Router trouble with 3 dongle

Well finally plucked up courage to set up wireless router. 3 had been off
the air for most of the day, but is back now. Funny as when it first came
back I got 5 bars as signal strength for the first time ever in the caravan
but next I logged on I got the usual 2, everyone else must have realised it
was back and logged on as well :-)
Anyway I inserted dongle plugged in router the green and yellow light
flashed once but none of the lights on the front of the router lit up,
Power WLAN Mode Signal
Airport listed the router, so I went ahead anyway and put in the Wireless
Key which is apparently the password and it came back with invalid password,
though I suspect that is because the router has no power to it. I have
tried plugging in to different sockets etc. If I unplug the lead and plug
in again the same scenario starts.
Anyone else connected one of these?

On 19/7/09 18:43, in article (E-Mail Removed), "Pete
Zahut" <dont@bother> wrote:

> Lynn W wrote:
>> Well finally plucked up courage to set up wireless router. 3 had
>> been off the air for most of the day, but is back now. Funny as when
>> it first came back I got 5 bars as signal strength for the first time
>> ever in the caravan but next I logged on I got the usual 2, everyone
>> else must have realised it was back and logged on as well :-)
>> Anyway I inserted dongle plugged in router the green and yellow light
>> flashed once but none of the lights on the front of the router lit up,
>> Power WLAN Mode Signal
>> Airport listed the router, so I went ahead anyway and put in the
>> Wireless Key which is apparently the password and it came back with
>> invalid password, though I suspect that is because the router has no
>> power to it. I have tried plugging in to different sockets etc. If
>> I unplug the lead and plug in again the same scenario starts.
>> Anyone else connected one of these?
>
> I'm not quite sure that I understand what you're trying to do here. You
> don't say what model the 3 dongle is but, if it's something like a ZTE
> MF627, then that doesn't transmit a wifi signal and so will not connect to
> the router. A wireless router and a 3 dongle are two different ways of
> achieving the same thing, ie, getting access to the internet.
>
> Normal scenario is that at home you'll have a wireless router connected to
> the phone line. Laptop wirelessly connects to wireless router, which
> connects to phone line, which connects to internet. In the caravan you
> haven't got a fixed phone line to plug a wireless router into, so that's
> where the 3 dongle comes in. The dongle is essentially a mobile phone so
> you're cutting out the "middle man" of the wireless router and connecting
> the laptop (via the included software of course) directly to the phone line
> and on to the internet.
>
> I really don't see how you can use a USB 3 dongle together with a wireless
> router but, even if there is some way that you could, you say that the Power
> light of the router is not lit - and it definitely will not ever work if
> there's no power to it.
>
>
It is now working though I didn't do anything different. The way it works
is that you plug the 3 dongle (E169) into the 3 router (apparently this
router only works with 3 dongles) it then connects and I now have wireless
connectivity in the caravan that means my husband can also connect his
laptop to the internet as well as me being connected.
The only problem I can see now is me forgetting to unplug the dongle when I
leave meaning I cannot connect in the car on my way home while my husband is
driving :-)
Lynn

On 20/7/09 09:58, in article (E-Mail Removed), "Pete
Zahut" <dont@bother> wrote:

> Lynn W wrote:
>> On 19/7/09 18:43, in article (E-Mail Removed),
>> "Pete Zahut" <dont@bother> wrote:
>>
>>> Lynn W wrote:
>>>> Well finally plucked up courage to set up wireless router. 3 had
>>>> been off the air for most of the day, but is back now. Funny as
>>>> when it first came back I got 5 bars as signal strength for the
>>>> first time ever in the caravan but next I logged on I got the usual
>>>> 2, everyone else must have realised it was back and logged on as
>>>> well :-)
>>>> Anyway I inserted dongle plugged in router the green and yellow
>>>> light flashed once but none of the lights on the front of the
>>>> router lit up, Power WLAN Mode Signal
>>>> Airport listed the router, so I went ahead anyway and put in the
>>>> Wireless Key which is apparently the password and it came back with
>>>> invalid password, though I suspect that is because the router has no
>>>> power to it. I have tried plugging in to different sockets etc. If
>>>> I unplug the lead and plug in again the same scenario starts.
>>>> Anyone else connected one of these?
>>>
>>> I'm not quite sure that I understand what you're trying to do here.
>>> You don't say what model the 3 dongle is but, if it's something like
>>> a ZTE MF627, then that doesn't transmit a wifi signal and so will
>>> not connect to the router. A wireless router and a 3 dongle are two
>>> different ways of achieving the same thing, ie, getting access to
>>> the internet.
>>>
>>> Normal scenario is that at home you'll have a wireless router
>>> connected to the phone line. Laptop wirelessly connects to wireless
>>> router, which connects to phone line, which connects to internet. In
>>> the caravan you haven't got a fixed phone line to plug a wireless
>>> router into, so that's where the 3 dongle comes in. The dongle is
>>> essentially a mobile phone so you're cutting out the "middle man" of
>>> the wireless router and connecting the laptop (via the included
>>> software of course) directly to the phone line and on to the
>>> internet.
>>>
>>> I really don't see how you can use a USB 3 dongle together with a
>>> wireless router but, even if there is some way that you could, you
>>> say that the Power light of the router is not lit - and it
>>> definitely will not ever work if there's no power to it.
>>>
>>>
>> It is now working though I didn't do anything different. The way it
>> works is that you plug the 3 dongle (E169) into the 3 router
>> (apparently this router only works with 3 dongles) it then connects
>> and I now have wireless connectivity in the caravan that means my
>> husband can also connect his laptop to the internet as well as me
>> being connected.
>> The only problem I can see now is me forgetting to unplug the dongle
>> when I leave meaning I cannot connect in the car on my way home while
>> my husband is driving :-)
>> Lynn
>
> Well you learn something new every day )
>
> I had no idea that there was a router that you could plug a dongle into.
> Amazing! With regard to leaving it behind, don't know what yours looks like
> but mine (a ZTE MF627) has a small slot at the bottom so that you can put it
> on a keyring. If yours is the same, put it on the ring along with the car
> keys so that it has to go into the car with you )
>
>
No mine doesn't have that :-) I have it now plugged into the router all the
time while I'm here so I can just open the laptop and off I go, such a
difference to having to plug in the dongle, wait for it to search and
connect. I must say I think 'sending' appears to be a bit slower than when
plugged in directly to the laptop, but that could be my imagination,
receiving seems to be the same.
Lynn

