Internet

Agencies and other headaches, keys and cleaners, running costs and contracts...in short, all the things we spend so much of our time doing behind the scenes.<br>
debbuck
Posts: 7
Joined: Tue Jul 25, 2017 7:45 am
Location: york

Internet

Post by debbuck »

I can only get mobile internet in my lodge, also i can only get 20mb of data each month. Last week the holiday guests used up the whole 20mb after 3 days. I was able to access my account and buy another 10mb for 20.00. When they left there was no internet left for the next guests so had to buy some more. Trying to think of a way round this, as it is going to end up costing me a fortune. What would you do?
zebedee
Posts: 1270
Joined: Fri Sep 12, 2014 2:57 pm
Location: yorkshire dales

Post by zebedee »

When that began happening to us we got a landline fitted and now have unlimited wifi. It was a relief to be honest, as I don't want any complaints.
These days devices are constantly updating and using up so much data that a limited supply just doesn't work. The guests don't even realise they are using it up in most cases.
ianh100
Posts: 598
Joined: Thu Jan 10, 2013 4:37 pm
Location: Sherborne Dorset

Post by ianh100 »

I assume this is in the UK. If you can't get broadband there can be subsidies available to install a satellite based solution. These can be good but none offer unlimited downloads. if cell data is OK can you not sign up for a higher capacity contract?

I assume you mean 20GB not mb?
akwe-xavante
Posts: 306
Joined: Wed Jul 01, 2015 3:19 pm
Location: East Yorkshire

Post by akwe-xavante »

I think your in York, North Yorkshire?

I cannot understand why there could possible be a reason why you cannot get fibre or an adsl broadband service down a telephone line in York.

I'm guessing that you have purchased a router that supports mobile internet. Strange an odd thing to do unless you have a mobile business that in some way offers internet access say at a fair or car boot or show ground etc.

Assuming that for whatever reason BT cannot or refuses for some reason to install a telephone line into your lodge, or is your lodge a listed building that prohibits visible cables and wires etc out and inside. If so then i'll assume that a satellite dish is also out of the question too.

20gb of data is nothing at all today, my guests are typically downloading anything from 30gb to 84gb of data a week at the moment.

Assuming that a mobile internet service is your only option for whatever reason I think your stuffed but I'm going to now make a controversial statement that many will disagree with I'm sure.

"Why offer internet access at all" Oooops I've done it.

No internet at all is far better than trying to provide a poor and unreliable one. If its poor and unreliable or capped (suddenly stops working) then guests will hate that and complain bitterly.

But if you state that its not available at all then they can't grumble or complain and will often accept it.

There are many freely accessible FREE internet access points in York elsewhere.
ManxRed1
Posts: 229
Joined: Mon Jul 25, 2016 9:52 am
Location: Polperro, Cornwall, UK

Post by ManxRed1 »

Are you using a 3G/4G router?

Shop around for SIMs, there are resellers out there who can seriously undercut the mobile providers, be careful on the overage charges. I suspect you know this already, but just in case...

I am liking akwe's suggestion above, why not consider just stating that internet isn't available?
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LeeH
Posts: 18
Joined: Thu Jun 16, 2016 6:40 am
Location: Scarboough

Post by LeeH »

How about a mobile-based home broadband solution, like this:

http://www.three.co.uk/Discover/Devices ... lour=Black
I detest raisins, sultanas and other dried fruit, but you just try to keep me away from the mince pies!
akwe-xavante
Posts: 306
Joined: Wed Jul 01, 2015 3:19 pm
Location: East Yorkshire

Post by akwe-xavante »

This is a mobile broadband router also known as a 3g/4g router.

There are many of them to choose from and I suspect it's one of these that is being used. But 40GB a month for £24 is very expensive and far too restrictive as most guests will eat up 40GB a week some weeks and even more.

At the mo I have 2 adults in and one teenage girl in since Saturday 3.30pm'ish and just had a look at there total data download so far this week and its 27.6GB and it's only Tuesday.

Last weeks total was 54GB, that was 2 adults and two kids.

Some weeks though obviously data downloaded can be next to nothing.

This a tad expensive but the brand is excellent and if my only option was a 3G/4G mobile broadband service this is what I would buy and I'd shop around for a data SIM but stay clear of the high street mobile services.

http://www.draytek.co.uk/products/business/vigor-2860l
Bordering
Posts: 91
Joined: Sun Apr 20, 2014 2:50 pm
Location: Languedoc, France

Post by Bordering »

The Draytek looks like a good device but it’s expensive - about £300 in UK. If you search for 'mobile sim router’ in Amazon UK you’ll find similar products for less. If you own the device (and have ensured before purchase that it’s not locked to a network), then you’re more free to move between operators.

