Vodafone Mobile Broadband 3G ?

Hi,

I have just bought a mobile broadband dongle PAYG on Vodafone. The problem
is it always connects with GPRS and never 3G. As you will probably know I
cannot put up with GPRS as its like a dial-up speed.

Does anyone know if I can make the modem use 3G automatically, or is it
likely that it is choosing the only speed it has available. According to
Vodafone coverage I am right in the middle of a 3G area of coverage. I even
took the laptop outside yesterday and it still connected to GPRS only. I
have paid 15 pounds top-up if that is relevant.

Can anyone suggest how I make it connect at 3G speed?

Thanks
Sarah

I guess this is the wrong group really, sorry. I have posted the question in
uk.telecom.mobile instead.

Sarah Wilde wrote:
> I guess this is the wrong group really, sorry. I have posted the question in
> uk.telecom.mobile instead.
>
Its a fair question for this group, not that I have a clue.

I've got O2 mobile broadband. From home sometimes I get 3G sometimes
not, it seems to depend on time of day. I'm not sure if it is caused by
poor signal or load on the local cell. It would be nice to know.

On 30 May, 09:22, Nick <N...@spam.com> wrote:
> Sarah Wilde wrote:
> > I guess this is the wrong group really, sorry. I have posted the question in
> > uk.telecom.mobile instead.
>
> Its a fair question for this group, not that I have a clue.
>
> I've got O2 mobile broadband. From home sometimes I get 3G sometimes
> not, it seems to depend on time of day. I'm not sure if it is caused by
> poor signal or load on the local cell. It would be nice to know.

I am not sure, but I have a vague recollection of a selection
in some user settings menu that allowed network
preferences to be set.

This was a few years ago on the old CardBus device
and I don't have one here now.

Remember that if you have the USB one you can put it on the
end of a cable and mount it somwhere advantagous, or
even get a 3G router and stick it in the loft.

This looks like a router
http://www.faculty-x.net/3g%20router%203gwifimrw.htm.

In article <006523cb$0$22116$(E-Mail Removed)>, "Nick" wrote:
>
> I've got O2 mobile broadband. From home sometimes I get 3G sometimes
> not, it seems to depend on time of day. I'm not sure if it is caused by
> poor signal or load on the local cell. It would be nice to know.

That could be only part of the problem. Around here, there is very good
"3" coverage and I've had better than 3Mbps in the garden at home and in
a newly constructed concrete-block church hall surrounded by trees on
three sides, the cell transmitter direction being on the 4th... Just
down the road from here, there's poor coverage, because there is a
slight hill that just hides the transmitter. A house half way closer to
the transmitter gets no coverage at all, again because they're on the
wrong side of rising ground and a small wood. They could probably get
some coverage with a high, external roof-mounted repeater aerial, but
that pushes up the cost, especially when wired ADSL is much better.
I've tried repeater aerials in the windows and I then get good coverage
inside at home.

Looking at the coverage, it is very dependent on the physical location
of the receiver relative the the transmitter. If you don't have line of
site, then you won't get a good speed, or even no 3G connection at all.
The coverage maps published by the providers are optimistic and don't
have enough detail to allow a good estimation of coverage in a
particular location. They need to have a feature of being able to see if
the transmitter is visible from a spot location.

The higher the frequency used, e,g, 3G, the more the signal behaves like
light and the the more it is absorbed by walls and the like. My house
has 50s cider-block internal walls and a neighbour's has modern foil-
backed insulation board. Both fuction like Faraday cages. Wireless LAN
and 3G WAN are just non-starters inside these houses.

If you want to go with 3G, then make sure the supplier has a "sale or
return" policy, so you can test it in the location(s) you want it to
work before committing to any expense.
--
John W
I you really want to mail me, replace the obvious with co.uk twice

Sarah Wilde wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I have just bought a mobile broadband dongle PAYG on Vodafone. The problem
> is it always connects with GPRS and never 3G. As you will probably know I
> cannot put up with GPRS as its like a dial-up speed.
>
> Does anyone know if I can make the modem use 3G automatically, or is it
> likely that it is choosing the only speed it has available.

My only experience of these was with a Three dingle, that connected in
exactly the same place at firstly broadband speeds, then dialup speeds,
then as it got to 5 O clock, voice only..

People tell me that the voice traffic simply crowds out the broadband.


> According to
> Vodafone coverage I am right in the middle of a 3G area of coverage. I even
> took the laptop outside yesterday and it still connected to GPRS only. I
> have paid 15 pounds top-up if that is relevant.
>
> Can anyone suggest how I make it connect at 3G speed?
>
Wait ten years until high speed radio is available everywhere in volume.

Or try at 3 a.m. These dongles neither know nor care about the speed,
they simply do a connect: There appears to be no 'connect at this speed'
commands. Its like a modem. They connect as fast as they can.

> Thanks
> Sarah
>
>

In article <gvqn93$7f0$(E-Mail Removed)>,
Sarah Wilde <777@777.00> wrote:
>
> I have just bought a mobile broadband dongle PAYG on Vodafone. The problem
> is it always connects with GPRS and never 3G. As you will probably know I
> cannot put up with GPRS as its like a dial-up speed.
>
> Does anyone know if I can make the modem use 3G automatically, or is it
> likely that it is choosing the only speed it has available. According to
> Vodafone coverage I am right in the middle of a 3G area of coverage. I even
> took the laptop outside yesterday and it still connected to GPRS only. I
> have paid 15 pounds top-up if that is relevant.
>
> Can anyone suggest how I make it connect at 3G speed?

I've just been setting up one of these myself.

What you do is, in the Vodafone Mobile Connect application, click on
"Manage Devices". Then it will show you a list of devices - containing
just your device.

Click on the device name - it should get a grey background, and then
click on the Edit button. That will bring up a box with "Network
Preference". Change the setting from "3G Preferred" to "3G Only".
Click OK and then OK again.

Then you will either connect via 3G or not at all. You can always
change it back if you need to use it in an area without 3G.

Hope this helps.
Cheers
Tony
--
Tony Mountifield
Work: (E-Mail Removed) - http://www.softins.co.uk
Play: (E-Mail Removed) - http://tony.mountifield.org

The Natural Philosopher <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> Or try at 3 a.m. These dongles neither know nor care about the speed,
> they simply do a connect: There appears to be no 'connect at this speed'
> commands. Its like a modem. They connect as fast as they can.

My Vodafone 3G card (Hwauei of some sort) can be instructed to connect
only using GPRS, only using 3G, or the best option at the time,
i.e. attempted 3G with fallback to GPRS. The Vodafone Mobile Connect
control panel shows signal strength for both 3G and GPRS.

Chris