3 (Three) Wireless Data Modem: Outstanding problems include SMTP & FTP…
Posted by FrankPSo where are we with the 3 Wireless Data Modem now?
- Modem is still not behaving itself for all users. I, and others, experience frequent usb mounting/dismounting and ‘data modem invalid’ errors which require restarts. Proposed solutions do not work.
- Speed has certainly improved for downloading, although upload seems capped at 60kbsp - upload speeds still a major issue. The Three website doesn’t mention upload speeds anywhere, but technical support people working for Three have told me they would expect speeds of about a third of the download speed.
- Sending email is a problem - it seems the issue is that because Three use NAT, the result is that single public IP address is blacklisted. To get around this Three would have to have a working SMTP server in place themselves, which they do not appear to have.
- FTP is not working. Connection can sometimes be established but times out before anything can be uploaded or downloaded.
- Browsing is not consistently smooth - some believe there is a fundamental issue with browser posting events. Sometimes links must be clicked several times, or pages refreshed halfway through loading.
- There are reports of overcharging due to proxy issues.
These are the issues I myself am experiencing, except for the last one which I am worried about experiencing in the future! Anyone else having other issues? Anyone got any insight into any of the above and their possible resolutions? After all it seems Three need all the help they can get!
I’ve been posting about this a lot lately!
- First of all there were set-up issues, and ongoing instability issues.
- Then there was the disappointing radio slot on Last Word about the 3 Wireless data modem.
- Then there was the email to, and from, Rachel Channing Head of PR & Communications for Three Ireland.
- Followed recently by a call from technical support which provided some more information, though no solutions.
September 2nd, 2007 at 5:51 pm
Just got 3 mobile broadband as is the only provider with coverage in my area - Howth in Dublin. Good download speed - up to 900Kb. Problem now is that although I can receive e-mails, I cannot send them using Outlook. I have an @iol.ie account. Does anyone know any way around this?
September 2nd, 2007 at 10:17 pm
Any luck with ‘3′ facilitating Outlook etc. (SMTP server) yet? Have just signed up with them and can’t send any e-mails. Spoke to customer care (in India) and told ‘it is a technical issue?’ Asked if they explain exactly what the technical issue was and was it going to be resolved? Just repeated the ‘it is a technical issue’ bit again and ‘that’s all i can say’. Refused initially to transfer me to tech supp. but eventually did, and the person (again in India), said - guess what? - yes, ”it is a technical issue’.
I also have 02 in my area - does anyone know if they have the same Outlook incompatibility with their 3g service?
Peter
September 4th, 2007 at 4:08 pm
As a Three mobile phone unlimited broadband addon customer I am very angry with Three now. It seems all services on ports other than 80 have been summarily blocked in the last week. Before that, access was sporadic and unreliable. I believe a lot of the issues the USB modem users are having are also being faced by phone addon package users - see http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055133970 and also http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055133970 for further information.
September 7th, 2007 at 11:45 pm
[...] It’s not surprising to hear problems still being reported with 3 broadband. I happened to be listening to Newstalk when the head of communications for 3 basically said it’s not a problem on our end, it’s your problem. Sounds pretty much like the line they spun El Reg: When we spoke to 3 they again assured us everything was fixed and working fine, and that SMTP would be available really soon. But they also admitted they’ve not changed anything since a week ago when they last told us everything was working fine. Tags: 3 Ireland broadband [...]
September 13th, 2007 at 12:32 pm
Thanks for commenting guys - I gave up and took the modem back and got a refund…
I couldn’t possibly work with it, it was horrendous. I hope they sort it out some time in the future but I don’t see it happening anytime soon.
Take it back and demand a refund…
Peter, not sure about O2, but I heard on the grapevine they’re almost as bad…
October 1st, 2007 at 1:44 pm
I am just off the phone with three technical support and the ‘resolution’ that they offered me (re. speed issues) was to escalate my case to the second support team who ‘may or may not ring me back in a few days’. This will have been my fifth time contacting Three either by phone or Email. To date, I have received no replys to any of my Email,, and a call to Ireland’s head office puts me through to a voice mail. The technical support agent agreed that people were having speed issues, yet could not tell me when they were going to be resolved. I am sick of being fobbed off by this company and want the service that was promised.
Speed at the moment: 312kbps (which is good), although nowhere near the 3Mbps that was promised.
October 6th, 2007 at 4:22 pm
yes i have a three phone and used to have their modem ha what a joke! speeds around 20-50kbps meant the postman was quicker on his bike! got my refund on the 13th day unluck for them!
October 15th, 2007 at 9:18 am
I use AuthSMTP http://www.authsmtp.com for my outgoing mail with Vodafone at the moment as they also had SMTP problems.
AuthSMTP support alternate ports (like 2525) so it works fine - but was thinking of swapping Vodafone to Three as it is a lot cheaper - so is it still likely to work?
If so may be a solution for some of the other Three users?
