Posts Tagged ‘3’

Andy goes for a long walk, and finds his Local Mobile Phone Masts!

Friday, February 24th, 2012

Never a boring day, today I went searching for my nearest mobile phone masts. The only trouble was I could see them, but had a few difficulties, in finding the access road leading to the actual base transmitter mast sites. I left my car, and went walking up a hill, across fields, and found the base transmitter mast sites, took some photographs below of the sites, and then walked back down the access road from the site, only to find, it was miles from where I left my car. A lovely warm day, and fantastic views, across the Vale of York.

The O2 and T-Mobile transmitter sites, are just inside the Kilnwick Percy Golf Course, as you can see in the photographs, graffiti artists, have already “tagged” the site, it wasn’t me!

In one of the pictures below, I highlight with a red circle, where I live in the distance.

O2 Site 36720 and T-Mobile 96720
I live here!
O2 Site 36720
O2 Site 36720 and T-Mobile 96720
O2 Site 36720 and T-Mobile 96720
T-Mobile 96720
Vodafone Base Site 4505
Vodafone Base Site 4505
Vodafone Base Site 4505
Vodafone Mast Site 4505

Start Slideshow
1 2

I found evidence of an O2 and T-Mobile transmitter mast, and a Vodafone transmitter but could not see any visible documentation, for mobile company 3. (Three). I suspect one of the antenna on the transmitter mast must belong to 3 (Three).

The reason for my visit, was to check, if I could “beam” a 2.4GHz WiFi signal back to my house, to check line of sight. I could, so I have clear line of sight to errect a new 16 dbi Yagi antenna, to improve my 3G UMTS/HSPDA signal, and improve and hopefully get a better download speed using wireless technology.

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Wired or Wireless, ADSL or 3G? that’s the question?

Friday, February 10th, 2012

I’ve recently been running trails using 3G Wireless Internet with Celltime Provider Three and O2, you are probably thinking I’m as mad as a badger! (well once upon a time, I did study Electronic Communication Engineering, so I know a little about Radio Frequencies! – (thanks to Mum & Dad! for the funding!).

But check the results below, and this is with a -85 dBm signal (boffin speak for GOOD! or three bars good buddy! have you got your ears on!), using the internal antenna on a Option GlobalSurfer III (3G Router). I’ve recently noticed that Three have upgraded their transmitter to now support HSDPA (High-Speed Downlink Packet Access), well what does that load of gibberish mean, well other than the UMTS or 3G symbol changes to “H” on my phone or router. It means that rather than max speed of 3.6Mbps, the max speed could be 7.2MBps or 14.4MBps. Yes via Wireless!

At present I’m getting faster wireless speeds than wired!

Eclipse Internet Three 3G Internet
Eclipse Internet ADSL speedtest by Speedtest.net Three 3G speedtest by Speedtest.net
Eclipse Internet ADSL pingtest by Pingtest.net Three 3G pingtest by Pingtest.net
Eclipse Internet ADSL speedtest by Broadband SpeedChecker.co.uk Three 3G speedtest by Broadband SpeedChecker.co.uk
Eclipse Internet ADSL speedtest by My Broadband Speed hree 3G speedtest by My Broadband Speed
Eclipse Internet ADSL speedtest by Thinkbroadband Three 3G speedtest by Thinkbroadband

I generally use this 3G router, because when normal wired ADSL fails, it automatically fails back or fails over to 3G Wireless Internet, and after the recents drop outs and faults, I noticed my 3G wireless broadband was faster!

Option GlobalSurfer III 3G Network Router

Option GlobalSurfer III 3G Network Router

I need to complete some more calculations, and purchase a directional Yagi antenna, so I can get a stronger signal = more signal = more power = faster throughput and downloads! (does that sound like Captain Kirk to Scotty the Engineer – Give me more power! Scotty! )

Microwave Wireless Aerial or Twig!

Microwave Wireless Aerial or Twig on biscuit tin!

