Three.ie Huawei B260a

pslat

Hi, the B260a info says it has "1X LAN port for connection to printer or VOIP phone". - Does anybody know if I could use this port to connect to an existing lan? We have 10 pc's already wired as well as wireless laptops and are looking at getting the B260a from Three.ie. I'd rather hook it up to the router if possible rather than having to put wireless cards in all the pc's. I'd like to know if anyone has tried this and if so how well it worked.TIA:)

William Powell

Not tried it but with the hope of getting a responce from someone who has I'll throw in my thoughts, it is a router with a built in DHCP server so should work plugged into a router or a switch. Really depends on what your existing router does/can do for you.

You obvious limitation is the Data Allowance and not going over and incurring extra costs, plus of course the limitations imposed by anyone else in that area sharing the same connection to the mast you are connecting to. That would mean it could work fine for a while then new Mobile Broadband users in your area might slow your connection right down, its a gamble

Should be fine if its just for email and if you can lock down your existing router to SMTP, POP and IMAP ports? Any browsing and there's ALWAYS someone who will use it to try and download stuff and could easily use up all your Data Allowance and some so be careful.

pslat

Thanks William, I can configure the existing system any way needed but I do need conformation that I can connect using the lan port.
Someone will have to be assigned the job of watching the allowance, I suppose it's too much to hope that Three have a system that cuts off once the quota is reached. A big problem these days is Windows update and antivirus definitions which could eat up a lot of our monthly quota before using it for anything else. I have configured a proxy server already but it cannot cache the windows updates.
Could you confirm - Are you saying that the more people in our area who are connected to the mast at the same time will slow the network speed?:eek: I didn't realise this was the case.

William Powell

Yep, if your in an area with a lot of other users your sharing the up to bandwidth figure, all you can do is try it. No reason you couldn't go 3Pay for a month and see how it works out before going for a contract if it does. 3Pay 7.5GB for 25euro for 30days would get you going and it cuts you off when done (unless you tick a box to agree otherwise).

You used to be able to zero a Bill Pay account by call CS and asking them to zero the account, meaning not allowing any out of bundle usage and billing, but you might have to fight for that as last person I spoke to said when the called they were told it couldn't be done, but that could have just been the vaguraies of 3 CS.

How about setting up a WUS, might have been renamed since I looked at it last (WSUS?), does need Windows 2003 server as a min to set it up on but then one machine handles all the downloads for the others and most paid for AV comes with some method of managment or at the least the option of updating from a local source.

pslat

Hmm, it's beginning to sound a lot like our other alternative with a local 'broadband' supplier:rolleyes: except the local one has a speed cap rather than a data cap. The account info is good to know, William. I thought the wireless router was only available with pay monthly so 3pay 7.5Gb for 30 days would be fine, except that we would also have to buy the B260a for 99 euro as well just to test it out. I need a bit more info on the whole thing before I recommend that.
I Set up wsusoffline664 (not MS) and tried it out but I wasn't convinced by it although I like the idea of it. Buying a windows server to run WSUS is not an option due to the cost of it. The current server is a linux box.
I think I need to speak to Three CS and see what they say, Just wanted to see if it was worth my while by getting some opinions here first - I know they'll tell me it's even better than real broadband:(...

William Powell

Well one way or another you need to test the speed of the connection during the working day before you commit to it as a solution. Even if you get an unlocked secondhand dongle with a 3PAY sim and let one user in the office try it for a week and do some speed tests a few times each day you'll have a better idea of its a solution that will work for you. You can even as a temp test set up one windows machine with ICS and plug a dongle into it, or can you do something similar with your Linux box? For a basic test you should be able to find and unlock and upgrade an old E220 for a few euro (or free) and then get a 3Pay SIM for it. Its more time than actual cost depending how you value your time.

murphy10101

well, at the moment i have my fone acting as my wifi router and it need to be beside the window to pick up a signal. even with the fone from time to time, it changes from a "H" signal of 2-4 mb to a "3G" signal which is no good and can have no connection at another time!... ya so i was thinking that if i put an Aerial on the roof beside the uhf aerial connected to a router ( probably the hauwei b260a router from three)! wondered would this stop the signal loss from time to time! any ideas if this will work or the products to use?!