Internet Dongles

[sprayer]

I am very much behind the times when it comes to technology but I am off on holiday soon and would like to take my laptop with me, as I don't want to be forever searching for free wifi places somebody suggested buying a pay as you go dongle as I only wanted it to browse and not for downloading anything so what & with who would be my cheapest option, & also do these tings work on a similar basis to a pay & go mobile phone whereas you use up your paid for credit until it runs out then top it up?

[ChuckFickens]

"I only wanted it to browse and not for downloading anything"

Browsing is downloading, anything you see or hear from your computer on the internet is downloaded.

"also do these tings work on a similar basis to a pay & go mobile phone"

Yep, just like that, you buy a top-up, you have the interenet until it's used up then you buy another top-up

The main thing is to check that whatever providers dongle you go for has decent coverage in the area you will be wanting to use it in. all of the main providers have online coverage maps.

O2
http://www.webmap.o2.co.uk/

Orange
http://search.orange.....html?channel=direct/

Vodafone
http://online.vodafon...bile_network_coverage

T mobile
http://www.t-mobile.c...overage/street-check/

(I really should bookmark those pages so I don't have to search for them each time :))

Keep in mind when you check coverage you are looking for 3G coverage as that is mobile broadband, if you will be in a 2G area then you will get very very slow download speed.

[sprayer]

Thanks for your answer Chuckfickens but I still don't understand. I have just looked at some sites for dongles and found this which suggests that I buy a dongle for £19.99
then add on 24 hours use or 7 days use or 30 days use up to 3GB (however long that would last?) then presumably I would keep the dongle and just top up when I needed to. have I got this right?

O2 Pay and Go Mobile Broadband
View detailsHide details £19.99


Pay for usage as you go. You can buy mobile broadband access on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.

Mobile Broadband Daily
(available for 24 hours) - For £2 for 500MB + Unlimited Wi-Fi
Mobile Broadband Weekly
(available for 7 days) - For £7.50 for 1GB + Unlimited Wi-Fi
Mobile Broadband Monthly
(available for 30 days) - For £15 for 3GB + Unlimited Wi-Fi

[ChuckFickens]

Yes you have it correct.

3gb of usage would be (roughly)

45hrs of normal browsing web pages.
or
you could receive about 30,000 emails (without attachments)
or
you could download about 35-40 high quality pictures.

These figures are approximate, for example, if a web site has a lot of large pictures on it then it will take more of your allowance to view it than a simple website with no pictures.

The good thing about the pay as you go dongles is that once you've used your allowance up they will stop working until you buy more, so you will never be faced with a huge bill for going over your allowance.

[sprayer]

Thanks Chuckfickens I knew I could count on you for good informative answer..

[hc4361]

Where do you intend using it? Very, very expensive to use abroad. 3 quoted me £1300 per gb.

[Davethedog]

Is it worth finding if your hotel or where ever your staying has free wi-fi hc4361 is right when your abroad that dongle is exactly the same as a mobile phone so charges that relate to it can be huge.

If you not abroad Chuck, as always, is right abroad I would be very sure of the costs.

[ChuckFickens]

oh yeah, totally agree with hc and dave, I assumed that you were holidaying in the UK, if you are going aboard a UK dongle is not the way to go.