This weekend I purchased a new gadget from Three, the UK mobile network. It is the Huawei E585 MiFi Device on a pay as you go contract. You may be asking what MiFi is, well instead of a dongle sticking out of your USB port on your laptop when you want a 3G network on the move, this device is a personal Wireless Network, so it means a number of things.
- You can leave the device in your bag instead of having something that you can break off in the USB port.
- You can hook up multiple devices at the same time, I believe it supports up to 4 of them at the same time.
- Older devices that only support 3G can benefit from a 4G connection (obviously at a cost with the pay as you go credits)
With the addition of the OLED screen it makes it very easy to review the current credit you have available and the number of clients connected. The configuration of the device is done through a web page which is nicely done, but the performance of the page can get a little slow at times. There is an initial SSID and secure key that is printed onto a business card size piece of paper. I changed these immediately, but I’ve kept the card in my wallet as if you do a full reset it will be back to factory defaults.
The device was £49.99 and I bought an additional 3GB of data so the entire package came out at £69.99, not too bad considering I now own my own WiFi hot spot, perhaps I can sell access to my hot spot at hotel prices to other gadget users when I’m sat in an airport… interesting 🙂
Topping up the device is done through a web interface on the Three.Co.Uk, there are two different types of top up. The first is a purchase of data for use in the UK and the second is adding cash to your account and this can be used for roaming. Obviously the cost of data varies as you move from country to country and even between mobile providers within a country so keeping money in your account is a good idea for travelling.
You may be asking what this has to do with photography. Well, my plan is that on my travels this will make it a lot easier to provide blog updates and photo uploads whilst on the move. It also means that if I choose, I can get around the limitation of IPhone application updates being limited to 20MB on the 02 network, although I will be using data that I have paid for, instead of free data on wireless or contract.
I had to replace the initial device I got from the store as the micro USB connector for charging from a computer failed to connect properly and charging was intermittent.. The guys at the Three store in Staines were fantastic and replaced the device in a couple of minutes, I swapped the SIM card out from the first device, reset the WEP/SSID and all was good again.
Operation/Startup of the Mifi device is very quick, one button on the side, holding this down for 3-5 seconds you see the Three symbol appear, around 10-15 seconds later the device is up and running, connected to the network and read to receive incoming WiFi connections. Airport saw the router immediately, I entered the WEP key and all was good, I was browsing the net and started writing this blog post… spot on!
If I have any issues I’ll update the blog post, otherwise assume this gadget is a great purchase!