3 Data Modem set up issues - not so quick or easy…
Posted by FrankP
3’s USB mobile broadband modem software seems to have conflicts with many fairly standard applications, be aware that getting up and running with it may not be as simple as it should be…
Update: 3 Data Modem still not working reliably unless I repeat the process of disabling services and start up apps as outline below…
Update II: It now appears to me that disabling any service at random and restarting my machine will get the modem to work… I have tried several restarts without disabling any service and that doesn’t seem to work. Right now, I’m online with the modem after restarting with the Google updater service disabled, yesterday to get it to work I turned off a completely different service, but on starting up today with that service still disabled it wouldn’t work. Nor would it work when I enabled the service again and restarted. nor would it work after three restarts. Disabling the Google updater service (decided upon at random) and restarting worked. More exploration needed!
Update III: As I said in the comments, I have heard tell of at least one person who is very happy with his 3 Data Modem, however, he’s on a Mac… any happy PC users out there?
Update IV: I am not alone. Thanks to TomR for opening a discussion on his site too. it seems Today FM will be discussing this at 6pm this evening - 15th August 2007.
update V: Today the modem was coming up ‘invalid’ again, but I did a simple restart and it’s working again… so it’s just plain flaky. I still have a few days on my no quibble returns time, so I think I may have ot take it back.
Update VI: Check out my latest post on this - head of PR and Communications got back to me…
I got myself one of those 3 mobile broadband yokes. I was told in Carphone Warehouse that it should be active after about 2 to 3 hours. So I waited and after 3 hours I connected it to my machine. Nothing.
After checking everything I could check, which was very little, I concluded I was not doing anything wrong and rang 3 customer support. The paltry instructions that came with the USB modem explained that the software would self install when the modem was connected. However Rahuhl explained to me I had to wait a minimum of 8 hours before the sim would be active. This was annoying enough, having been told it would be 2 - 3 hours in the shop, but I had a fair idea that the software should install regardless of whether the sim was active. Rahuhl insisted it should not and point blank refused to put me through to technical support until I had waited 8 hours.
So I waited a further five hours and called customer support again. This time I spoke to a more reasonable lad who admitted the software should indeed install itself regardless of whether the sim was active or not, but he also said I might have to wait 24 to 48 hours for the sim to be activated.
He also explained that tech support were now gone home, and they would call me the following day.
The following day, rather than wait for a call, I called again and got put through to tech support, where I spoke to a guy called John who has been extremely helpful since. When John heard I had a Dell computer he explained that most Dell computers come preinstalled with software that conflicts with the 3 modem’s installers. Now, with Dell being as popular as they are, don’t you think the modem would come with a note about this issue?
So we stopped various services and start up programs on my machine in order to install the software, and sure enough we got it installed and working. This despite the fact that my machine is running McAfee - a program known to cause connection problems, and also an application many machines come preinstalled with.
Once I was up and running I was getting download speeds of 118 kbps (thanks Irish ISP test!) - not great, and many pages seemed to hang, so I wasn’t thrilled, but it was better than nothing. 3 claim that demand was higher than they expected (according to customer support it’s because none of the houses in ireland have broadband) and so they don’t currently have enough broadband to go around - but rest assured upgrades are under way and next week will be better…
To be fair, this morning speeds are looking much better, and the browsing experience is quite lovely - early this morning I got a download speed of 1209 kbps which was quite zippy. I would have been quite happy - except that my modem kept dropping off my machine for no apprent reason, every few minutes I would get the familar noise of a usb device disconnecting and the connection, obviously, dropped.
So back to tech support I went. It seems Napster and Roxio both cause these kinds of issues. Napster and Roxio - two more very popular applications. Because of my need for connection I agreed to uninstall Roxio. I also updated the software which controls the modem. For at least an hour myself and John went through endless uninstalls and installs, driver uninstalls, plug in the modem, plug out the modem, disable this, enable that… finally after a restart with various services and start up programs disabled we were connected.
Unfortunately we were unable to figure out what action had got us up and running… I enabled all the services and start up programs and restarted and have been browsing fine since.
All in all, so far the modem has been a nightmare. I am sure there are people for whom it works painlessly out of the box, but I wonder what percentage of users that is? Particularly since if you have a Dell machine, or if you use Napster, Roxio or McAfee it seems you can expect issues from this little fellow. As an aside, my girlfriends machine is not a Dell and the software didn’t install on her machine either.
Please leave comments with your experiences - am I in the minority of people for whom this has been a royal pain in the ass?
August 10th, 2007 at 1:44 pm
Thanks for the heads up Frank. I was fairly well tempted to get one of these gadgets and scrap my landline and eircom forever more, but it looks like I’ll have to stay in the frying pan a little longer !
As an aside, having a dangly thing hanging off my computer seems like a pretty inelegant solution even though it fits in with the theme of their marketing.
