Ok, not DIY, but I thought it would make a change from discussing Brexit.

I've managed to avoid getting a contract smartphone, mostly by not
travelling/talking enough to need one.

This year we're thinking of taking a holiday with limited luggage space,
so no bringing laptops with us like we normally do. We'd still like to
use the interwebs in the evening while camping, possibly some mapping
during the day too, so I'm thinking it might be time to get a cheapish
android phone.

I then thought it would be good to get one I can configure as a wifi
hotspot, so when I go somewhere eg on business I can use that rather
than my old Three dongle + a dumbphone.

I want PAYG, not contract - this is only really for holidays or other
trips. I also think it's going to be mostly data rather than calls.

It would be nice if prices were sane abroad - though I know this is set
to improve generally.

Any recommendations on :

PAYG vendor who allows tethering for a sensible price, for use a couple
of weeks a year
Suitably cheap phone - some battery life would be useful

On 10/05/16 00:29, Clive George wrote:
Ok, not DIY, but I thought it would make a change from discussing Brexit.

I've managed to avoid getting a contract smartphone, mostly by not
travelling/talking enough to need one.

This year we're thinking of taking a holiday with limited luggage space,
so no bringing laptops with us like we normally do. We'd still like to
use the interwebs in the evening while camping, possibly some mapping
during the day too, so I'm thinking it might be time to get a cheapish
android phone.

I then thought it would be good to get one I can configure as a wifi
hotspot, so when I go somewhere eg on business I can use that rather
than my old Three dongle + a dumbphone.

I want PAYG, not contract - this is only really for holidays or other
trips. I also think it's going to be mostly data rather than calls.

It would be nice if prices were sane abroad - though I know this is set
to improve generally.

Any recommendations on :

PAYG vendor who allows tethering for a sensible price, for use a couple
of weeks a year
Suitably cheap phone - some battery life would be useful

My so0lution to this a couple of years back was an EEEPC netbook and a
fresh install of Linux on a flash card.

Then use whatever wifi was available. It was hell slow to boot, but
worked OK for mail and browsing...when there wasnt any Mobile signal AT
ALL not even 1G!




--
If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will
eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such
time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic
and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally
important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for
the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the
truth is the greatest enemy of the State.

Joseph Goebbels

Clive George wrote:
Ok, not DIY, but I thought it would make a change from discussing Brexit.

I've managed to avoid getting a contract smartphone, mostly by not
travelling/talking enough to need one.

This year we're thinking of taking a holiday with limited luggage space,
so no bringing laptops with us like we normally do. We'd still like to
use the interwebs in the evening while camping, possibly some mapping
during the day too, so I'm thinking it might be time to get a cheapish
android phone.

I then thought it would be good to get one I can configure as a wifi
hotspot, so when I go somewhere eg on business I can use that rather
than my old Three dongle + a dumbphone.

I want PAYG, not contract - this is only really for holidays or other
trips. I also think it's going to be mostly data rather than calls.

It would be nice if prices were sane abroad - though I know this is set
to improve generally.

Any recommendations on :

PAYG vendor who allows tethering for a sensible price, for use a couple
of weeks a year
Suitably cheap phone - some battery life would be useful


I could be wrong but I think you'll struggle to get data with tethering on
PAYG at a reasonable price. You also don't say where you're going on
holiday which will affect choice too.

For most of Europe and America the 3 network is possibly the best option on
a monthly renewable contract. This allows you to tether and any calls/data
used just comes out of your monthly allowance.

Tim

--
Trolls AND TROLL FEEDERS all go in my kill file

On 10/05/2016 07:15, Tim+ wrote:
For most of Europe and America the 3 network is possibly the best option on
a monthly renewable contract. This allows you to tether and any calls/data
used just comes out of your monthly allowance.

I think there are limits on usage over tethering.

Their calls-over-wifi software works reasonably OK.

--
Rod

"polygonum" wrote in message
...
On 10/05/2016 07:15, Tim+ wrote:
For most of Europe and America the 3 network is possibly the best option
on
a monthly renewable contract. This allows you to tether and any
calls/data
used just comes out of your monthly allowance.

I think there are limits on usage over tethering.

Their calls-over-wifi software works reasonably OK.

--
Rod

I'm not going to comment on the minefield that is roaming, but for a
(relatively) inexpensive decent android phone look at the Motorola Moto G
range. For their price they are hard to beat, with big sharp screens, and
much better battery life than most - certainly up to three times the life of
our previous Samsung phones. They also have decent processors, and Motorola
haven't mucked around too much with the core android software.

