blonde poker forum

OK - I'm convinced that the massive combined intellect of the blondite population can help me here. Due to BT's engineers being overwhelmed by their workload (!) it seems I can't get a phoneline installed in my new flat until October 28th. Now rather than endanger myself amongst the great unwashed in an internet café I thought I might invest in a 3G wireless card (just like the one tikay uses at tourneys).

The question is, how much data does the average poker room require per table per hour (approximately)??? If I can get 400mb data for £50 per month, will that equate into 10 or 100 hours of 2 tables. No point getting one if I'll use the full allowance up in the first day or two.

Help please  :)

My understanding is that very little data is transferred as the vast majority of the info is held on your PC, ie. the graphics and such.

I also am aware the PC World on the Purley Way in Croydon, has a sheep deep installed, to keep their cafe area pristine.

My friend has an Vodafone 3g card, and the connection is so S-----------L-----------O--------------W

Your flat could be in a "hotspot" maybe a wireless card could do the trick.

I have some software that can track this. I'll play tonight and post some totals for you.

Played one 10 seater NLH cash table on ladbrokes tonight.

162 Hands in 170 Minutes.

1.3874 MB downloaded
0.1115 MB uploaded.

Works out about half a meg an hour

It CAN be slow, dial-up speed, but it can alo be mega fast. It utilises both GRS & 3G, & it depends what is available in that area.

My Vodafone thingy has never let us down - worked in Vegas, Paris, Barcelona, Vienna, London Dublin, Venice, & all over England - but it would not work in Southend! But the moby phones would not work in the Casino in Southend either - one "bar" at best, so maybe just a funny area.

Tikay, on average how much is your 3G monthly bill?

About £110. Remember, each Live Update is about 30 to 40 hours (over 2 or 3 days) & we do 2 or 3 a month..

Thanks Bongo - you're a superstar! I might as well go ahead and get one then - am itching to get back at the tables >:D

So the next questions...

Do they charge a fee or 'line rental' if you don't use it for a while?

where/how do you get one?

Wireless is great. Things to remember are:

You must be able to pick up a wireless netwok within range of your laptop

Secure networks are usually subscribed to (check owner of location for details)

Subscription can cost anything from £4 an hour to £8!

http://www.expansys.com/product.asp?code=116118 (http://www.expansys.com/product.asp?code=116118)

You can prepay:-

http://online.vodafone.co.uk/dispatch/Portal/appmanager/vodafone/wrp?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=Page_BOS_MainContent&pageID=BS_0126

These bloody pics are a pain in the ass

He is talking about mobile cards not wireless cards.

Oops....my bad!

I agree on the cards - as a suggestion could the codes for them be ammended with : either side? this will help do away with them ahowing up in text by accident.

Sorry about this Rod & Ian, I'll have a word with our geeks & see if they can twiddle some knobs to overcome this problem.

It's not a huge problem so no appology needed. I like the cards being available. Also shouldn't be too difficult for the 'geeks' to sort out.

You don't know our geeks. Expect a 6 day "down" any moment, once they start fiddling with the Forum knobs & levers.

Ask them to change the letters to uppercase then As is reversed with as
Thank you

ok now i look silly

I have just been on to Vodafone. They tell me you can get a 3G wireless access card at the following rates per month + VAT + £1.50 per mb over your tariff

5mb £10

75mb £10

200mb £40

unlimited £45

So it looks like tikay would be better off on the unlimited tariff, very interesting though, and cheaper than hotel rates

Have a look at the other networks too, I know Orange have just recently launched similar cards, I am not sure about the others, but it's always wise to check out all the options to find the best deal.

http://reviews.zdnet.co.uk/hardware/networking/0,39023970,39167071,00.htm (http://reviews.zdnet.co.uk/hardware/networking/0,39023970,39167071,00.htm)


The Vodafone card comes up trumps.

What about using these devices abroad, is there an additional charge?

An email they sent me today,

Dear Nemesis,

Re 3G Card for laptop,

There cost of a 3G airtime pack if you were to choose pay as you talk plan would be  £199.00.( if you think i am gong to pay £200 quid then you are mad, only £30 on ebay) You would then pay for usage at the
standard voice and sms rates for the Smartplus priceplan and data would be charged as follows:-

A Word file approx 50kb would cost £0.15p to transfer
An Excel file approx 100kb would cost £0.30
A powerpoint approx 1000kb would cost £3.07 to transfer.

