OneGuyFromBarlick

Tizer wrote:In our house we find it tricky connecting to Vodaphone and Orange/EE but O2 is OK. I wouldn't want to take out a contract and then find I couldn't receive the connection, so a PAYG is safer.

What's 3G? I see the term often and know it's to do with smartphones.

3G is a useable data connection, you can get data through a "calls and texts" " 2G connection but its intolarably slow. EE is making a lot of noise on the telly about 4G which is faster still but you need a late model top end smartphone to use it and it hasn't reached Barlick yet. 3G can just about handle a Youtube video on a good conection, but not if the signal is weak or the network is busy.

David Whipp wrote:Thanks for further advice Pluggy. Extended family (who live on their phones) are extolling virtue of Giffgaff as a telecoms provider; is it easy to find out whose network they use?

OK done the sensible thing and looked up coverage for Giffgaff; they use the mast on the Crownest Industrial Estate and coverage is supposedly good in Barlick.

(I realise that t'younger generation will be having a good laugh at this conversation, Tiz.... I know 3G is the third 'generation' of mobile signal technology and that it carries more 'stuff' than 2G. There's 4G for them that can get it, and no doubt 5G... ad infinitum...)

By 'eck! Everytime I try submitting, Pluggy has posted again.

Never mind trying to catch up with mobile technology, I can't keep up with the posts!

Pluggy, I've just been looking at the O2 and Three PAYG web pages. O2 would cost me £10 a month. Three also quote £10 a month but you said Three was costing you £5/month. Does that mean you're using their so-called `FreeSim' shown on this page?
http://www.three.co.uk/Store/SIM/Pay_As_You_Go

A possible Caveat with using Three is that it won't work on an old school 2G only phone, it needs a Smartphone or at least a 3G capable feature phone. You can buy a 3G capable Nokia for about £20 if you can't run to a smarphone which is what my dad does (he got me to buy him one). Although Three are flogging the Smartphone I have at £65 PAYG http://www.three.co.uk/Discover/Devices ... 2520Height

Tiz, I'm on PAYG so theres no fixed cost, It depends how much you use it, but their PAYG rates are the cheapest I've found, they make Tesco, Asda and Giffgaff look expensive.
Yes its the free SIM deal, but I paid 'em £10 for £10 credit on it. (Not the £10 Add On, you click on the free SIM link and take the £10 credit option)

http://www.three.co.uk/Store/SIM/Pay_As_You_Go

Its how well the network works where you want to use it, Its pretty good in Barlick and most places I use mine.

Google Nexus 7 has a micro USB which is a one port do it all job. USB charger goes in there and the same lead used for the charger doubles up for input and output to and from the tablet. If you want to use them for music you need to be wary of the potential proprietary audio types used on some devices. It's an Android device of course so has access to all the apps that you could ever want, lots free and others paid for.

Sally likes it as she does a lot of Ebaying for Bosom Friends and it makes taking and inserting the photo's a doddle with its twin built in cameras. It auto attaches to our WiFi when in and about the house and it has been on holiday with us for gathering local information from free WiFi spots around towns and in the hotels we have stayed. Not indispensable by any means but a much better option than messing around on a tiny smartphone. The 7" tablet is just about right and is a happy medium between the phone screen and a proper computer display. Perfectly usable with touch "drag zoom" if you need it. When typing, the on screen touch keyboard occupies about 2/3rds of the display, you can use the little rubber tactile pen if your fingers are oversized or chubby.

Lots of useful information, lads, thanks! We might enter the mobile age yet! But now I'm off for lunch and a glass of cider. Cheers!

Phone wise, I haven't bought one now for over 15 years. Both Sally and I exist perfectly happily on our kids cast off's. I am currently using a former £400 Blackberry phone with a qwerty keyboard. I whacked it with an unlock code bought from the web for £2.50 and it works perfectly happily with my PAYG Orange (EE) sim. I'm on a Dolphin Package which give me free texts and internet access (useless on the 3" screen) every time I top up by £10 (about 3 times per year). Sally has been recently upgraded by our daughter to a current generation Android HTC, just out of contract. Whacked again with an unlock and again happy on the PAYG sim and same package as me.

I am informed that I will shortly be upgraded to an HTC Android with my lads pending cast off sometime in the summer. So all our mobile device will be using the same OS and singing from the same sheet. GPS is much better on the later generation devices than my Blackberry which although £400 a few years ago now is only worth £5.00 at most to the phone recyclers.

Thanks for all the info.....

Pluggy wrote:Although Three are flogging the Smartphone I have at £65 PAYG http://www.three.co.uk/Discover/Devices ... 2520Height

If I bought this phone and tried the Three connection but found it didn't connect in our area, would I be able to buy and install a SIM card from a provider that does work, such as O2? I can't find find anything about that on their web site.

Tizer wrote:

Pluggy wrote:Although Three are flogging the Smartphone I have at £65 PAYG http://www.three.co.uk/Discover/Devices ... 2520Height

If I bought this phone and tried the Three connection but found it didn't connect in our area, would I be able to buy and install a SIM card from a provider that does work, such as O2? I can't find find anything about that on their web site.

