Internet dongle purchase

[jamielyon4]

jamie
yes you are right. when I first registered I found quite a few around rocha brava which is where I wanted them
but they seem to have vanished, so will have to keep going to Helder's unless they reappear

Ive just told the chaps to get it sorted for us....thats gotta be worth a shed load of brownie points from those 4 in doors..I will let you know how it performs compared to a dongle....

[cumbria sue]

thanks for that hopefully sorted for when we come over

[carolyn]

Another possibility is this, that someone mentioned to me:
http://www.rent-a-dongle.com/

Probably worthwhile if only coming to Portugal for a one-off holiday.
Has anyone tried the service offered?

[Octopus]

I've got a spare Vodafone internet Dongle thats fully loaded with credit. I bought it as net at home was between providers but I'm connected again.

If you only need it for a week or two you can borrow it if you like.

[Gary/Gaynor]

I set my mobile phone up as a wifi hotspot which then allows me to connect 2 devices to this. It works anywhere in Europe and I find it to be ok. It cost me about £12 a month (you have to contact your provider for details) and gives I think 500mb of data per month download and if you exceed that it just slows down the link but you pay no extra. Its handy because you can use it anywhere as long as you get a signal. I even use it in Swanage !!

Gary

[Geoff]

The Rocha Brava Cafe has good free wifi....for the price of a coffee.

We bought a PAYG Dongle from TMN that seems to work well, in a notorious blackspot in Sesmarias. Email speeds are fine and Skype generally works ok too. It was 30€ but incudes a gigabyte of usage ( no idea how long that will last) and needs to be accessed at least every 6 months ( according to guy in TMN at Aqua) or monthly (according to TMN shop in Lagoa)...thats Portugal for you!

[cumbria sue]

prefer to go to Helder's Tropical Bar at the other end of Rocha for the same deal ,very friendly and good bacon butties

[biffa]

I don't know too much about this "dongle" business but I have a TMN "pay as you go" one which you charge up and effectively costs you €1 a day.

There are a few restrictions but it seems a simple answer. I think it cost me about €50 initially. Maybe I should buy a few and rent them out to you guys?

[Geoff]

I don't know too much about this "dongle" business but I have a TMN "pay as you go" one which you charge up and effectively costs you €1 a day.

There are a few restrictions but it seems a simple answer. I think it cost me about €50 initially

Sounds like mine, but the 50€ was marked down to 30€.

[James Faro]

So Mchale you have here an amazing amount of information here to get you on connected.

I got my Dongle from the Guia shopping centre and the maker was Kanguru It was about €35 and the connection speed was excellent. I did not intend to bring my laptop last time but it was a blessing as the villa's tv only had Arabic channels. With a bit of adjusting I got ITV and the BBC for the odd evening's tv on the laptop.

[DaveK]

We bought Kanguru over 2 years ago and find it excellent, sometimes nearly as fast as Virgin at home. Paid about the same price and 10 euros of top up can last a week with regular browsing and checking of emails back in the UK. Be careful of Skype however, I had a video call once and this really does eat up your credit! Initially Kangaru did not warn you when credit was running low and there was no way of checking on this, but now ours seems to warn us when credit is below about 2 euros. Quick trip down to the ATM in the village and top up is easy.

[mchale]

Thanks for all the info

[Geoff]

We tried Kanguru , but it was very slow in comparison to TMN........took about 4 hours to not upload one photo .......don't think the coverage is as good as TMN, but you could be lucky if in a hotspot.

[DaveK]

Hi Geoff

It could well be that we are in a bit of a hot spot; we are highish up on Rampa Mato Serrao overlooking the village and the sea. It never ceases to amaze me how fast it is for a wireless connection and we are used to a pretty fast cable connection in the UK with Virgin. We do get the odd occasion when it decides to go on a 'go slow', but even Virgin does this at times!

[Geoff]

Hi DaveK
I am sure you are right : we are at the bottom of a hill in Sesmarias, where reception is poor on Kanguru and patchy on Vodaphone , but excellent on TMN.....neighbours a 100 yards up the hill said Kanguu was good.