Non-expiring Credit - Well Not Exactly

[dexdyne2]

I am pretty convinced that Vodafone is applying a 1p connection charge to the credit for each new connect on the £15 for 1GB non-expiring credit.

I guess that shouldn't be totally unexpected - - but it does mean that there must be a more detailed document somewhere about "how much gets charged" than I have so far found and read.

Can anyone help me find out EXACTLY what charges are made on these devices.... for instance is the charge different if you wander into an area with no 3G coverage and have to go onto 2G???

I'd just be happier if I had a proper price list to look at.

TVM

David

[bacupian]

Good spot - my mistake. (Although, since the OP questions "Upload?" at the end of his post, I wonder whether that might actually relate to download? (Although, since that would be listed in volume transferred anyway, perhaps I really am up the garden path here. Ignore me!)

Well we don't have the actual account information but I know with my Ubuntu updates they
were being repeatedly retried, same files dowloaded again and again but the web proxy was
corrupting them so next time powered up the same downloads repeated again. I spotted this
before too much damage had been done vs my usage, and changed update sources to use ftp
rather than http and no problem since then (that was March/April last year).

It's only that I spotted the problem, others might not be so lucky and clock up massive usage
without knowing the cause.

I've no idea if same thing happens with http uploads as with downloads.

David

[Retired-Reidar]

Hello Dexdyne2

We may need to look into the actual data charges on the sim in order to figure out what's going on, as mentioned by Wayne the data charges should be fairly straight forward and it's quite possible upload traffic is contributing, however a look at the account won't hurt.

I've already sent out an email to you in relation to this thread, please could you add this query to that email and we'l look into both issues at the same time.

Thanks

Reidar

eForum Team

[Neil_Brown]

know with my Ubuntu updates they
were being repeatedly retried, same files dowloaded again and again but the web proxy was
corrupting

Slightly off-topic, but, which web proxy do you mean, David? Something on your network, on on Vodafone's?

(If you are updating multiple Ubuntu machines, you might llike to have a look at apt-cacher; I've used it for a while, in conjunction with squid for non-update traffic, and it's cut down my WAN bandwidth usage significantly! (Two machines running Kubuntu, and two running Mint; if all were running Mint, I'd expect even greater savings)

[bacupian]

Slightly off-topic, but, which web proxy do you mean, David? Something on your network, on on Vodafone's?

(If you are updating multiple Ubuntu machines, you might llike to have a look at apt-cacher; I've used it for a while, in conjunction with squid for non-update traffic, and it's cut down my WAN bandwidth usage significantly! (Two machines running Kubuntu, and two running Mint; if all were running Mint, I'd expect even greater savings)

Vodafone web proxy as systems with same sources on lan updated ok and that particular system
updated then from lan ok but then failed on next update via vodafone until I realised that "some
updates failed" actually meant "all updates failed" and on next attempt check on actual updates
showed same as previous + any new ones.

I'll have a look at apt-cacher as I have couple of desktops and four notebook/laptops in use
although the 366MHz notebook is now struggling with the bloat.

cheers

David

[Neil_Brown]

I'll have a look at apt-cacher as I have couple of desktops and four notebook/laptops in use
although the 366MHz notebook is now struggling with the bloat.

Perhaps a topic for a different thread, but, if they're running much the same software, I'd suggest:

(a) using a machine which is always on as the apt-cacher server;

(b) configuring OpenVPN, or just a straightforward SSH tunnel on your laptops, if you use them remotely, so that they can talk to the server safely;

© changing all your sources.list files (inc. the one on the apt-cacher server machine) to point to the apt-cacher server; and

(d) apply updates on one of the machines on your local network first (so that the packages are cached in apt-cacher), and then on your remote machines (which, of course means using your own bandwith on the local network, for the package upload).


Using the SSH tunnel / VPN connection with negate the effects of Vodafone's web proxy- you could set this up, at the cost of using your bandwidth for the uploads, irrespective of whether you use apt-cacher or not, and probably never have to worry about seeing that error message again, from a Vodafone proxy point of view

[bacupian]

Perhaps a topic for a different thread, but, if they're running much the same software, I'd suggest:

(a) using a machine which is always on as the apt-cacher server;

(b) configuring OpenVPN, or just a straightforward SSH tunnel on your laptops, if you use them remotely, so that they can talk to the server safely;

© changing all your sources.list files (inc. the one on the apt-cacher server machine) to point to the apt-cacher server; and

(d) apply updates on one of the machines on your local network first (so that the packages are cached in apt-cacher), and then on your remote machines (which, of course means using your own bandwith on the local network, for the package upload).


Using the SSH tunnel / VPN connection with negate the effects of Vodafone's web proxy- you could set this up, at the cost of using your bandwidth for the uploads, irrespective of whether you use apt-cacher or not, and probably never have to worry about seeing that error message again, from a Vodafone proxy point of view

thanks

I have both ftp and http servers available although http from my own server suffered similar corruption
as from ubuntu/debian repos. Servers aren't ubuntu but I can sync to them from one of desktops. My
mate has a website developed on his ubuntu pc uploaded to one of the servers.

sounds fairly doable without need for ssh or vpn (too risky to tamper with firewall at moment).

cheers

David

[Neil_Brown]

sounds fairly doable without need for ssh or vpn (too risky to tamper with firewall at moment).

The real benefit of these is that it punches through Vodafone's web proxy, using an encrypted tunnel, so you lose any of the problems associated with (as well as the benefits of, in terms of image compression etc.) it. However, completely understand your point, although, if you do fancy it one day, it should just be case of forwarding one port.

If you do decide to give it a go one day, feel free to pop over to the Betavine forums, and ask for Neil - the message will get through to me, even if I don't spot it myself.

[dexdyne2]

A nice man from Vodafone had a look at it this moirning, and he can't make any sense of it either - so it's being escalated.

D

[xman750]

Hi dexdyne2

Thanks for your post. I'm sorry to hear that you think that you may be getting charged more.

This definitely shouldn't be the case. Pay as you go Broadband is really simple. Topup £15 and get 1GB of data. It really is that simple


Please let me know if you have any more questions and I'll be more than happy to help you further

Thanks

Wayne

eForum Team

Hi,
I see that Vodafone recently has change the deal on MobileBroadband and now for £15 you are getting 3GB which expires after 30 days. 'm just wondering if I've got several vodafone sim cards how can I tell which one is the unexpiring 1Gb one and which one is 3GB one ? obviously I can't just stick it into dongle and go to your website as it will start the 30 days period. Is there any USSD short code I can use or any other way to find out without making a connection ? sim number from the back of it ? anything ?

thx

[Retired-Dave]

Hi xman750, welcome to the eForum!

When the new Mobile Broadband pricing came out with the credit expiration, new dongles were produced which bore the letter "R" on them to help identify which was which. The SIMs however have no such method of identification. If you've taken these out of the dongles, then there is no way to identify which is which until you credit them.

DaveN

eForum Team.