October 26th, 2007 at 5:25 pm
You may be interested on joining this petition:
http://www.petitiononline.com/3ireland/petition.html
———-
3G Ireland Broadband Service And Quality Assurance
To: 3G Ireland
We, the undersigned, are unhappy with 3G Ireland’s poor service quality and constant network problems.
We are particularly angry with 3G Ireland’s failure to visibly upgrade their wireless Internet network and properly accommodate for the additional loads created by their ever increasing customer base. We are upset that the majority of customers are not regarded as highly as minority new customers customers who are in their trial period stages prior to signing a full service contract, and have subsequently been overlooked with regard to
service quality, network outages, and service failures despite the equal amount we all pay each month for our Internet services.
[....]
January 3rd, 2008 at 11:35 am
Hi All, just to say that I got the 3 broadband modem yesterday and have the SMTP surprise (should have thought of it) - I follow Andrew Bellamy’s advice and signed up with AuthSMTP http://www.authsmtp.com - for just £14 a year it works a treat with outlook 2000. Thanks Andrew and good luck to all with this problem
James
January 19th, 2008 at 1:28 am
I just got the tree modem in London where it launched recently, and am also having problems with smtp. I spoke the broadband support who told me that there were indeed having issues and I would have to use webmail. He didn’t seem to concerned when I said this was not acceptable, and in fact told me they had the same problem in Ireland, so they knew they’d have the problem here. Any further news on this?
January 20th, 2008 at 9:45 pm
Apologies for not forwarding on the info - but 3 have sorted my Outlook compatibility problem. They set up an outgoing server which is mail-relay.3ireland.ie
It works fine. HOWEVER, now I can’t send any mails to Hotmail addresses and don’t know why. It doesn’t affect web-based sends. Does anyone have any ideas?
Peter
January 20th, 2008 at 10:18 pm
That is another reason I use AuthSMTP (see above) - I have used numerous ISP provided (free) SMTP servers but they get abused, overloaded or blacklisted.
Never had any problems with Hotmail etc. using AuthSMTP and for about £1 a month it’s just not worth the time.
January 20th, 2008 at 11:55 pm
had to get the three data modem again after a move to other side of carlow and it is the only service i can use as clearwire etc are no good, speeds nowhere near advertised speeds i’m lucky to see 100kbps and it usually hovers around 25-80kbps which is barely usable! i also noticed many emails i send are not recieved and i do not recieve many sent to my two addresses. to be honest i do not want to go looking for a solution to this problem as that should be up to my service provider to sort out!
January 21st, 2008 at 10:13 am
Hey everyone,
Just thought I’d let you know what problems I’ve had with 3, and how I resolved it. I bouhgt the data modem back in october 07, and it didn’t do what is said on the tin. I wasn’t surprised. VOIP didn’t work, remote access didn’t work, speeds lingered at around 400kbps down and 384kps up, definitely not fast enough. And because of the NAT my Xbox360 couldn’t reach its full potential. After many calls to 3, and many long hours talking to the technical suport dept, I was told that everything should work, and that I should be receiveing the modems capability of 3.6MB download speed, but I never would because of the Irish government. Amazed I probed further. Apparently 3 have been sold a certain amount of bandwith by the govt, but its not enough, and with the amount of 3 modems on the go our speeds are seriously decreased. I pointed out then that it was false advertising the way they were selling the damn thing. To cut a long story short, after speaking with the office of the Communications Regulator, and the office of Consumer Affairs, as well as 3’s complaint department I have had my contract cancelled with allcancellation fee’s waived, and am in the process of getting a refund for the modem!
I advise you all to do the same as soon as another ISP becomes available in your area, screw 3. Anybody wants any info email me at flyingthor@hotmail.com.
Thor.
January 21st, 2008 at 10:52 am
Personally I find the 3 service to be fine and all ISP’s I have used have SMTP and other email ‘issues’.
Free email addresses (incoming) provided by ISP’s are often used as a tie-in to make it harder for you to leave and the ‘free’ SMTP servers they provide are typically poorly monitored and get abused so cost more in time and loss of hair!!
That is why I only use ISP’s for providing Internet ‘access’ and take my email from people who specialise in providing email services - I have two different providers for my incoming addresses and all outgoing via AuthSMTP.
January 21st, 2008 at 8:52 pm
I would love to send you an e-mail Thor, but still cannot do so as you have a Hotmail account. Was talking to 3 Tech Supp this evening and they said that they have been on to Hotmail who refuse to take any mails from their SMTP and that I should contact hotmail and ask them to lift the ban!!
Peter L
January 21st, 2008 at 11:15 pm
Realistically if they got banned it was probably due to abuse (spam etc. from it’s users) and even if they lifted the ban it would probably get put back after a few days!
January 22nd, 2008 at 10:30 am
but surely because of three’s ip position all three customers are seen as the same ip address by hotmail etc so what they are seeing as spam is most likely different customers sending to the same emails?
