Help please, back-up internet connection, mobile broadband the way to go?

JohnConnor

Hi guys, hope you can help me with this one.

Ok, the time has finally come to invest in a back-up internet connection I think. My ISP is pretty unreliable and is costing me money everytime it goes down. It also affects me in other ways to be honest and I think I need some piece of mind too.

The back-up will only really be needed to complete the DYMs I am currently playing (say, 6-8 tables for 40 mins max) or to complete an MTT (in which case it will be one or two tables for a longer period). In other words, it will just be an emergency back-up.

First of all, is mobile broadband the way to go do you guys think? Are there any other alternatives? If mobile broadband is a good option then I have seen the following if you don't mind having a look:

http://store.three.co.uk/view/product/ql_catalog/threecatdevice/2230?tariff=1041

I am a bit wary of this network in general but from what I can see they offer by far the biggest data allowances out there. I would rather be comfortable in terms of allowance than be worried about not having enough. I think the piece of mind would justify the monthly tariff and 24 month contract.

I would also appreciate any general advice on mobile broadband as it is new to me. For example, is it as easy as plugging it in when my connection goes down, getting on straight away, and if my connection comes back up, say 10 minutes later, unplugging it and reverting to my normal connection?

Thanks in advance for any help guys.

JC

Machka

I don't have much, ok any, experience of mobile broadband but a few things I would check.

Whatever network you go with I'd want to make sure I get a decent reception and connection speed where you are going to be using it.  So either check you can try and return if the signal is useless or see if anyone you know has one you can test on a particular network.

Have you looked at Pay As You Go mobile broadband?  I'm just thinking that if it's only for an occasional use then this might be better than a 24-month contract.

JohnConnor

In Response to Re: Help please, back-up internet connection, mobile broadband the way to go?:

I don't have much, ok any, experience of mobile broadband but a few things I would check. Whatever network you go with I'd want to make sure I get a decent reception and connection speed where you are going to be using it.  So either check you can try and return if the signal is useless or see if anyone you know has one you can test on a particular network. Have you looked at Pay As You Go mobile broadband?  I'm just thinking that if it's only for an occasional use then this might be better than a 24-month contract.
Posted by Machka

Thanks Machka. Yeah, I will be definately be looking for one I can try before I take out the contract. As it happens my dad has just told me has one for work so I'll have a play with that when I get chance.

With regards to Pay As You Go, that was my initial thought. You can get them for £2 per day that you use them which look pretty appealing to me as it hopefully won't be very often at all going forward. The only thing with those is that the usage is sort of maxed at 250mb. From when I was looking into it earlier this didn't seem like very much. I have no idea whether this would suffice in emergency situations. If it would, it would pretty clearly be the best option for me.

If anyone can shed any light into how much data playing Sky would use on these things I would be very grateful.

Cheers
JC

JohnConnor

please help dongle limit question posted at 28/1/2011 2:39 PM GMT on SkyPoker.com

boatrace Posts: 17 First: 19/9/2010 Last: 5/3/2012

Hi All, i need to play away from home, I need to know if im able to play poker with a 3gig limit (pay as you go laptop stick) and if so how much time is available?

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Re: please help dongle limit question posted at 28/1/2011 2:55 PM GMT on SkyPoker.com

oynutter Posts: 3435 First: 10/6/2009 Last: 6/3/2012

Hi Boatrace, no probs playing for a month with that limit, just don't go watching youtube or downloading video--- you can keep an eye on your usage in the dongles program, but 3 gigs will be plenty for poker---gl ps--probably best to use the download version of the site

Just found the above which looks useful. If 3 gig is plenty for a month then I'm thinking 250mb for a day as an emergency might be enough? I was put off thinking that playing poker might be similar to watching YouTube vids etc but I guess it's a lot less usgae then?