This aerial is not correct, the VSWR (sorry boffin alert) is too high, and not correctly matched at 3G frequencies! It reminds me of long ago with a DV27 on a biscuit tin!

I now understand, when I visited China, why they did not role out copper wires to peoples houses for telephones, they just jumped to wireless 2.5G communications (whilst the UK, was still using GSM! (2G)).

Well Good Buddy Signing Off!, 10-10.

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3G Killer Accessory – Huawei E585

Sunday, August 8th, 2010
Huawei E585 MiFi Mobile WiFi Wireless 3G Modem

Huawei E585 MiFi Mobile WiFi Wireless 3G Modem

If you have an iPadtastic iPad without 3G or have many mobile WiFi devices that could benefit from 3G connectivity, then the Huawei E585 MiFi Mobile WiFi Wireless 3G Modem is for you.  The Huawei E585 has already won Best iPad Accessory, its sold exclusively by Three here :- http://www.three.co.uk/Mobile_Broadband/MiF.

It’s basically a WiFi router with in-built 3G mobile modem, rather than ADSL or Cable modem. At present, I’m finding I’ve got four devices that all require 3G mobile internet connectivity, Laptop, Netbook, iPad and PDA and trying to keep all contracts up to date is costing me, so this one device, I can use one mobile SIM contract, and up to five devices can connect to this mobile WiFi access point, and use 3G mobile connectivity.

It’s an excellent device, with clear excellent instructions if you need them, and good software and configuration available from a web gui.

Huawei E585 MiFi Mobile WiFi Wireless 3G Modem

Huawei E585 MiFi Mobile WiFi Wireless 3G Modem

Personally in the UK, I would continue using the network Three for data, using the loophole, I’ve blogged about before. This still makes Three the cheapest data mobile provider in the UK.

If Three’s not for you, and you want to try it on another network, the Three Huawei E585 is sim-locked to the Three network.

(I’ll post later how you remove the sim-lock).

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NEWSFLASH! Evicted from The Orange Shop, 16/17 Coney Street, YORK TODAY!

Sunday, July 18th, 2010

I went into The Orange Shop, 16/17 Coney Street, YORK today at approx 14:00 to make an enquiry about the iPhone 4 32GB Black on an Orange Contract. I was greeted by a Sales Person called Mark.

He was quick to explain to me, that Apple fix the prices of the iPhone 4.0 32GB Black, and Mobile Airtime companies cannot set the price of the phone, he asked if I wanted it on Pay As You Go or Contract, I replied I was interested in a Contract, he told me the cost of the phone was £319, and monthly costs of £35, for 18 months.

tesco-mobile-logoI told him the monthly cost was tool high, and I mentioned Tesco Mobile at £20 a month,

and in his next breath Mark said

“if you go with Tesco Mobile you’ll get no signal, because Orange have more transmitters across the country than Tesco Mobile“

Personally, when a Sales Person resorts to this sort of tactic to make a sale, it make me suspicious, I always remember a old friend/work colleague, when I worked in Sales, hundreds of years ago, when dinosaurs ruled the earth, telling me NEVER disrespect the competitor to make a Sale.

When Mark told me this, I gave him my mobile phone, and asked him to tell me what current network it’s on, it happens to be Orange (he didn’t know this before I handed him the phone, he didn’t even bother to ask me). I then reminded Mark, that I’ve probably been with Orange as a Customer, longer than he’s been an Employee, which now is about approx 11-12 years, and I don’t have reception at home with Orange, but I do with O2, Tesco Mobile, Vodafone, T-Mobile and 3! So I don’t think what he’s saying is valid and I don’t like the way he’s slagging off the Competition, at this point he asked me to LEAVE THE SHOP! He then started stating I’m now SLAGGING him off!

I pointed out as I left the Shop, I was surprised they were happy to lose a potential sale, and told him I would make him famous, and Tweet later about this incident! I don’t know why Mark lost his rag with me, and I hadn’t even had my Red Bull for the day!

