Dongle Dilemma - help please

Submitted: Thursday, Apr 21, 2011 at 10:47

ThreadID: 85783 Views:4792 Replies:9 FollowUps:28

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Member - Dalb (SA)

Hi All

Advice needed please...

I have had no problems with my home computer access when at home – the ADSL connection is good and quite fast enough for me. The problem is when we are travelling.

When we were away in Tassie I tried unsuccessfully to access wifi spots in caravan parks etc while everyone else was sitting wherever they like and using internet/emails etc using their dongles.

So I bought a dongle, the Telstra Elite USB pre-paid, but it has lots of problems for me:
• Poor reception – only 2 bars at best in my lounge room, and often cuts out.
• When it works at home, the speed is very slow, and this is apparently due to poor reception??
• The Elite software seems to be problematic in that it gives messages about ‘no signal’, sometimes even when it is clearly receiving emails.

Today I talked to someone in Harvey Norman who seemed to know more about the Telstra facilities that all the OZ Telstra staff put together………………..
They said I need the Telstra Ultimate USB, which has speeds up to 20Mbps (I know this will not be achieved outside the CBD) and has (allegedly) far superior reception range over the Elite.

I would like to buy the Telstra Ultimate USB on their 2 year plan, but there appears to be no way of trying it in a poor reception area (like my lounge room, or on the road) first.
[For info, the current 2year plan offered is $299 up front, which is immediately transferred to usage credits, so its effectively free, and $19.99 per month (after discounts) for 1Gb per month.]

Does anyone out there have any experience with the Ultimate, or alternative advice???????

Thanking you in advance.

Cheers, Dalb

Cheers, Dalb

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Reply By: Bazooka - Thursday, Apr 21, 2011 at 11:00

Thursday, Apr 21, 2011 at 11:00

These might be some help Dalb.

Whirlpool discussion

Whirlpool -1 user's comment

AnswerID: 451974

Reply By: goddosglory - Thursday, Apr 21, 2011 at 11:13

Thursday, Apr 21, 2011 at 11:13

Hi Dalb
I have 7.2 bigpond usb bought it just over 2 years ago similar plan to the one you mention...i have had no drama with it..where ever there is phone reception..
we use skype for all our phone calls...we pay the $5.95 per month to skype to make landline calls for as long as you want free..or free skype to skype
we have been right around and as i said where we have telstra phone reception we have no internet problems ..i currently run 3gig at $49.95 per month (higher price because no fixed landline) we use mobile for incoming calls skype for outgoing
wayne godden (goddosglory)

AnswerID: 451977

Follow Up By: Old Dave - Thursday, Apr 21, 2011 at 18:18

Thursday, Apr 21, 2011 at 18:18

Hi goddosglory

Was interested in your response to the dongle dilemma, we too have a 7.2 Sierra wireless aircard and do not have a landline telephone service only a mobile phone, but I was under the impression that skype was only available if one had a landline can you point me in the right direction as to how to use Skype services.

Regards
Old Daves wife Sandra

FollowupID: 724648

Follow Up By: Faulic_McVitte - Thursday, Apr 21, 2011 at 18:42

Thursday, Apr 21, 2011 at 18:42

Sandra download Skype www.skype.com and go for your life girl. Skype works on everything including Smart phones.

For landline calls MyNetFone is the go. They have a great USB hand piece for $15 which includes $10 worth of calls. With MyNetFone no monthly fees at all you only pay for the calls you make. You can also have an incoming land line phone number if you choose on Telstra or Bigpond wireless.

FollowupID: 724654

Follow Up By: Old Dave - Thursday, Apr 21, 2011 at 19:14

Thursday, Apr 21, 2011 at 19:14

Hi Faulic McVitte

Thanks for the information will check it out.

Regards Sandra.

FollowupID: 724661

Reply By: Neil & Pauline - Thursday, Apr 21, 2011 at 11:17

Thursday, Apr 21, 2011 at 11:17

You will find it much improved reception / speed if you fit an external aerial. In rural areas most have a permanent external aerial on the house and a portable "broomstick" aerial for traveling.
I just have the portable aerial that I added to a magnetic base.