Charles F


---
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus

On Tue, 10 May 2016 00:29:44 +0100, Clive George wrote:

We'd still like to use the interwebs in the evening while camping,
possibly some mapping during the day too, so I'm thinking it might be
time to get a cheapish android phone.

The small screen size of a cheap phone can be a bit of PITA. It's
useable provided you have good eyesight and pointy fingers (screen
based keyboard is corespondingly tiny...)

A 7" tablet with WiFi connected to the hostspot of a basic smart
phone might be better. Mapping, is that google maps (requires 'net
connection) or one of the offline systems that can use Ordnance
Survey maps from the devices storage? I use "Viewranger GPS" with
1:25000 OS mapping, there are other similar apps available. Remember
that even an offline based mapping device requires power to be
useful, get a powerbank or carry the paper version as well.

PAYG vendor who allows tethering for a sensible price, for use a couple
of weeks a year

If you want a service that officially allows tethering that might be
hard to find for a "sensible price". However it may "take a while"
for the network/operator to notice that you have something tethered.
I have a cheap contract with TPO (The Peoples Operator)(*), they have
yet to ever notice when I tether my tablet and just browse the web
collect and send email for a couple of hours. They did notice, within
30 mins, when I tethered the whole home LAN to see if I could use it
as a back up. All that happened is data stopped working and for 3 or
4 hours after I took down the LAN connection.

Generally speaking when abroad it's cheaper to get a local PAYG SIM
and use it in your unlocked phone. Making sure that your UK SIM
doesn't have any diverts set and will fallback to voicemail.
Depending on the charges on the foriegn SIM check your voicemail via
it or get a VOIP account and SIP software on the phone and a data
enabled foreign SIM.

SMS's sent to your UK number obviusly won't be delivered until you
pop your UK SIM back in and roam on to a foreign network, check the
delivery costs (if any...).

(*) £4.99/month rolling contract 100 mins 100 texts 500 MB included,
the price is now £5.99/month. Currently TPO have a 30 day £5.00 PAYG
bundle (100 mins, 300 texts, 500 MB) with out of bundle charges of
4p/min, 3p/text, 2p/MB (discounted, 12p/min, 5p/text, 15p/MB
official). I can hit 100 texts, 300 should be enough, looks like I
ought to swap...

Still call charges seem to be randomly generated. On our UK numbered
VOIP account it's 1/3 the price to call a Costa Rican mobile in Costa
Rica than it is to call a UK mobile in the UK... But of course one
just sets up another suitable VOIP account and softphone on the
mobile and calls for "free" over a data connection.

--
Cheers
Dave.

On Tue, 10 May 2016 00:29:44 +0100, Clive George
wrote:

Ok, not DIY, but I thought it would make a change from discussing Brexit.

I've managed to avoid getting a contract smartphone, mostly by not
travelling/talking enough to need one.

This year we're thinking of taking a holiday with limited luggage space,
so no bringing laptops with us like we normally do. We'd still like to
use the interwebs in the evening while camping, possibly some mapping
during the day too, so I'm thinking it might be time to get a cheapish
android phone.

I then thought it would be good to get one I can configure as a wifi
hotspot, so when I go somewhere eg on business I can use that rather
than my old Three dongle + a dumbphone.

I want PAYG, not contract - this is only really for holidays or other
trips. I also think it's going to be mostly data rather than calls.

It would be nice if prices were sane abroad - though I know this is set
to improve generally.

Any recommendations on :

PAYG vendor who allows tethering for a sensible price, for use a couple
of weeks a year
Suitably cheap phone - some battery life would be useful
Have a look here for sim only deals, it tells you if tethering is
allowed: http://www.hotsimonlydeals.com/

I've just bought the Tesco one:
http://www.tesco.com/direct/tesco-mo...skuId=574-7120

4g included. Then get an unlocked phone off eBay.

Clive George wrote:
Ok, not DIY, but I thought it would make a change from discussing Brexit.

I've managed to avoid getting a contract smartphone, mostly by not
travelling/talking enough to need one.

This year we're thinking of taking a holiday with limited luggage space,
so no bringing laptops with us like we normally do. We'd still like to
use the interwebs in the evening while camping, possibly some mapping
during the day too, so I'm thinking it might be time to get a cheapish
android phone.

I then thought it would be good to get one I can configure as a wifi
hotspot, so when I go somewhere eg on business I can use that rather
than my old Three dongle + a dumbphone.

I want PAYG, not contract - this is only really for holidays or other
trips. I also think it's going to be mostly data rather than calls.

It would be nice if prices were sane abroad - though I know this is set
to improve generally.

