On Fri, 15 Jul 2016 17:48:52 +0100, soup wrote:

On 15/07/2016 17:14, Bob Minchin wrote:

Have you registered with an operator

Didn't think I had to with PAYG

and got a sim in the dongle?

Yup and it's the right way in (one of the first things I checked)

Have you tried a smartphone on the same network to see it it can get a
3G signal?


I am a bear of little brain how would I go about that?

I thought a cell phone signal was different to a 3G


3G - that is just shorthand for the generation of the technology built
into the phone to handle voice, text and data. 3G phones should be
backwards compatible with 2G networks. So the cell phone signal in your
particular case would be from a 3G network.

The current fastest networks are 4G and there is much talk of 5G networks.
The new generations are very much aimed at faster data links because voice
and text work fine on the old 2G networks.

I think you asked elsewhere about data allowances. If you have a modern
(smart) phone and you use any of the smart functions you will need a data
connection. Web browsing, email, anything that needs data from the
Internet. So your phone's monthly allowance will include voice, text and
data.

If you tether then you are using the phone to provide a data connection to
the Internet. So you are using the phone's data allowance. You have to
price the cost of that against the cost of a separate phone account in a
dedicated dongle. A dongle is really just a specialised mobile phone
without the user interface bits (screen keyboard, speakers etc.) and SIM
cards are usually interchangeable between phone handsets and dongles.

I would second the suggestion of a MiFi (although it is too late now)
because this is basically a phone dongle which you connect to via WiFi
instead of USB. So just like a home network. Much more flexible, doesn't
require special drivers, and more than one person can share the link.

Hope this helps.


Cheers


Dave R


--
Windows 8.1 on PCSpecialist box