[solo12002]

Now that home like home is ending on three. im about to try and cancell two contracts both due to end at end of Aug. One id a mobile the other mobile BB as I have used both in itlay and in south of Ireland and I belivie by removing this service i end up paying more.

Any one idea on how I can unlock their dongle its a E169. I have a net book with enbedded sim and a lap top without so it would be useful to have it unlocked?

[Hands0n]

Give this a go http://www.dc-unlocker.com/ - I came across it on another forum a while back and bookmarked for future ref...

I cannot vouch for it as I wouldn't touch 3 stuff with the proverbial bargepole ... but also caveat emptor - I have no idea at all if DC-Unlocker will do it for you ... Just be careful before parting with any cash...

[solo12002]

HandsOn

"Just be careful before parting with any cash..." ffs could you no of told me that before I joined three? lol

[Hands0n]

ffs could you no of told me that before I joined three? lol


ROTFL - don't feel too bad - I did that particular trip three times myself :eek:

[Ben]

Vodafone provided me with software to unlock my dongle. Unfortunately it never worked :) So, I gave up. Oh well.

[paulbds]

Hi Solo,
What I did with my Three (Irl) dongle (E220) was unlock it - -I found a site on ebay and it cost me the grand price of 0.99 pence. Took me about an hour - -that included downloading 2-3 files and following the instructions. It also increased the speed from 3.6 to 7.2 mbs.
I have quite a few dongles from various PAYG elements and contracts and you sound a little like me! - -I have used my three 3 like home in both South Ireland and Italy. Anyway, I digress

Last time I was over (south) in the 3 store in Kilkenny, I enquired about getting a 3 data sim for use in S ireland. The manager said that they were looking into this ( I guess he must have known about the withdrawal of 3 like home deal) so i am keeping my fingers crossed and hope to get just a data SIM.
I bought the Advent Netbook from PC World and this will take any sim you put in it. It is pre confiured for most data carries and cost me £259.
sorry for the rambling
Paul

[solo12002]

Paul

I to have an advent with enbedded sim in it. But I also have a laptop without and I rather carry one unlocked dongle with a few sims than a few dongles.

By the way check this out for a cheap way of getting a three one: http://www.3dongle4free.co.uk/

Glad to say my contract is up end of July but removing of like home gets me a get out route as I have used it while away. I dont understand how three can removed it from UK and yet keep it in other areas ie Ireland, but what we lose I think Ireland will lose to.

What I think three should be doing is advising users what the new rates are so everyone can judge for themselves as it it everyone is getting out. I dont expect any network to match the 3 month roaming offer vodafone has. In the case of three, Im not sure what they will offer after all they did have roaming art 25p for outgoing and 10p for incomming they increased that this year to 35p and either 15/19 so in short in line with EU roaming charges at that time. I rally cant see them doing must cheper other than faling in line with new EU ones and maybe cutting costs on their own network.

Either way if you are or were a like home user you now been SCREWED. Thanks three (I DONT THINK!)

[3GScottishUser]

The fact that 3 are now giving away dongles for free (well £4.95 delivery) tells you all you need to know about the product. Its back to the old thing about products prices reaching what the market decides they are worth.

Still a good thing for students and UK holidaymakers who have no Wi-Fi access. Get a dongle stick a tenner on it use what you can get from it for the term or the holidays then chuck it away!

Brings back memories of the great 3 NEC e616 giveaway some years ago!

[Hands0n]

I really don't know why I bit :D What an entire waste of time that was :(

I went on to their website - registered - filled in the home address and delivery address (different because I work, like many other people still in the UK) and went on ... and in typical 3 fashion it all fell apart at the payment bit. The delivery address has to be the same as the credit card address - and yes, you guessed, I do not register my cards at my work address!! Better still, 3's website is so well designed that it will not let you go back and ammend the details. So it is a one-shot, get it wrong, and they allow you to on their forms, and its all over.

Thats it, game over, no deal. I can't even re-register or anything else to ammend the details so I can have the card delivered to my home address - where it will fail and I'll have to nip down to the parcel office to collect it!

Well done 3 - yet again snatching defeat from the hands of success.

I think I'll wander down to Vodafone, pay the £29 and be done with .... Better than this stupid hassle with 3.

NB: It was for my eldest lad who has just moved out and has no "comms" at his new residence yet.