Any recommendations on :

PAYG vendor who allows tethering for a sensible price, for use a couple
of weeks a year
Suitably cheap phone - some battery life would be useful

I'm a bit of a late adopter when it comes to phones, but I got fed up of
our little boy complaining when he couldn't get a connection for his
tablet (half of the games seem to require it, these days). I got a
thing called a WileyFox Swift, which was quite cheap, always supplied
SIM free, I think, and is sort of opening up a new world for me.
Battery is dead after about a week, which seems terrible to me, but may
be par for the course.

Can't comment on contract prices. My sister works at O2, and I got a
sim-only deal at half price. Can you even get tethering with PAYG?

Dave Liquorice wrote:

A 7" tablet with WiFi connected to the hostspot of a basic smart
phone might be better.

I was going to suggest a tablet too.

Mapping, is that google maps (requires 'net connection)

Google maps can now cache substantial areas, e.g on my tablet I have a
rough square that extends from Southport to Spurn Point, to Maidstone to
Weston Super Mare, it takes 1.3GB and refreshes itself over WiFi every
30 days. You can get directions while offline but obviously no live
traffic updates.

On Tuesday, 10 May 2016 10:19:18 UTC+1, Andy Burns wrote:

I have a 3 "Broadband PAYG +12" 4G data only SIM for roaming in Europe
with a tablet computer. Tethering worked when I tried it in Spain.
12 Gbyte, valid for up to 1 year cost £30 a couple of months ago.
The deal is still available.

No extra charge when roaming in much of Europe and USA plus a
few other places.

As mentioned above, you can now download a selected area in google maps,
then you only need to use data for live traffic udates.

John

Andy Burns wrote:
Dave Liquorice wrote:

A 7" tablet with WiFi connected to the hostspot of a basic smart
phone might be better.

I was going to suggest a tablet too.

Mapping, is that google maps (requires 'net connection)

Google maps can now cache substantial areas, e.g on my tablet I have a
rough square that extends from Southport to Spurn Point, to Maidstone to
Weston Super Mare, it takes 1.3GB and refreshes itself over WiFi every
30 days. You can get directions while offline but obviously no live
traffic updates.

Use Nokia (as was) Here! for navigation, excellent maps and works
off-line.

--
Chris Green
·

wrote:

Use Nokia (as was) Here! for navigation, excellent maps and works
off-line.

Last time I tried it it wrecked my battery life, even when supposedly
not running.

On 10/05/2016 09:57, Davidm wrote:
On Tue, 10 May 2016 00:29:44 +0100, Clive George
wrote:

Ok, not DIY, but I thought it would make a change from discussing Brexit.

I've managed to avoid getting a contract smartphone, mostly by not
travelling/talking enough to need one.

This year we're thinking of taking a holiday with limited luggage space,
so no bringing laptops with us like we normally do. We'd still like to
use the interwebs in the evening while camping, possibly some mapping
during the day too, so I'm thinking it might be time to get a cheapish
android phone.

I then thought it would be good to get one I can configure as a wifi
hotspot, so when I go somewhere eg on business I can use that rather
than my old Three dongle + a dumbphone.

I want PAYG, not contract - this is only really for holidays or other
trips. I also think it's going to be mostly data rather than calls.

It would be nice if prices were sane abroad - though I know this is set
to improve generally.

Any recommendations on :

PAYG vendor who allows tethering for a sensible price, for use a couple
of weeks a year
Suitably cheap phone - some battery life would be useful
Have a look here for sim only deals, it tells you if tethering is
allowed: http://www.hotsimonlydeals.com/

I've just bought the Tesco one:
http://www.tesco.com/direct/tesco-mo...skuId=574-7120

4g included. Then get an unlocked phone off eBay.


That looks pretty good for a spare/emergency phone 'your free credit
expires but credit from your top-ups never expires'.

--
Cheers, Rob

On 10/05/2016 00:29, Clive George wrote:
Ok, not DIY, but I thought it would make a change from discussing Brexit.

I've managed to avoid getting a contract smartphone, mostly by not
travelling/talking enough to need one.

This year we're thinking of taking a holiday with limited luggage space,
so no bringing laptops with us like we normally do. We'd still like to
use the interwebs in the evening while camping, possibly some mapping
during the day too, so I'm thinking it might be time to get a cheapish
android phone.

I then thought it would be good to get one I can configure as a wifi
hotspot, so when I go somewhere eg on business I can use that rather
than my old Three dongle + a dumbphone.

I want PAYG, not contract - this is only really for holidays or other
trips. I also think it's going to be mostly data rather than calls.

