Once you've used up all your data, we'll automatically re-direct you to My3 where you can buy another top-up if you need it.

True.

But, depending on your bank, you might need another Internet connection to allow the connection to your bank's security system.

I can not re-ativate my 3 dongle without using another Internet connection. (although dial-up will do)

Tim,

You have an incoming PM

In reply to a post by Sandgrounder:

Once you've used up all your data, we'll automatically re-direct you to My3 where you can buy another top-up if you need it.

True.

But, depending on your bank, you might need another Internet connection to allow the connection to your bank's security system.

I can not re-ativate my 3 dongle without using another Internet connection. (although dial-up will do)

That's annoying because my Visa card required verification so I wonder if that would work or not.

Vodafone (via YES telecom) offer a £5 a month contract with 2 days use per month included. If you want more days than this, they charge about £2 a day I think.

Not quite PAYG, but quite a cheap alternative.

Thanks, Cuthbei

Thanks Bob.

Just had a thought. If my router is disconnected but other computers are connected by router switch and plug the dongle into one computer on the LAN network via ethernet will other computers on the LAN see the dongle or does the dongle need to be connected to each computers USB port in order to surf the web. Hope that makes sense.

The other computers (by default) would not 'see' the internet connection provided by a USB dongle on another computer.

You would need to set-up internet connection sharing.

In reply to a post by Banger:

Just had a thought. If my router is disconnected but other computers are connected by router switch and plug the dongle into one computer on the LAN network via ethernet will other computers on the LAN see the dongle or does the dongle need to be connected to each computers USB port in order to surf the web. Hope that makes sense.

As per 5km's post, ICS is a cheap/free solution to share the connection from the dongle ... but it can be a fairly inelegant / manual / quirky solution to set up for a "quick-changeover" for backup-connection purposes.

I'd personally recommend one of these Zoom-4501-Routers as a better solution IF you reckon it's worth (to you) the £40 for a Full Ethernet + WiFi & Instant-Automatic-Changeover backup solution :-
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/174406

I use this with the solution we discussed via PM ... It's excellent, and also gives me the added advantage of using the same entire dongle+router system for FULL Mobile-Broadband-Wifi when we're away fron home in the car or caravan or on holiday (all that's needed is to add the "in-car power adaptor").

Edited by deleted (Sat 29-Jan-11 00:22:28)

Thanks for the information Bob and 5km. I did find some software when googling about that shared USB over ethernet but it wasn't clear if it was free or time limited. It was limited to two USB devices but I think ICS may be the best for the backup/cheap solution I had in mind.

ICS works well for an interim solution.. At my current place of work, O2 have almost no signal, but my Vodafone dongle works great, so I setup ICS on my laptop to surf the net on my iPhone..