Mobile broadband / 3G ec

whitecrook

whitecrook

whitecrook

Soldato
Joined
22 Aug 2005
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Clydebank
Hi all

What is generally the best way to connect a laptop to the web when on the move -

The options as I see it are:

USB dongle
Express Card modem
MiFi
Phone tethering
Mobile devices like ipad / iphone with built in 3g

Can anyone who knows a bit more about this expand a bit more on the above options, e.g. which one will perform best, which one might be cheapest for occasional use, benefits of express card over a usb dongle , how flexible the solution is, e.g. a phone tether (with a black berry ?) would give laptop access, but also mobile internet on the phone..

I have '10 mbp 17
 
I would suggest going for a USB dongle (maybe I'm biased - using one now to post this), but it is a good way to get connected when a wired connection or wifi isn't available.

Compared to expresscard the USB option technically has much less bandwidth. However, considering the relatively low speed of a HSDPA connection, this will not be an issue and USB will be just as fast as Expresscard.

The main benefit of USB is probably price, you can get a PAYG dongle for pretty cheap and there are loads of good tarrifs too - the dongle is subsidised, so you don't pay much for the hardware. Compared to expresscard where the hardware would be more expensive.

If it is for mainly occasional use, this is a nice deal.
 
That does look interesting, giving a whole 12 months to use it, rather than expiring in 30 days.

Express card modems can be got for £20 on ebay - I thought it may have been possible to get one of these and then find a good sim deal. Also, the dongles stick out a lot which the express cards don't seem to as much.
 
Fair enough - that isn't a bad price. However, if you go for 3 (as an example as I went this route last week) you only have to pay £5 for the dongle on a 1 month contract, and the longer term contract the dongle is included.

As for sticking out of the laptop, you have a point. However, what I got was a cheap USB extenstion cable, this means you can simply put the dongle in your pocket or something. Also, going with USB means it will work in most computers, not just a computer with an expresscard reader.
 
I've used both 3G dongle and tethering ( Nokia E71 & E72) and have seen no noticable difference, I can even play CoD4 MP tethered without any issue other than a highish ping (150-200)
 
cmndr_andi said:
As for sticking out of the laptop, you have a point. However, what I got was a cheap USB extenstion cable, this means you can simply put the dongle in your pocket or something. Also, going with USB means it will work in most computers, not just a computer with an expresscard reader.
Click to expand...


Good point on the extension - That could actually work quite nicely.

Also, I've read that an express card reader will be using lower voltage than a usb dongle, and so power draw would be less and therefore battery life would be longer --- how does using the dongles affect the battery life in your experiences ?
 
Realistically, these devices are not going to use much more than 2W of power in full operation (continuous, full bandwidth download/upload). Compared to your macbook (most likely ~40W in use) this isn't going to have a huge effect on the battery life. The power usage difference between USB and expresscard is going to be very small as they use the same technology - if one uses more power most likely means it uses a more powerful amplifier which is a good thing (or is an older tech device which is a bad thing).

Unfortunately I don't have any 1st hand experience of power usage as I use mine with a constantly plugged-in Dell 17in laptop (with a 1.5hr batter life using a 9 cell).
 
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