You would be paying £3.07 per megabyte while in the uk and then £9.08 while roaming.

I hope this information helps you.  If you have any further questions then please contact us and we will be happy to help you.

Kind Regards,

Ian Jackson
Vodafone E-Mail Customer Services
Vodafone Limited

Help lines:
PAYT 08700 77 66 55
Pay Monthly 08700 700 191

 ;D

Would you mind running a few more tests, perhaps over a longer period (maybe a multi or two) so that we might get some more accurate figures?

God I love this forum

Have gone ahead and ordered the Orange card for £149 and £23 per month for 65mb but I get 1000mb per month for the first 3 months. I'll be back in the game by the weekend  :D

Red-Dog, I think there's a surcharge of £1 per mb or something like that when abroad

Not being Mr Savvy about 3G lap top cards how do I get started with this 3g lark?

As far as I understand it I need to buy firstly a 3g card (Ebay) for vodafone.

How do I then purchase airtime (or data use) for pay as you go? Can I get this from any high street mobile phone shop. Where does the SIM card for this set up fit in?

Confused!!

Indeed Red - this is great stuff as I'm looking to buy a laptop soon. Wireless is one thing - but access when visiting my parents etc is a problem... but this sounds usable.

I bought Poker Player & What Laptop - but it would be a great idea for them to get together with this as athe basis of a colaborative article - which would be of use. (Instead of Poker Player's review of Sharper Image's handheld poker game - which folds to any large raise putting it all in ::) )

Mark,

Any sim card can fit into the data card which goes into the side of your laptop, you can purchase data by topping up like you would if you were on pay as you go at any shop. I am going to buy a second hand data card off of ebay for around £30 and just have a pay as you go sim (£1 off of ebay) and then just top up when i need to as i will only be using the card for emergencies.

sounds like a great idea, how do you buy stuff off ebay?  lol

And is there a difference between 3G and 3G/GPRS?

God, I lurrrve this site!

Open an account, it takes 2 minutes.

I find it hard to believe that you haven't shopped on ebay before Red-Dog ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

3g is faster - but has less coverage (it seems the best coverage with 3g is Orange). GPRS, while slower has better network coverage.

AFAIK ALL the cards are in fact 3g/GPRS so will work with both, chosing the fastest connection first.

Some now have wireless as well which will mean if the operator (or a parner of theirs) has a hotspot & you are in it the link will be even faster.

If you are going on e-bay be carefull, used it once, and only once. Dont really want to go into it, lol.

It's a lot safer now, but it use to be terrible. Red-Dog make sure the person you are buying from has good positive feedback.

Red, got to ebay.co.uk, have a look around and come back with any questions.

I'll see what I can do, I'm out karting tonight but hopefully they'll be a multi to play when I return.

I did play one last night but my exit was too quick to gather any useful figures...

I'm with Nemesis re ebay - as long as you do your research and are careful, and make sure you read each listing carefully, and check feedback, you should be fine. Whilst I was off work recovering from surgery this summer I traded heavily on eBay, buying and selling as a way to generate income (I wasn't paid for 3 months by my employer).

you can get some mighty fine bargains on ebay - my mum has brought 2 cars on there! I have bought and sold over 500 items on there, so if you need any advice I'm happy to help :)

It was a great summer - lurking on here and making massive profits on ebay <g>.

Oh, those halcyon days :)

Heid
xx

Thanks for the advice guys, no I havn't used ebay before, in my world people do deals all the time, its a way of life, you learn the rules whilst holding on to your daddy's trouser leg, children are not excluded from this sort of thing and are encouraged to take part (and learn by getting the wrong end of the bargain) but it is always done face to face, and a handshake is more binding than any written contract

anyway, I have registerd (reluctantly) but all the stuff seems to be bid only, not 'buy it now' I have no idea how to vet a seller or what the other pitfalls are

It would be easier to buy items if you set up a Paypal account www.paypal.co.uk some sellers accept cheques and postal orders but if you use paypal you are protected by paypal's buyers protection plan.

