View Full Version : Using a hotspot
gemma10
7th Feb 2015, 22:17
Having just moved home down to sussex, and with broadband not being connected until mid next week I am using at the moment a BT Fon link and assume this is what they call a Hotspot. The network is very iffy with signal varying between excellent and nothing. Is this due to the hotspot provider turning off their modem or have I got this wrong. I know nothing about Fon having never used it before, but whatever its doing it certainly seems to have upset FF settings and also causing unexpected shut downs. Any help please?
Windows 7. :rolleyes:
ShyTorque
8th Feb 2015, 08:51
Is this due to the hotspot provider turning off their modem or have I got this wrong.
Yes, it could well be that.
dazdaz1
8th Feb 2015, 15:34
Seeing you have...... "Having just moved home down to sussex, and with broadband not being connected until mid next week"
It's only a matter of days? If you really really need broadband before next week, buy a pre loaded (usually 1gb) dongle for about £36 plugs in the usb.
Ps
Welcome to Sussex
mixture
8th Feb 2015, 15:50
plugs in the usb.
A dongle that plugs into the USB ? My god dazdaz1, no need to be so antiquated !
Personal hotspots are the way forward....you can buy nice little personal hotspot gadgets off Amazon and stick your own choice of SIM in them.
MILES better than faffing around with USB dongles and their stupid drivers !
Of course, if gemma10 has an iPhone (or probably any other sort of mondern smartphone), gemma10 can just use that as a personal hotspot.
dazdaz1
8th Feb 2015, 16:38
Mixture.... "Personal hotspots are the way forward....you can buy nice little personal hotspot gadgets off Amazon and stick your own choice of SIM in them."
Thing is mixture, they all still work as on dongle principal (mobile wifi) I use Three (wifi) it's powered from the internal battery, no leads required. It still does the same internet connections as a dongle. The only difference being a dongle needs power from the lappy.
Mixture.....Your now in my little black book, come the revolution when Microsoft takes over the world.... I'll say no more
BEagle
8th Feb 2015, 17:57
A while back I bought a Vodafone MiFi for tool-of-last-resort if I was outside WiFi coverage.
No connections, no wretched drivers - just a SIM card. The laptop sees it as a WLAN hotspot and the network sees it as a GSM phone. Seemples.
Except that 3G coverage is woeful......
mixture
8th Feb 2015, 19:18
Thing is mixture, they all still work as on dongle principal (mobile wifi) I use Three (wifi) it's powered from the internal battery, no leads required. It still does the same internet connections as a dongle. The only difference being a dongle needs power from the lappy.
Please dear, do me a favour and READ !
The operating principle may be the same, BUT UNLIKE DONGLES, MIFI UNITS DO NOT NEED STUPID DRIVERS ... standard Wifi will do !
BEagle
8th Feb 2015, 21:37
Quite so! After my old 'Vodafone Mobile Connect' card with its useless flip up antenna, I changed to a USB dongle. Software clashes were frequent and it never really lived up to its promise. At the time there were fewer hotspots about and the idea was that it would allow me to e-mail when out of WiFi cover. If it ever did work, it was expensive and erratic and it was a real pain trying to get it to use the correct network when abroad.
Whereas the MiFi device works a treat as the computer just sees it as being another hotspot. The only real issue is slow data rate in most parts of the country as anything other than 2G is still very patchy in many rural areas, no matter what the mobile operators might say. So it's really only of any use for e-mails rather than web surfing.
Typical use is in hotels whose wretched hotspots block e-mails - a very useful standby device.
"BT Wi-fi with Fon" signals are broadcast from a BT broadband user's HomeHub. The strength and quality of the signal depends on the distance you are from the Hub as well as any wireless interference there might be in the vicinity.
jimjim1
9th Feb 2015, 06:55
At least some MiFi devices have much better phone-side radios than my phone (Galaxy S II). I use the phone as a hotspot a lot and it seems to work OK, need to put it near the window sometimes. In two cases I have witnessed (different MiFi box, different location) MiFi device gets good signal when phone will not get any internet at all.
In one of the cases, Three gave an acquaintance a free MiFi when threatened with contract cancellation due to poor signal at home with dongle. I was highly sceptical but it actually worked. Went from unusable with dongle (on long USB lead to window location) to satisfactory with MiFi.
One of the Mifi devices was Huawei E5332.
jimjim1
9th Feb 2015, 07:10
Other "good" MiFi was Huawei E5220.
gemma10
9th Feb 2015, 10:19
Thanks for your help all. Only 3 days to go before broadband. My iphone is the last resort here, 3g signal is crap, but at least the FON is working to some degree. Just wanted to know why the FON was changing my FF settings.
Fon doesn't change any settings on your computer or browser.
If you connect to a Fon hotspot (or most other hotspots for that matter) then open your browser you will be directed to the BT Wi-fi with Fon login screen.
If you need help call the UK helpdesk on 0800 022 3322.
jimjim1
10th Feb 2015, 04:14
@gemma10 "3g signal is crap"
Perhaps you need a colander?
In the case illustrated signal went from pretty much unusable broadband to steady several Mbps download with colander. I can't now recall but it was at least 2Mbps.
Phone taped to LNB on old sky dish resting on doormat was even better:-) but less practical and left no spare hands for photography.
The Galaxy S II has a bulge where the antennas are (I suspect) and so it was easy enough to figure out roughly how to orientate the phone in the dish.
Android has a sensitive and responsive signal strength meter in the settings menu so you do not have to rely on the almost useless "bars".
In same rural location Huawei E5332 MiFi device on same provider just works to the extent that reliable 512k BT service was discontinued in favour of the several Mbps MiFi.
Sorry about wide images, they are uploaded now and I don't have the energy to re-size them and re-upload at present.
http://i783.photobucket.com/albums/yy118/jimjim146/P1010763.jpg~original
More images a click away -
http://i783.photobucket.com/albums/yy118/jimjim146/P1010760.jpg
http://i783.photobucket.com/albums/yy118/jimjim146/P1010761.jpg
http://i783.photobucket.com/albums/yy118/jimjim146/P1010762.jpg
dazdaz1
10th Feb 2015, 14:09
jimjim1....Does one remove the phone before draining the pasta?
If anyone is interested, I have done a lot of experiments using a 60cm satellite dish with a wifi antenna-and-receiver taped to the focal point, connected to my PC indoors via a USB cable. From my mountainside home I can always see about 10 wifi sources, but using the dish this doubles and the furthest source from which I could get a useable signal was maybe 15km away.
In Spain we are lucky in as much as every community provides free wifi (or free once someone tells you the password which is distributed to everyone living there) but also most bars, cafes, camping sites and marinas also off free or quasi-free wifi.
Thos of us with free time (or perhaps no wife), possessing some copper wire, side-cutters and a soldering iron, and a modicum of coax cable, will find plenty of useful advice on the 'net on modifying that spare satellite dish to boost a wifi signal.
Not me, I might add, as I have internet by WiMax.