August 10th, 2007 at 2:28 pm
I have heard tell of people who are delighted with it, I’d say if you’re interested in it, get it and see if it works painlessly… there is a 14 day no quibble money back guarantee… which I think I will be availing of if it’s not sorted soon…
There is a data card option as well, but you need a Type II PC-card slot with cardbus interface…
August 16th, 2007 at 11:25 am
The three speeds have been decreasing since May - down to 150 / 200 kbs at best. For almost 2 weeks no most users cannot send e-mails. e-mail server timed out. Affects most standard e-mail hosts incl blackknight, utv & eircom.
Three tech support play dumb, claim its coverage problems. Explain to them that there are thousands of people with the problem and they claim it rubbish - but they’re in an indian call centre so really don’t have a clue about whats going on.
Three head-office number goes to voice mail, head of communications goes to voice mail - i’d say only a treath of sales withdrawal by carphone warehosue & xtravision would actualy get a response. As for me I am notifying them of contract cancellation and switching to 02 - luckily I can get their service and they have assured me that if service was below 500kbs, it would be unacceptable and the contract could be terminated. They claim average speed is 1.6 - 1.8mb
August 16th, 2007 at 12:35 pm
Does anyone know whatthe upload speeds should be with this service? Using Irish ISP test I seem to be only getting upload speeds of between 20 and 65K. Is anyone else experiencing this problems?
August 16th, 2007 at 1:01 pm
After subscribing to the 3ireland HSDPA wireless modem broadband service, i had about 1 month of good coverage and reasonable speeds
on approx 12 August 2007 on both my Dell desktop PC and Dell notebook, it all seemed to go wrong.
i cannot FTP to my website and i cannot send emails with outlook express. even with valid SMTP server settings correctly configured.
i cannot access the gmail website http://mail.google.com/
resulting in the following error: Network Error (tcp_error)
Dial-up to eircom 1892 150150 works fine for all these issues
i called to carphone warehouse and the sales assistant was as helpful as he could be, but this was a technical issue so he phoned 3ireland and only spoke to customer support. technical support could not (or would not)speak to him. if a mobile operators biggest retailer can not get hold of tech support, an average consumer has no chance.
the customer support guy said i would receive a call from tech support within 6 hours
24 hours later i’m still waiting
and to make matters worse, the 3 website http://www.3ireland.ie is down
now i know a bit about webhosting and if the website is completely
down for at least 4 days, it can mean a number of things.
1. they don’t know the website is down…………unlikely
2 they don’t know how to get it up and running again….impossible
3. they are having so many technical difficulties, that they pulled the website rather than be transparent about their issues….possible
4 they don’t want to give tech support because the whole network is imploding……….possible
my verdict of 3 is that they are a disaster
if the technical issues prove to be at my end, i’ll admit it
but it appears that 3ireland are running for cover
August 16th, 2007 at 2:41 pm
I believe upload speeds are meant to be ‘up to 384kbps’ but I only ever get to just under 60kbps. Another problem I forgot to list in my email to head of PR and Communications…
August 16th, 2007 at 3:56 pm
it appears that 3ireland have another website http://www.three.ie
i phoned their number 083 333 3333 and spoke to customer service in india
they eventually admitted that there was an upgrade on 9th and 10 august 2007……………its a downgrade if you ask me
they said there was issues with secure websites like gmail
they said smtp is not supported with 3
(smtp is a core protocol of email which is fundamental to the internet)
i responded that SMTP worked before the upgrade (downgrade)
and i was asked to wait and see if it came back and no indication was
given as to when this would happen
this is the worst customer service i have ever experienced
i’m going back to dial-up
it might be slow……but it is FULL internet access
not a scaled down version suitable only for web surfers
beware
August 18th, 2007 at 2:21 pm
I ordered my modem 5 weeks ago via the Perlico website and haven’t even received it so far. My 5 emails to the customer service are unanswered and when I got someone on the phone - which happened 2 times - I was promised to be called back with some information regarding my order. Needless to say I never got called back. Any similar experience out there?
August 20th, 2007 at 8:35 am
Ive 3 Irelands 3.5g for two months and am very happy with. Alot of people who complain about this automatically think the fault is with hte modem but in most cases is their own computer.
3 Ireland are the first operator to offer broadband where I am, where others couldnt- including eircom and should be congratulated for it.
Well done 3 Ireland
August 20th, 2007 at 11:44 am
Dave: They are supposed to have an SMTP server (see here) but it’s experiencing issues it seems and there is no date set for resolution.
Carsten: I got mine in a shop so I can’t comment there..
Peter: You may be correct, in that you may know people who complain about issues which are nothing to do with the modem or the service, but you’re not trying to say the issues described above are a problem with my machine are you? Even if certain issues are with my machine, it’s because the modem & software was released before it should have been, my machine is not an unusual machine or configuration.
