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So, ISP chat again briefly (i hope). I went ahead and pulled the trigger on one of Three's 4G home broadband deals. I just got the router, but the sim card they sent with it seems to be an empty pay as you go one rather than an unlimited data one (the packaging the sim came in is all branded in Pay as you go/data reward sim, etc. I hooked it all up and it took me straight to a 'top up the credit on your account for data' screen and their support chat just told me to wait 2 hours for it to activate. I really think they've sent the wrong sim though. Is waiting a few hours for it to activate a normal thing?
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Feb 7, 2020 22:51
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| # ¿ May 11, 2024 17:28 |
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Jaeluni Asjil posted:When I got mine there were 2 SIMs in the package. One was a freebie PAYG for any phone and the other one is the one to put in the router. Just dug out the delivery note, it just has the router and the PAYG MBB T-MAILER listed on it (it's the same telephone number that's on the sim) and it came in the packaging that your describing. At the bottom of the delivery note it says that if i've taken out a pay monthly contract i'll get a letter in the next few days, though i'd have expected to get the sim with the router just like you did.
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Feb 7, 2020 23:26
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Jaeluni Asjil posted:How peculiar! Yeah, this guy here: http://www.three.co.uk/Discover/Devices/Huawei/E5573bs-322_4G_Mobile_Wi-Fi?memory=0&colour=White So, off the back of chatting to customer service it looks like i've stumbled into some word sort of deal. I've technically bought just the modem in one transaction which has come with that empty PAYG card, and at the same time taken out a contract for the unlimited data monthly contract. As such, it's being sent out separately. Baffling, but i'm getting the internet for just £11pcm for the first 6 months (before it goes up to £22) so i can't complain really. My current BT internet is £25 a month for just 12Mbps. Kin fucked around with this message at 00:00 on Feb 8, 2020 |
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Feb 7, 2020 23:55
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Jaeluni Asjil posted:Ah that's the mifi thingy not the home hub thingy that I have. Hmm, i feel like i've been a bit railroaded then. I was expecting the hub rather than the mifi thing though. I mentioned the 535 model i could see on the site, but he just kept going on about he's giving me a "better, newer version". I couldn't really check what it was though because i was gated from the rest of their site. I take it the only real difference between the hub and the mifi thing is that the hub has ethernet ports (and it's less portable)? The ethernet ports would be handy though (for things like PS4 downloads and whatnot), do you know if it costs much to buy it separately?
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Feb 8, 2020 01:34
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Jaeluni Asjil posted:To be honest, I'd get on to them again and say it's the home hub thing you want not the mifi thing and you think they've made a mistake. I've always found them reasonable to deal with. I think i'm going to have to get them to switch it. The unlimited sim card arrived today, but the best speed i get from it in this mifi thing is just 40Mbit and that's when i'm sitting within 10 feet of it. At the other side of my house it drops to 3Mbit. At the same time, switching back to the 4G on my phone nets me 100+Mbit. I've got a wifi extender and it turns out it it's not picking up a 5GHz output from the mifi which might explain why the speeds are pretty shonky. Does the homehub have a 5Ghz output? On top of that, for some reason my compute stick connects to it but can't ever get an internet connection despite everything else at least getting internet access. It's running windows 10 like the other devices so i've no idea why it wouldn't be given internet access. Edit: Yup, it's the mifi that's poo poo. I just popped the new sim card into my mobile and boom, it gets 100Mbits a second in that. Kin fucked around with this message at 12:55 on Feb 8, 2020 |
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Feb 8, 2020 11:57
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Renfield posted:It does have a 5Ghz band. Ah right, that's peculiar then. When i connected it to the wifi extender it only picked up a 2.5GHZ signal and when i went into Mifi settings, in the WLAN setting , for wi-fi bandwidth, there's only an option for 20MHz and (Auto). The stick was just the 3rd device to connected to it so it cant be that. home The really low speed it's getting compared to the sim being in my phone is the biggest thing that's telling me something's up with it. If the sim can access 100+Mbits (in my mobile), and the mifi is supposed to be able to handle download speeds of up to 150Mbits, then the only thing left that can be limiting it is the WLAN connection type no? edit: gently caress me, this tech support guy from three was atrocious. I explained the situation and he just said that the description is "up to 150Mbits" and that i should enjoy the service. Apparently my mobile phone gets a better signal because mobile phones can have better technology. No explanation for why one of my devices wasn't connecting, or a good explanation for the mifi getting half of the signal that my mobile phone gets with the same sim. The only thing he asked me to do was switch the signal to 3G and go to BBC.co.uk to see if the page loads :/ Edit 2: Double gently caress me. Eventually i got through to the sales team who told me that they don't sell the home router version over the phone and i need to go into one of the physical stores. Kin fucked around with this message at 14:16 on Feb 8, 2020 |
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Feb 8, 2020 13:20
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Jaeluni Asjil posted:You are being told bollox my friend. Somehow you have to decide either to keep the new sim etc you just got OR get them to take it back. Yeah, i think the call center is an absolute shitshow. Anyway, i went into the nearest store just to get it over and done with. He agreed that it was off i'd get over 100Mbit on my phone and not on another device. Then he confirmed that the mifi doesn't have a 5GHz channel on it and that it's designed more for out and about usage as a mobile hotspot (like in a car) rather your home Wifi setup and doesn't know why i was told to get it. I suspect that lack of 5GHz is why the thing capped out (fairly consistently) at 40Mbit on both my laptop and mobile phone. Bugger knows why my compute stick wouldn't connect. It turns out that he didn't even have an option to sell me the hub/router by itself, so i had to take out another 2 year contract to get it and now have to cancel the first one which he wasn't able to do in store either. How did customer service get so loving bad with this kind of stuff.