If you want to buy an item and it ends in lets say a couple of days you can track the item in "myebay" which reminds you when the item is about to end via emailor text message, so you can make a bid at the last minute to get the better deals. :)up

Great, thanks

for what its worth ive had one of these 3g/gprs data cards for 3 months now.i researched it to anaorak status before purchase.by a LONG way the best value was and still is buying direct from the o2 shop down ur highstreet.the data card was FREE and im on 512 mb per month which costs £40+vat pcm.im online between 8 and16 hours a day playing poker/emailing/little porn downloading/surfing net and ive used 492 and 503 mb for the first 2 months.in london i normally get 3g which is very nearly broadband speed.its fackin awesome.

I wouldnt use it very often so I think I would probably be better with pay as you go, so I would have to buy the 3G card

Why did you decide on o2?

o2 is great if you want to pay a monthly fee (contract) but for pay as you go, o2 is definitely the most expensive out of the 4 networks.

totally agree nemisis,peeps must be careful thou because the mb's can mount up,i know i use it heaps[probly 300 hrs per month]but thats costs me 47 quid ,approx 10 p per mb[16 pence per hour].these pay as u go are about £1 a mb[i think] i reckon this works out at about £1.60an hour,so in order not to go "on contract" u would have to be a VERY occasional user,of couse there are also lower mb tariffs.

Hmm, it's like ordering KFC, you cant just pay for exacly what you want

Just got back, there is a $5+1 tourney on laddies at 22:30.

I shall play it and post the results.

All the rest seem to be satelites to events I can't play or too high a buyin for me.

Just picking up on a few points.

As far as I am aware, ALL these cards are GPRS AND 3G.

But buying them on e-bay worries me. I had to insert a CD, which came with the package, to "install it" on my lappie. So, if that is correct - & I think it is - don't forget you need to ensure you get the CD with the device & Sim Card.

Jen has just purchased a Viodafone Mobile Data Connect thingy, same as mine, to give us indpendence on both lappies when at Venues. She's a 'puter geek, so fire any questions at her while she's doing the Live Update, I'm sure she'll be able to help.

Surprisingly, Ted Gidden's advice was good too - these thngs are well clever. Southend was the only plsce we ever had a failure - so far!

I got one a couple of months ago, but I had no idea how much I would use per month

so I got it on a contract 50meg per month for £50 per month card was free

The geezer in the shop said come back after a month  or so and he would change it to

a lower monthly payment if I wasn't using 50 meg per month.

I haven't even used 20 meg in a month, when I went back I found out the bloke didn't work there anymore

so I rang vodaphone who refused to lower the monthly tarrif untill after 6 months  :o (in the small print)

needless to say I will be using all of the 50 meg per month from now on!!!

If you get one off Ebay you can download the software needed from their website (vodaphone)

Managed to last an hour until I reraised the SB from my BB with A6 and he called all in and improved his KJ.

Again it seems like half a meg an hour.

I have seem as much as 1-1.25 meg an hour but I think that was when I had a few tables open.

Really feel like another one now but they all seem to be sats until 1am's $3 affair (with the exception of the $75 tourney which is too much for me).

On another note it seems the actual transmission rates are also very low - it doesn't log this automatically so I sat and watched for 5-10 mins while playing and it never went above 1.5Kb/s download or upload (so would be fine on the slowest connections if it's using it on it's own).

No, you can have 3G only.


Don't worry about the software you can download it separately

Thanks Ian. I make two suggestions on techy things & get 0 out of 2 - typical!

sorry Mr T :-*

30 mins on will hill play money was about the same.

I'm OK with a tin-opener.

I have just spoken to all 4 mobile compaines regarding their data cards

T-Mobile: You cannot use their cards on a pay as you go service. :o

Orange: You can  use their cards on a pay as you go service and 1MEG = £4 :)up

o2: You can use their card on a pay as you go service,BUT you can only view wap web pages, not Google, ebay or Hotmail etc ~: >:?

Vodafone: You can use their card on a pay as you go service and 1MEG = £3 :)up

Looks like i will be buying a Vodafone 3G data card, as they have the best service, software,hardware and they are slightly cheaper. :)up

By the look og things its much better to take out a contract for 200MB for £30-£40 a month via Vodaphone.

I can't see any value at all in the £3 per MB use as a PAYG!

I'll be investing shortly!

Like i said Mark, i am only buying the card for back up, therefore spending £30 a month on something i am very unlikely to use is pointless. However, with you spending €100 a month on internet, the data card is better value for you.