January 22nd, 2008 at 10:49 am
Exactly my point - so a few ‘abusers’ cause problems for everyone and why I don’t use ISP SMTP servers (see above)
January 22nd, 2008 at 11:14 am
but my point is that by its very nature email sent by any three costomer is seen as spam through no fault or misdemeanor of three customers but because three use a single ip for every customer so hotmail think i am sending thousands of emails a week/day!
because these emails are all sent from one address the system sees it as spam while the same messages sent using independant ip’s for each customer would never be seen as spam!
January 22nd, 2008 at 11:22 am
Andrew B. What exactly should I do to get the AuthSMTP? I looked at the website and can sign up. What happens after you pay?
January 22nd, 2008 at 11:22 am
It is unlikely to be due to the overall volume but the content of some of the messages (i.e. SPAM) from some of the users.
If you used their SMTP server it would most likely only have 1 or a few IP addresses - would get abused and the IP’s would get blocked affecting all users still.
ISP’s own (free) servers (in my experience) always get abused, overloaded, blacklisted - that is why I don’t use them!
January 22nd, 2008 at 11:26 am
just like to say that i got the three modem back in october. I’m in meath and no hope of ever getting eircom broadband. speeds in october were about 300-400kps. The service was initially bit sketchy. lots of having to click the link twice!! but then the service suddenly improved in november. speeds went up to 1mb and no latency problems. i was surprised given that so many people seem to have trouble. however, still the smtp problem and my upload speed still limited at 59kps, which although a joke, is not an issue for me.
January 22nd, 2008 at 11:33 am
Peter - when you sign up you get the SMTP server details and a username / password - you login to their Control Panel and ‘add’ the email addresses you send mail from (if not the one you signed up with) - then make the changes to Outlook (or your email program) - easy - takes about 5 minutes.
January 22nd, 2008 at 11:54 am
Thanks Andrew. Will give it a try - can’t keep going the way I am at the moment.
If anyone finds a better provider for those of us ‘off the beaten track’ please let us know
Peter L
January 22nd, 2008 at 12:26 pm
Hope it helps - I have used a lot of different ISP’s and a few SMTP providers but found AuthSMTP - http://www.authsmtp.com - to be the best (and about the cheapest) - I don’t send more than 1000 emails a month so the base package at £14 per year is all I need.
January 22nd, 2008 at 12:36 pm
I get 1mb download speed at the moment in meath. However, no smtp and upload limited to 59kps. it seems that service is very contingent on where you live!
January 22nd, 2008 at 2:23 pm
ADSL broadband can be just the same - if you live a long way from the exchange you will probably not have access to the highest speeds. I heard something about 3 merging their data network with T-Mobile for better coverage etc. - anyone know anything about it?
January 22nd, 2008 at 11:40 pm
Hey again,
Look the bottom line is this; 3 sucks, but to be fair O2 and Vodafone aren’t much better, I’ve checked. Yes it does heavily depend on where you live, and its true that eircoms DSL signal can be the same depending on how far away from the exchange you are. Seeing as hoe you cant e-mail me Mr. Peter L, I will tell you and anyone else thats interested that if you keep biting at 3’s ankles with complaints they will give in, it is possible to cancel the contract without paying a hefty cancellation fee if you’re not happy. Time consuming, but possible! Keep the faith…..
And something to make you smile…..
I rang eircom last week to get some details about their satellite broadband service and was put through to a wonderfully amusing young dublin woman, who’s name I have purposely forgotten! The kind of woman who probably has tippex marks dotted all over one of eircoms lcd monitors. She informed me that they no longer take orders for said broadband service due to a backlog of orders dating back to 2006. Fair enough. I asked her if she knew when my local exchange was due to be switched on. No. I asked her what i was supposed to do in my predicament, to which she haughtily replied that maybe I should look into a wireless ISP, and I quote:
“We are doing the best we can, its not easy getting the entire country hooked up to broadband, we aren’t even a broadband provider”.
I nearly dropped the phone I was laughing so much. Eircom, a company who is responsible for upgrading the exchanges to support broadband, a company which are straight in the door trying to sell you a DSL package when said exchanges are in order, and who are advertising the fact that they are providing broadband services on every tv station, radio station, papers and all over the web, are in fact NOT a broadband provider. There is no hope…….
February 27th, 2008 at 11:35 am
I am in England and had nothing but problems using outlook and constant BS from the support team who initially admitted they did not have a server to use outlook then in floowing calls blamed my provider. I was just about to bin them when I saw the authsmtp suggestion here and it works. Finally I can send and receive emails vis outlook when on the road.
Andrew Bellamy I owe you many thanks for this suggestion.
March 6th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
Guys, we’re meant to be slating 3 here, not giving them new business! Jeez! lol
July 17th, 2008 at 12:06 am
Guys, 3UK has come with the SMTP relay server. Getting correct outgoing mail server address from them will help u send mails. ( for UK customers).
Outgoing mail server : smtp-mbb.three.co.uk
If that doesnot work u may go to advanced/more settings and configure outgoing mail port to 25 with authentcation required unticked.
September 9th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
Satya, thanks that smtp server does indeed work.
you just saved me £14 lol