FOAK:Recommendations for Business 3G/WiFi DataCards WorldWide

I am looking for a business solution for roaming internet access, moving
away from legacy Ras and starting to evaluate the competitors for this
business and was wondering if anyone had covered this already.

I've got access to and been checking out the Orange Business Everywhere
cards but the WiFi side seems a bit less capable than I thought it would be,
but its not a bad card for bare bones 3G access thats for sure but I am far
from decided yet.
Noting the Orange s/w can even be disposed of as you can just dial the 3G
connection, although it does lose some of the advantages of the connection
manager (if there are any).

I have seen various reviews and comparisons (a zdnet trial of 4 providers
dates back to 2004) and perhaps another one of the strongest contenders may
be Vodaphone but I have also had discussions with Equant relating to their
solutions, but nothing solid as far as an actual trial which at least I have
with Orange.
I think this was the link which may still hold some value but the
competition may have hotted up since then
http://reviews.zdnet.co.uk/hardware/networking/0,39023970,39167071,00.htm

So, I was wondering by querying this past the FOAK- has anyone been through
this already, already have such a card solution in place and can
recommend/recommend against certain solution providers? Cheers.
<Ruling out mobile satellite, its just *way* too expensive>
I have my own connection manager/checks for VPN working pretty well, so its
really bare bones connectivity that is required.

I think it was T-mobile I came across a link for with a suggestion of free
wifi access for a year, but to hell if I can find it now. I think the
coverage of WiFi is still a bit patchy isn't it, so perhaps the biggest
competition is the quality and cost of 3G ?

 

Vodafone is excellent, ime.


Ali

 

Appreciate that insight, thanks. Any feedback on the software mgr they use?
Theirs is a 3G/grps only card isnt it - not WiFi to worry about I take it
(the problem with Orange - e.g. the WiFi conflicts and does not work well on
the IBM T41 unless the built-in Cisco is disabled).

http://online.vodafone.co.uk/dispat...geLabel=Page_BOS_BusinessStore&pageID=BS_0506

 

Yup. 3G only, my laptop has separate WiFi. The software was very easy to
install and I've had no issues with it, if that counts as feedback. And
I've installed it on several other laptops, TAAW. Takes about three minutes
and it just works. Dead boring.

The one thing I *did* discover, was that it's advisable to turn the
laptop's integral WiFi OFF whilst using 3G, it seems to conflict at times.
Which seems to gel with the Orange comment, I guess. And dependant on area,
you get the thing of it dropping back to GPRS at times, but that's par for
the course. Speed is excellent, I was using it for working at home till I
got me broadband sorted.

Does that help?

cheers, Ali

 

Yeah thanks.
Heres some interesting points (relative to the subject anyway) :-

Orange s/w and Vodafone are interoperable with the H/W (either written as
so, or very similar/exact h/w to suite their package).
Also, O2's installer is practically identical to Voda's in how it goes about
doing the setup/how its been written (although the drivers don't work
exactly for 3G, on the Orange dual card even though it has a list of drivers
but the wireless bit does nevertheless). Voda and Orange S/W seems
completely interchangable with the dual Orange card - you can dial grps/3G
using their s/w so long as you blank out the securities instead of Voda's.

I think however this compatibility between Orange and Voda may be moreso
because they want to support as many types of device as possible, or could
be equally the fact the Option/Globetrotter card thingy may be in fact a
commonly used card or chipset.

I cant say I was much more impressed with the Voda S/W interface though -
the WLan side of things did not manage to detect my internal hotspot or
prompt me for encryption - which at least the Orange S/W does, but forgets
it/has no place to succesfully remember it ("usual wlan" area does not
manage to do this, also no hotspot search facility exactly). Whether this is
depend on its own H/W to work I don't know but it seemed to suggest it would
only hook to Voda hotspots, which in my mind is a bit limited.

Still not completely certain yet on a positive choice and way forward, but
if you look at costs I think Voda are defo more competitive than Orange.