MiFi

[Spacecadet]

Anyone used the MiFi mobile broadband thing from Three?

[DiscoStu]

Anyone used the MiFi mobile broadband thing from Three?

What would you like to know?

[Spacecadet]

What would you like to know?

I'm already with 3 but on a dongle
So what i need to know is:
does it work?
does it work better/same/worse than a dongle?
when it stops working is it easy to get it working again?

[DiscoStu]

I'm already with 3 but on a dongle
So what i need to know is:
does it work?
does it work better/same/worse than a dongle?
when it stops working is it easy to get it working again?

Yes, it does work. I've got a 3 dongle as well and I've found the following:

Battery life isn't as good as advertised. I can flatten it easily in 3 hours with moderate use.
Connection speed from the MiFi is slower than from the dongle. I've tried it in the office, I can get 300 kb/s from the dongle, this drops to about 200 from the MiFi.
It's a pain in the arse to start up the MiFi, you have to power it on, then wait for it to connect to the 3G network, then press another button and wait for the wireless to start, then press another button to establish internet connectivity.

In all honesty, mine mostly sits in my laptop bag while the dongle gets plugged in, I just find it less hassle.

The only time it gets used is when I need to use 2 machines (I think you can only connect a maximum of 5 devices) and I just put the sim in from my dongle.

ETA - if it stops working, it's just a question of powering it off, then going through the laborious power on process again. It did totally lock up once, but I just popped the battery out and back in again and it was fine.

[Spacecadet]

Yes, it does work. I've got a 3 dongle as well and I've found the following:

Battery life isn't as good as advertised. I can flatten it easily in 3 hours with moderate use.
Connection speed from the MiFi is slower than from the dongle. I've tried it in the office, I can get 300 kb/s from the dongle, this drops to about 200 from the MiFi.
It's a pain in the arse to start up the MiFi, you have to power it on, then wait for it to connect to the 3G network, then press another button and wait for the wireless to start, then press another button to establish internet connectivity.

In all honesty, mine mostly sits in my laptop bag while the dongle gets plugged in, I just find it less hassle.

The only time it gets used is when I need to use 2 machines (I think you can only connect a maximum of 5 devices) and I just put the sim in from my dongle.

ETA - if it stops working, it's just a question of powering it off, then going through the laborious power on process again. It did totally lock up once, but I just popped the battery out and back in again and it was fine.

Thanks

I'll probably give it a miss then untill I can see an actual reason for getting one!

[DiscoStu]

Thanks

I'll probably give it a miss then untill I can see an actual reason for getting one!

I think if you've got more than one device that can use the MiFi connection it's definitely worth it, but for a single laptop it's just an expensive dongle.

[Ardesco]

One advantage is that being WIFI it will work with any OS, I belive you are stuck with using windows with the dongle.

[Spacecadet]

One advantage is that being WIFI it will work with any OS, I belive you are stuck with using windows with the dongle.

Thats not really a problem for me

[NickFitz]

One advantage is that being WIFI it will work with any OS, I belive you are stuck with using windows with the dongle.

I've got a 3 dongle that I use with my MacBook - well, used to use; their service (both data and customer) was such a POS that I switched to O2.

[Spacecadet]

I've got a 3 dongle that I use with my MacBook - well, used to use; their service (both data and customer) was such a POS that I switched to O2.

My phone is with O2, so far I've found that if I have no phone reception then I have no reception on the 3 mobile dongle either and vice versa.