicated 3G Data support. There are a lot of tricks you end up learning to restart the card without rebooting your PC.

But I couldn't do without it now.

David

El Salsero Gringo
9th-March-2006, 10:08 PM
I'm currently playing with an Inmarsat BGAN satellite broadband terminal that's basically a 3G phone with a highly customised radio transmitter. Gives you about 500kBit/sec from anywhere in Europe/Middle-East/Asia as long as you can see the right bit of sky.

Data is ~10$/Mbyte, which means by the time you've flattened the battery, your bill is about £7k.

Before anyone asks, at those prices, no, I'm not using it to post this message!

El Salsero Gringo
9th-March-2006, 11:25 PM
Would it be possible to have the SIM in a standard phone haddset and sling a cable (or Bluetooth) between the handset and the laptop - rather than buying a dedicated SIM and PMCIA card for the laptop?Yes, that should be possible.

philsmove
9th-March-2006, 11:35 PM
I have a 3G card
It’s expensive
Coverage is patchy
But if you use it for work
You can very quickly, pay its way

I have friend who uses “the starbucks system” it seems cheap, fast and reliable
But if its midnight, you urgently need an Internet connect, and the nearest starbucks is a 100 miles away …..

Another friend connects her laptop via her mobile, seems cheap, reliable but very slow




http://72.232.2.194/~fpauly/forum/showthread.php?t=5697

Dreadful Scathe
10th-March-2006, 10:56 AM
These public Wifi spots - I think I have seen them at Starbucks - how are they charged for? Expensive?


Never had the need for a 3G card but i use wireless hotspotsquite a lot - wireless is everywhere and costs around £5-£6 an hour. You can find wireless hotspots in airports, hotels, mcdonalds, starbucks, bt phone boxes ..etc..

see here (http://www.zdnet.co.uk/specials/wifimap/) for map

and see here (http://www.wififreespot.com/europe.html) for some free ones (scroll down and look for the city you're in)

Tiggerbabe
10th-March-2006, 12:48 PM
but i use wireless hotspotsquite a lot
Me too, and I don't think it's too bad price-wise. Mind you I'd quite like it if you could have a cheaper contracted monthly subscription without having a mobile-phone contract with them.
I realise you can purchase a month of access at a time but that is quite expensive.
I'd be lost if I couldn't use the internet when I'm staying away :(
(And why don't the bloomin' Travelodges have hotspots? :tears: )

Dreadful Scathe
10th-March-2006, 12:56 PM
I realise you can purchase a month of access at a time but that is quite expensive.

BT Openzone do offer subscription plans - see here (http://www.btopenzone.com/buy/index.jsp) and the home page lists the hotspots.



(And why don't the bloomin' Travelodges have hotspots? :tears: )

Its a rubbish hotel chain :) Travel Inns have hotspots.

Tiggerbabe
10th-March-2006, 01:26 PM
BT Openzone do offer subscription plans - see here (http://www.btopenzone.com/buy/index.jsp) and the home page lists the hotspots.
Thanks :hug:

Its a rubbish hotel chain :) Travel Inns have hotspots.
Do they have £10 a night (if you book early enough) rooms too?

Dreadful Scathe
10th-March-2006, 01:41 PM
oh dunno - i never book it, I just think the quality is not nearly as good.

Andreas
15th-March-2006, 11:40 PM
Add to that that the driver support for Power Books (you've got a Mac, don't you?) leaves a lot of room for improvements ... I'd not opt for it if there is an alternative.

As David pointed out, you usually get volume or flaterate tariffs with UMTS, GPRS is the one where you can easily rake up a huge bill w/o realising it. Particularly dangerous on Windows with its automated updates ... :D

frodo
6th-June-2006, 11:37 PM
Does anyone use a "3g" card in their laptop for mobile communications? What's the performance like on your network? Can you ramp up huge bills without knowing?

Would it be possible to have the SIM in a standard phone haddset and sling a cable (or Bluetooth) between the handset and the laptop - rather than buying a dedicated SIM and PMCIA card for the laptop?