August 21st, 2007 at 12:59 am
i installed the wrong update software on my 3g modem now its vodafone and it wont work.. where can i find the files to replace them
August 21st, 2007 at 10:24 am
Hi Shane, try here:
http://www.three.ie/broadband/drivers.htm
August 23rd, 2007 at 9:41 pm
On 3 - cannot send e-mails or photo attachment . Anybody else with these problems
August 25th, 2007 at 1:13 pm
We pay for our 3data modem using the bank giro we payed on wednesday. on thursday i got a text message saying call 333 to make a payment so you can use this service as normal so i presumme the giro has not ”cleared” yet does any1 know how long a bank giro takes to clear? 3 broadband is the only broadband available to me and i think it is brilliant i got a speed of 3.5 mbps regulary.
August 26th, 2007 at 8:16 pm
I got the 3 Broadband today, I had been using NTL with a speed of 6 up until Friday when I seen this 3 one and thought, the speed of 3.6 sounds fine and all I need and is a bit cheaper. So I cancelled my NTL internet and headed off to the 3 store. I bought it today and it has been a nightmare, it installed fine – although it kept telling my laptop that I have a new CD drive.
Then I started to use it, I have the light blue light on constantly (that’s apparently when it’s on the fastest available speed) My speed at the moment is just over 400kps which is a joke.
I cannot use outlook, I cannot access Hotmail, I cannot access MSN Messenger. Pages take to long to load, some don’t even come up at all. No chance of using my google earth. Skype lags, No chance of good streaming on U-Tube, wont upload pics.
I’m not the only person with my IP address (had a look at wikipedia to see if my IP was ever used, and it’s been used to edit hundreds of pages, confirming the claim that the same IP is used by people on the 3.
I’m taking this thing back tomorrow and getting all my cash back for it, it’s a shame as I wanted it to work. Looks like I’ll be going back to my super fast NTL.
August 29th, 2007 at 11:28 pm
Anyone in Limerick area with 3 Ireland, of course, I meant the city getting 1Mbps download speed. I have full coverage but never a download speed more than about 800kbps for longer than5 minutes.
I have waited for 2 months for them to fix the problem and never get anywhere with their tech support and they refuse of the refund of the modem. They eventually give me 2 months free line rental.
What can I do? I want broadband… I reported the problem to http://www.consumerconnect.ie. What next?
August 30th, 2007 at 8:46 pm
Finally got the modem. Installed fine on the iMAC, after some trouble also on the Windows XP PC (had to deactivate Virus software and firewall… going online without a firewall is something I really enjoy…).
Then the big surprise: I can’t get connected. Not at all. No coverage. I am living rural allright but due to the 3 customer service and the coverage map I should be covered somehow. After talking to the tech support I know as much as before: I am living in a rural area with “fluctuating coverage”.
In my opinion 3 is fooling its potential customers with promises that are not real. The modem will go back and a complaint to the consumer protection agency will follow.
August 31st, 2007 at 11:16 am
3 are shite with dis modem.we pay the assholes 3 days be4 the bill is due and now 2 weeks after i cant connect.i dunno wot the fek is wrong wit them
August 31st, 2007 at 11:19 am
I might as wel stick a lump of shite in the usb slot
September 5th, 2007 at 9:01 pm
hmm.. Sum gr8 discussion out here.. Well i am from the technical team from 3…. I agree with every point that all members have to say.. The modemn has been a nightmare for sum people, but lemme also tell that many customers are really satisfied with regards to speed.. And ya installation maybe a problem but we are always there 2 help customers.. I Admit that there are issues bout ftp, secured sites etc etc.. But we r working on it and it wud be resolved in sumtime.. I think that €19.00 for 10gb is a gr8 deal.. Here in India we have to satisfy ourselves with 256kbps browsing speed and 20kbps download speed.. Howsthat..
September 13th, 2007 at 9:29 am
Spent 4 hours yesterday installing the 3 network datamodem. To get it to install I’ve had to remove the Roxio software from the laptop as I was told it conflicts with the datamodem, in fact technical support asked me check if I had any of the following software on my laptop(napster,roxio,nero,cyberlik,powerdvd,powertogo,sonic) so I assume similar problems arise with these also. Also had to disable all programs at startup to get it to work, after re-enabling the programs the modem is now flaky at best and more often than not does not connect at all. When it does transfer speed is no better than dial-up. So needless to say I think as a broadband solution 3 network are only fooling people and should pull the product off the market, it is only going to damage their reputation in the mobile market. I for one will never even consider dealing with them again.
September 13th, 2007 at 12:40 pm
After countless calls and emails with Three trying to get the modem to work and trying to find out when it *would* work, i finally gave up tearing my hair out and took it back and got a full refund.
I recommend everyone do the same, if you can possibly find ANY alternative.
I wanted a mobile solution, but not one that didn’t work.
September 13th, 2007 at 2:48 pm
Amar,
With all due respect if there are happy 3 broadband customers I have yet to hear from them apart from the obvious infiltration of the boards.ie thread by a couple of ’satisfied customers’ before the item broadcast on the Last Word. I have already had representatives from Three telling me I was the only one or one of only a few with these issues but I am afraid my friend, those days are gone.