[solo12002]

lol

As good as nokia then I ve windows 7 RC on my PC went to Nokia web site downloaded Nokia suite 7.1 onto PC, no sonner on than Iam advise Version 7.2 is out and it starts to download it.

FFS, you think they have the current relase on their own fing site. oh at its £39 for the Vodafone Dongle

[Hands0n]

LOL - how hard can it possibly be to design and run these things? It is, after all, a simple encapsulation of logic. Punter comes along to download Nokia suite - and you offer them the latest and greatest release version. Done!

Back to my very good friends at 3 :p

I re-visited the 3dongle4free website - I don't really know why, just that I had an urge to do so and, as I get older, I tend to follow my urges more than I ignore them :D That's got to get me into big trouble one day :eek:

Anyroadup, I logged back in to the account that had been created, had a bit of a fiddle around the menus and stuff, re-entered the promotion code and Hey Presto! I'd cracked it. And soooooooo, having paid the £4.95 postage and packing with my credit card I now await 3 to cock up the delivery, me to spend hours on the phone trying to persuade some Mumbian that I really have paid and should get it for free from the website.

Oh the joys of expectation :) Why on earth do I do this? :D It is 3 we're talking about, right? :eek:

[solo12002]

LOL

I cant talk I have a BB contract on three, about to call them and advise them to cancel uoe to removeal of like home. Ive just brought one myself , that way I can nick the sim, give my bro the dongle to replace his one which is the sq type one..


Not bad for £5 and it be useful if three cuts roaming data as part of theie new plans as I travel to the south of Ireland a lot.

[3GScottishUser]

Just remember folks that 3's PAYG Mobile Broadband is not very flexible. Your credit only lasts 30 days so in essence its a monthly commitment to remain on-line allbeit without a contract.

Still think its a good option for the holidays!

[Hands0n]

Errr, yes, exactly.

I've only ordered one because (a) its only £5, (b) to give to the lad to use until he can get a landline and ADSL supplied and (c) I've got two 3 PAYG SIMs with around £50 credit still on them. After that its all going in the bin, unless he wants to top up for a bit longer.

If I wanted to do this f'real I'd be picking up a PAYG dongle from O2, Vodafone or T-Mobile.

[Hands0n]

The 3 Dongle arrived today. Installing it was a doddle, but before we did I visited the My3 website to turn one of the remaining £10 top-ups into a Mobile Data add-on. That was easy enough.

Installing was a matter of plugging the dongle in and it installs the software from the dongle itself. After that a new icon appears on the desktop entitled "3 Connect". It is a simple enough applet to use.

After we got onto the 3 data network we were prompted to install a 12MB update to the software. That wasn't going to happen on a £10/1GB connection!! We'll have to figure out a way to grab the software from my ADSL link.

As I expressed elsewhere, the 3 network where I live is atrocious. Whence it was a solid 5 bars of 3G I am not lucky to see one or two. The data dongle had a real struggle to connect and hold the connection. This is ridiculous seeing as the two 3 transmitter masts are within 400m of where I live! They've either switched them off or turned the power right down. But there is absolutely no way that I am going to bother getting in touch with them to be asked to wipe the SIM with a lint free cloth! I'd rather pour a jar of live ants into my underpants :D

The lad is happy - he's got a temporary broadband link for his new home until we can get him sorted with copper line and ADSL.

[Hands0n]

The unlock kit is available on Rapidshare here (http://rs441.rapidshare.com/files/235523732/ZTE2.rar)

Just unpack the .RAR file, read the .doc or .pdf and follow the instructions carefully.

You will need to run a utility to perform the unlock - it re-flashes the USB 3G modem and takes just under 20 minutes to do its stuff. Then uninstall any Connection Manager that may have installed itself as part of installing the USB stick's drivers. And finally install a generic Connection Manager and configure it up with your choice of mobile network's APN settings. These are also helpfully supplied in the .pdf

I'll be running this myself when I get the stick back from the lad once he gets his ADSL installed in a few weeks time.

[hecatae]

ordered thank you for the unlock instructions

[hecatae]

and arrived today and already unlocked

[Hands0n]

and arrived today and already unlocked

Nice one :) Which network SIM are you going to use it on?

[hecatae]

I'm going to try them all