These public Wifi spots - I think I have seen them at Starbucks - how are they charged for? Expensive?
I'm very pleased with the 3G Web n Walk Professional from TMobile (normally advertised with a 3G card but you can use a 3G handset instead). When connected by cable at home though a 3G handset I get 30-40K/sec, which is about the same as 300kbit broadband. It degrades a lot in non 3G areas but still works.

The thing about the handset is it doesn't use my one precious PC card slot, as you can use a USB cable or bluetooth, and you can also use the handset browser etc. for simply tasks where you don't want to get your laptop out.

This is £20.00 a month on its own or £10.00 on top of a voice tariff, for 2Gb a month transfer.

If you don't have the voice tariff the only way I think to rack up bills is to buy things on the TMobile mobile web site from the phone. If you go over the 2Gb limit in any two months of six they simply slow down your data transfer. The other restrictions are no VOIP (understandable) and no IM (:sad:).

For the stand-alone option it is sometimes advertised with a free 12month T-Mobile (incl Starbucks) Wifi pass (costs £23.00 a month if bought on its own), though I haven't got hold of it that yet.


One advantage of the PC-Card is that I understand it actually has the ability to run much faster than existing 3G once TMobile have upgraded their network, which you don't get with a handset.

Clive Long
7th-June-2006, 12:07 AM
I'm very pleased with the 3G Web n Walk Professional from TMobile (normally advertised with a 3G card but you can use a 3G handset instead). When connected by cable at home though a 3G handset I get 30-40K/sec, which is about the same as 300kbit broadband. It degrades a lot in non 3G areas but still works.

The thing about the handset is it doesn't use my one precious PC card slot, as you can use a USB cable or bluetooth, and you can also use the handset browser etc. for simply tasks where you don't want to get your laptop out.

Hi

T-Mobile WebnWalk looks the best deal of all UK operators at the moment

Which handset do you use? Nokia N7x series looks good but useless for mobile browsing.

I like the idea of the MDA Vario all in one (convergence - don't tell DJ) but it only supports GPRS SIMs

Clive

frodo
7th-June-2006, 10:33 PM
Which handset do you use? Nokia N7x series looks good but useless for mobile browsing.

I like the idea of the MDA Vario all in one (convergence - don't tell DJ) but it only supports GPRS SIMs
Just a basic N70 (so I'm curious about the background of your thought).

Generally I've used it to browse the mobile friendly web sites on the TMobile home page, However I had a go today, and it seems perfectly workable to browse sites such as, for example, this one.

That said I probably would have gone for the Vario if it had done 3G as it isn't much more expensive than the N70 and only ~ 35 g heavier.

There is the MDA Pro which does 3G and VGA but it is an extra ~ £200 and 90g.


The N70 isn't that much less converged in any case. You're trading 3G, a radio, and 35g, for an embedded keyboard, bigger screen and touch screen. You can view PDF's / Office Documents and use a Bluetooth keyboard on the N70.

Clive Long
8th-June-2006, 10:58 PM
Just a basic N70 (so I'm curious about the background of your thought).
Don't get me wrong, the N70 looks a neat phone, and I'm thinking of getting one, it's just I have a Nokia 6310 (or is it a 6130, or Nokia Flame ... ?) for work and blow me, Gordon, every time I manipulate its little nipple (official term) I have to "re-navigate" two , even three, times to retrieve a phone number. And those silly, silly keys. Small??? Thinking about navigating on a standard size handset, let alone trying to read any content seems perverse to the point of geekiness


Generally I've used it to browse the mobile friendly web sites on the TMobile home page,
However I had a go today, and it seems perfectly workable to browse sites such as, for example, this one.
Aha! Mobile friendly sites :rolleyes: Ever tried to retireve Yahoo mail through a device with the screen the size of an XDA? Painful. What must be like on the screen of a standard sized handset :what:


That said I probably would have gone for the Vario if it had done 3G as it isn't much more expensive than the N70 and only ~ 35 g heavier.