So Happy Sales Mark……..

Looks like I’ll be joining Tescos Mobile then…..so much for 11 years Customer Loyality! (not that Mark would know, he didn’t ask the question!)

PS Mr Orange/Mr Tescos if your reading this, iPhone 4 32GB Black on Contract in the post would be very nice Free of Charge!

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Hard Disk Drives (HDD)

Wednesday, April 21st, 2010

Winchester Disk Drive, Hard disk drive, Hard disc drive, HDD or ‘that big box under the desk‘ (which is the answer I often get!) or I’ve got 500GB of memory or is that disk! I don’t know!

it’s what makes most computers go, most of the time, and if they go bad or stop working, so does your computer usually!

A number of years ago (7 years), I always used Western Digital hard disk drives (HDDs) but after a spate of failures with the new (at the time) WDC WD1200JB, the JB features a 7200 RPM spindle speed coupled with three 40 GB platters. The JB’s key feature, is its 8-meg buffer, four times that of competing drives at the time. An ATA-standard 3-year warranty backs the drive.

But after many of these failed, I decided to switch to Seagate Technology, backed by a 5 Year Warranty, and hard drive manufacturer I’d not used for many years.

The hard drive manufaturer market has certainly got smaller over the last 20 years, many names have disappeared, Connor, DEC, Fujitsu, IBM, Maxtor, Miniscribe and Quantum have disappeared. Quantum acquired DEC, Maxtor acquired Miniscribe and Quantum HDD, Seagate acquired Connor and Maxtor, Hitachi acquired IBM HDD, Toshiba acquired Fujitsu HDD, Western Digital acquired Tandon HDD.

So that leaves us with

  1. Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (1967)
  2. Seagate Technology (1979)
  3. Toshiba (1967)
  4. Western Digital (1988)
  5. Samsung (1999?)

So, we still have plenty of HDD manufaturers to choose from!

Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500Gbytes ST3500320AS and Western Digital 1TB Caviar Black WD1001FALSq

Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500Gbytes ST3500320AS and Western Digital 1TB Caviar Black WD1001FALS

But for me, I’ve decided to go back to purchasing Western Digital Black Drives for the moment, and spread the risk between Seagate for the NASes and Western Digital Black for the workstations!

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Why pay for Travelodge WiFi with all these FREE Access Points!

Friday, February 19th, 2010
3 Coverage HSDPA

3 Coverage HSDPA

No need for 3G, which at present I’m getting 5 bars good buddy, blowing me windows out on HSPDA! But why pay for Travelodge WiFi when there are 49 Access Points with un-secure WiFi Access in this area!

WiFi coverage at this location

WiFi coverage at this location

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What’s in your Man Bag?

Tuesday, February 9th, 2010

After a few folk on-site recently have been laughing at my “hand bag”. I keep telling them it’s a man bag which I keep my notebook in and a few other things! I’m always complaining to Lindsey about not being able to find her keys in her many bags that she uses, it’s prompted me to take a photograph of the items in my man bag!

Contents of my man bag!

Contents of my man bag!

Contents Include:-

  • Sony Vaio T1XP Mini Notebook and Sony Vaio Case.
  • Sony Vaio T1XP charger and mains cable.
  • Tom Tom GO 520 in hard case.
  • SanDisk cruzer mini 1GB flash drives (2).
  • SanDisk cruzer micro clear body 4GB flash drives (2).
  • SanDisk cruzer micro 4GB flash drive (encrypted) (1).
  • hp 4GB flash drive (encrypted).
  • Corsair Survivor GT 64GB flash drive (encrypted) (including chain and dog tag!).
  • 3 3G MF627 USB Modem with 4GB micro SD card inserted. (encrypted).
  • Cisco Aironet 350 AIR-LMC350 (patched 200mW) PCMCIA card.
  • Cisco Aironet 802.11a/b/g PCMCIA Wireless Adaptor.
  • Linksys Dual-Band Wireless 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g WPC55AG PCMCIA card.
  • Orinoco 802.11b PCMCIA GOLD Card.
  • Senoa special PCMCIA card!
  • N-type to Wireless LAN card pigtails, various types (3).
  • Canon Ixus IS 850 Digital Camera including case.
  • Flash card case including compact flash, SD, Micro SD, Mini SD, Memory Stick, Memory Pro cards.
  • HP Smart Start CD ROMs and ESXi flash modules.
  • Carrying case full of technical CD ROMs.

