What makes a chicken coop easy to live with?

[Charlottechicken]

OH needs a new dongle contract for his place of work. However, we already have broadband at home (obviously!) and I wondered if we can have something that would link to the home broadband that we could use for his work and also when we go on (UK) holidays. I have AOL broadband but they don't seem to do dongles, is this more a mobile phone company thing?

[Geoid]

If you have WiFi at home, you wouldn't need the dongle to connect to the internet. Therefore you would save money (depending on the dongle contract) as you would only need to use the dongle where there is no WiFi connection.

[Charlottechicken]

Hmm, see what you mean but the house broadband wifi connection doesn't work at the bottom of the garden so won't work in OH's studio, or on holiday??

 

Think I need a crash course in wifi

[Geoid]

You're mostly correct. WiFi only has a limited range (you can extend it so it covers all of your property however). If you were away on holiday, you would have to use a dongle (or find a WiFi hotspot somewhere, like a cafe)

[merlina]

I'm thinking I also need a dongle (for some reason that just sounds rude... or perhaps I'm just childish.. )

 

Virgin has a nasty habit of dropping my internet connection just when I have vital work to do

 

Does a dongle give good bandwidth? Is it very expensive? where do I start?

[Geoid]

Does a dongle give good bandwidth? Is it very expensive? where do I start?

No and yes.

A dongle uses 3G, HSDPA and 4G networks, just like your phone, but bandwidth is limited. EE offer 4G dongles for around £13 a month, but, you are tied into a 24 month contract.

 

Instead of spending more money, why not contact virgin and see if they can fix your problem.

[Olly]

Have a look at Moneysavingexpert - I used this to find a free SIM card with a limited payment contract. If you scroll down this page you'll get to the bit about dongles but there's also a lot about free WiFi. I am very non-techy, and don't really understand it all either (and yes, it always sounds a bit rude to me, too! )

[merlina]

ah - of course, it needs a mobile signal

Which we don't have out here in the sticks.

Ah well - thanks for the replies

 

(Virgin deny a problem and say it's something to do with the router not recognising my password - why this should happen every few weeks, and especially at holiday times, they can't explain)

[Geoid]

Demand they send you a new router.

[The Dogmother]

CCm speaking from a position of limited knowledge (and happy to be corrected)... I understand that you can extend your wifi range via your home electrics circuits, this might solve the working from the garden problem for OH. As for working away, there could be two options from what I can see... he could either use the internet allowance on his mobile phone contract and create a hotspot with his smart phone that he can connect to with his laptop, or get a PAYG dongle to plug into the lappy. I used the hotspot idea when we were away recently and it wasn't the speediest connection but it worked adequately.

[Charlottechicken]

Thanks DM. Oh needs a dongle anyway, as his business premises is not in the house. I just wondered if it was possible to buy a broadband plus dongle package from one internet supplier, which would hopefully be cheaper (or maybe not!). He can create a hotspot, and I did ask him if he could do this for work, but he needs more downloads than the phone would provide for free. If he gets a new dongle package we will use it on holiday anyway

 

Thinking about it, a combined home and business package would be a tax nightmare