Sorry your internet access there is so slow, I well remember the days of dialup myself but I live in IRELAND and I love here NOW where broadband by most people’s expectations would be at the very least 512 down. Yet Three Ireland keep advertising this service as a form of broadband and are still conducting TV advertising when they know the network is oversubscribed and can not meet even the current demand adequately.
As I think I’ve commented on in threads before I think speed is only one of the issues here but Three continue to ignore this. Undependable SMTP and FTP, no VPN and for the phone addon customers, the recent port blocking and stream breaking they are enduring while Three rob Peter to pay Paul with bandwidth are totally unacceptable issues for any company that claims to offer a broadband service here.
The phone situation is a particular joke at the moment as those paying higer tariffs seem to have less access. See http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055147970.
Finally you say these issues will be addressed ’sumtime’. LOL, the Three mantra. When IS sometime Amar, is it tomorrow, 48 hours, 3 weeks (all periods I’ve heard from Three at some point), next Christmas, when Ireland wins the World Cup???
September 27th, 2007 at 12:06 pm
I live in Balbriggan so don’t have many broadband options. I bought a 3 modem but can’t get it to install on my laptop. I have removed loadsa programmes mentioned above and still can’t connect. I returned the modem and got a refund but have now bought another one in the hope that the technical support team can help me this time or someone here can tell me how to go about installing it?? Anyone any suggestions or even know of an alternative broadband option for Balbriggan without having to use Eircom or get a phone line??
October 1st, 2007 at 2:32 pm
Please can someone help me, for whatever reason i cannot send/recieve mail via microsoft office outlook using 3g i have to connect my laptop to my eircom landline dial up and do it that way totally defeating the purpose of wireless broadband i have tried all ways….. plz advise..
October 6th, 2007 at 4:35 pm
when i originally bought that three modem i was able to get much faster speeds using their pre-pay sony k610i phone as a modem but then they blocked that saying i would have to use a data modem!
October 8th, 2007 at 9:00 pm
Of for the love of all that is good and holy, I wish I had read all the mounting forums on disatisfied Three customers before I’d purchased my USB modem.
I have only had it for just over three weeks and was working absolutely fine up until a few days ago. I now have endless TCP errors and profile errors, can’t access Yahoo mail or hotmail and the websites I need to access for my job won’t load now.
I work from home and at first this seemed like a perfect solution as we have no landline and I travel about a bit, coverage is supposed to be perfect where I live and at first all seemed great.
Called customer service to report these errors and spoke to a very nice girl who told me ‘a few’ of her callers have had this problem and that there was nothing that she or myself can do about it and it will be resolved soon. It’s still the same.
This is getting out of hand, there are far too many forums appearing now with this issue. I feel like banging my head off a wall.
There is no point in banging on about it being a cheap service and expecting people to pay for it when in reality is a non existant service.
Not a happy bunny, incredibly frustrated, angry and feel totally let down by the customer support.
I’m completely at a loss for a resolution now.
October 18th, 2007 at 5:02 pm
I am totally p****d off with the 3 mobile crowd. Lucky you Frank - you got your money back !!!
I had all the problems you guys have had but I just can’t get my money back !!! I’ve been trying since 13 th September and what’s more I am now recieving bills for the bliddy service even though I returned their modem in the special registered post envelope they sent me - which, according to them took roughly a month to get from Wexford to Dublin. it arrived on the 9th October apparantley even though I posted it on the 13th September. They are now saying THAT FROM THE 9TH OCTOBER I WILL HAVE TO WAIT 10 WORKING DAYS BEFORE IT SHOWS INTO MY ACCOUNT.
What a lot of money they are accruing in interest from all the deposits they are holding onto for a month - I continue to pull my hair out as another coulple of bills arrived to-day ALONG with another letter saying that they notice I’m not paying my invoices SCREAM ………….
October 23rd, 2007 at 1:13 pm
I’m afraid I have had many frustrating experiences with the ‘whores draws’ service that is 3 mobile broadband. On a humourous (if somewhat frustrating note) I have just had a phone call with their help desk who was trying fob my off with the fact that I was in a poor reception area (not according to the map) so we went in circles establishing where I lived. Now this guys English was not that great and we went around trying to discover the nearest homeland. Despite having lived in Letterkenny for a number of years I had not heard of any of the places he was mentioning (though some sounded familiar). Only after putting the phone down and having a look at the map did I realise that he must have been looking at Kilkenny!!!! Its not a racist comment but I thinking moving the call centre a little closer to home would be a good start!
October 28th, 2007 at 8:37 pm
I bought the yoke for use in the UK, thinking I would be clever. Impossible to get customer services to help me as they insist they can’t unless I’m in ROI, so much for ‘like home’. Living in central London where they don’t have the capacity problems as in Ireland but my speed is still shite. Put the foot down witht them and the speed magically increased. They are obviously selectively restricting Irish speeds to prevent an overload. Its ridiculous and they cannot use the oversubsubscribed excuse as they are still heavily advertising the thing. I’m still not happy with the service, as the modem in the 3store is way faster. Why can’t I get normal internet.