Machka

In Response to Re: Help please, back-up internet connection, mobile broadband the way to go?:

In Response to Re: Help please, back-up internet connection, mobile broadband the way to go? : Thanks Machka. Yeah, I will be definately be looking for one I can try before I take out the contract. As it happens my dad has just told me has one for work so I'll have a play with that when I get chance. With regards to Pay As You Go, that was my initial thought. You can get them for £2 per day that you use them which look pretty appealing to me as it hopefully won't be very often at all going forward. The only thing with those is that the usage is sort of maxed at 250mb. From when I was looking into it earlier this didn't seem like very much. I have no idea whether this would suffice in emergency situations. If it would, it would pretty clearly be the best option for me. If anyone can shed any light into how much data playing Sky would use on these things I would be very grateful. Cheers JC
Posted by JohnConnor

We can both play the repost game.  Here is a repost of a repost.

Re: Download limit posted at 7/1/2012 12:14 AM GMT on SkyPoker.com

Machka Posts: 4222 First: 25/10/2009 Last: 8/3/2012

In Response to Download limit: Hi guys, Can anyone tell me if i will use a lot of my download limit playing poker online? I really don't have a clue about this sort of stuff and don't want to get a nice bill at the end of the month. Thanks kilo Posted by kilo05 I posted this a while back, since the download client has been streamlined since this the download usage should be less than in this old post: Re: How Many Meg using Dongle? posted at 26/5/2011 1:35 AM BST on SkyPoker.com   Machka Posts: 3987 First: 25/10/2009 Last: 6/1/2012 One hour of usage by 1 table, 1 lobby (275 players) in the download client was about 10.2MB downloaded and 2.2MB uploaded. I'd assume for each extra table opened it would would add a little less than this as you wouldn't have 2 lobbies open.

JohnConnor

Great work Machka, thank you. Looks like PAYG would be the way forward then.

GaryQQQ

I looked into these when I was having regular disconnections (all internet, not just Sky). With all mobile broadband dongles these days any unused credit expires after a month, so you'll have to top-up once a month to keep your dongle ready for use, quite expensive for an emergency back-up.

If you can find an old Vodafone K3565 dongle anywhere they're on a plan no longer offered which means the credit never expires (as long as you use it at least once every 270 days). Batches of them crop up on eBay sometimes, but they're not cheap.

My problem was eventually traced to bad wiring in my house. When I plugged my router directly into the test socket of the master phone socket (Google it for more info) instead of an extension the disconnections were instantly solved. Well worth a try if you haven't done it already.

JohnConnor

In Response to Re: Help please, back-up internet connection, mobile broadband the way to go?:

I looked into these when I was having regular disconnections (all internet, not just Sky). With all mobile broadband dongles these days any unused credit expires after a month, so you'll have to top-up once a month to keep your dongle ready for use, quite expensive for an emergency back-up. If you can find an old  Vodafone K3565 dongle anywhere they're on a plan no longer offered which means the credit never expires (as long as you use it at least once every 270 days). Batches of them crop up on eBay sometimes, but they're not cheap. My problem was eventually traced to bad wiring in my house. When I plugged my router directly into the test socket of the master phone socket (Google it for more info) instead of an extension the disconnections were instantly solved. Well worth a try if you haven't done it already.
Posted by GaryQQQ

Hi Gary, very useful stuff, thanks for that. Thankfully, my wireless issues within the house seem to be sorted now. It's just my ISP that doesn't seem to like me (TV goes down with the internet too!).

simonnatur

I'ld recommend you take a look at the giffgaff website if you are looking for mobile bb , they seem to offer very good value

btw I have had similar problems and have been able to play on my phone as a backup using a browser , though this only works for a single table.  Has been a life saver at a crucial stage of a tourney once or twice

Machka

Another Idea.

If you have a relatively modern phone you might be able to use it and "tether" your laptop/PC to the mobile and use its internet connection for a brief while.

http://lifehacker.com/5447347/how-to-tether-your-android-phone