On 23/09/12 11:48, Rob Malpass wrote:
Hi all
Given my eyesight, I’ve never had to worry too much about smartphones or
mobile broadband but a monster train journey shortly is about to change
all of that so I need to know (by Tuesday if poss!) what kit I need.
I have about 7 hours on a train on Tueday and need web access while
doing so. Thus far, I only have access to a Toshiba satellite laptop
running Ubuntu. In theory, I think all I need is [1] a usb dongle from
argos or somewhere similar and I’m away. But I have several questions:
1)Will a high street dongle work with Linux?
2)If so – I don’t want to do any sort of contract – I want to just pay
£20 for some sort of 1Gb limit and chuck it away post use – do these
things still exist?
3)How good are these things really? Say I wanted to catch up on
something on iplayer in between faffing about with spread sheets for
work – is this really feasible on a fast moving train?
4)Said laptop is 2009 vintage and I’ve been thinking of getting a new
one – is it worthwhile buying a 3G laptop?
Cheers
Rob
[1]
http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/5491047/c_1/1%7Ccategory_root%7COffice%2C+PCs+and+phones%7C14418968/c_2/2%7C14418968%7CMobile+broadband%7C16527170.htm#pdpFullProductInformation
Hi Rob
I don't know about high street dongles in general - I bought a Vodafone
one from Amazon a while back, and Vodafone produce a decent Linux
connection manager for their dongles [1]. Mine came with £15 credit on
it, and I still have over £10 left, without topping up. If you look out
for a dongle to use with Vodafone you'll probably be OK - I don't know
about any other network operators
[1] http://developer.vodafone.com/labs/
Ian Park
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