On 31/05/2016 03:56, Dave Liquorice wrote:
On Mon, 30 May 2016 07:54:59 +0100, Pet @ www.gymratz.co.uk ;¬)
wrote:

Data. Not PAYG but reasonable price esp. if you have 4G coverage:
https://www.giffgaff.com/goodybags

or their "gigabag" gives you 1GB a month for £7.50

Yeah, they are one of the very few options I have found. Are you
saying they are contract only? I thought they offered a "free SIM"

No, they are PAYG - but the gigabag is a timed thing and will expire
after a month. However you don't have to renew it each time - you can
just purchase them ad hoc when you need them.

with their standard charges (5p/MB) onto which you could but don't
have to add a Gigabag.

If you do have a gigabag (or a goodybag) then once you have used all the
data, the rate goes to 2p/meg rather than the normal 5p/meg

Unfortunately they use O2, and O2 only offer
2G here.

Bit of a show stopper then...

The other three networks all manage 3G and EE goes to
"double speed 4G".

Asda Mobile uses EE, allow tethering but don't (yet?) offer 4G. Their
standard rate is 5p/MB, several 30 day data only bundles, one of
which is £7.50/1GB. AFAICT they don't sell any dongles, so it's not a
"one stop shop".

Of course if you had a long outage you can upgrade and downgrade each
month without any problem.

That's what I intend. The 3G/4G would really be the backup to the
backup. So just having it sat, switched off, most of the time and
having to buy a bundle to get data at a sensible price would not be a
serious draw back.

Just watch that you don't let the sim expire (i.e. no use at all for six
months typically)



--
Cheers,

John.

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On 31/05/2016 18:52, www.GymRatZ.co.uk wrote:
On 31/05/2016 03:56, Dave Liquorice wrote:
On Mon, 30 May 2016 07:54:59 +0100, Pet @ www.gymratz.co.uk ;¬)
wrote:

Our exchange is listed as FFTPoD but that again is limited to anyone
plugged into a fibre cabinet ....

Er, Why? It's *fibre* to the premises. WTF has the copper got to do
with it? AIUI you just need to be close to a fibre node from which
they can run the fibre to you.

Dunno. Only thing on offer is Ethernet First Mile at some ludicrously
expensive cost for a supply that isn't anywhere near current downstream.
The updated BT Service checker (can't remember the URL) says "EO line so
you can't have fibre but we're exploring alternative technologies"

I have a customer on EFM at 30 Mbit. Notionally it was actually slightly
slower downstream than the pair of ADSL2+ lines they have load balanced
before. However in reality its streets ahead since the ping is much
lower, its dedicated bandwidth rather than shared, and most critically,
its symmetric giving 30 up and down. With 25 ish concurrent users ADSL
soon ran out of uplink puff, and frequently could not even make full use
of the incoming rate available.

Not cheep though at over £300/month

--
Cheers,

John.

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Pet @ www.gymratz.co.uk ;¬) wrote:

https://www.giffgaff.com
their "gigabag" gives you 1GB a month for £7.50

Three 3-2-1 gives you 1GB for £10 that you can eek-out over as long a
period as you like, provided you use at least 1p worth at least once
every 6 months. Don't convert the top-up to a add-on though as then
it'll expire in 30 days.

On 31/05/2016 19:20, John Rumm wrote:

I have a customer on EFM at 30 Mbit. Notionally it was actually slightly
slower downstream than the pair of ADSL2+ lines they have load balanced
before. However in reality its streets ahead since the ping is much
lower, its dedicated bandwidth rather than shared, and most critically,
its symmetric giving 30 up and down. With 25 ish concurrent users ADSL
soon ran out of uplink puff, and frequently could not even make full use
of the incoming rate available.

Not cheep though at over £300/month

I was being quoted around that for a 5Mbps IIRC but it was definitely
less than 10Mbps. This was about 12 or 18 months ago when there was a
big government incentive called "connecting cities" or something whereby
the government would pay up to several thousand pound for installation
of businesses that didn't access to fibre.
I had lots of quotes as I'd have taken it up to cover FTTP install
charges. Alas it wasn't to be and we muddle by with 2 x ADSL2 for a
fraction of the cost.

On 31/05/2016 19:23, Andy Burns wrote:
Pet @ www.gymratz.co.uk ;¬) wrote:

https://www.giffgaff.com
their "gigabag" gives you 1GB a month for £7.50

Three 3-2-1 gives you 1GB for £10 that you can eek-out over as long a
period as you like, provided you use at least 1p worth at least once
every 6 months. Don't convert the top-up to a add-on though as then
it'll expire in 30 days.

