Mobile Broadband options for all things musical?

caesura

Hey All,

Just wondering if any of you use mobile broadband and how you get on with it in terms of downloading, uploading or using it in any other way shape or from in your musical endevours.

Reason i'm asking is that i'm gonna be moving back and forth between two different places in Dublin over the next while and i don't want to break my work rhythm (such as it is) so it looks like i'm gonna have to drop into Vodafone or O2 or 3 or whoever and pick up one of their USB yokes.

I know its not essential to be online to record but it does come in handy to be able to download/reference stuff etc in a pinch.

Anyway i'm gonna post some general questions up in another Boards forum specific to mobile broadband but just to check in terms of music/recording related requirements what should i be looking out for?

Cheers,
C ;-)

madtheory

It's crap.

bytey

better off using free wifi hotspots if you can

krd

I've worked for a few of the ISPs. Mobile is mostly absolute crap, because the providers put traffic shaping on it - so you've bought a connection that says 1mb or 2mb - but you'll never get anything like it because they slow down the traffic.

I've got a wireless connection - if you attempt to download and MP3 or a movie the traffic shaping clicks in and it slows to a dog like pace. The internet in Ireland has got really bad as nearly every company is using traffic shaping.

A company like ICE broadband blocks virtually everything - and anything it allows will always be really slow.

dasdog

I'd recommend getting a loan of a modem and testing at both locations. Lots of people reporting terrible connections in the midband forum. Since I went to Win 7 I've had no connection drop problems and I average ~2.5Mbs with an open IP address after a couple of tweaks. No problem downloading software, flac's, mp3's, streams etc (I got a great John Bonham drum only pack recently) but this seems to be the exception to the norm. And uploading is still pretty slow (Three).

caesura

Yikes! That doesn't sound too good at all.

I'll have to maybe divide up tasks like just using the mobile stuff in one place for looking up information or going onto forums and saving all the 'work' till i'm in the other place and using my normal (non mobile) set up.

Is this just where we're at technology-wise or is Ireland just sh1t in this area?

Either way one of the companies have an offer on to borrow a usb for a few days to test it so i'll prob check that out - the security-deposit they're looking for is a bit cheeky though.

Anyway lads thanks for the info it's much appreciated!
C.

madtheory

AFAIK mobile technology is not yet up to the task of sustained high data transfer.

SonasRec

I use 3 mobile because I have no fixed line facility in my area.

I find connection varies a lot with frequent dropouts but I use it a lot to upload and download files. It'll get you by if you have no alternative.

I downloaded Steven Slate drums over the weekend with little difficulty (4Gb).

For uploads, I use yousendit. If you use their application, it's ok for sending mp3s, wavs & aiffs. Too slow to send full daw files.