I bought a USB dongle in Australia during the summer to be able to access
the web using my laptop whilst there. It was bought there from the
Australian arm of VirginMobile, and worked great.

I now need to be able to have a similar arrangement both here in the UK and
also in Portugal. Not looking for anything fancy - just, say, 1GB/month for
the occasional use and at a reasonable cost.

Does anybody know if my dongle will work here/in Portugal with a locally
purchased PAYG SIM card, or do I have to buy a new one (or two)?

"JoeJoe" wrote in message
o.uk...
I bought a USB dongle in Australia during the summer to be able to access
the web using my laptop whilst there. It was bought there from the
Australian arm of VirginMobile, and worked great.

I now need to be able to have a similar arrangement both here in the UK
and also in Portugal. Not looking for anything fancy - just, say,
1GB/month for the occasional use and at a reasonable cost.

Does anybody know if my dongle will work here/in Portugal with a locally
purchased PAYG SIM card, or do I have to buy a new one (or two)?

Just to clarify, the dongle uses the mobile network, not wi-fi.

On 27/09/2010 22:40, JoeJoe wrote:
I bought a USB dongle in Australia during the summer to be able to access
the web using my laptop whilst there. It was bought there from the
Australian arm of VirginMobile, and worked great.

I now need to be able to have a similar arrangement both here in the UK and
also in Portugal. Not looking for anything fancy - just, say, 1GB/month for
the occasional use and at a reasonable cost.

Does anybody know if my dongle will work here/in Portugal with a locally
purchased PAYG SIM card, or do I have to buy a new one (or two)?

I expect it will be locked to the Australian arm of VirginMobile (which
may mean that a VirginMobile sim may work)?

David

JoeJoe wrote:
I bought a USB dongle in Australia during the summer to be able to access
the web using my laptop whilst there. It was bought there from the
Australian arm of VirginMobile, and worked great.

I now need to be able to have a similar arrangement both here in the UK and
also in Portugal. Not looking for anything fancy - just, say, 1GB/month for
the occasional use and at a reasonable cost.

Does anybody know if my dongle will work here/in Portugal with a locally
purchased PAYG SIM card, or do I have to buy a new one (or two)?

It basically depends whether the dongle is unlocked or not. You can
buy unlocked USB dongles for £20 or so and then you can use a SIM from
any network in it (as long as it's an internet sort of SIM of course).

This is what we do for internet access in Belgium, I have an unlocked
dongle and we buy PAYG Mobistar SIMs.

--
Chris Green

"Lobster" wrote in message
...
On 27/09/2010 22:40, JoeJoe wrote:
I bought a USB dongle in Australia during the summer to be able to access
the web using my laptop whilst there. It was bought there from the
Australian arm of VirginMobile, and worked great.

I now need to be able to have a similar arrangement both here in the UK
and
also in Portugal. Not looking for anything fancy - just, say, 1GB/month
for
the occasional use and at a reasonable cost.

Does anybody know if my dongle will work here/in Portugal with a locally
purchased PAYG SIM card, or do I have to buy a new one (or two)?

I expect it will be locked to the Australian arm of VirginMobile (which
may mean that a VirginMobile sim may work)?

Thanks for the tip. It was indeed locked, but after 2 minutes and some help
from Google, now it is not... ;-)

On Sep 28, 11:21*am, wrote:
This is what we do for internet access in Belgium, I have an unlocked
dongle and we buy PAYG Mobistar SIMs.

I have a couple of these data dongles but if you are in a marginal
area of coverage then you need to be tethered by a usb cable with the
dongle perched on a window upstairs. Three now have a MIFI adaptor
which works like the dongle but provides an interface to the computer
by wifi. So you can connect 4 wifi enabled gadgets rather than just
one with the usb dongle. You could also put the adaptor in the loft
where the signal should be better. The latest model is E585 and you
can buy these from fleabay for £70ish unlocked.

Anyway, I have bought one of these PAYG from the three store for £50,
but you are forced to buy a topup at the same time. If you buy on PAYG
you can immediately call their customer service and pay £15 to have it
officially unlocked. At least if its done by them, I am guessing the
warranty remains valid?! Well after nearly an hour on the phone, they
provided the unlock code and yes it worked with a T-Mobile data
simcard which ironically had better signal strength and speed than the
3 network. If you want an unlocked MIFI adaptor with warranty then
don't buy it on contract or they won't give you the unlock code until
your contract expires. If you buy on PAYG they will unlock it the same
day! Odd policy isn't it. Oh and they tried to give me the old model
so be sure to only accept the E585.

Dave

On 29/09/2010 12:26, JoeJoe wrote:
wrote in message
...
On 27/09/2010 22:40, JoeJoe wrote:
I bought a USB dongle in Australia during the summer to be able to access
the web using my laptop whilst there. It was bought there from the
Australian arm of VirginMobile, and worked great.

I now need to be able to have a similar arrangement both here in the UK
and
also in Portugal. Not looking for anything fancy - just, say, 1GB/month
for
the occasional use and at a reasonable cost.

Does anybody know if my dongle will work here/in Portugal with a locally
purchased PAYG SIM card, or do I have to buy a new one (or two)?

I expect it will be locked to the Australian arm of VirginMobile (which
may mean that a VirginMobile sim may work)?

Thanks for the tip. It was indeed locked, but after 2 minutes and some help
from Google, now it is not... ;-)

Care to share where you got the info? I also happen to have a dongle I
could do with getting unlocked...
David

"Lobster" wrote in message
...
On 29/09/2010 12:26, JoeJoe wrote:
wrote in message
...
On 27/09/2010 22:40, JoeJoe wrote:
I bought a USB dongle in Australia during the summer to be able to
access
the web using my laptop whilst there. It was bought there from the
Australian arm of VirginMobile, and worked great.

I now need to be able to have a similar arrangement both here in the UK
and
also in Portugal. Not looking for anything fancy - just, say, 1GB/month
for
the occasional use and at a reasonable cost.

Does anybody know if my dongle will work here/in Portugal with a
locally
purchased PAYG SIM card, or do I have to buy a new one (or two)?

I expect it will be locked to the Australian arm of VirginMobile (which
may mean that a VirginMobile sim may work)?

Thanks for the tip. It was indeed locked, but after 2 minutes and some
help
from Google, now it is not... ;-)

Care to share where you got the info? I also happen to have a dongle I
could do with getting unlocked...


I have recently used DC Unlocker
http://www.dc-unlocker.com/
4 euros to unlock a Virgin Mobile pay monthly dongle.
Virgin Mobile claimed they could not supply an unlock code.

--
No plan survives contact with the enemy.
[Not even bunny]

Helmuth von Moltke the Elder

(\__/)
(='.'=)
(")_(")

On 30 Sep, 07:53, Lobster wrote:

Care to share where you got the info? *I also happen to have a dongle I
could do with getting unlocked...
David

The easy bit is unlocking the mifi once you have the code. All you do
is put in a non-3 sim and go to the unlock menu which is no longer
greyed out.

There are three ways to get the unlock code.

1) Ask 3 for it

2) Pay somebody for software to extract it for you. Search for
"zibri" for an example, but there are others.

3) Do it yourself. There are instructions on the web. It basically
involves using the free demo version of a program called PSAS to read
the "EFS" configuration file system in raw format and search for a
text string which is just before the unlock code. You can check that
you have found the right place by confirming that the serial number is
just before the string you searched for. PSAS usually fails to
extract the whole file and crashes. It may take a large number of
attempts before it works. The mifi sometimes locks up and has to be
power cycled or even "factory reset", but it can be done. Search for
"mifi unlock pst" for more info.

John