It would be nice if prices were sane abroad - though I know this is set
to improve generally.

Any recommendations on :

PAYG vendor who allows tethering for a sensible price, for use a couple
of weeks a year
Suitably cheap phone - some battery life would be useful

Depends where you plan to go. In general I find the tethering on Android
phones easy to get working. Nearly all the hotels I have stayed in
recently have offered free WiFi, sometimes sending emails can be
difficult. I now use SSL. Making calls using VOIP cane be very
difficult. With PAYG it is worth trying tethering even if not allowed
in the T&Cs. You need to be very careful to avoid high costs for data
when abroad, though it is getting better in the EU. I have using data
abroad blocked.


--
Michael Chare

On 10/05/2016 13:18, Andy Burns wrote:
wrote:

Use Nokia (as was) Here! for navigation, excellent maps and works
off-line.

Last time I tried it it wrecked my battery life, even when supposedly
not running.


You need to power the phone from the cigarette lighter socket. Then I
have found this a very useful technology.

--
Michael Chare

Michael Chare wrote:

Andy Burns wrote:

Last time I tried it it wrecked my battery life, even when supposedly
not running.

You need to power the phone from the cigarette lighter socket. Then I
have found this a very useful technology.

I mean merely installing Here Maps caused high battery drain, not when
actually using it for satnav, I think it "phoned home" all the time.

On 10/05/2016 11:42, wrote:
On Tuesday, 10 May 2016 10:19:18 UTC+1, Andy Burns wrote:

I have a 3 "Broadband PAYG +12" 4G data only SIM for roaming in Europe
with a tablet computer. Tethering worked when I tried it in Spain.
12 Gbyte, valid for up to 1 year cost £30 a couple of months ago.
The deal is still available.

Ooh, looks like they've dropped their prices quite a lot - my wife uses
one of those per year.

No extra charge when roaming in much of Europe and USA plus a
few other places.

Yes, if we were travelling with a laptop we'd take the Three MiFi device
and use their included foreign roaming.

As mentioned above, you can now download a selected area in google maps,
then you only need to use data for live traffic udates.

Is it reasonably obvious how to do that?

On 10/05/2016 09:54, Dave Liquorice wrote:
On Tue, 10 May 2016 00:29:44 +0100, Clive George wrote:

We'd still like to use the interwebs in the evening while camping,
possibly some mapping during the day too, so I'm thinking it might be
time to get a cheapish android phone.

The small screen size of a cheap phone can be a bit of PITA. It's
useable provided you have good eyesight and pointy fingers (screen
based keyboard is corespondingly tiny...)

A 7" tablet with WiFi connected to the hostspot of a basic smart
phone might be better.

We don't have a basic smart phone :-)

Mapping, is that google maps (requires 'net
connection) or one of the offline systems that can use Ordnance
Survey maps from the devices storage? I use "Viewranger GPS" with
1:25000 OS mapping, there are other similar apps available. Remember
that even an offline based mapping device requires power to be
useful, get a powerbank or carry the paper version as well.

Bing does OS maps too.

We'll almost certainly be carrying some form of paper map anyway.

I'm planning to have USB charging available.

PAYG vendor who allows tethering for a sensible price, for use a couple
of weeks a year

If you want a service that officially allows tethering that might be
hard to find for a "sensible price".

I think it's happening. Eg

http://ee.co.uk/help/add-ons-benefit...bout-tethering

15 quid for 4GB data in a month plus more minutes/texts than we'd use is
tempting.

I know Three don't on PAYG, which seems odd - tethering on "all you can
eat" contract would seem to be the network killer.

Clive George wrote:

wrote:

As mentioned above, you can now download a selected area in google maps,

Is it reasonably obvious how to do that?

When in maps, click on the hamburger icon, and then from the left menu
use "offline areas", click the plus symbol to add a new area, use scroll
and pinch-zoom to choose the area, then click download. You can use the
cog symbol to make the areas auto update when they expire (30 days) and
control whether it does this over WiFi or over mobile data.

On Tue, 10 May 2016 16:13:47 +0100, Andy Burns wrote:

When in maps, click on the hamburger icon, and then from the left menu
use "offline areas", click the plus symbol to add a new area, use scroll
and pinch-zoom to choose the area, then click download.

Does it still download the "map" at the displayed resolution? It's a
while since I played with it but it did then, so getting decent scale
mapping over a wide area was some what tedious as you had to bring it
down in tiny bits?

--
Cheers
Dave.