On Mon, 20 Jul 2009 09:58:12 +0100, "Pete Zahut" <dont@bother> wrote:

>I had no idea that there was a router that you could plug a dongle into.
>Amazing! With regard to leaving it behind, don't know what yours looks like
>but mine (a ZTE MF627) has a small slot at the bottom so that you can put it
>on a keyring. If yours is the same, put it on the ring along with the car
>keys so that it has to go into the car with you )

I was looking recently for routers compatible with the ZTE MF627
(which is the freebie one which comes with the 15GB for £15 monthly
option) and came up with this one as a possible from Solwise
http://www.solwise.co.uk/3g-routers-3gwifimrw.htm


Jim.

On Mon, 20 Jul 2009 11:46:17 +0100, Lynn W
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>No mine doesn't have that :-) I have it now plugged into the router all the
>time while I'm here so I can just open the laptop and off I go, such a
>difference to having to plug in the dongle, wait for it to search and
>connect. I must say I think 'sending' appears to be a bit slower than when
>plugged in directly to the laptop, but that could be my imagination,
>receiving seems to be the same.
>Lynn

While I've been deciding which router to get, I've been using Internet
Connection Sharing on a vista laptop to allow other pc's to access the
net via its 3 usb dongle. For sure the speed at which clients can
access the net are well down on the laptop itself and I can't really
think why. The way my network is set up with ics involves some double
natting to get around vista's inflexibility of ip addressing and I
could imagine that having some effect on ping times but the throughput
is only about half of what can be achieved by connecting the laptop
direct. I'll be really disappointed if that's as good as it gets with
a dedicated 3g router.


Jim.

On Mon, 20 Jul 2009 18:03:28 +0100, James Egan <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>>I had no idea that there was a router that you could plug a dongle into.
>>Amazing! With regard to leaving it behind, don't know what yours looks like
>>but mine (a ZTE MF627) has a small slot at the bottom so that you can put it
>>on a keyring. If yours is the same, put it on the ring along with the car
>>keys so that it has to go into the car with you )
>
>I was looking recently for routers compatible with the ZTE MF627
>(which is the freebie one which comes with the 15GB for £15 monthly
>option) and came up with this one as a possible from Solwise
>http://www.solwise.co.uk/3g-routers-3gwifimrw.htm
>

A bit of follow up in case anyone is thinking of getting one of these
or something similar.

This solwise router works fine with the ZTE MF627 once the lastest
firmware has been downloaded and installed but not straight out of the
box. The re-flashing was a piece of cake so that isn't a big issue.

Sharing works fine with no noticeable speed difference when compared
with plugging the modem directly into a pc.

The wifi signal isn't as strong as the Netgear DG834GT I have sitting
nearby but it all works okay. Overall, I'm fairly happy with it so
far.


Jim.

On Wed, 22 Jul 2009 20:35:42 +0100, James Egan <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>A bit of follow up in case anyone is thinking of getting one of these
>or something similar.
>
>This solwise router works fine with the ZTE MF627 once the lastest
>firmware has been downloaded and installed but not straight out of the
>box. The re-flashing was a piece of cake so that isn't a big issue.
>
>Sharing works fine with no noticeable speed difference when compared
>with plugging the modem directly into a pc.
>
>The wifi signal isn't as strong as the Netgear DG834GT I have sitting
>nearby but it all works okay. Overall, I'm fairly happy with it so
>far.
>

A bit more follow up.

The big variation in download rate I was getting was between vista and
xp pc's with vista performance being much better than xp.

Having done some large ping tests I've determined that a MaxMTU of
1464 and RWIN of about 18000 on xp is good for my 3connection here.

This has massively improved the thoughput on xp which is now operating
about the same rate as my vista laptop.

Do 3 have any recommendations for MTU and RWIN? I couldn't find any.


Jim.