So I'm giving this little fellow a go: it's a USB modem which purports to give broadband access over 3G (or if you're within coverage, over 3's "Turbo" HSDPA network).

The thought of paying a tenner a month for connectivity at home without all the attached and unused furniture of a BT line etc is attractive - and the idea that my connection goes with me wherever I am *just makes sense*; I suspect the idea of pumping bandwidth into homes over cables might seem a tad quaint one day soon. But the proof of the pudding etc etc.: in Ireland folks had problems with this service when 3 launched it, so I'm going to give it a go for a while before I tell Virgin where to go.

So far, the experience is decent: the device installs OK, suffers being disconnected and reconnected just fine, takes a few seconds to login to the 3 network (and manages to do so on first attempt about 80% of the time, 100% the second time). Connectivity is OK so far; I don't get blisteringly fast broadband (Brighton being outside Turbo coverage for now), but it seems unmediated - I haven't discovered anything I can't do yet - if a little slow compared to my old wired broadband. I get the impression that at some level I'm travelling through an HTTP proxy somewhere which makes me nervous, but SSH and mail being collected on weird ports seems to be tolerated.

How long before we have laptops with embedded 3G connectivity and SIMs, just as we have Bluetooth and Wifi today? For me this is certainly a wi-fi killer: I'll not be paying T-Mobile, Starbucks, BT Openzone or the Cloud a penny from now on, which given that I do this once or twice a month as it stands makes the device pay for itself.

Update: if you're using something like this on capped bandwidth, I thoroughly recommend SurplusMeter for the Mac.

Comments

[Colin]

Hi,

I think that I am going to plump for a 3 USB device in the near future.

One concern I have is that are there any retrictions put in place. You mention that you can collect mail and secure shell. Can you confirm that 3 allow access to non www services in the UK with their USB modem service?

I reguarly use SSH, FTP, RDP, IMAP, HTTP/s & SMTP.

Thanks,
Colin

[Tom Hume]

Colin: SSH, HTTP and HTTPS definitely work. HTTP seems to be proxied in some way. Not tried IMAP, RDP or FTP yet.

[leslie]

hello

i am on the three mobile broadband and have been monitoring my usage with surplusmeter (set on ppp including uploads).
i am quite perplexed as the usage on the meter differs from the usage i got from calling 333.
have i made a mistake with my settings?

also i seem to get cut off during periods of inactivity, which is really odd as i have tinkered with the ppp options (and have unchecked disconnect if idle).

thx

(by the way, great coverage in manchester)

[vortex]

hi i recently signd up to the 3 modem deal and i think generally it is a good offer but it does have its disadvantages such as

£1 per every mb you go over your limit with (ouch nasty)

that not being the only limit advertised as having over a 3.6mb speed i barly reach over 144kb download
and 47kb upload with over 300 ping now i dont no about you but being told about haveing a posibble 3.6mb download speed whilst only reaching 144kb got me pritty miffd off and 3 for that one but anouther problem i have is if you run a program such as u-torrent or outhers alike you will allwasy get an almost dead set speed of download if anny because the ports on this thing ar impossible to forward so much so that after a few unverifyd sorces seid it is imposible as three have disabled this abillity im begginig to think it is imposible to forward your ports

my question is can annyone finde out if the ports on these icebrg modems be forwarded at all?

[Ben]

Hi Tom.

I just got one of these. Connection speed not bad but I'm unable to use ssh or ftp. Sometimes it connects but usually not. How has it been for you recently? I may have to return it - as a web developer I need more than web browsing.

Ben

[Tom Hume]

I can do ssh and ftp just fine when it works. I am having problems in Brighton with coverage - it seems massively unreliable from home all of a sudden...

[Ben]

SSH/FTP are working fine during the evening and early morning. But after 09:30 I get lost connections and rapid timeouts. I updated my SSH keep alive interval to 5 seconds in OS X but that didn't help. I guessing they have a very aggressive NAT system that prevents anything other than browsing going through. It's a real shame.

[Peter Hewkin]

I got the 3 moden last October and was very impressed but since Christmas its been useless.
The Christmas period I could not connect at all and since then about 50/50. I assume that there are too many users for the servers. One day some one will get this technology right , but it`s not this one.

[Anonymous]

>that not being the only limit advertised as having over a 3.6mb speed i barly reach over 144kb download

Um, you're comparing 3.6 megabit to 144 kilobyte speeds.

1 megabit = 122 kilobytes

You're running at about 1/3 speed, which is down to your area.

[Nicki]

I have just boutght a usb moden from 3 on pay as you go. When i told the man in the shop that i was from doncaster he told me that my area was great for the network coverage. But everytime i try to connect the light goes green and will not let me on the internet it does this a lot so i disconnect and try again but the light just goes back green. If the light actually goes blue sometimes it stays blue all the time whilst im using the internet but it often turns green and logs me off the internet.
Is there anyway i can stop this? What does the green light mean?

[Stevie]

Nicki - the green light on the USB modem indicates there is a fault with the modem and you need to return it to 3 store. Keeping it plugged into your laptop with the green light on will likely cause intense overheating and possible explosion, damaging both the USB modem (warranty will be void in this case), laptop and possibly causing serious injury or death to those nearby. So, take it immediately back to 3 store should you ever have the green light illuminate.

[Anon]

Stevie your right - mine blew up and screwed my laptop, now I have to use the local net cafe just to get online :(

[Abdul Rohim]

"I have just boutght a usb moden from 3 on pay as you go. When i told the man in the shop that i was from doncaster he told me that my area was great for the network coverage. But everytime i try to connect the light goes green and will not let me on the internet it does this a lot so i disconnect and try again but the light just goes back green. If the light actually goes blue sometimes it stays blue all the time whilst im using the internet but it often turns green and logs me off the internet.
Is there anyway i can stop this? What does the green light mean?"

In relatation to the green light it is just an indicator that the modem is active nothin special the blue light normally means that you are getting a HSPDA singal which is better and more faster than the 3G so they state more realiable i would say in my experince

[James Oliver]

We have 2 of these Huwei devices from Three; one on a contract and one PAYG.
Recently the speed has dropped to negligible despite showing good signal strength. This is on BOTH devices, on two or three different computers on three different postcodes (all within London).
We rang Three who ran us through checks and settings on one PC. No difference so the contract modem has been sent back to Three via courier to be looked at. They missed returning it yesterday but have promised it tomorrow. Basically neither device have worked for nigh on a week. Appalling.
Foolish really to get two devices from one network. We were encouraged by the fact that Three got good reviews and are the only network that don't compress images by default.
When they did (briefly) work at the beginning these devices they were OK but you certainly wouldn't rely on Three for your main connection. Speed nothing like that advertised of course...

[Tom Kirkpatrick]

I'm running with one in Dublin, Ireland. Whilst it's ok for browsing the net, I just can't use it for ssh. It does connect, but after about 10 seconds of usage, the session hangs, only to reconnect several minutes later and hang again. This makes it unusable for ssh, and therefore useless to web developers. Unless, someone knows how to fix this?

[Rob James]

A quetion please ; will this 3USB modem work in any way in France ? If ( as I suspect ) not, am I likely to find an equivalent device there, to use on a French network ? Orange FR, maybe ? I dread to think of the cost implications of using this product in France, on UK roaming rates !

[Roddy Graham]

We have been using the Huawei modem on a 3 contract since September 08 and it is probably about as reliable as our old dial-up connection, but having been on cable for three years it seems flaky by comparison. The biggest grumble is that the software never remembers settings properly, so we always have to manually click on the 'connect' button, which seems terribly primitive.