Phone only isn't it though? No tethering. (there seems no reason for the
restriction on PAYG, but it's there...)

Clive George wrote:

Andy Burns wrote:

Three 3-2-1 gives you 1GB for £10 that you can eek-out

Phone only isn't it though?

Works in a 3G tablet.

No tethering. (there seems no reason for the
restriction on PAYG, but it's there...)

Not tried, just wanted a suitably cheap SIM for low volume usage
(accepting credit cards in such a way that has absolutely no connection
to a corporate LAN) to avoid all the PCI hassle.

On Tue, 31 May 2016 18:52:14 +0100, www.GymRatZ.co.uk wrote:

Our exchange is listed as FFTPoD but that again is limited to
anyone
plugged into a fibre cabinet ....

Er, Why? It's *fibre* to the premises. WTF has the copper got to
do
with it? AIUI you just need to be close to a fibre node from which
they can run the fibre to you.

Dunno. Only thing on offer is Ethernet First Mile at some ludicrously
expensive cost for a supply that isn't anywhere near current downstream.

Ah EFM, at the lower speed end runs over
copper:

http://www.beaming.biz/support/inter.../list-of-bt-et
hernet-first-mile-efm-enabled-exchanges/

One of the standards implies it can also use VDSL type links.

Not contract, just a free SIM but paid month-by-month

Whats the difference between a 30 day contract or having to buy a
bundle every 30 days? Bundles seem a good marketing/business plan,
seems that people these days haven't the nouse to dig out the
standard rates and do the number crunching against their use. They'll
just buy a way oversized bundle "so they don't run out" and the
marketing is such that I expect many people don't even realise that
standard rates even exist.

Asda Mobile uses EE, allow tethering but don't (yet?) offer 4G.
Their
standard rate is 5p/MB, several 30 day data only bundles, one of
which is £7.50/1GB. AFAICT they don't sell any dongles, so it's
not a
"one stop shop".

Unlocked Dongle from e-bay no good?

I shall have to have a look. As EE already provide 4G here, even if
Asda don't have access, it would make sense to get a 4G one but it
has to be compatible with the TL-MR3020. EE want £60 for their 4G
dongle but it comes with 4(6?)GB of 30 day data and no doubt it is
locked and maybe even have messed about with firmware. Locked to EE
and Asda *shouldn't* be a problem but when I moved to TPO with my
locked Orange/EE there where "issues", it worked but they weren't
playing nicely. So I'm a bit supicious...

Besides which the router is too far into the depths of the shop to get a
mobile signal from any network provider.

That's what you want a TL-MR3020 for. B-) Place it where the dongle
can get a good signal, run ethernet back to the router...

--
Cheers
Dave.

On 31/05/2016 23:02, Dave Liquorice wrote:
On Tue, 31 May 2016 18:52:14 +0100, www.GymRatZ.co.uk wrote:

Our exchange is listed as FFTPoD but that again is limited to
anyone
plugged into a fibre cabinet ....

Er, Why? It's *fibre* to the premises. WTF has the copper got to
do
with it? AIUI you just need to be close to a fibre node from which
they can run the fibre to you.

Dunno. Only thing on offer is Ethernet First Mile at some ludicrously
expensive cost for a supply that isn't anywhere near current downstream.

Ah EFM, at the lower speed end runs over
copper:

http://www.beaming.biz/support/inter.../list-of-bt-et
hernet-first-mile-efm-enabled-exchanges/

One of the standards implies it can also use VDSL type links.

Over copper (multiple pairs - they installed 7 for the 30 Mbit service),
or possibly over fibre in some cases.

Not contract, just a free SIM but paid month-by-month

Whats the difference between a 30 day contract or having to buy a
bundle every 30 days? Bundles seem a good marketing/business plan,
seems that people these days haven't the nouse to dig out the
standard rates and do the number crunching against their use. They'll
just buy a way oversized bundle "so they don't run out" and the
marketing is such that I expect many people don't even realise that
standard rates even exist.

On giffgaff, their standard PAYG tariff is good for low users (calls
15p/min, 5p/text, 5p/MB data). The bundles then scale up from the £5 one
that gives you 125 mins, 500 texts, and 100MB. It lasts 30 days. If you
use it all then it starts charging (although at 2p/MB for data).

(If you use it up before the end of the 30 days they allow you to buy
another one then rather than waiting for the rest of the time). You can
set them to auto renew, or you can just buy them when you want.