Dave Liquorice wrote:

Andy Burns wrote:

When in maps, click on the hamburger icon, and then from the left menu
use "offline areas", click the plus symbol to add a new area, use scroll
and pinch-zoom to choose the area, then click download.

Does it still download the "map" at the displayed resolution?

It's all vectors not bitmaps now (except the so-called satellite view)
therefore you can zoom in and out as required.

On Tue, 10 May 2016 16:07:40 +0100, Clive George wrote:

A 7" tablet with WiFi connected to the hostspot of a basic smart
phone might be better.

We don't have a basic smart phone :-)

Basic means free when part foa cheap contract...

Bing does OS maps too.

Offline?

If you want a service that officially allows tethering that might
be
hard to find for a "sensible price".

I think it's happening. Eg

15 quid for 4GB data in a month plus more minutes/texts than we'd use is
tempting.

4 GB is a lot of data for ordianry web browsing/email. But not if you
are into watching streamed/downloaded video.

I know Three don't on PAYG, which seems odd - tethering on "all you can
eat" contract would seem to be the network killer.

Aye, it doesn't take much to bring the mobile networks down to a
crawl. 10,000 people all in one place will do it, even if that place
has regular gatherings of that size.

--
Cheers
Dave.

On 10/05/2016 16:43, Dave Liquorice wrote:
On Tue, 10 May 2016 16:07:40 +0100, Clive George wrote:

A 7" tablet with WiFi connected to the hostspot of a basic smart
phone might be better.

We don't have a basic smart phone :-)

Basic means free when part foa cheap contract...

Cheap contract != free - like I said originally, I'm not interested in
getting a contract phone.

Bing does OS maps too.

Offline?

Probably not.

If you want a service that officially allows tethering that might
be
hard to find for a "sensible price".

I think it's happening. Eg

15 quid for 4GB data in a month plus more minutes/texts than we'd use is
tempting.

4 GB is a lot of data for ordianry web browsing/email. But not if you
are into watching streamed/downloaded video.

Streaming video onto a phone isn't going to be that important to me :-)

I know Three don't on PAYG, which seems odd - tethering on "all you can
eat" contract would seem to be the network killer.

Aye, it doesn't take much to bring the mobile networks down to a
crawl. 10,000 people all in one place will do it, even if that place
has regular gatherings of that size.

I remember sitting in Kings Cross when there was a problem with trains -
very crowded, lots of people failing to talk.

On 10/05/2016 16:36, Andy Burns wrote:
Dave Liquorice wrote:

Andy Burns wrote:

When in maps, click on the hamburger icon, and then from the left menu
use "offline areas", click the plus symbol to add a new area, use scroll
and pinch-zoom to choose the area, then click download.

Does it still download the "map" at the displayed resolution?

It's all vectors not bitmaps now (except the so-called satellite view)
therefore you can zoom in and out as required.


*And* you can select much bigger areas to download in one go than you
used to be able to do.
--
Cheers,
Roger
____________
Please reply to Newsgroup. Whilst email address is valid, it is seldom
checked.

On Tue, 10 May 2016 21:51:13 +0100, Roger Mills wrote:

Does it still download the "map" at the displayed resolution?

It's all vectors not bitmaps now (except the so-called satellite
view)
therefore you can zoom in and out as required.

*And* you can select much bigger areas to download in one go than you
used to be able to do.

Thanks guys, seems the offline side may almost be useable these days,
it wasn't the last time I tried. When I say useable, only for roads,
other information on google maps is still very sparse to
non-existant.

--
Cheers
Dave.

On 11/05/2016 08:40, Dave Liquorice wrote:
On Tue, 10 May 2016 21:51:13 +0100, Roger Mills wrote:

Does it still download the "map" at the displayed resolution?

It's all vectors not bitmaps now (except the so-called satellite
view)
therefore you can zoom in and out as required.

*And* you can select much bigger areas to download in one go than you
used to be able to do.

Thanks guys, seems the offline side may almost be useable these days,
it wasn't the last time I tried. When I say useable, only for roads,
other information on google maps is still very sparse to
non-existant.


Do have a look at "Here" maps ... road mapping for most of the world is
available to download FOC and, once downloaded, it works off-line. I
first used it when it was Nokia Maps on an N95 and on a variety of
Android phones since then, currently a Note4 and a tablet ... highly
recommended.

On 11/05/2016 09:16, wrote:

Do have a look at "Here" maps ... road mapping for most of the world is
available to download FOC and, once downloaded, it works off-line. I
first used it when it was Nokia Maps on an N95 and on a variety of
Android phones since then, currently a Note4 and a tablet ... highly
recommended.

Thanks, I shall take a look.