A New Portkey to Cyberia
08/06/2012 11:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
izmeinaIzzie is a most pathetic procrastinating python. Many moons ago was getting most peeved indeed with the ridiculous price of the antiquated soap on a rope USB dongle that served as a life line to lurking in Cyberia.
While it is still a whole pile cheaper and faster than the dreadful days of paying $30 for 30 hours of dinosaur dial up, times have moved on and the serpent needs to move too. Not least because there's lots of silver sickles to be saved now that the going rate for 3gb is about half that price. Was getting annoyed about paying for 3 gigabytes per month but rarely going over two and not being able to roll over unused data
Did buy a Virgin usb stick at a half price sale back in December but it got stuck gathering dust. Had to bring it back to the shop as fumble fingered Izzie just could not work out how to get the cover off to put the SIM card in. They did in two seconds what Izzie could not do in two hours.
But before getting around to connecting it got our paws on the Vodafone version for only $19 on Wednesday and was determined to get the thing sorted out pronto. Once it is working can then go cancel the monthly plan before the next billing period starts.
This one was dead easy to open and to set up. There were no tedious piles of numbers to type on a stream of never ending screens and boxes to tick for configuration. It was all smooth sailing. In no time had gotten to the registration page. But it was too good to be true. It would not accept the original SIM pin number claiming that the card was invalid. Suddenly the whole thing became most annoying and frustrating indeed and more so when the old reliable USB dongle started having hissy fits. The little bugger must know that the serpent wants a divorce
It brought back memories of the long, arduous and complicated ritual involved in starting our previous internet relationship. Suspecting that fearing a repeat of this performance was the real reason for procrastinating
Figured that this is a Sim card problem and not a serpent problem and brought the thing into the store yesterday. The lady at the Vodafone store encountered the exact same problem when she tried setting it up on the store computer. But it was quickly fixed by using a new SIM card. This time we were able to get to the registration page with all the boring customer details and ID stuff. So was most happy indeed with the service there.
The true test was plugging it in with the new card this morning. It worked perfectly first time. Just as well since the old one has now taken to disconnecting for no apparent reason
The new little gadget is faster but has one big bright and shiny new feature. It actually tells you how much data has been used so there's no need to wait for the bill and worrying about outrageous excess fees. And it is prepaid. But it seems that Vodafone only has 30 day expiry periods on prepaid. At least they do let you roll over unused data when you top up.
The Virgin mob apparently have 180 day expiry options so their little gadget might turn up to be useful after all.
But the real trick will be dumping the dongle Goblins. No one likes to lose a regular income stream. The original two year plan is long over but that might not stop them finding some way to hang onto long time customers.
So here's hoping this little critter will behave itself and let Izzie lurk online as long as she wants to or at least until the 3 gigabyte ration runs out.
While it is still a whole pile cheaper and faster than the dreadful days of paying $30 for 30 hours of dinosaur dial up, times have moved on and the serpent needs to move too. Not least because there's lots of silver sickles to be saved now that the going rate for 3gb is about half that price. Was getting annoyed about paying for 3 gigabytes per month but rarely going over two and not being able to roll over unused data
Did buy a Virgin usb stick at a half price sale back in December but it got stuck gathering dust. Had to bring it back to the shop as fumble fingered Izzie just could not work out how to get the cover off to put the SIM card in. They did in two seconds what Izzie could not do in two hours.
But before getting around to connecting it got our paws on the Vodafone version for only $19 on Wednesday and was determined to get the thing sorted out pronto. Once it is working can then go cancel the monthly plan before the next billing period starts.
This one was dead easy to open and to set up. There were no tedious piles of numbers to type on a stream of never ending screens and boxes to tick for configuration. It was all smooth sailing. In no time had gotten to the registration page. But it was too good to be true. It would not accept the original SIM pin number claiming that the card was invalid. Suddenly the whole thing became most annoying and frustrating indeed and more so when the old reliable USB dongle started having hissy fits. The little bugger must know that the serpent wants a divorce
It brought back memories of the long, arduous and complicated ritual involved in starting our previous internet relationship. Suspecting that fearing a repeat of this performance was the real reason for procrastinating
Figured that this is a Sim card problem and not a serpent problem and brought the thing into the store yesterday. The lady at the Vodafone store encountered the exact same problem when she tried setting it up on the store computer. But it was quickly fixed by using a new SIM card. This time we were able to get to the registration page with all the boring customer details and ID stuff. So was most happy indeed with the service there.
The true test was plugging it in with the new card this morning. It worked perfectly first time. Just as well since the old one has now taken to disconnecting for no apparent reason
The new little gadget is faster but has one big bright and shiny new feature. It actually tells you how much data has been used so there's no need to wait for the bill and worrying about outrageous excess fees. And it is prepaid. But it seems that Vodafone only has 30 day expiry periods on prepaid. At least they do let you roll over unused data when you top up.
The Virgin mob apparently have 180 day expiry options so their little gadget might turn up to be useful after all.
But the real trick will be dumping the dongle Goblins. No one likes to lose a regular income stream. The original two year plan is long over but that might not stop them finding some way to hang onto long time customers.
So here's hoping this little critter will behave itself and let Izzie lurk online as long as she wants to or at least until the 3 gigabyte ration runs out.