Neil

AnswerID: 451978

Follow Up By: vk1dx - Thursday, Apr 21, 2011 at 11:26

Thursday, Apr 21, 2011 at 11:26

Neil

My sister in law is in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney. She tried the wireless dongle without success. At that stage they did not suggest any external antenna etc. I don't want mobile internet myself but what you were saying may help them as they have a holiday house down the coast where the signal is also terribly weak.

Got any site links we could check out?

Thanks

Phil

FollowupID: 724603

Follow Up By: Neil & Pauline - Thursday, Apr 21, 2011 at 12:19

Thursday, Apr 21, 2011 at 12:19

any telstra shop will have the aerials and patch leads to connect together.

Neil

FollowupID: 724608

Follow Up By: vk1dx - Thursday, Apr 21, 2011 at 12:41

Thursday, Apr 21, 2011 at 12:41

Hi Neil

Isn't it strange that they did not mention that to her before.

I will pass this on

Thanks

Phil

FollowupID: 724610

Follow Up By: Member - Heather MG NSW - Friday, Apr 22, 2011 at 21:48

Friday, Apr 22, 2011 at 21:48

Hi Phil,

I have a high gain antenna with magnetic base which fits the Maxon BP3-USB blue modem and I no longer need it since I upgraded to the Ultimate USB a couple of weeks ago. I live on the NSW south coast in an area with very poor Telstra signal and needed it to get online here at home. Bigpond didnt tell me about it but I found it online at the Maxon website and used it in many places while we were travelling during the past three years.

Not sure whether it also fits other Bigpond/Telstra dongles though.
Maybe I should try to sell it.
Cheers,
Heather G

Of all the paths you take in life, make sure a few of them are dirt. John Muir

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FollowupID: 724794

Follow Up By: vk1dx - Wednesday, Apr 27, 2011 at 12:49

Wednesday, Apr 27, 2011 at 12:49

That beats tossing it in the bin or the "I may need it one day" cupboard.

Phil

FollowupID: 725115

Reply By: Member - Heather MG NSW - Thursday, Apr 21, 2011 at 13:57

Thursday, Apr 21, 2011 at 13:57

Hi Dalb,

I have just upgraded my device to the USB Bigpond Ultimate, on a 24 month plan (3 GB for $29.95 after a $20 rebate for also having landline and mobile phone on a single bill) and find that the reception is much improved from my previous 3yr old blue Maxon one. I can now use it at home which is in an area of very poor 3G reception (probably the poorest signal of any place we ever go, bar the remotest places) and have two bars of signal without attaching any external antenna whereas previously I had to attach a high gain antenna to get the same signal strength.
I have not investigated whether my new device has an antenna point but if it does, then I think there would not be too many places in Australia where there was no signal.
It is also faster than the previous one and works well with just 2 bars of signal, doesnt disconnect etc.

I dont have any other internet access as we travel too much of the year to justify having an ADSL connection so rely on it at home.

The upgrading of the plan was not all that straightforward as I have had to take on a new email address and the original one has become a secondary one. (I also have an older bigpond one from our dial up days...where does it end?) I have lost at least a weeks emails in cyberspace. Hopefully I have managed to contact most of my address book and inform them of my new details but it is a very tiresome process as my adult daughter who has been staying here can attest to. She witnessed my tantrums and frequent expletives as I am not the most patient of people especialy when it comes to using internet/laptops!

Hope this helps you out.