October 30th, 2007 at 2:20 pm
I just installed this gadget for a friend of mine. What a dose. She will now be on the internet with no anti-virus or firewall for however long it lasts - speed is not great but it seems to be faster than the Dial up i remember or is Dial up that fast now!. She is also unable to burn files if needed. Do we know of any anti virus that will work?
November 2nd, 2007 at 2:16 pm
I bought the 3 modem from carphone warehouse in Tralee, and even before I got the modem things did not sound too good.I was asked a deposit of €50 because… I am foreign… At the same time I was getting a modem an Irish girl was getting one as well and she was not asked for deposit !!!
The day after I got the bleeding thing 3 rung me asking me if I was happy!!! I told them about the deposit and the girl told me that it was the rules in Ireland to ask for deposit from foreigners…when I told her it was discrimination and, illegal, she told me she could not talk about the subject anymore…
Now, the modem… Well it works slowly, sometimes, and download speed is attrocious 30kb/s…
Lads from 3 told me they were trying to fix the problems , but I cannot spend hours on the phone , I would hope that they would have find some kind of a patch to sort things out !!!
As far as my work station is concerned , its a dell and I will have to download a new driver , apparently…
poit is, its crap…
November 5th, 2007 at 2:01 pm
Brought back the modem to the carphone warehouse in Tralee, the store manager was very helpful , no hassle , good service…
Now I have the O2 modem and it works much better , last night about 195Kb/sec . Not what is advertised but not bad either.
cheers
November 7th, 2007 at 11:17 pm
Bought modem in Galway Mon Nov 5th morning.€129 and set up direct debit.
Told it would be activated later on in the day. Software very user-UnFriendly.Was not activated by 9pm.Rang helpline Call centre 1-800 no spoke to someone in India.Told me to try Tomorrow morning(Tuesday 6th)
Still no go - SO I returned it to 3 and got my money back and cancelled direct debit. I am going to try Vodafone now because O2 coverage is Patchy
November 13th, 2007 at 11:25 pm
I bought the 3 modem in september. conflicted with really popular programs on my laptop. why are we not told that before hand. tech support completely useless. decided to lump it back to them for a refund. got mt 130 euro back. still waiting for my 50 quid deposit back… 8 weeks later. 3 are not interested in good customer relations. they selling sub quality product….. they no prob taking the money tho…
November 30th, 2007 at 3:58 pm
After giving 3 three months to sort out the SMTP mess, I cancelled my contract with them this morning. I insisted to the customer service rep “Monica” that as I hadn’t received adequate service I wouldn’t continue to pay for the service.
After a degree of argy-bargy, and a discussion with her supervisor, she agreed to waive the €154.99 early termination fee. I’ve cancelled the direct debit, and they’ve cancelled the service. In fact, their cancellation of the service was *very* efficien
Now I can sign-up with Vodafone or O2 and enjoy a service where I’ll be able to send and received e-mail . . .
January 3rd, 2008 at 12:04 am
Hi, most of the driver/modem issues that you encounter are caused by various programs interrogating the virtual CD drive on the 3g modem. Every time I’ve had the issue when I remove the virtual CD drive using the XP/Vista disk management tool it works correctly. This has been on various laptops and desktops running a combination of XP and Vista.
Other than that, the service is sucky at best.
January 7th, 2008 at 6:34 pm
I got my 3 mobile broadband about 3 weeks ago and everything works fine all except trying to access full tilt poker. Anyone have any thoughts on how to solve this issue. pete how do you remove the virtual cd drive on vista?
January 12th, 2008 at 10:40 pm
My friend has been having problems with her 3 modem. I currently have eircom wireless unlimited broadband and i called round to try and help her. What a nightmare! It takes about 10 mins to load a single page and it also has a tendancy to just drop whenever it likes. I spend about an hour to check my e-mails at hers yesterday and it was just purely frustrating, I then went home and checked them there and took me under 5 mins, what is that all about!!!!
Her laptop is toshiba and she only purchased it last August, she pays them €20 per month and is tied to a contract for one year. I think this is a disgrace and surely they do not expect people to pay for……..the lack of coverage and service????!!!!!
I am glad i personally do not have a s data modem and i hope for all you people above and my friend that they get their fingers out and once and for all rectify this reacurring problem!
January 21st, 2008 at 10:14 pm
What a great pity I didn’t happen on this forum before I wasted a lot of time acquiring the great panacea to our deprivation in rural Ireland’s Broadband wasteland- 3’s Datacard and finding coverage appalling- I feel really duped but at least I managed to cancel my account within the 14 day refund period and am now waiting to get my hands on 3’s Jiffy return envelope!!!