They do give recommendations for what is the best size based on usage,
although I have noticed they just seem to recommend the goodybag big
enough to account for all your usage (even if the cost would be cheaper
using the next size down plus a bit of extra PAYG)




--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

On Tuesday, 31 May 2016 04:01:05 UTC+1, Dave Liquorice wrote:

That's what I intend. The 3G/4G would really be the backup to the
backup. So just having it sat, switched off, most of the time and
having to buy a bundle to get data at a sensible price would not be a
serious draw back.

Note that most of the 3G/4G SIM suggestions made so far will almost certainly sit you behind a private IP address which, given your mention of port forwarding in your opening post, might be an issue if you need to accept incoming connections?

On Wed, 01 Jun 2016 15:25:30 -0700, Mathew Newton wrote:

On Tuesday, 31 May 2016 04:01:05 UTC+1, Dave Liquorice wrote:

That's what I intend. The 3G/4G would really be the backup to the
backup. So just having it sat, switched off, most of the time and
having to buy a bundle to get data at a sensible price would not be a
serious draw back.

Note that most of the 3G/4G SIM suggestions made so far will almost
certainly sit you behind a private IP address which, given your mention
of port forwarding in your opening post, might be an issue if you need
to accept incoming connections?

That's why I got the 2860. It has the 3G fallback, and my ISP will
automatically route the same IPs down the 3G.



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On Wed, 1 Jun 2016 15:25:30 -0700 (PDT), Mathew Newton wrote:

The 3G/4G would really be the backup to the backup.

Note that most of the 3G/4G SIM suggestions made so far will almost
certainly sit you behind a private IP address which, given your mention of port forwarding in your opening post, might be an issue if you need
to accept incoming connections?

Fair point. However mail is the only "essential" incoming connection
and with Total Care on the POTS/ADSL line it's never down for long,
certainly far shorter than the undeliverable bounce time out of most
MX machines.

I may look at having a secondary MX machine with the abilty to
deliver mail via another route (3G/4G) when kicked via that route.

Incoming VOIP works from an app and data link on my phone but that
might be cheating by using STUN.

--
Cheers
Dave.

On Wed, 1 Jun 2016 19:47:53 +0100, John Rumm wrote:

On giffgaff, their standard PAYG tariff is good for low users (calls
15p/min, 5p/text, 5p/MB data). The bundles then scale up from the £5 one
that gives you 125 mins, 500 texts, and 100MB. It lasts 30 days. If you
use it all then it starts charging (although at 2p/MB for data).

But it's GiffGaff, so O2 and O2 are only 2G here...

They do give recommendations for what is the best size based on usage,
although I have noticed they just seem to recommend the goodybag big
enough to account for all your usage (even if the cost would be cheaper
using the next size down plus a bit of extra PAYG)

I'm on a "next size down" 30 day rolling contract. Last couple of
months the over texting has pretty much put the bill up to the next
level but normally it'll be "saving" £4/month.

--
Cheers
Dave.

On 02/06/2016 22:16, Dave Liquorice wrote:
On Wed, 1 Jun 2016 19:47:53 +0100, John Rumm wrote:

On giffgaff, their standard PAYG tariff is good for low users (calls
15p/min, 5p/text, 5p/MB data). The bundles then scale up from the £5 one
that gives you 125 mins, 500 texts, and 100MB. It lasts 30 days. If you
use it all then it starts charging (although at 2p/MB for data).

But it's GiffGaff, so O2 and O2 are only 2G here...

Yup, I realise its not going to be much use for you as I said in a
previous post. Just wanted to clarify how some of these "30 day" deals
work.

They do give recommendations for what is the best size based on usage,
although I have noticed they just seem to recommend the goodybag big
enough to account for all your usage (even if the cost would be cheaper
using the next size down plus a bit of extra PAYG)

I'm on a "next size down" 30 day rolling contract. Last couple of
months the over texting has pretty much put the bill up to the next
level but normally it'll be "saving" £4/month.

Yup, with mine I often use the included 100 MB and then pay for an extra
100 at 2p/meg, but its still cheaper to pay 5 + 2, rather than the 7.50
next size up.

--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

On Fri, 3 Jun 2016 03:26:56 +0100, John Rumm wrote:

Yup, with mine I often use the included 100 MB and then pay for an extra
100 at 2p/meg, but its still cheaper to pay 5 + 2, rather than the 7.50
next size up.

Good grief someone who uses less mobile data than me! I'm on 100 mins
100 text 500 MB. Mins are less than 20, Data, if I try, might get to
300 MB. Texts are normaly less than 100, "extra" ones are 10p but
with the next bundle up £4 more, that's 40 "extra" texts before I
start "losing" money.

IIRC I've done the maths on going pure PAYG and it wasn't economic
but that was a while ago perhaps I ought to revisit that spreadsheet.

--
Cheers
Dave.