Regards,
Heather MG

Of all the paths you take in life, make sure a few of them are dirt. John Muir

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AnswerID: 451987

Follow Up By: Member - The Bushwhackers -NSW - Thursday, Apr 21, 2011 at 22:00

Thursday, Apr 21, 2011 at 22:00

Heather,

I read every word you write,,,, well, in your blogs.... frequent expletives,?? I find that hard to imagine.

lol, hang in there

Cheers, Dave

FollowupID: 724688

Follow Up By: Member - Rob Mac (QLD) - Thursday, Apr 21, 2011 at 22:24

Thursday, Apr 21, 2011 at 22:24

Hi Heather, you should be able to divert your other emails/address's to your current one. My ex flatmate did that, he had all his emails forwarded to his Gmail a/c. Dont know how it was done and he now lives in New Guinea so cannot ask him, if you have some tech savvy friends they may be able to help you.
Cheers from Rob Mac who is Levuka-ing it this weekend with a few other exploroz people/
.

FollowupID: 724692

Follow Up By: Member - Heather MG NSW - Friday, Apr 22, 2011 at 07:08

Friday, Apr 22, 2011 at 07:08

Hahahaha Dave, I could probably be described as a person who uses 'colourful language' pretty quickly when frustrated or annoyed! I just dont write that way in my blogs as they would be full of bleeps! Which reminds me that I havent finished the last one about Tassie yet...must get on to it.

And thanks Rob, yes I have managed to have all my email addresses sent to Windows Live Mail but in the week when Bigpond was doing the 'email retention' all of the emails to my previous address just didnt arrive when I could finally access it again. I haven't bothered contacting bigpond again to ask why yet.

Have fun at Levuka with the EO gang.

Cheers Heather

Of all the paths you take in life, make sure a few of them are dirt. John Muir

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FollowupID: 724708

Reply By: snoopyone - Thursday, Apr 21, 2011 at 14:01

Thursday, Apr 21, 2011 at 14:01

I bought a Blue ZTE Telstra modem for our trip.

I told them specifically what it was going to be used for.

Out of the city it was useless.

I finally got P'd off after a Telstra salesman told me that these were only city modems.

After getting two replacements I finally went to Fair trading and got my money back.

I then bought an old home modem A Maxon BP-3 which was marvelous and got reception in place where my phone didnt.

Wasnt fast but worked as good as anything.

Would use it again with a prepay Sim card as the plans are too dear.

AnswerID: 451988

Follow Up By: Faulic_McVitte - Thursday, Apr 21, 2011 at 15:47

Thursday, Apr 21, 2011 at 15:47

If you go to the Whirlpool Bigpond forum
Whirlpool Bigpond Forum
you will see the Sierra Wireless equipment like the Elite and Ultimate are low quality rubbish and a failure in congested or low signal areas. The Elite and Ultimate drop out all the time, fail to perform in medium to low signal areas especially when levels of congestion on the network. All the experienced users there and experienced travellers use the Maxon BP3-EXT. I have every Bigpond modem in my personal possession and presently have the Bigpond Ultimate tossed in a draw it is such a faulty piece of rotten stinking cheese. Yes the Maxon BP3-EXT is not the fastest thing on 10 wheels, but it will connect and stay connected when nothing else will and be able to load web pages which all the other modems will fail to do under adverse and low signal strength conditions. We use the BP3-EXT with a 3G wireless router connected to a marine fold down NextG specific dipole aerial. I also carry a large 3G Yagi when out of range of the dipole aerial.

FollowupID: 724627

Follow Up By: Fried Rice - Thursday, Apr 21, 2011 at 16:10

Thursday, Apr 21, 2011 at 16:10

We're happy with Telstra-supplied ZTE T100 used as a modem attached by USB to our laptop computers via software called "join ME".
Only issue is that we use TPG as our server and the Telstra system won't carry outward emails. I had to reconfigure our Outlok Express to send outward mail with Bigpond. Inward mail arrives as normal wih TPG.I expect to reconfigure back to TPG when we are no longer using the T100.
I bought a magetically attachable (is that a word?) external antenna but have not needed to use it yet on this trip so far just from Bris to Poserpine via inland.
I pay $20 per month added to my mobile account, for 2GB.
The phone cost $49.

FollowupID: 724630

Follow Up By: snoopyone - Thursday, Apr 21, 2011 at 16:12

Thursday, Apr 21, 2011 at 16:12

Mine sat on the mudguard roll of the van under the table and never needed anything else to work anywhere.