For data allowance, the Three deal appears to be the best currently on offer in the UK.

Not relevant to UK, but useful in France: http://red-by-sfr.fr/ offers a sim deal with 100gb/data per month for 20 euros on a 30 day rolling contract.
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greenbarn
Posts: 6146
Joined: Sat May 30, 2009 6:41 pm
Location: The Westmorland Dales, Cumbria

Post by greenbarn »

I spent a bit of time dabbling with 4G although it looks like we’re going to get a local microwave/fibre solution so I’ve parked it for now.
I picked up a Huawei LTE Cube which was locked to EE, but as that is the only 4G service here that wasn’t a problem. It’s a very rudimentary 4G “router” and it’s not particularly cheap, I think I paid around £75 for my used one, think maybe £125 - £150 for new. For reasons I’ll come back to a decent 4G router such as the Draytek isn’t as expensive as it first looks.
The main issue with 4G is that there is no longer any service available that isn’t capped at some level, and as people have found, high speed and a usage cap are not a good partnership. I think there was a package from EE offering 100GB monthly at around £75 per month, which is expensive.
Even with 100GB per month there’s a good chance of guests hitting the cap - probably the third or fourth set of guests in the month when the greedy teenagers were there in the first week. Buying extra data for the month is even more expense, but may be preferable to guests getting zero service. It’s all hassle.
What that really means is that there’s a need to manage the usage, either by throttling the speed considerably so that movie streaming etc just won’t work, blocking it at the router (which doesn’t always seem terribly successful) or by allocating a fixed usage per guest, or per week, or per day.
That’s where a decent router comes in. I already have the non 3G/4G plain ADSL version of the Draytek router suggested by akwe-xavante, and it looks as though it would be possible to configure it to limit usage over a fixed period of time, probably by requiring guests to log in. I didn’t get very far with experimenting, but the point is that if I didn’t already have a router with that level of capability, I’d need one - so I’d buy one that had 3G/4G built in. akwe-xavante knows way more about this stuff than I do, but I’m not aware of any lesser routers that can do the job? The downside is that it’s a scary beast to understand (for me anyway)! I imagine many routers can do the job of just throttling the speed, but that rather defeats the point of having the high speed in the first place.

I may need to return to investigating the usage sharing set up, as the microwave/fibre installation will still have a cap at some level, so I’d be very interested to know any details of successfully setting up a workable system for restricting usage to a reasonable (?) level - and any obvious solutions I’ve missed or wrong assumptions I’ve made!
akwe-xavante
Posts: 306
Joined: Wed Jul 01, 2015 3:19 pm
Location: East Yorkshire

Post by akwe-xavante »

Greenbarn...

Session Limits
Have a look at: http://just.draytek.com/index.php?optio ... 93&lang=en

Bandwidth Limits
Have a look at: http://just.draytek.com/index.php?optio ... 93&lang=en

Draytek Support are very good.

Give your own and your staff's devices the level of access you need in one group(s) (Range of IP Addresses) and your guests a level of access as a second group (Range of IP address).

Staff range of IP addresses could be from 192.168.1.10 to 192.168.1.20. Bind each device by its MAC address to a specific IP address of your choice. You could create 2 or 3 or more groups if you want different staff members to have different levels of access.

Example:

Bind the mac address 00:45:G5:0D:22:ED which is an office desktop PC (For Example) used by Sophie to the IP address 192.168.1.11. By doing this you can assign rules to that Device and you can keep an eye on her activities too if the need arises.

You can bind any number of devices to IP addresses to form a group. Four devices ending .11, .12, .13 .14 then apply session limits, bandwidth limits and many other controls to the IP address range 192.168.1.11 to 192.168.1.14 as a group.

TX means transmit or upload and RX means receive or download and measured in kb so 2850k means 2.85Mb as an RX restriction means that the device(s) are equally restricted to a bandwidth limit of 2.85Mbps just enough to comfortable get the HD BBC iPlayer etc and catchup TV in its various forms.

A second group could be for your guests 192.168.1.15 to 192.168.1.254 (Note the number 15) having already assigned the first four to specific devices within your office. Assign the rules you want to assign to this range (Group) of IP addresses.

In the domestic home you could as a parent restrict your kids use of the internet and or specific online recourses and services in many ways. Commonly used is the restriction of time online, stops the kids going online from the mobile under the bed sheets at 2am! Block specific websites, games chat apps and more between specific hours or altogether. Different rules can be applied to different kids depending on the age of the child as an example.

Block Windows, Apple and Android, iPhone, smartphone device Software, firmware, updates and upgrades.
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greenbarn
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Joined: Sat May 30, 2009 6:41 pm
Location: The Westmorland Dales, Cumbria

Post by greenbarn »

Thanks, I’ll have a look at those.
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