AlandEve

Hi all,

I have internet access in the apartment via a HSPDA dongle I purchased in the TMN shop in VRS....

The dongle cost 60 Euro's (one-off cost), and you can buy hours of internet access at 10 Euro's for 10 hours. Unlimited data xfer during this time.

I pick up a strong UMTS signal from Portugal (dont buy the dongle from Spain, the portugal signal is much stronger).

The sim card expires after 3 months of no usage, but a new card costs 14 euro's (and you get 10 euors of free credit)..

Speed download 1536Kbps, upload is 404Kbps which is roughly what I get on ADSL at home ...

Browser speed is excellent also SKYPE, email working just fine ....

This is a cheap way of having internet access in the apartment

AlandEve

MikeJ

That sounds like a good eal - where is the TMN shop?
I get a wireless signal in our place - must be a neighbour with a wifi router - unfortunately it's secure Anyone any good at hacking
(only joking I hasten to add before someone take me seriously)

John and Lynn

Why not find out who they are and offer them a few euros towards there bill for the code. A friend of mine has a wireless router package which costs £10 per month and he charges 3 of his neighbours £5 each per month for the usage of it. He now has broadband for -£5 per month

Jon-Bxl

Thats a good idea, but do you know who it is that charges only 10 per month, this is a great deal.

Also Alandeve really interesting about this dongle, although I dont know about the technology. Please can you post model numbers or some details that I can print out and take to the shop, so that I surely get the right thing...

And yes please, where is the TMN shop.

Thanks + very interesting

PS probably the signal is strong from Portugal as many of the towns on the eastern side have free internet wifi access eg VRSA, Altura etc...

Jon

jdr

I hope he is saving up for the fine if he gets caught as a reseller with no licence etc.

AlandEve

There are two TMN shops in VRS-A ...

The official shop can be found by walking through the main square with the river at your back... walk to the end of the pedestrian area, and you will see a roundabout with a stone structure like an obelisk .. TMN shop is very close.

Also there is a TMN distributor which is just off the road that runs parallel to the river, just before the ferry dock ..

I purchased a USB WiFi pen banda larga 7.2 .. it looks like a plug-in memory stick (it does have 2Gb that you can use as a mem stick), supports GPRS, 3G, HSPDA etc...

Very easy to set-up, If you are not that techncial ask the shop to do it for you .. simply plug it in, the software installs from the stick, enter your PIN and go .... when you need a top up, simply take along the card that is supplied to TMN or any newstand, and they will "charge up" your account by how many hours you need ....

AlandEve

EsuriJohn

Hi Jon,

Bought the vodaphone version of the same thing lastweek and the GSM and 3G signal are full strength at our place on vodaphone Portugal

jdr

Don`t you get a roaming charge being in Spain though ?

Jon-Bxl

Hi Alandeve

Great, thanks.

I also did a bit of research and came across these products

The new skypephone with it built in, a bit more expensive, but if I understand it right (and I probably dont) you can have the PC at home and sit on the terrace blabbing away - without having to have a headset plugged into the PC - when making Skype calls... and when not just surf away on the net using the dongle

http://www.mobilecomputermag.co.uk/2...pa-dongle.html

Also this looks interesting - unblocked

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/3G-HSDPA-USB-M...QQcmdZViewItem

Although rather than trying to be 'clever' I think I'll go with the product that works i.e yours!

But if anyone has any comment on the 2 products please let me know.

Also since the new EU laws came into play for international roaming, bringing the price down, I made a big change on my cellphone contract - I switched to pay-and-go.. as all international calls are the same price for us. I've already saved.

The great thing also is that I can reload on the internet, without having to go to shops to get cards etc.

Alandeve does your system also alow you this to save having to go to the shop?

Thanks again for the information...
Jon

Jon-Bxl

Hi JDR+John

Im guessing John got a local contract as he already has a local phone... but John if you went with vodaphone Portugal, how do the prices compare with Alandeve's solution, please?

Thanks
Jon

PS John sent you email.....

AlandEve

Hi all,

I am surfing via my dongle, out on my balcony .. yesterday I was lying in the sunshine, listening to Test Match Special on the bbc website, while my daughter was downloading pictures to FaceBook ...

I have tried purchasing credit on-line, but it gets complicated because I dont have an address in Portugual ... also the on-line price for an hour is 14.90, while out of a newspaper kiosk or TMN shop its 10 euro's (I dont get it either).. so for now I drive to VRS, buy a paper, buy a top-up and have a coffee ...

AlandEve

PS John I will look out for you today, we have talked and exchanged emails but yet to meet ....

valenciatim

Can I just suggest that you check the "unlimited" bit of these connections?
Vodafone do something very similar, a nominal 3 meg connection, but once you go over a 3 gig "allowance" the speed drops right down to 128k. Same with all the others that I have looked at here.
Just something to watch out for as streaming broadcasts etc will soon eat into any allowance, and then you could be stuck with just e-mail ability.

George & Rosalia

Hi All

While I appreciate the convenience of instant availability to the internet there are other ways to get acess. There is an internet shop on the calle medico Rey Garcia. It is not well sign posted. The coffee shop on the corner gave me direction - around the corner (towards the seafront), 2nd door to the left and up the stairs. The door was a bit non descript but the shop had lots of PCs and and was not very busy. They were very fiendly. I used it to print off boarding passes, buy tickets, check mail, etc. As I say very friendly and cheap.

regards

John and Lynn

You sure you are not ex-police. How can they catch him, its just like having 3or 4 laptops in the same house using the same connection. Anyway, not my problem, I got my own.

John and Lynn

The price refers to packages like SKy/Orange etc in the UK. For example I only pay £5 per month for 10Mb broadband as a Sky customer and I believe Orange is free.