It would depend on the phone being "unlocked" to other networks. It's a software lock so usually just requires a code to be input. These can be obtained from t'internet.

Tizer wrote:

Pluggy wrote:Although Three are flogging the Smartphone I have at £65 PAYG http://www.three.co.uk/Discover/Devices ... 2520Height

If I bought this phone and tried the Three connection but found it didn't connect in our area, would I be able to buy and install a SIM card from a provider that does work, such as O2? I can't find find anything about that on their web site.

I've never bought a phone from Three so I don't know if they lock them or not. I bought mine from CPW who don't lock any of their phones (but it was £90 rather than £65/£75). Your freindly neighbourhood independant phone shop will unlock them for a nominal fee, if you don't fancy the sometimes seedy looking sites on t'internet......

Its not an expensive phone so the unlock codes are cheap.

I took the liberty of putting your postcode into the Three coveage checker, according to that its not as good as it is around here. O2's is much better according to their map ( I still have your postcode from when I sold you the computer last year)

http://www.three.co.uk/Support/Coverage

http://www.o2.co.uk/coveragechecker

I don't put much faith in coverage maps, Vodaphone's says its good here, but I know from experience its naff. Giffgaff or Tesco would probably be cheaper than O2 on PAYG, they both use O2's network so the coverage is the same.

Thanks Kev and Pluggy. I mentioned above that we get good reception from O2 here so I thought I'd look for the Samsung with an O2 PAYG. It's good Pluggy mentioned the coverage checker - I thought I should check the O2 coverage to confirm my belief that it's good...and find that it's only good for 2G (the phone we're familiar with using O2 is an old stupidphone). I suppose that means an O2 smartphone would be slow with web browsing. It's a jungle out there!

Probably the issue I had with Vodaphone, the 2G calls and texts was OK, the 3G data was non-existant. Three is only 3G so if there's no data, theres no calls or texts either. Jungle is right.....

2g data is past slow, its next door to stopped.

Reading all your experiences confirms my opinion that as long as the ancient mobile Doc gave me does calls and text that's all I need! It's not only a jungle, it is a jungle populated by predators. I love the adverts for smart phones where they have the small print at the bottom, 'Enhanced examples' or 'not actual coverage'.

Changing the subject I got a link to this in a "you've got a tax refund" email

http://www.fudan56.com/media/_thumbs/Im ... index.html

Its harmless enough providing you don't fill it in and send it.

Honestly, anybody falling for this deserves their money being stolen. Wanting the CSV number on the card is bad enough, but mothers middle name and the "Verifified by Visa" password ?, Gimme a break.........

Sadly, there are people gullible enough to fall for it and do whatever is asked of them. But there's an increasing number of elderly people who are showing the early signs of dementia but who still have access to the Internet and could easily be trapped this way. With our recent experience with parents we realise that a lot can go wrong long before the person is diagnosed as having dementia, and you can't force someone to give up the Internet until that diagnosis happens. A bit like our problem with my Dad and his wish to continue driving a car. It's going to be a big problem in coming years and there's an urgent need for some planning to work out how we're going to minimise the troubles. Like with climate change, I don't have much confidence that the Government will be prepared.

Agreed Tiz. It's a growing problem with the increasing use of online communication. The defence of course is simple, don't respond to any requests for information online or by telephone. Very hard to get across to people used to doing what they are told and who trust others by default. Another part of the jungle.....

Pluggy wrote:

Pluggy wrote:Since business has been good lately I think I'll buy myself an SSD and see if the difference is worthwhile. Just a small one for the OS and I'll use my big ugly HDD for the user area. The one machine with an SSD I briefly played with didn't seem anything special. I know how my machine runs with an HDD so I'll have a comparison. From a cold start, including logging in I can be on the internet in around 50 seconds. The BIOS takes 15 seconds to do its thing, so the saving will have to come out of the 35 seconds the rest of it takes.

Pluggy wrote: Took a bit longer to arrive than I anticipated but its now in and running. I guess this old dinosaur has learnt a new trick, its blisteringly fast. I tweaked the BIOS to get the BIOS time down to 12 seconds from 15. With the SSD in place I can start Ubuntu from cold, login (still about 4 seconds), go on the Internet with chrome, display a web page, shut chrome down and shut Ubuntu down again in 42 seconds start to finish. It can start Libreoffice Writer in about a second and a half.

From September 15th and 21st 2013, Update on the SSD situation, I pulled it out and put 'spinning rust' back in on Monday this week after updates became increasingly slow and culminating in a Ubuntu Update taking three quarters of an hour. The situation is much more complex than what is apparent on the surface, With old school 'spinning rust' (usual HDD drive) you can read and write at will with no negative consequences and after thirty years you take it completely and utterly for granted, thats the way it is. Enter the SSD and a whole load of other factors come into play. Nothing is actually erased with an SSD until the drive has no free space left, its just marked as not used and the controller moves onto pastures new. When there are no unused pages left it gets ugly, and how ugly depends on the type of SSD and the controller and software it uses. you can read all the technical stuff here : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trim_%28computing%29 . The particular SSD drive I bought is not a good one and it handles 'TRIM' very badly even though Ubuntu does support it. The solution isn't pretty and can't be done 'in situ' https://ata.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/ATA_Secure_Erase , I haven't gone down this route yet (the number of disclaimers on the page isn't exactly encouraging)......

