Three mobile broadband experience

Lynn W <lynn.williamson@FOREVERREDbtinternet.com> wrote in
news:C6FAAC34.1C64A%lynn.williamson@FOREVERREDbtin ternet.com:

> On 13/10/09 13:14, in article Xns9CA386ADC50E5encoderX@188.40.43.213,
> "encoderX" <Usenet@-REMOVE-THIS-encoderX.net> wrote:
>
>> iain <spamtrap@hairydog.co.uk> wrote in
>> news:27m8d59j60ju54r484b9a66fmuq7l0aafg@4ax.com:
>>
>>> On Tue, 6 Oct 2009 15:13:03 -0700 (PDT), Ian
>>> <ian.groups@btinternet.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> So between you and Iain you'd say that Three mobile broadband is
>>>> absolutely fine
>>>
>>> Yes
>>
>> Include me cos I have no problem with it.
>> I've had 3UK mobile broadband about 2 weeks now with no problems to
>> speak of & I live in a rural area
>>
>>>> as long as you use somebody else's DNS servers,
>>>
>>> True of almost every ISP in the budget range.
>>
>> Ditto. I've always used OpenDNS IP's for may years even with fixed
>> line cable.
>>
>>>> give
>>>> non standard APN
>>>
>>> No, the standard one is fine for me.
>>>
>>>> and change your email provider.
>>>
>>> Er, no: the opposite. Don't change your email provider: use the one
>>> you had beofre switching to 3. Why change?
>>
>> Agree
>>
>>>> Wow. And it still doesn't deal with crap upload speeds.
>>>
>>> The upload speeds are faster than most people get with 8Mb/sec ADSL.
>>> I don't think that counts as "crap"
>>
>> Totally agree again - speaking from experience
>> --
>> encoderX
>> http://encoderX.net
>
> I just thought I'd share my experiences. I bought a 3 dongle for use
> when at the caravan in the Borders in Scotland. Went up last weekend
> only to find the Mobile Broadband was 'off the air'. Went off Friday
> night for approx 24 hours. This was an improvement on the time I
> wanted for use when I was up there in August on holiday, then it was
> off for 6 days, they said they were upgrading it. The neighbour in
> the next caravan had also bought one and he said it had been okay for
> the past fortnight and that was the longest it had been up in one go.
> When it works I am very pleased with it but there is nothing more
> frustrating than having it and it not working. I bought a router for
> it as well. What made it worse on this occasion was that I had topped
> it up with £10 even though I will probably have only been using it
> last weekend only to find it wasn't working. Lynn

Oops!

I have 3UK contract phone and my m8 has a 3UK PAYG: for some reason his
phone net can be down and mines up and working!

Not sure if its same for mobile broadband between contract and PAYG tbh.

Dont get me wrong mobile broadband isn't nowhere as relaible as a fixed
line but, I find it a satisfactory 2nd choice plus it's mobile

With phones and I presume dongles inc. WiFi just a few feet one way or
the other can mean life or death to a signal - it's a fact of
frequencies
--
encoderX
http://encoderX.net

Pete Zahut wrote:
> Ian wrote:
>> * The SMTP server (smtp-mbb.three.co.uk) is problematic. It seems to
>> be a known problem about which three do nothing: long messages (longer
>> than a few lines) invariably timed out and short ones only went as
>> text-only.
>
> If you're using a USB mobile dongle to get internet access while you're out
> and about, why would you use 3's email servers? Why not just go to the
> webmail pages of your home broadband supplier?
>
>
Why limit yourself to your BB suppliers web mail, which you are liable
to loose should you change supplier

Google or Yahoo mail you can take anywhere, and they have lots of
additional features like virtual mail, etc.

Steve Terry

Ian wrote:
> On 5 Oct, 10:59, Ian <ian.gro...@btinternet.com> wrote:
>
>> In summary
>>
>> * It stinks. Don't use three mobile broadband.
>
> Update. I connected using 3 in Edinburgh airport and again in central
> London and ran the test at www.broadbandspeedchecker.co.k.
>
> Results:
>
> Download was 1056Kbps (Edinburgh) and 1356Kbps (London). Variable,
> though - that was the top speed in each case. The first time I ran the
> test in London I got around 800Kbps.
>
> Upload was, well, interesting. Every time I ran the test it showed 10
> - 20Kbps for the first half or so of the test, then whizzed through
> the second half almost instantaneously. The best results over a few
> goes were 244Kbps (Edinburgh) and 56Kbps (London).
>
> I found the sudden speed up on all the uploads a little surprising. I
> wonder if 3 is detecting and then prioritising the traffic.
>
> From the postings here it seems that some people are getting quite
> good results from 3 Mobile Broadband. It does seem to be location and
> time specific, though, so with that uncertainty and their crap DNS /
> SMTP provision, I think my advice is still "avoid".
> Ian
>
>
For 5quid per month 3Pay add on, what have you to lose?

And that tenner top up also gives you 5000 3 to 3 mins,
300 text for 3 months, and free Skype

Steve Terry