Posts Tagged ‘dongle’

T-Mobile USB dongle crashes on Apple

Monday, November 10th, 2008

I had a note in from Rachel at The Internet Team this afternoon:

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Dear Ewan

My partner recently got a T-Mobile USB HSDPA dongle for his Windows laptop.

I tried the Mac software for this on my Macbook (one of the latest models before they went metal again) but it keeps crashing.

I really want to get one, but canI stop it crashing or are there any alternatives?

Thanks in advance.

Rachel

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Well Rachel.. interesting. I actually ended up using the software that came with my 3 USB dongle to power both that and the Vodafone one — I had a similar issue.

Has anyone got some suggestions for Rachel?

Vodafone gets sticky with a new 3G USB modem, with 4GB of storage

Tuesday, November 4th, 2008

Another day, another USB dongle arrives only this time it’s from Vodafone and has an integrated 4GB in the form of a removable microSD card.

Running on from the theory of ‘why take two bottles into the shower’, they built in a slot for the accompanying memory card. Saving in the trauma of carrying around a broadband modem and a flash drive, or something like that.

The Stick Pro, as that’s the moniker it’s going by is capable of the wonderful speeds of 7.2Mbps, depending on signal strength of course. With the max upload reaching the lofty heights of 2Mbps.

Depending on the price plan, it could arrive in your lint free pocket gratis or upwards within monitory costs attached.

For a limited period only, so grab this bad boy whilst it’s hot – Vodafone will be rolling out this mobile broadband on a 3GB date plan for £10 per month for the first three months, on a 24 month contract.

Calculators at the ready, it’s a mighty saving of £15 over those three months. The 5GB version will hurt your pocket to the sum of £15 per month for the same period three months, with the saving of £30.

Coming on from that the Stick Pro is also shipping free on a 5GB plan with a 24 or 18 month contract in tow, but with the cost of £29 on a 12 month price plan.

If that wasn’t enough, now firmly grasp the arms of your chair or someone else’s arms nearby.

Vodafone has also introduced today an almost pay-as-you-go version too. The ‘Stick Lite’ runs across a 30 day period, where you can download the max of 1GB at the cost of £15 per month. Although here, the dongle will set you back £49 to buy.

There’s also 18 month and 24 month 3GB contracts with this version too, where the Stick comes for free!

All in all, it’s quite a novel approach and hurrah for them!

For more info, see their Sticky product pages here

Get a WiFi router with built-in USB dongle support

Tuesday, July 29th, 2008

Regular reader, MarkW knocked me over this email on the subject of routers and USB dongle backup support.

Hope you’re well. Great stuff going on at SMSTextNews. Still enjoying it hugely. Love the vodcast (is that the right word?!).

Just wanted to flag up something I stumbled across while looking for a new router which might appeal to SMSTN audience. It’s a Draytek model with a USB port that allows you to plug in your HSDPA modem and use that as either primary or backup net connection (along with the usual ADSL). Cool. In theory then, as long as you could find power, you could create a portable wi-fi network pretty much anywhere. It costs less than 200 quid and has VOIP prioritisation to boot. It gets very strong reviews too.

http://www.draytek.co.uk/products/vigor2820.html

I’ve never seen anything like this discussed on the site, so I don’t know if you’re aware of it, but I thought your dongle-dangling audience might be as fascinated as I was! I’m on the brink of ordering the 2820Vn…

In case it’s of interest…

draytek 2820Vn

Muchos, muchos interest Mark. Nice one. Has anyone tried out the 2820Vn? It’s a smart idea to include USB dongle support. Indeed I wonder if some of mobile operators would consider selling the device along with their dongles?


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