Why did you need a wireless router as the BP3 is a standalone device and we just plugged the laptop into it. It also supports external aerials with a patch cord.

FollowupID: 724632

Follow Up By: snoopyone - Thursday, Apr 21, 2011 at 16:24

Thursday, Apr 21, 2011 at 16:24

That configuration applies when you use a different providor through Telstra.

Had same trouble as I was on iinet.

Wait till you get your ZTE away from the high saturated areas on the East Coast It wont be good.

A said I had 3 Original one that was considered less than perfect by ZTE in Melbourne The Replacement one Died in Alice Springs and the third one would not pick up a signal where my phone would so demanded money back and got it.

FollowupID: 724635

Follow Up By: Faulic_McVitte - Thursday, Apr 21, 2011 at 18:39

Thursday, Apr 21, 2011 at 18:39

The reason use a 3G wireless router is so I can use the BP3-EXT on wireless and keep the aerial cable as short as possible.

You are incorrect about ZTE as ZTE phones out perform most other brands of phone and are the preferred brand Blue Tick phone by rural users.

"Fried Rice posted:
Only issue is that we use TPG as our server and the Telstra system won't carry outward emails."
A good reason to use GMail so if you ever leave TPG you don't have to change e-mail address and advise everybody. GMail is soo good if you have smart phone or need at any time to use web mail.

FollowupID: 724653

Follow Up By: snoopyone - Thursday, Apr 21, 2011 at 19:03

Thursday, Apr 21, 2011 at 19:03

Sorry I misread his post I am referring to ZTE USB modems.

You dont have to change email address when using Telstra as a providor.
I had an iinet email addy for years and when I went touring I just had to change the outward mail server to Telstra instead of iinet.

Quite simple and gives you two addresses as you can also have your bigpond one as well.
Didnt camp in the bush so never needed an external aerial.

FollowupID: 724658

Follow Up By: Faulic_McVitte - Thursday, Apr 21, 2011 at 19:09

Thursday, Apr 21, 2011 at 19:09

"You dont have to change email address when using Telstra as a provider." I did not say you had to change e-mail address. Please read the replies correctly and comprehend what is been posted.

The ZTE USB modems are substantially better than the Sierra Wireless rubbish, but not as good as the Maxon BP3-EXT, however with an external aerial ZTE give surprisingly good performance.

FollowupID: 724660

Follow Up By: snoopyone - Thursday, Apr 21, 2011 at 19:55

Thursday, Apr 21, 2011 at 19:55

Would have been hard to do on the ones I had as they didnt have a socket to connect an aerial.

You can actually have an email addy only, with quite a few providors I paid $25 a year to retain mine even though I had given up my broadband home connection with them.

FollowupID: 724666

Follow Up By: Faulic_McVitte - Thursday, Apr 21, 2011 at 20:55

Thursday, Apr 21, 2011 at 20:55

"You can actually have an email addy only, with quite a few providers (spelling corrected) I paid $25 a year to retain mine"
That is pretty dumb when you can have a GMail e-mail address for nothing and an excellent service. More money than sense or no brains.
ZTE only produced one USB modem without an external aerial socket and you could in fact get a replacement case from ZTE at the time for free that provided an external aerial socket.

FollowupID: 724678

Follow Up By: snoopyone - Thursday, Apr 21, 2011 at 21:02

Thursday, Apr 21, 2011 at 21:02

Very sorry I dont meet your high standards.

I dont recall seeing posts from you before.

Are you new here.

Strange that ZTE didnt offer me the new case when I went to their Australian Head office in Melbourne and spoke to a head Tech there.

Only gave me a replacement one which promptly died three weeks later.

