On 15/07/2016 21:19, dennis@home wrote:
On 15/07/2016 17:02, soup wrote:
Son has a Macbook (running El Capitan)he normally uses the WiFi in the
house but thinking of out and about he has gotten himself a PAYG USB
dongle

http://consumer.huawei.com/my/mobile...s/e3533-my.htm

so he can get WiFi over the mobile network.

However we cannot seem to get a signal (3G) for it, neither indoors
nor taking a walk down to the mobile masts in a nearby car-park.
Are there any tips and tricks to setting up one of these dongles
or is it a case of no signal no connection to the computer rather than
no connection to the computer the Dongle doesn't even bother 'looking'
for a signal?
If he has a mobile then he probably already has a data contract on the
phone and may well be able to share it using bluetooth or wifi negating
the need for a dongle.

Yup, he has an iPhone 5 and it was the work of moments to set it up as
a hotspot and use that to connect. However he is bloody minded (almost
put determined there, but I think it's a case of like father like son.
So bloody minded seems more apt)that it will be cheaper to not use the
data allowance on his 'phone. The mere fact that it is using his 3G
signal not his data is neither here nor there according to him, and to
be honest I am not au fait enough to put a decent argument forward.

So will get the dongle set-up then when he has used his allowance
(2GB in 30days) on it shall not bother getting any more and will let
the whole idea just fade away. In the house he can just use the house
WiFi, at his aunt's he can use hers, at his work use theirs any where
else he can use his phone and if he needs the big screen he can use his
phone as a hotspot . The other use case of, 'in the car' I managed to
talk him out off "if you are driving concentrate on that not getting
a WiFi signal", else phone or hotspot if big screen needed.