I carted my laptop and installed datacard all over my home area, which supposedly has coverage and the best I got was one, sometimes two, bars on the signal strenght indicator, giving at best an average of 30 kbps! Returning to landline dial-up was a joy.
I must say I have found 3’s technical support in India very helpful and patient. I pity them their task trying to seal a torpedo hole with a brush and bucket of tar!
And to add hilarity to the whole sad saga customer support gleefully inform me that I’ll probably be sent a bill for the next three months!!!!
In conclusion, it’s very apparent that 3’s coverage claims are a joke and really galling that they are still making those ludicrous claims considering that the first comment on this forum was posted last August. It’s about time 3 got their finger out and end this deception.
January 23rd, 2008 at 9:53 pm
I got 3g in december speed was about 1mb and then just after the return time was up the speed fell. Last week i was at one point getting a speed of 5kb and yes that is a small k. I’m sure this must be against the trade description act. I phoned support and all i got was a girl that told me how to cleat my computer and then told me it would take a week for it ot take affect. ???
January 24th, 2008 at 5:19 pm
Fu&*!!!!!! My 14 day trial period was up yesterday. Today I find this forum, maybe I would of found it earlier if the 3modem wasn’t so slow! It seemed to work fine at first but has been getting progressively slower. I had encountered problems with my computer so put the poor performance down to that. PC works fine now but download speeds can get as bad as 5k p/s! I noticed that when I start downloading something the rate can be as high as 400k p/s (still nowhere near what is claimed but nonetheless usable) but fall dramatically during the download. Does anybody know what that is about? I won’t be paying my bill, hope it goes to court… I’ll fry ‘em!
January 29th, 2008 at 3:29 am
My problem is lack of incoming tcp to a computer on my home network.. Because of this I can’t run a server… Was onto 3, and a person I spoke with in the support section said, they don’t block ports, when I asked him if this might be the reason… From my understanding now my inability to run a server on my local network all is down to 3’s policy of handing out the same IP address to many users… If anyone from 3 is viewing this thread, please consider moving all IP address to IPv6 from IPv4, so each user can be assigned an IP address.. Wouldn’t this at least be a start to getting things to work properly! (Then I could run my server!)
In fairness, 3 have a very friendly customer support section, but I agree this needs to be in Ireland, and not India, as it is at present
February 28th, 2008 at 5:57 am
Got my modem last Friday, picked up speed after 2 days, was getting 2meg but at 1am might I add and about 60kb in the day. Now as of yesterday it stopped working for no reason. I’m on a Mac and don’t suffer other peoples issues. I think I will take it back from what I’ve read here and the fact it is so slow in the day. Will get O2. Oh and its not working now, I’m sending this from my phone. What a joke…
March 1st, 2008 at 1:54 am
Sometimes it works, most times it doesn’t! The modem connects to whatever 3 call a network and then I open my web browser (make a coffee, do the shopping) and when I get back, I may if I am lucky, have a full homepage. E-mails are a joke, click send go to sleep and perhaps in the morning they may have gone. Customer services have no idea, tech support-completely confused why the bit of plastic couldn’t create ras entry-didn’t know what ras entry was-I eventually figured out it was to do with some of the windows services and the fiddled about, got it working and then the tech support fella asked me to send in what I had done to help them out. Cant cancel the contract and stuck with these idiots for 18 months. Paid for 3 gb per month download and so far its been out to the local internet cafe to check e-mail. Guess that gets me out and a bit of exercise. Gonna cancel my direct debit, maybe then I may get some attention.
March 5th, 2008 at 10:24 pm
3g was good when i got it.has got slower and slower .to slow now to use.talked to people in india numerous times , no good.they were meant to ring me back, still waiting for call back. can i cancel my direct debit .i have it for 6 months . p.s. i also paid the €50 deposit when can i get this back.
March 23rd, 2008 at 12:01 am
Same here dude..I can shave and take a bath and the emails still would be “on the way”.Getting from tonite strange messages on my screen-here—You’ve exceeded your Mobile Broadband data alowance
You now will be charged 0.49 c. per MB.Visit My3 on your mobile for more info on Add-Ons.–and this sended 24 times???
Don’t have 3 mobile phone,I am customer with O2.Bought the modem 2 months ago from city centre store(Dublin),and yes,they asked for 50 euro depozit.I keep the bill,as they asure me will give me the money back after 6 ?! months.Next day was with a friend,she bought the modem as well.They did not asked her for deposit.I went to ask the manager why they take deposit from me,but not from my friend-what are their reasons?No explonation was given,she(the manager) told me they asking even bankers and solicitors for 50 euro..the criterio is unclear.I am waiting to see what this messages are about and sure will cancell the direct debit and will seek legal advice.Any one recieving same messages?I even don’t know what this is supose to mean..