Me too. Vario with 3G and the choice would have been a no-brainer. Of course we'll all be 11Mbits wifi everywhere for voice and data soon. :devil:


There is the MDA Pro which does 3G and VGA but it is an extra ~ £200 and 90g.

Too big

The N70 isn't that much less converged in any case. You're trading 3G, a radio, and 35g, for an embedded keyboard, bigger screen and touch screen. You can view PDF's / Office Documents and use a Bluetooth keyboard on the N70.
But the screen size :confused:

frodo
9th-June-2006, 12:29 PM
...every time I manipulate its little nipple (official term) I have to "re-navigate" two , even three, times ...
And those silly, silly keys. Small??? Thinking about navigating on a standard size handset, let alone trying to read any content seems perverse to the point of geekinessBefore I got the N70 I would have tended to agree with you.

Navigating web pages using the 4 way pad, middle of pad button and the two option buttons below the screen is really quite quick, and I haven't noticed any problem with incorrect navigation. I do have to look and take quite a bit of care to hit any of the other buttons though.


Aha! Mobile friendly sites :rolleyes: Ever tried to retireve Yahoo mail through a device with the screen the size of an XDA? Painful. What must be like on the screen of a standard sized handset :what:
I don't know about Yahoo, but didn't have a problem with my smaller web mail provider.

FWIW I've noticed the viability of using a small screen for a task can depend heavily on the software being used as well as the degree of smallness.



The N70 isn't that much less converged in any case. You're trading 3G, a radio, and 35g, for an embedded keyboard, bigger screen and touch screen. You can view PDF's / Office Documents and use a Bluetooth keyboard on the N70.
But the screen size :confused:
To be fair I think the PDF / Office stuff is too compromised by the screen size to be of much use for viewing content except in an emergency. For reading web content and emails it seems quite a bit of use, despite the screen size though.

My comment was really to say in terms of number of functions there isn't too much difference, I'd agree that providing the software makes reasonable use of the bigger / touch screen the quality of those functions should be very much better on the Vario.

DavidB
9th-June-2006, 12:33 PM
Ever tried to retireve Yahoo mail through a device with the screen the size of an XDA? Painful. What must be like on the screen of a standard sized handset Apparently Yahoo have just released a mobile version.

pmjd
9th-June-2006, 02:35 PM
Was going to get the T-mobile web and walk thing but found out that it is only meant to be for browsing from your mobile phone, using it for connecting to a laptop will result in reduced speed.

From T-mobile
"To ensure a high quality of service for all our customers, they are not to be used for other activities such as (but not limited to): modem access for computers, internet based video/audio streaming services, peer to peer file sharing, internet based video download and internet based telephony. If such use is detected, notice may be given, after which network protection controls may be applied which will result in a reduced speed of transmission."

They have a business users version of web and walk, says "unlimited" but actually capped at 2GB per month, using a 3G card for £17 a month.

Hope the info is of some use!

frodo
9th-June-2006, 10:45 PM
...They have a business users version of web and walk, says "unlimited" but actually capped at 2GB per month, using a 3G card for £17 a month...To clarify this post (http://www.cerocscotland.com/forum/showpost.php?p=238419&postcount=12) that is the one talked about, but you can use a handset instead of a 3G card, and it isn't restricted to business users.


Was going to get the T-mobile web and walk thing but found out that it is only meant to be for browsing from your mobile phone, using it for connecting to a laptop will result in reduced speed.The pro version with a voice tariff is only £10.00 on top of a suitable voice tariff as opposed to £7.50 just using the handset to browse. £2.50 a month isnt a huge sum. The option is shown on the tariff page of the May and June 2006 'TheLink' buyers guide.


