Sharing access to a USB 3G card

I have only a 512kb ADSL connection, and I find that my eldest son -
and his friends - often use enough of that bandwidth to impact my own
use. I'm therefore tempted to tell my son to get a USB 3G card, now
that they are relatively cheap. The problem is that he and his friends
split their internet use across two or three PCs, laptops, XBoxes etc.

Is it possible either to obtain a router or similar which will take a
USB 3G card, or otherwise provide 3G functionality? Alternatively is
there some way I can make use of internet connection sharing -
presumably from his main PC, which would contain the 3G card?

Steve Adams

Steve submitted this idea :
> I have only a 512kb ADSL connection, and I find that my eldest son -
> and his friends - often use enough of that bandwidth to impact my own
> use. I'm therefore tempted to tell my son to get a USB 3G card, now
> that they are relatively cheap. The problem is that he and his friends
> split their internet use across two or three PCs, laptops, XBoxes etc.
>
> Is it possible either to obtain a router or similar which will take a
> USB 3G card, or otherwise provide 3G functionality? Alternatively is
> there some way I can make use of internet connection sharing -
> presumably from his main PC, which would contain the 3G card?

He'll not thank you if he does any online gaming or video or
voice......but in answer to your question, about 8 of the draytek
routers can use the 3G usb modems. See
<http://www.draytek.co.uk/products/comparison.html>

Internet connection sharing is also a possibility, simply run the
Windows Set up a home network wizard.

"Steve" <steve@hatchwarren.plus.com> wrote in message
news:1e768ef5-f963-4e6c-9940-d9697e9f5ec8@r66g2000hsg.googlegroups.com...
>I have only a 512kb ADSL connection, and I find that my eldest son -
> and his friends - often use enough of that bandwidth to impact my own
> use. I'm therefore tempted to tell my son to get a USB 3G card, now
> that they are relatively cheap. The problem is that he and his friends
> split their internet use across two or three PCs, laptops, XBoxes etc.
>
> Is it possible either to obtain a router or similar which will take a
> USB 3G card, or otherwise provide 3G functionality? Alternatively is
> there some way I can make use of internet connection sharing -
> presumably from his main PC, which would contain the 3G card?
> Steve Adams
>
3G downloads might be adequate, but uploads are slow,
he'll curse you for it

Sort yourself out a better ADSL and leave the USB 3g for laptops

Steve Terry

On 15 Jun, 00:43, "Steve Terry" <gFOUR...@tesco.net> wrote:

> Sort yourself out a better ADSL and leave the USB 3g for laptops

Don't imagine I'm on such a poor connection by choice. The limitation
is distance from the exchange, with many of my neighbours unable to
receive ADSL at all. Needless to say, Virgin Media have no presence in
the area.

Steve Adams

"Steve" <steve@hatchwarren.plus.com> wrote in message
news:086d7abb-08a4-4630-a1b2-8809d97acf46@z72g2000hsb.googlegroups.com...
> On 15 Jun, 00:43, "Steve Terry" <gFOUR...@tesco.net> wrote:
>
>> Sort yourself out a better ADSL and leave the USB 3g for laptops
>
> Don't imagine I'm on such a poor connection by choice. The limitation
> is distance from the exchange, with many of my neighbours unable to
> receive ADSL at all. Needless to say, Virgin Media have no presence in
> the area.
> Steve Adams
>
No LLU ADSL2+ in your area? might up the speed a bit

Go for a USB 3g but forget about sharing it, it's slow enough as it is.
Try and find out if any 3g networks in your area have 3.5g HSDPA turbo cells
yet

Steve Terry

In article <1e768ef5-f963-4e6c-9940-d9697e9f5ec8
@r66g2000hsg.googlegroups.com>, steve@hatchwarren.plus.com says...
> I have only a 512kb ADSL connection, and I find that my eldest son -
> and his friends - often use enough of that bandwidth to impact my own
> use. I'm therefore tempted to tell my son to get a USB 3G card, now
> that they are relatively cheap. The problem is that he and his friends
> split their internet use across two or three PCs, laptops, XBoxes etc.
>
> Is it possible either to obtain a router or similar which will take a
> USB 3G card, or otherwise provide 3G functionality? Alternatively is
> there some way I can make use of internet connection sharing -
> presumably from his main PC, which would contain the 3G card?
>

My experience with one of the USB 3G dongles (Huawei E220) on T-mobile
have been mixed to say the least.

When the connection is up and transferring data on HSPDA it is usually
fine.

When it is idle for any length of time it seems to switch from HSPDA to
3G (LED turns blue) and wont apparently transfer anything else until
prodded by requests for more data. The switch back is far from smooth
often resulting in connection errors and timeouts on the first few
attempts.

Use of interactive services can be very painful at times.

That would make it of limited use for gaming.

This does seem to depend on network traffic and may be down to under
capacity and them abruptly kicking off people using internet to give
priority to voice. So YMMV in your area.

I don't know if 3 have similar issues. I'm considering trying them out.

Steve.

steve wrote:
> In article <1e768ef5-f963-4e6c-9940-d9697e9f5ec8
> @r66g2000hsg.googlegroups.com>, steve@hatchwarren.plus.com says...
>> I have only a 512kb ADSL connection, and I find that my eldest son -
>> and his friends - often use enough of that bandwidth to impact my own
>> use. I'm therefore tempted to tell my son to get a USB 3G card, now
>> that they are relatively cheap. The problem is that he and his friends
>> split their internet use across two or three PCs, laptops, XBoxes etc.
>>
>> Is it possible either to obtain a router or similar which will take a
>> USB 3G card, or otherwise provide 3G functionality? Alternatively is
>> there some way I can make use of internet connection sharing -
>> presumably from his main PC, which would contain the 3G card?
>>
>
> My experience with one of the USB 3G dongles (Huawei E220) on T-mobile
> have been mixed to say the least.
>
> When the connection is up and transferring data on HSPDA it is usually
> fine.
>
> When it is idle for any length of time it seems to switch from HSPDA to
> 3G (LED turns blue) and wont apparently transfer anything else until
> prodded by requests for more data. The switch back is far from smooth
> often resulting in connection errors and timeouts on the first few
> attempts.
>
> Use of interactive services can be very painful at times.
>
> That would make it of limited use for gaming.
>
> This does seem to depend on network traffic and may be down to under
> capacity and them abruptly kicking off people using internet to give
> priority to voice. So YMMV in your area.
>
> I don't know if 3 have similar issues. I'm considering trying them out.

This is similar to the behaviour I see with the same dongle on 3. It
is mainly a problem when I visit my Mum's house - she lives on the
top of a hill in the peak district - where there are several
base-stations visible, but all are low/marginal signal. One result
is that I sometimes have to log in to sites multiple times - almost
as if the session is dropped when the base station changes.

regards, Ian

In article <1e768ef5-f963-4e6c-9940-d9697e9f5ec8
@r66g2000hsg.googlegroups.com>, steve@hatchwarren.plus.com says...
> I have only a 512kb ADSL connection, and I find that my eldest son -
> and his friends - often use enough of that bandwidth to impact my own
> use. I'm therefore tempted to tell my son to get a USB 3G card, now
> that they are relatively cheap. The problem is that he and his friends
> split their internet use across two or three PCs, laptops, XBoxes etc.
>
> Is it possible either to obtain a router or similar which will take a
> USB 3G card

Yes.

> Alternatively is
> there some way I can make use of internet connection sharing -
> presumably from his main PC, which would contain the 3G card?

Yes.

They wont be much cop for gaming though due to very high latency.
--
Regards
Jon