March 28th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
My mum and dad bought the 3 data modem for me and my sister as were still waiting for BT to put the land line in (5Months Still Waiting). We have the 3 modem, and it works fine on occassion but when it does start working properly it disconnects it self, i spoke to customer service and tech help, for help on other matters concerning the thing, and they were rude and incompetent. My dads stuck with the contract and were looking in to try and hurry BT up, that way it wont really be used. Im worried about going over the limit since my friend had a bill of 51.20 euro. 3 are rip offs, dont go with them if your debating it, just dont.
May 19th, 2008 at 10:55 pm
hi i have exactly the same problems didnt work the first day, wait til 2moro, didnt work den, bit fast da nxt day, gon da nxt day, rang 3 sed temporary problem deyl fix it, not fixd yet strtin 2 piss me off tink im goin 2 bring it bak
May 23rd, 2008 at 11:45 pm
Hello everybody.
I am a guy who moved to Ireland to work here for a company from Finland. I have always used internet, so I assumed that I would get a wireless broadband, suggested by a friend who had very good experiences with these things back in Finland.. oh well.
I can assure you that this little piece of whatever is one of the worst things and mistakes I have ever done on my carreer with computers. Of course I am not too familiar with the ISP here in Ireland yet as I have been here just one week, but I can assure you that my new ASUS laptop and this 3 piece of garbage don’t work very well…
For an example, I try to get into internet and I get 5kbs? How is that even possible?
The promises I got were a lot, lot brighter than this. Thank god that I have still one week to return this piece of shait, so I get my money back.
Honestly I suggest that nobody will ever, ever buy one. Do not do it. It’s not worth the risks.
May 24th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
Hi Ashmodai return it quick. I have 3g since November and i now drive to the next town to use a free hotspot. I go for days when I can not get on line at home, a carrier pigeon with a broken wing would be quicker.
May 26th, 2008 at 6:33 pm
I got my 3modem in feburary this year, and it worked well for about a month! ntil they became more popular, it now disconencts due to no signal every 2-3 minutes and i have to spend my valuable time repositioning it somewhere else. Obviously i am well over the 2 week honeymoon period but i desperately want out of this pathetic contract.
Any ideas anyone?
May 27th, 2008 at 6:03 pm
They can’t keep you in a contract for a service they are not providing you with.
Tell them you want out. If they refuse tell them you are going to the director of consumer affairs and the National Consumer Association. If they still don’t, contact those organisations asking them to intervene on your behalf.
July 14th, 2008 at 2:11 pm
ya same as all ye were saying got it ages ago had problem with modem had to bring it back then faulty sim apparently had to bring it back got new sim by the time i realised my typical download speed would be between 3 and 20 kb ps was too late to return rarely use it anymore use the buddys broadband or hotspots cost me 130 back then for the modem so cant get that back woudl say to anyone 20 a month sounds cheap but service is useless and every1 seems to say the same fastest speed i can remeber getting was maybe 150kbps my advice dont even think of getting 3 will save yourself a lot of grief and money heard good things about o2 but
July 15th, 2008 at 2:24 pm
I have had endless trouble with this modem, I have it almost one month now (was on hols for one week) and it has never worked at all on my machine despite several lengthy calls to customer service, seems the drivers wont install now (Fijitsu Seimens laptop). I left it back to carphone warehouse where I bought it twice, the first time they agreed there was a problem and replaced it, this time they say its my computer. I am still in the process of trying to get it to work. As far as I am concerned I am entitled to a refund still as it has been documented that the unit was initially defective and has not worked since, 3 may have other opinions on this.
My advice is that if it doesnt work first time get a refund and forget about it …… forever !
July 27th, 2008 at 11:53 am
well, i got my 3g device 4 days ago, i installed it fine, but its ment to pick up 3 3g network, but in mine it picks up GPRS 02 uk(when im from ireland). i tried going in to the settings and changing the network but i cant seem to find the 3 network there either, i phoned the helpline and they told me to wait. anyone else got this problem???
August 19th, 2008 at 3:01 pm
My older brother bought the 3 modem 3 days ago. The person in the shop told him it would take up to 24 hours to register, and no more. But, everytime I try to connect it (I have to search for the network manually or it picks up absoloutely NO signal) and I find signal and register it, the signal disappears! What I have to do to get it working is find signal, not register it and set up a dial up connection from my computer before it goes. It lasts for a while, but knocks of and is tediously slow (it SAYS I am getting 53 kbps but I only get about 10 and under)
I thought it was just my area until I read this message board! Should I bring it back?
August 19th, 2008 at 3:06 pm
Also, Windows Messenger won’t work at all! Does anyone else have this problem?
