| Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption |
| Effie |
Ubuntu and internet dongles?Is there any simple reason why a dongle cuts off far more frequently and is generally a bit of a nuisance under unbuntu?It recognises it fine, and it functions. But is just more flaky than when booted under windows and disconnects alot. |
||
| jema |
Linux drivers are often more flaky as they have been written without the input of the manufacturer. | ||
| Chez |
There shouldn't be, I don't think. Have you trawled through the help stuff on the Ubuntu site? If it *is* a known problem there may be a fix for it. | ||
| Effie |
Was off to trawl the world of ubuntu next. I thought I'd just check there wasn't a really simple something I was missing before I hunted. | ||
| Chez |
It probably *is* a really simple something - but it's still quite a small community, so there are less people who might have had it. The Ubuntu forums are quite helpful, too, if you can't find an existing answer - and if you do, document it for the next person 
|
||
| Effie |
It is all fairly academic as the dongle is going shortly. They laughed really hard in the Tmobile shop when they discovered the average dongle speed in Lampeter on 2G only signal. And told me to get a landline. | ||
| Chez |
Philistines. It might be worth ringing a shop in Lampeter and asking them what they would advise for the local area. | ||
| RichardW |
Or get a directional antenna for it. My mast is over 6 miles away & I can get the same level of service that I get at my mums where the mast is 300m away. Have only just fitted it. All drop outs have stopped & speed has increased. | ||
| JohnB |
From the publicity you'd think that you can get a 3G signal everywhere in the country, but I travel all over the place and getting 3G, and therefore the equivalent of very slow broadband, is a novelty. There's a lay-by that I pass occasionally where I know I'll get 3G, and stop to have a short dose of fastish internet access! A landline isn't really a practical option when you live in a van, wandering round the country. I'd need a very long cable
|
||
| RichardW |
JohnB get a directional antenna to go with your dongle. Then use Mast finder & a map & compass so you can point it directly at it. Or just get one thats omnidirectional but has a good dbi boost.
In Lampeter you would be better off with O2 mast on the far side of drovers road or Orange mast just out of town on the North East side. Oddly so do Tmobile on or near the same site. |
||
| JohnB |
I actually use a phone with built in modem, so I'm not aware of any way of using an external antenna. When I got it I had a choice of a dongle at around £30 a month, or paying around a tenner on top of the phone package. An antenna wouldn't allow you to get a 3G signal in an area where only 2G is available, would it? |
||
| RichardW |
You can get clip on adapters for the dongles that dont have antenna connections so that should work on a phone as well. I guess it would depend if the mast the 2g signal is from is transmitting a 3g signal but you are to far away for it to work.
I can tell you that before I got the antenna ours suffered from drop outs 10 or more times per day & since getting it it does not have any & speed has increased (but not to full on BB speeds but fast enough). I can also say that it works as well here 6.1miles from the mast as it does at my mums thats 300m from the mast. Use that link to see where the masts are & what they are transmitting in the area you want it to work in. Oh I have even has internet via a phone (not dongle) whilst out at sea on the ferry to Ireland (about half way so a good few miles from land either way) at a good speed so distance is not every thing. |