FollowupID: 724680

Follow Up By: Member - The Bushwhackers -NSW - Thursday, Apr 21, 2011 at 22:06

Thursday, Apr 21, 2011 at 22:06

Faulic is a very smart person.... too smart for the rest of us ordinary people, just ask him/her

Cheers, Dave

FollowupID: 724690

Follow Up By: Stu & "Bob" - Friday, Apr 22, 2011 at 18:52

Friday, Apr 22, 2011 at 18:52

I have an Iphone on a Telstra next G service.
For my email, I am using TPG as well. I did have some problems with not being able to send email (received email ok), but it was just a configuration problem that I had not done when setting up the phone. You will need to enter the server address, user account and password into your phone to be able to send using your current (TPG) account.

HTH

FollowupID: 724770

Follow Up By: snoopyone - Friday, Apr 22, 2011 at 18:59

Friday, Apr 22, 2011 at 18:59

I also have an Iphone to my disappointment.

My old Nokia was a far better phone away from the East Coast.

Iphones are really a city phone and don't work all that well in isolated places.

I used a Carkit with an external aerial which gave better reception but the Nokia beat it hands down on the West Coast where towers are few and far between

FollowupID: 724772

Reply By: Member - Dalb (SA) - Thursday, Apr 21, 2011 at 17:07

Thursday, Apr 21, 2011 at 17:07

Many thanks to you all for your responses.

Like most tech problems today, there is no defiitive answer, just lots of "frequent expletives" as Heather says.
The Elite does have provision for an external arial but three Telstra shops and Harvey Norman have told me they do not stock them.
I am told the Ultimate does not have provision for an external arial - so theres yet another dilemma. Which would be best?

I think I will investigate the Maxon BP3-EXT, which is something completely new to me.

Thanks and Cheers, Dalb

Cheers, Dalb

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AnswerID: 452002

Follow Up By: snoopyone - Thursday, Apr 21, 2011 at 17:47

Thursday, Apr 21, 2011 at 17:47

Buy one on Ebay for not many dollars They run off 240volt stepped down to 12 so you can make a connector to run it off 12 volts if you are handy.

Mine now runs off either but you have to make a cable using the original plug in the modem so a 2 pin connector from Jaycar would work if it is handed
EG + to +, - to - you can buy them with little arrows to match up on each side

The BP 3 is the blue toaster shaped one with an aerial at each end

FollowupID: 724642

Follow Up By: Faulic_McVitte - Thursday, Apr 21, 2011 at 18:46

Thursday, Apr 21, 2011 at 18:46

The Maxon BP3-EXT is 6V NOT 12V
A 12V to 6V converter is $1.50
You are doing well so far with crook information.

FollowupID: 724655

Follow Up By: Member - The Bushwhackers -NSW - Thursday, Apr 21, 2011 at 22:07

Thursday, Apr 21, 2011 at 22:07

you are doing fine with denigration....

FollowupID: 724691

Follow Up By: snoopyone - Thursday, Apr 21, 2011 at 22:28

Thursday, Apr 21, 2011 at 22:28

Yes you are right Faulic ....once again
I pulled it out of the box its been in for 18 months to find I had used a Jaycar part number KA 1797 To step it down to 6 v. My humblest apologies for not looking before I posted.

Im sure with your vast knowledge and wonderful attitude you will go far on this forum

And we hope soon.

FollowupID: 724693

Reply By: Member - Craig F (WA) - Thursday, Apr 21, 2011 at 22:54

Thursday, Apr 21, 2011 at 22:54

Hi Dalb,
I have a Telstra Ultimate compared to my previous dongle its brilliant. Reception is far better than the previous models.

Regards
Craig

AnswerID: 452028

Reply By: Racey - Friday, Apr 22, 2011 at 11:43

Friday, Apr 22, 2011 at 11:43

I don't bother with add on modem for wireless internet as it's another internet account I don't need. Cable at home is the main connection. When we travel I purchase a data pack from Telstra (telstra mobile). I then use the mobile phone as a modem plugged into the laptop. Works fine, if you have mobile reception you have internet connection. Prices range from $5 /mth for 30mb, $20 for 2Gb etc.
Also use skype for non free hour calls.

Cheers
Racey

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AnswerID: 452067