I’ll not complain the next time Lindsey has difficulty finding her keys!

That’s alot of tech!

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Wireless (WiFi) Remote Control of X10 Modules using USB Remote Access

Sunday, December 20th, 2009
  1. The Active Home Pro software is installed on/in a virtual Windows XP Professional computer, I don’t like cluttering up my main production Workstation which happens to be Vista 64-bit Ultimate.
  2. The CM15PRO Programmable Computer Interface is connected by USB to this computer. The Active Home Pro software is the software that drives the computer interface, I’ve saved the “house file” house.ahx on my NAS (network attached storage) device, so it can be easily shared on my network.
  3. This is the clever Tech bit, USB over Network by Fabula Tech, I’ve been using this software in the virtual work I do for a few years, and it allows you to share a USB device over your network, e.g. you can plug in you USB device on one computer, and connect to it on another via your network. Very handy… USB remote access!
  4. The USB over Network by Fabula Tech is installed on the computer connected to the CM15PRO Programmable Computer Interface. We will call this the server.
USB over network

USB over network

The above snapshot, shows the USB over Network server software running, and the current USB devices attached to the server, which can then be shared, just like any resource, disk, printer etc.

USB over network device shared waiting for connection

USB over network device shared waiting for connection

The device is shared, and is waiting for a client computer to connect to it.

USB device properties

USB device properties

You can give the devices meaningful friendly names, that you’ll remember. On the client computer (remote computer), install another copy of Active Home Pro, making sure the drivers are installed for the CM15Pro. Run the USB over Network client software.

USB over Network client setup

USB over Network client setup

Select USB Device, Add, browser for the computer or enter IP address. You should see, a list of devices that can be connected to.

Client connecting...

Client connecting...

Right click the device, and click connect, if this is the first time you’ve connected to the device, you’ll get the usual, bing-bong tones, and plug N play will start and register the drives.

Now you can use your ActiveHome Pro software on another wireless (WiFi) computer, just open the *.AHX home file, from a shared location.

Client Connected to device

Client Connected to device

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Stop Press! 3 Mobile Broadband still works for a fiver!

Wednesday, December 16th, 2009

Ignore the last post!

That’s what happens when you talk to a call centre!

It still works!

My 3 Balance and Free Stuff

My 3 Balance and Free Stuff

for the moment, but technicaly, it’s exploting a loophole. I think it could have been the Add-On option had vanished, maybe because I was low on “top-up”! But it’s strange that my mobile number is now associated with a Dongle and a Mobile Phone!

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Network Provider 3 remove unlimited mobile broadband for a fiver!

Wednesday, December 16th, 2009

This maybe my last blog p0st via 3 Mobile Broadband, after having many issues with 3, with a local cell site issue, which has now been fixed. I’ve found out today, that the small loophole, where you could use a 3 Pay As You Go Phone SIM, in your 3 broadband dongle, and then Add-On for a Fiver!, Unlimited Internet access for 1 month has been discontinued, it would appear that too many people were removing SIMs from their phones and using them in a 3G Mobile Broadband Dongle! Really!

So now 3 want you to pay for your data allowance as follows:-

  • 1GB for £10
  • 3GB for £15
  • 7GB for £25

these figures are per month, and it doesn’t roll over.

Looks like I’ll be moving on from 3.

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