Modern OS's use TRIM, you really should use TRIM for technical reasons.. but long story short, chances are Ubuntu already enables it automatically. If it is enabled, data is wiped immediately from the drive as you delete it on the OS.

Pluggy wrote:One day I'll bite the bullet. Having played with numerous tablets at my school job (usually setting 'em up on the network for teachers) I fail to see the attraction, except if it was all you had with you. I'd be forever misplacing it - I lose my 2 laptops often enough, the old dinosaur desktop I love is always there, always faithful.

Tablet's are fantastic, their uses are so practical. They boost productivity in schools massively, and for children with learning disabilities they are amazing (having volunteered, they really are fantastic products. They help the kids in a way that wasn't possible before.). I personally own an iPad and don't use it, once it dies I won't be replacing it.

My grandma stuggles to use a computer and used to flat out refuse to use one in the fear of breaking it. However, we bought her an iPad and you couldn't part her with it if you tried. She is able to use google and wikipedia with ease. I really do think that simple tablets have a really positive future.

Pluggy wrote:The ones with Cellular access need a sim card and payment to a mobile network provider to work away from a Wifi connection. They'll all work using your Wifi connection without extra payment.

A tablet is just a big phone, same OS, same apps, just a bigger screen, but doesn't nessecerily have a cellualr connection (and you look a complete spanner if you take a picture with one.... )

You can use a smartphone as a Wifi access point (maybe not officially and if its an applke device they'll probably charge you extra for the privilege) to get an internet connection on a tablet (or laptop) in the middle of a field. I do it all the time, but its not strictley pukka by Threes T&C, Androids don't tell the the ISP you're doing it and unless they started analysing traffic they aren't going to find out, bit of a stupid ruling really, I pay for the data and presumably the more of it I use, the happier they'll be, but 'Thou shalt not tether'

Yep, I could never justify paying another contract. My phone allows for unlimited data, (2GB of tethering but flashing a stock ROM avoids that limit).

Pluggy wrote:A possible Caveat with using Three is that it won't work on an old school 2G only phone, it needs a Smartphone or at least a 3G capable feature phone. You can buy a 3G capable Nokia for about £20 if you can't run to a smarphone which is what my dad does (he got me to buy him one). Although Three are flogging the Smartphone I have at £65 PAYG http://www.three.co.uk/Discover/Devices ... 2520Height

Tiz, I'm on PAYG so theres no fixed cost, It depends how much you use it, but their PAYG rates are the cheapest I've found, they make Tesco, Asda and Giffgaff look expensive.
Yes its the free SIM deal, but I paid 'em £10 for £10 credit on it. (Not the £10 Add On, you click on the free SIM link and take the £10 credit option)

http://www.three.co.uk/Store/SIM/Pay_As_You_Go

Its how well the network works where you want to use it, Its pretty good in Barlick and most places I use mine.

That's actually not true, 3 phones can piggyback on EE's 2G network when there isn't any 3G available or you are using a 2G phone. This was ruled by Ofcom in favour of fair competition.

I didn't say you can't use a Three phone on a 2G network, I said you can't use a 2G phone on Threes network.

Life has been better since I reverted to spinning rust, Boring old predictable..... Can't help thinking if they were that wonderful, modern desktops and laptops would use them as standard. Tablets are crippled anyway so they can live with flash for storage.

Its not like I haven't used a tablet, I have and I fail to see the attraction, maybe i expect to be able to type on something which isn't a flat piece of glass. Not a problem if you only follow links on facebook, a real pain if you want to type something technical into google. I crave tactile feedback.........

Am firmly with Pluggy on the keyboard front!

I'm a dinosaur, I like to feel and hear the key move.....
06:20. Enormous update from Canonical. Looks like everything bar Thunderbird and Firefox.... As usual, fast and no problems.

Pluggy wrote:I didn't say you can't use a Three phone on a 2G network, I said you can't use a 2G phone on Threes network.

No, what I am saying is that you are able to use a 2G phone on 3's network as it roams onto EE.

Doesn't sound very useful, because Orange/EE roaming has been disabled in many places in the UK. I've never seen mine connected to anything other than Three.

http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1806088

Pluggy wrote:Doesn't sound very useful, because Orange/EE roaming has been disabled in many places in the UK. I've never seen mine connected to anything other than Three.

http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1806088

They make it invisible to the user. They changed the name to 3, therefore it doesn't confuse customers, however it does in fact roam. To enable GPRS connectivity you must enable data roaming.

Depending on the phone, it may or may not notify you. My phone running Cynogenmod shows you when you are roaming (Mostly through Foulridge, and it has roamed when I was in the lakes) however my S5 does not.

Its still not very useful because the 2G phone wouldn't work when its isn't roaming.

How did we get into this ? I have a 3G phone, it works, the PAYG is cheap, I'm happy.