Nokia N7x series looks good but useless for mobile browsing.
I like the idea of the MDA Vario all in one (convergence - don't tell DJ) but it only supports GPRS SIMsAccording to the June 2006 'TheLink' buyers guide the Sony Ericsson P990i (http://www.sonyericsson.com/spg.jsp?cc=global&lc=en&ver=4001&template=pp1_1_1&zone=pp&lm=pp1&pid=10336). is coming soon on TMobile. It seems very close in features to the Vario (including Wifi, which was one difference between the Vario and N70 I missed).

pmjd
10th-June-2006, 01:12 PM
Cheers Frodo, was in a bit of a rush and didn't have time to look properly, just remembered what had put me off going for the web and walk option.

WittyBird
4th-July-2006, 11:37 PM
Mmmmmmmmmmmm Look at this Beauty :D

It will give you full email from an Exchange server anywhere.

C&P from site


Samsung is renowned for mobile phone design and has introduced a number of handsets that have broken the traditional design. The introduction of this new slim range addresses the consumers' desire for thinner handsets. Samsung was mindful to develop slim handsets that remained as highly reliable devices with feature-rich technology. Samsung's commitment to quality inevitably means that it is not always the first to market with new designs – the emphasis is more on getting things right. However, when consumers choose a Samsung mobile phone, they are not only getting a carefully designed handset, they are also getting the best in functions and features. The new portfolio of slim handsets will be introduced by Samsung around the world throughout 2006. Samsung's range of slim phones on display at 3GSM average less than 15mm thick and deliver unprecedented design and multimedia innovations. The handsets integrate features and design elements not available on competitor devices. The portfolio includes a Smartphone with QWERTY keyboard (model: SGH-i320), two slide-up GSM/GPRS phones (model: SGH-D800, SGH-D820), three 3G phones (model: SGH-Z510, SGH-Z540, SGH-Z150), and a credit-card size mobile phone (model: SGH-P300) - developed for the European markets. These devices offer advanced features such as mobile television capabilities, high-speed Web connectivity, Bluetooth wireless technology and megapixel cameras and camcorders. The phones, available in slide-up, card and clamshell designs, also incorporate innovative design elements, such as external multimedia navigation keys to enhance consumers' experience. Samsung's super-slim Smartphone i320, measures just 11.5 mm in depth and comes complete with a QWERTY keyboard. It has a state-of-the art document viewer and the 2.2" color TFT screen provides exceptional image clarity. The i320 runs in the Windows Mobile 5 operating system providing users with a familiar interface easy to navigate and use. It is the thinnest and the lightest QWERTY Smartphone providing a high quality multimedia and business experience. SGH-i320 Specifications Standard EDGE, GPRS Class 10 (900/1800/1900 MHz)
Camera 1.3 Megapixel Camera
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Features Push Email (Messaging & Security Feature Pack)
QWERTY Keyboard
Video Recording & Messaging (MPEG4/H.263)
Video Playing (MPEG4/H.263/H.264/WMV)
MP3 / AAC / AAC+ / WMA / WAV / OGG
Dual Speaker / Speakerphone
Bluetooth® Technology / USB / Voice Recognition
Document Viewer
Memory 120MB User Memory, External Memory (microSD)
Size 111 x 59 x 11.5mm
Weight 95 g

Want one! :D

frodo
5th-July-2006, 12:23 AM
If you don't have the voice tariff the only way I think to rack up bills is to buy things on the TMobile mobile web site from the phone...

Was wrong about that - have been charged a few pence for unsolicited tmobile horoscope texts - they responded to my request to stop sending them reasonably quickly but still got charged for a couple plus a few more pence for accessing voicemail :confused: .

So I guess they implicitly put you on some sort of non line rental voice tariff ( which is bad news for me as I didn't want to have to insure the phone).

El Salsero Gringo
5th-July-2006, 06:38 AM
Mmmmmmmmmmmm Look at this Beauty :D

It will give you full email from an Exchange server anywhere.

{snip}

Want one! :DDo you have an Exchange server under your bed then? You're even more of a geek than I am!

WittyBird
5th-July-2006, 11:22 AM
Do you have an Exchange server under your bed then? You're even more of a geek than I am!

I'm not a geek :innocent: I don't have one under my bed I VPN in :whistle: