blonde poker forum

I have wireless in the house, but want a dongle for when out and about.  The only two providers in our area with any decent sort of coverage are O2 and Vodafone, but I've never dealt with either so would like opinions from you lot.  Overall, which one do you think is best for coverage and customer support?  Cheers!

I haven't had 02, but when I had Vodafone I thought it was good...

Vodafone is excellent in my experience

Thanks Lads.  Off to town in the morning to sort this out.

have u checked three? they are supposed to have the best in the country

laxie's in another country though

And I'm not sure about the UK, but their customer service in this country is BRUTAL!

T mobile will be shit hot at the end of the year as they are integrating their systems with 3 and upgrading where 3 is not yet available.

I have a Three one, customer service is excellent as is the signal.

Dunno what it would be like in Ireland tho.

Laxie you doughnut - might have helped some people if you'd told them you're living in the 18th century in Oirland.

::)

Sigh.............I gave the two options based on my location and was only asking people's opinions about those two companies.  Didn't realise they'd be so helpful in suggesting others as well!  

Apologies folks, but yes - middle of nowhere south of Ireland and only two to choose from.

On the plus side, we do have running water and electricity.   ;D

When did that arrive, this year?

Voda Lax, /end thread.

No one's mentioned O2 yet, so I will. My mum uses an O2 dongle. It's a bit flaky. Get a Vodaphone one imo.

I know nowt about Dongles, but I might get one.

Where do you top up your pre pay balance? I guess you can do it online?

How much coverage would top up get me? Does it go on minutes of usage, number of websites visited (like wap) or some sort of download allowance?

How slow are they?

Online or in a shop - Joobs had a 3 dongle and she just topped it up like it was a phone.

Varies. Generally you have a set limit (3gb) and a set number of days to use it (30).

Joobs said she was able to watch BBC iPlayer using hers, so they aren't that slow. Depends where you live and your connection.

the simple answer is that is varies depending on where you are

in my old house mine was quicker than a home broadband connection, in my new house it doesn't work at all

Blatant copy-pasta here but my mate seems to think this will work (UK at least):


YMMV, not my fault etc etc

warnings about that site

they were doing free dongles where you just had to pay for shipping and seem to be legit but

-the payment page is not on a secure server
-I don't think the dongle is free anymore even though it says it on their front page. still cheaper than on the high st though

plenty of people have recieved dongles through these guys but I certainly wouldn't advise putting card details into their site

Vodafone are in general excellent.

I've got tmobile in the uk and it's quality get up to 400k download speeds, I have a monthly contract ~210 f18 months I think. meant to be a 3 gb download fair usage policy but they dont cut you off until you abuse well over 5gbs worth. Unless you are streaming videos constantly you wont fill the usage limit. Pay as you go ones dont seem as good because by being on contract it's broadband and you never have to turn it off or worry about that.

Very infrequent usage or as backup internet I think pay as you go is good though.

Vodafone it is then.  Thanks everyone!  They are offering a 12 month contract for €19.99 with 10gb per month and I have a choice of 2 dongles.  One is free, the other is €29.99 (E180).  10gb isn't a lot, but I only need 'mobile' service maybe a few hours each week, so I'm hoping it's plenty for that. 

I'd be surprised if 10gb a month isn't enough tbh

it is. you won't get anywhere near using that much

Does playing poker use up GB or is only actual downloading?

poker uses it up but not loads

Bongo, do you have a link to where you can buy an iphone SIM. I've looked on the O2 website but didn't find it.

ebay have them for £9.99, then you need to pay the £10 top-up

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/O2-iPhone-3G-SIM-Card-Unlimited-FREE-Internet-WiFi-1y_W0QQitemZ160355605603QQcategoryZ29779QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp4340.m183QQ_trkparmsZalgo%3DSIC%26its%3DI%252BC%252BS%252BIA%26itu%3DUS-BWR%252BUCI%252BUCC%252BSI%252BIA%252BPSS%252BCRS%252BIT%252BUA%252BIEW%26otn%3D2%26ps%3D33 (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/O2-iPhone-3G-SIM-Card-Unlimited-FREE-Internet-WiFi-1y_W0QQitemZ160355605603QQcategoryZ29779QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp4340.m183QQ_trkparmsZalgo%3DSIC%26its%3DI%252BC%252BS%252BIA%26itu%3DUS-BWR%252BUCI%252BUCC%252BSI%252BIA%252BPSS%252BCRS%252BIT%252BUA%252BIEW%26otn%3D2%26ps%3D33)

Harmony uses a Vodafone dongle for her Netbook, thanks to advice from Red, absloutely no problems with.

