solution for hoiliday home

I recently installed a new heating thermostat at a holiday home which can be controlled using the internet. I have been wondering how to connect it either by tethering an old smart phone or using a mifi router. Data usage would be around 100mb per month. Any ideas as to the best solution? Tethered mobile turn off the tethering if it loses signal so it may not be the best route. A payg data sim that does not expire would be the cheapest solution. 3 seems to the be the best option for payg but I can't find terms and conditions for the preloaded data sims once the initial data expires. any ideas or experience?

This sounds like it would be perfect for you:
http://www.aa.net.uk/telecoms-mobile-data.html

You could just get fixed broadband for the holiday home and use that? Then add WiFi as a selling point for the holiday home.

In reply to a post by brandscill:

You could just get fixed broadband for the holiday home and use that? Then add WiFi as a selling point for the holiday home.

Yes! B is spot on. I rent holiday cottages several times a year and wifi has made it onto my "must have" list. Until recently it was not commonly available but there is now a situation where I can afford to ignore cottages without, in the knowledge that there'll be another not far away that has wifi.

So put it in and mention it in your cottage features.It is enormously helpful on holiday for looking up the opening times of local attractions and the like. Don't forget that phone data reception is often **** in holiday home locations. Go for it. It really is a selling point.

John

I know my parents pick locations with WiFi.

They like going on long walks in the day, pub for dinner and then back to holiday home to chill out and watch Netflix or whatever. Plus it's often a selling point for those who go away and have to have reliable internet access for work emergencies. (I know, we should be on holiday and switch off but in todays world there are unfortunately jobs that need it)

Thanks for the replies. The house is not rented out, just there for family and friends so really can't justify phone line rental and fixed broadband, TV licence is dear enough for the limited use.

Experimenting with mobiles using EE and 3 both drop the connection if it is unused for 2 hours and it has to be manually reconnected. Andrew and Arnold sim looks a solution but before I spend £40 on a Mifi router will it disconnect after two hours of inactivity too? I will only use the connection for a few minutes every few days (if even that) so there will be long periods of of no data being transferred.

How about the 5GB bundle here?

http://uk.prepaidzero.com/

Doesn't expire (Allegedly). Never used it so no idea if its any good. I've been looking for something similar so am interested what comes up.

Andy.

I emailed Prepaid Zero and got the following information on the 5GB prepaid card - Sim card itself does not expire but the 5GB allowance is only valid for 30 days and currently there are no top-ups for the data card. So maximum validity on the card is 30 days.

Shame, a 5GB non-expiring pre-paid data sim would be great for me.

Bah! Would have been great for me too. Thanks for the info.

That disconnection thing is the router/dongle/computer settings - and not the network.

I maintain connections for DAYS on my 3G/4G services with Three with nothing being done - a connection can (should) idle forever..

Does that include the ability to remote access it with nothing actively going out?

Whilst you can go out of the network at any time because it will re-establish the link as soon as a connection is requested from the inside if you are only accessing from a remote connection then if it drops the link it won't re-establish from a remote attempt.

I don't know that this is how it works but I wouldn't be surprised. They aren't sold as "always on" connections.

I don't understand the "problem".

In reply to a post by samthebam:

The house is not rented out, just there for family and friends .......

Presumably you are concerned about cold weather. If you are looking at controlling the temperature remotely then, by inference, the heating/boiler, is on continuously. Most modern, non internet connected, thermostats have a "freeze/ice" setting that will automatically turn on the heating when the temperature drops below a certain level.

What am I missing?.

PS If internet connectivity is that important get a cheap T-Mobile PAYG phone that allows tethering, and for £20 for 6 months, get "unlimited" internet, and a WIFI hot spot for friends and family.

Edited by deleted (Wed 20-Aug-14 17:40:36)

What device are you using to maintain the connection? Using two different phones with the setting changed to always remain connected the network dropped the connection on both a EE sim and a 3 sim.

Every device I've used.

My Mi-Fi used to be connected 24/7 to the mains and never disconnected (even when there was nothing happening - you can choose to disconnect in the options or keep on).

My current phones (Blackberry Z10, Lumia 1020, and Galaxy Note 2) all keep a connection running indefinitely. With zero other traffic.

Packet Data (eg GPRS, 3G etc) is designed to connect and wait and as far as I know, Three at least do not have a 2 hour time out (I've never seen that anyhow).

You could perhaps have a keep-alive ping sent periodically (barely any data) if you think it's a problem mind.

What equipment do you actually have - what is the heating system actually connected to?

Another thought:

Back along I had some Billon routers which had 3G support (actually, I still do), they've got options for making it bring a connection back up if it is down, so presumably that would be the way to go - if your disconnect issue exists.

I'd suggest you re-read my previous post, (it has been edited), and consider what would happen to your "system" should a power outage occur.

Edited by deleted (Wed 20-Aug-14 18:36:11)

The idea is quite simple. The heating boiler has a frost protection that means it starts if the temp falls below 5 degrees. The thermostat can be set to keep the temperature in the house a bit higher. (this was the main reason for installing it).

It also has the benefit if connected to the internet of allowing me to put the heating on a few hours before anyone arrives instead a few hours shivering waiting for it all to heat up once someone arrives.

I have tried using two blackberry phones a 9360 and a 9320. Both hotspot settings were changed to nnever shut off connection and left connected to a charger. Both had the hotspot disconnect after exaclty two hours of inacitivity. If the signal was lost they also shutdown the hotspot. I wanted to find out if this was a network issue that would also occur with a mifi if there was no data traffic using the connection.

In reply to a post by samthebam:

The idea is quite simple. The heating boiler has a frost protection that means it starts if the temp falls below 5 degrees. The thermostat can be set to keep the temperature in the house a bit higher. (this was the main reason for installing it).

It also has the benefit if connected to the internet of allowing me to put the heating on a few hours before anyone arrives instead a few hours shivering waiting for it all to heat up once someone arrives.

I have tried using two blackberry phones a 9360 and a 9320. Both hotspot settings were changed to nnever shut off connection and left connected to a charger. Both had the hotspot disconnect after exaclty two hours of inacitivity. If the signal was lost they also shutdown the hotspot. I wanted to find out if this was a network issue that would also occur with a mifi if there was no data traffic using the connection.

Well to test this out I have just switched to 3g and turned my hotspot on, without connecting anything to it. Let's see what happens..!

I'm on Three and using a Samsung Galaxy S3 running the Cyanogenmod firmware

And after three hours and deliberately losing signal the hotspot was still enabled. Success!

I suspect a lot of people wouldn't even know what Mi-Fi was. They would just see the words Wi-Fi and think great. This being said families will likely stream etc in a let out property. Due to this unlimited would be a must.