Three Mobile Pay As You Go Mobile Broadband 1 GB Dongle

The set-up was very easy. I put the supplied SIM card in the dongle, plugged it into a laptop running Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (64 bit) and after a few seconds I was online. No installation of software or configuration was required. The same with a Samsung Chromebook (ARM). It also worked when plugged into a Raspberry PI 2 Model B but required a few simple commands. There is a built in web interface on 192.168.0.1 where you can see the status and usage. The speed you get depends on the coverage and performance of the Three network where you are. I tested it in a rural area and the speed varies a lot. I got about 3Mbps (daytime) and 14Mbps (late evening) download speed. I recommended using the coverage checker on www.three.co.uk before purchase.

This Three mobile dongle is reliable and fast, and the Three network seems to have far better coverage than O2 or Orange. It has never once failed to connect, nor dropped from 3G to GPRS as other dongles can do. Set up is easy too - you literally just push it into a USB slot and a few seconds later, you're online. And no need to register if you don't want to!

We were going away for a two week family holiday, with a holiday complex that had WiFi. Unfortunately I had some work to do whilst we were away I needed to take my laptop. I bought this just in case the complexes WiFi wasn't adequate. It turned out that I could only get it, in certain spots in our apartment, and at times it wouldn't work at all. This was a god send. It was easy to use, working by just plugging it in to my laptop. I did't need to pre register it, and it came pre loaded with credit. I did have a look in the shops, such as Curry's and phone shops first, but they were selling the dongle for the same price, but with out credit already on it, which would mean I had to pay more, so I opted to purchase it on Amazon. On occasions, I did have to click on settings to switch it on, other times it came on straight away when I plugged it in (I plugged it in, only when required). It worked every time I used it and I never had any problem with it. The connection speed wasn't up to WiFi standard, but it was faster than the old 'dial up' internet and not painfully slow. I managed to do all my work without a hitch and the dongle still had credit on it when we returned. I now have a useful gadget for when I'm travelling and needing to work (i.e trains), It just gives me that piece of mind that I can always be connected to the internet when needed. You can add more credit it to it by visiting the Three web page and adding it to the mobile number that is assigned to the dongle.

This is what is becoming known as a "Hostless" dongle. This means it handles the PPP session inside the dongle, and presents a standard ethernet interface to your computer. The advantage of this is that it gets you online very quickly with no manual config on the laptop/computer. The dongle's configuration (what little you can do) is accessible on192.168.0.1 through a web browser, and it hands out a DHCP address of 192.168.0.136 to your computer. However there is a downside to this hostless capability on this dongle! I was really disappointed to discover this dongle has no support for uPNP (I even contacted 3UK, and they confirmed this fact). This means it is impossible to map any inbound TCP/UDP ports in any way shape or form. This will make the dongle a disappointment for many gamers, or users of other applications that need to be able to receive inbound TCP/UDP connections. I cannot believe the unit lacks this ability, as it is the cornerstone of many internet based applications these days, beyond basic web browsing. This dongle is therefore only useful for basic web access, whereby you (or your application) do not need the ability to handle inbound TCP/UDP connections! Think of it as a NAT router with NO port-forwarding capabilities. :( Have a look at the Huawei E3131 if you need uPNP support. It's a much better dongle (although isn't as fast as it lacks dual-carrier support). I'll be buying an E3131 to replace this rather useless (to me) ZTE. Incidentally, this dongle does seem to work OK under OpenWRT (Altitude Adjustment) using the cdc_ether driver (you'll need to install kmod-usb-core, kmod-usb-net & kmod-usb-net-cdc-ether) to get it to work (with all of the above limitations of course). It will get assigned device name "usb0" which can then be configured inside OpenWRT, just like any standard ethernet device.

Brilliant, worth the money! You can top up easy, easy to setup also, and it's very good fast internet! Make sure you search beforehand where 3's signal is on their website, although I've had no trouble at all where I use it.. It's quite a chunky stick and on my laptop I have 2 USB ports, the width of the stick means it takes over both ports due to how wide it is- I can't use the other one. I overcame this by buying a USB adapter socket for cheap so I turned one socket into 4! Abit annoying at the time but I think all these dongles are similar of size, and it's probably my laptop design fault, so I still rate it 5* .

There is nothing in the description about Windows versions, and once it arrives it says Windows 8 on the box. All well and good as if you buy a new Windows Laptop/PC it will be Windows 10, and Windows 10 is supposed to work with Windows 8 drivers. Plug it in, and nothing. Not even able to see the built in software partition. I had to plug this into a Windows 7 PC to then get to the software to install. After copying this software onto a flash drive to move it over to the Win 10 PC, it then wouldn't run. After having to set it to compatibility mode for Windows 7, the software installer seemed to run, but it does not show any information boxes, so you don't know it has run apart from the fact the dongle started to work. Then, the next big issue. It shows as an 'Ethernet' connection which means you cannot set it as a 'metered' connection (meaning Windows thinks you have unlimited data and it can download whatever it likes. So a registry 'hack' later (you can set Ethernet connections to default to 'Metered' - but be warned this might prevent other updates from downloading when you want them) and I'm away. Easiest thing is to disable the Windows Update Service when using this dongle so it doesn't download Windows Updated, otherwise your data will be gone pretty quickly. Other than those issues, there are intermittent connectivity issues mainly due to signal strength so you need to refresh sometimes. Also be aware there is a delay in the pages loading around 5-10 seconds more than a wired connection.

This is a mobile WiFi device which allows you to have access to internet and your email and such like.I have never had a BT line I have no fixed telephone number I have my mobile instead,thus saving money.This saved you money if your not into watching or streaming films or gaming,if you like doing stuff which the every day person does keep in contact with people,watch YouTube, download music it works depending on your coverage area. I have used 3 because they are the leaders in this field of mobile mobile internet access.I have tried Vodafone no good, Ee so so patchy,02 did not work at all wasted my money and so I always come back to 3...All I can say it does what it says mobile internet at an affordable price,no subscription fee every month just stick it into your UDB port and follow the onscreen messages and away you go!...super.

Lasts 12 months that's a laugh I go through at least 3072 Bites a month and then run short unless 3G are over charging bites I have noticed it never makes it to the end of the month any more I will be lucky if I get 3 to 4 months But have found there are cheaper 12 G. Bites dongles preloaded to buy on amazon also 24 G. Bites preloaded so I over paid for this one abit to much but you live and learn as the saying goes

Ce modem USB ne fonctionne pas en france, Les fréquences ne sont pas les mêmes que ceux utilisés aux états unis.