One point, to view poker related sites via the Vodafone dongle you will have to remove "Content Control" through customer services, takes a max of 5mins.

Barry, with Vodafone, you can either buy a topup in a store and simply enter the voucher number into the client on the pc or register a credit card with Vodafone.

Can you get the vodafone pay as you go in Ireland? It's the best option for casual users. The top ups don't expire (unlike three and o2 which run out after 30 days) and you get 3GB for £15. Which may end up lasting you several months. And your not tied into any contract.

I got a three dongle from here. The site is actually secure, but you don't get a padlock showing cos their certificate is for a different domain than the new 3dongle4free domain they just bought for the promotion. I got the dongle a few days later and no card fraud yet.

I have the three dongle, I've already unlocked it. What's special about an iphone SIM? Reports here plz of anyone who gets it working.

If buying online remember to order via a cashback site as the payment can just under £100 for contracts.

Sandy

Poker uses up barely any traffic.

I played a roughly 7 hour session 4-8 tabling sky and logged I think 65mb.

I did the 3gb limit in just a few days watching cardrunners and deuces cracked videos with it flagrantly. Unless you are doing high bandwidth streaming you really really dont have to care one bit.

That's what I intended to do initially, but PAYG deals are non-existent in Ireland.  It's €5 per day for only 500mb and you don't get a voucher to enter.  You use it and get billed an obscene amount at the end of each month.  

http://www.vodafone.ie/df/mobilebroadband/gallery_details.jsp?tab=supplementary


Works out much cheaper for me to just get the monthly contract.  Granted, they aren't very generous with roaming charges.  Will cost me €15 per day if I use it in the UK...and that's with the monthly contract!!!

you can always buy a payg sim card for uk visits. will cost you less for a month than for a single day's roaming charge

Can that be put into the dongle I'm getting once I land in the UK and just change back to my own one when I return home?  If so, that'd be brilliant!

shouldn't be a problem afaik. just stick a voda sim in your voda dongle, top it up and you should be fine

Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

If that works, I owe you a pint or two!!!

Yeah, get a vodafone pay as you go dongle, the credit won't expire and you can use it just when you are over here. It will cost you £35, but it comes with £15 credit. I doubt it's worth the hassle of getting a specific SIM and swapping the SIMs over but you could do that.

http://shop.vodafone.co.uk/shop/catalog/compatibleDataPlanListView.jsp?dependantSkuIds=sku690026&phoneType=pre&skuType=dataDeviceSku&selection=null&initialFilters=flt_payasyougo&_requestid=293453

Excellent!  One last question...hopefully.  rotflmfao  Are they easy enough to pick up in-store once I get over there or should I order online?

straight off the shelf


hassle? the 10 second job of switching sims?

that's like buying a new phone to use in the UK rather than just putting a UK sim in your irish one

I was thinking more about changing the log in details on the vodafone dashboard. But thinking in more detail, you might have to do that anyway cos it might use the same profile when you put the pay as you go one in.

And it's not like buying a new phone, it's like having an identical phone for almost free, where you don't need any of your contact information from the 1st one on the 2nd. Phone analogy don't work.

OK, I lied.   rotflmfao  Can I not just use the same details (profile) for both of them?

is the dashboard in browser or is it something you need to d/l?

assuming it's in browser like the 3 one is you just set up one on ie and one on ff

How do you go about unlocking a dongle? Would it be something I could do myself, or is it a job for a professional?

P

With something like this I guess - http://www.dc-unlocker.com/

The vodafone mobile connect software, that for some reason I've named a dashboard, used to need a different username and password for payg and contract. It might have changed with the new payg dongles tho and this could all be irrelevant.