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Feb 8, 2020 16:07
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Jaeluni Asjil posted:I use my mifi for out and about and as a home backout (doesn't go off in a powercut for one thing!).   loving mifi and overseas call centers. Thanks for the advice though. Three have generally been good for the mobile side of things. I think there's been some kind of push to flog those mifi things because they have a limited use case and are maybe being phased out or something. Like i actually asked for the home router and the guy on the phone told me the "mifi was better", whereas the sales patter in the shop was the polar opposite. Edit: On the machine that didn't work before on the mifi:  Kin fucked around with this message at 16:39 on Feb 8, 2020 |
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Feb 8, 2020 16:27
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Tijuana Bibliophile posted:The 20MHz bandwidth is a compatibility setting for old stuff that don't understand new(ish) protocol stuff. Thanks for the tech info. The long and short of it is don't let Three sell you a mifi for their home internet because it's not equipped to act as a proper router for it without it slashing your available speeds. It's also funny that i got through to someone in a couple of minutes when looking to buy something, but sat on hold "in a queue" for over 20 minutes before giving up when trying to cancel. Icing on the cake for everything with them today.
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Feb 8, 2020 22:22
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Anyone here gone through a remortgaging process before? We're just in the process of doing one and get the gist of it save for house valuation. The advisor we're speaking to said he tried to look up comparable house prices and couldn't find anything concrete, but said he thinks our house has dropped in value by about 10k since 2 years ago (it's a new build in an estate that's not quite finished but all the houses have been snapped up). What does a drop in value mean in real terms? Presumably we still have to pay back the sum of the initial value when we bought the place so if we go with a new provider we still pay the £x + 10,000 - [2 years of repayments] to them? The drop is a bit of a surprise though. I haven't been following house prices, but like I said, the ones around me have all been snapped up and new builds are popping up just a 5/10 minute drive away at almost 60% higher prices (though they're different builders. Do you typically get a proper house evaluation when you go through this or just rely on the mortgage advisor with a bit of Googling and Zoopla? Edit: funny anecdote. My only previous exposure to remortgages is in references from TV shows where it seemed to be painted as a thing that needed done because folk were struggling to pay bills. :/ Kin fucked around with this message at 19:27 on Feb 28, 2020 |
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Feb 28, 2020 19:24
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Cheers for the advice, that's a lot clearer now. This kinda feels like the stuff like taxes and economics they should be teaching as standard in schools. As an aside, i think the advisor is maybe a bit off the mark too. He basically based the price drop being because it's a new build which "typically drops in value like a new car" and because he couldn't see any houses in my estate selling for the value we paid for it. The thing is, the estate i'm in is made up of about 6 different house types. Some are technically the same because they've got the same number of bedrooms etc, but they're different sizes and the purchase price for them when new fluctuated by quite a bit per model and by where they were in the estate. I.e. the models just like mine at the side of the estate right next to the busy A road were about £20k cheaper. On top of that, zoopla said the average price for houses in my area has actually increased by 3% over the last 12 months.
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Feb 28, 2020 21:28
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Red Oktober posted:Can I suggest getting in touch with professional mortgage services (pms-uk.org) - while they charge a fee each time I’ve used them the total charge was always less than going direct. For instance my Santander mortgage should have at a £999 fee to set up directly, but they managed to get this waived so I paid a £300 fee to them and nothing to Santander. It’s worth seeing what they can find you. The main reason we're even doing this just now is because we were contacted by imhelpline.co.uk who said we had lifetime support by them or something because of the group we went with to help us find a mortgage when we bought the house. I thought it was a scam at first until i started looking into the new homes group. The guy we spoke to was super helpful and detailed so I've no doubts about his ability to find a decent mortgage based on what type of lifestyle we wanted, but i think the nuances of our house were maybe a bit beyond him when he came up with his valuation. If someone else independently values the house on behalf of the new mortgage they'll probably get a more accurate figure i hope.
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Feb 29, 2020 00:39
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So another reason for my house price not dropping is that Three just did something weird and have activated 5G in my relatively tiny town (Gorebridge) despite not even having it active in Edinburgh. The three stores can't help me access it because they don't even have the equipment for it in Scotland yet. That being said, they told me that the sim card I got with them for 4G broadband recently is also able to access their 5G network at no extra charge. I just need any 5G equipped router whether it's theirs or not. Does anyone know of a decently priced one I could get or are they all going to be super expensive due to how new it is? I'm keen to see just how good the 5G connection is before settling on it at this point.
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Feb 29, 2020 12:00
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Jedit posted:TP-Link AC1200 is highly rated and will set you back £60. You got a link to one that uses sim cards for accessing 4G/5G networks? The few i've seen on Amazon don't specifically mention that or if they do, they only mention 3G/4G. Kin fucked around with this message at 12:37 on Feb 29, 2020 |
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Feb 29, 2020 12:32
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Aramoro posted:My condolences. Hence by bafflement with the 5G that's suddenly become available here. I'm actually in one of the new builds that are slowly gentrifying it (and on the southern outskirts so have countryside around me rather than neds). I figure in 20 years it'll be a completely different place given all the other houses getting built nearby.
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Feb 29, 2020 20:16
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