January 27th, 2009 at 10:48 pm
Hi. I am so glad not to be alone. Not that I wish what I have gone through after signing up to 3 mobile broadband (pay monthly) on Christmas Eve on anyone. I was desperate to get some form of broadband having lived in dial-up-land for the past 7 years in a broadband black spot, trying to do a PhD. I was promise fast and smooth surfing which lasted all of 8 hours and the modem wouldnt connect to the network. I then had the joy of 19 hours of phone conversations (some for 4 hours) over a 4 day period with 3’s tech support teams (6 different people). I was told various tales: ‘ the modem is faulty, (I went to the 3 store in town and got a replacement modem, same problem), ‘the network is down, try again in 12 hours’ (12 hours later same problem), ‘a new, faster and more up-to-date modem is being sent to your address on the 6th January’ (I am still waiting for that and 3’s Customer Service see the instruction on my account but dont know where this ‘new modem’ has gone!). In the heel of the reel I ended up spending €87 to get software (from my 8 week old laptop) removed and compatable software installed so that the 3 modem would work (yep, I was that desperate). The guys in the computer store who did this told me they had several people each week with the same problem. Why wasnt I told when they sold me the 18 month contract that this might happen???? I was told that they had the national contract for mobile broadband, how can this be? Perhaps I am that gullable eejit that 3 thinks I am. Pity I didnt see this site before I signed up to what may prove to be another months of sheer frustration and total rip-off!!!!
Thanks for letting me vent my spleen.
Imelda
February 22nd, 2009 at 3:07 pm
I am also a 3G user. I thought I was doing the correct thing when I switched from Eircom phone line connection. Now I’m not so sure. I have had ongoing problems like dropping the connection, Getting Network error (tcp_error) and very slow connection speeds. I am not a technical person so I am unable to get into the technical areas to attempt to make the most of my system so I have relied on the call centres to address my proplems. Most of the people I spoke to were courteous and helpful to a point but I still ended up with a system that I was unhappy with. On 14th Oct I was told that a new site would be set up by the 17th November. I was told later that this had now moved out to the 21st of Nov. I let things go over the Christmas but in this last week the system has been so slow that I have had enough. I contacted them again and was told that the promised site update had not in fact taken place but that they were now working hard to get everything in place for the Irish Government’s new broadband project (One can hope). I was advised to upgrade my modem to the latest version which I have agreed to do. This should be delivered by Monday 23rd Feb. I will have a 7 day trial period. If I am not happy with this new modem I will be returning it and canceling my 3G subscription. I am not sure if the current bad reception is nothing but an attempt to get people to buy the upgrade and the fact that the reception indicator is more often on 3 bars than 5 bars does nothing to convince me otherwise!!!
February 23rd, 2009 at 3:58 pm
I followed bullfrogs advice after initially being told i couldnt leave the contract. So my advice to anyone not recieving good service would be to tell them you are going to the director of consumer affairs and the National Consumer Association. If they still don’t, contact those organisations asking them to intervene on your behalf.
Soon as i mentioned this 3’s mind changed in a matter of seconds.
March 16th, 2009 at 12:00 pm
Can anyone help me please? I was happy with my 3 mobile modem until it started going berserk. Now I am receiving data (about 0.5mbps) even if I am not using anything at all. Anyone had any similar problems? How do I fix it?
April 2nd, 2009 at 2:08 pm
Have had one of these since summer 2007, I have never had a connection problem. I have tried it on numerous differnt laptops (models and makes) as well as desktops. I have also used it on a mininote, on which the O2 model doesn’t work as they require a minimum resolution of 800*600. mini note is 1024*586.
Ther is sometime a long delay from inserting the modem and the software starting up.
May 4th, 2009 at 12:53 am
Hello Everyone !
I’ve had a 3 mobile device for about a year now and generally have not many complaints about it, other than recently it disconnects from my AmilioPro 2020 laptop quite regulary. At first I suspected the length of the usb repeater cable running to the south facing window.I had successfully used 3 X repeater cables for months with out any issues.. I only use the modem for email and general browsing. I do not use it for Torrent ie Napster downloads etc. Of late I get the Ding Dong Sound from device manager to say Device Disconnected. This has become more frequent especially during bad weather. I removed the USB repeater cables and only use the 5 inch cable supplied at the expense of speed restrictions ( Unless I want to put the Laptop on the cistern of the Toilet) to check Emails..
I haven’t installed Windows SP3 due to known issues with other hardware and use Avast A.V. software which is up to date. which leads me to believe there are other Gremlins working their mayhem in there somewhere….
To be honest unless I’m sitting next to the laptop the Service is flaky to say the least and for €19.99 a Month I am seriously thinking of switching service providers once my twelve month contract is up.
Regards: Plessy
May 5th, 2009 at 12:59 am
funny thing, i’m using my modem now, just came of playing world of warcraft, you know a mmo and no speed issue at all, got to tell you, feel sorry for alot of you.
June 11th, 2009 at 4:30 pm
I have had 3 pay as you go for nearly a year, installed and works fine on Dell laptop x2 and Dell desktop, using XP sp2, Windows 7 RC and Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop, speeds are good, connection generally reliable, although the weather can cause fluctuations in signal. Tried all the other brands, but they do not work this far out in the country and no fixed line broadband available, so no complaints here.
November 1st, 2009 at 5:44 pm
I have a 3 mobile modem which gets bloody hot. Has anyone come across this before? Is this normal?