Whether you need mobile broadband for work, school, home, your personal life or on-the-go, many reasons exist for why you might want to invest in a strong, secure internet connection for your laptop. To get an internet connection, you either need a built-in Wi-Fi card that can get you online or a mobile broadband dongle. The dongle has increased in popularity in recent years because of the demand for mobile broadband and the increase in the number of broadband providers has tightened the playing field, but also given consumers lots of options at a lower price for internet connectivity.
Using a Network Adapter Dongle
The first basic type of dongle is one that acts as a network adapter for your laptop. Manufacturers like Netgear or Cisco Linksys make these types of dongles. With these devices, you plug them into the USB port on your laptop and view the list of network connections available to you on your laptop.
Though most laptops today come pre-built with Wi-Fi cards, you may want to invest in a network adapter dongle for a couple reasons. First, your laptop may not have come with a built-in wireless card and you need the dongle to give your laptop the Wi-Fi functionality to get connect to the internet. Second, you might invest in a USB network adapter dongle to give your laptop a greater range so that you can “tap into” shared or open wireless connections while you’re traveling or on-the-go.
Buying a Mobile Broadband Dongle Subscription
The second type of dongle you can get is one that comes with a mobile broadband subscription. Whether you have a built-in wireless adapter in your laptop or not, the mobile broadband dongle–which you can get from internet service providers–acts as a modem, network adapter and Wi-Fi card all in one. Perhaps the best part about subscribing to a mobile broadband service such as that of T-Mobile or Vodafone is the fact that you are usually provided your laptop USB dongle free of charge with your subscription.
When it comes to selecting your mobile broadband provider, there are several issues to think about. First, you must think about the speeds you’re being offered. Some internet providers offer speeds of only one or two megabytes per second while other services offer speeds up to 7.2 megabytes per second. Second, you need to think about your data usage. While many mobile broadband providers have nearly unlimited data plans, you might only need one that offers 3 Gigabytes of data usage per month. When looking at plans, you may want to pay for a smaller plan or pay-as-you-go wireless dongle first and then upgrade if you find that you need more usage.
Benefits of Using a Laptop Dongle
There are several major advantages to using a laptop dongle from a mobile broadband provider for your internet connection. First, all laptop dongles work in the same general way. They usually connect to your laptop via USB, and dongles are usually able to work with virtually any PC, laptop or Mac system. Dongles are also simple to install. The software installation for the dongle is often initiated automatically as soon as you plug in the dongle to your laptop for the first time. Perhaps the greatest benefit of laptop dongles is the fact that you don’t need any phone lines to access the internet.
Wireless Coverage
Of course, the download and data transfer speeds you obtain from your mobile broadband dongle will also be limited by the coverage area the internet service provider offers. Before you sign up with any mobile broadband provider, you must check the coverage area as this can either negatively or positively impact the signal strength of your dongle. The coverage area often depends on how many towers or base stations the internet provider has around the area. The closer you are to a dongle then the better your signal strength is going to be and the less your internet connection will be hampered.
Mobile Broadband Providers
There are several popular mobile broadband providers in the UK that offer free laptop dongles if you sign up with an internet subscription. Each provider uses its own coverage area and offers slightly different features depending on the package you choose. T-Mobile offers its Mobile Broadband Plus plan where you can get speeds of up to 4.5 Megabytes per second with a data usage limit of 3 Gigabytes per month. The mobile broadband dongle device is free, but the contract length for this particular plan is 18 months in length.
On the other hand, Three offers a plan which heavy internet users can take advantage of. Three offers a free mobile internet dongle. You must sign up for a 24-month contract, but you can receive download speeds up to 7.2 Megabytes per second and receive 15 Gigabytes data usage every month. Other service providers that offer similar plans and everything in-between, include Orange, O2 and Virgin Media.
Choosing the Best Laptop Dongle Plan
When it comes to choosing the best laptop dongle for your personal internet use, you need to think about your internet habits in addition to the coverage area the company offers. Many mobile broadband providers can help you determine the size of a data plan you need but you should have a good idea before you select one. If you only spend about an hour each day surfing the internet, send minimal emails, download a minimal number of songs each month and don’t use the internet to download movies, then all you need is a laptop dongle that gives you 1 Gigabyte per month data usage.
With a laptop dongle that offers 5-6 Gigabytes of data usage per month, however, you can surf the internet for five or six hours every day, download and upload 100 each of photos and music tracks per month, and download 2 movies per month.
As you can see, there are many benefits to using a laptop dongle to get on the World Wide Web and there are many aspects of the dongle to consider. While you don’t want to pay for unnecessary data usage that you’re not going to use, you also need to make sure that you select the right plan that will give you enough usage per month. With a dongle, you don’t need a phone line to access the internet and you can use your internet connection virtually anywhere you roam, whether that’s at work, home or while traveling regionally or elsewhere in the country.
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