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A Grumpy Old Woman’s Guide to How to Use Your Dongle
Plug it in and surf. Was it really that simple? In the world according to this grumpy old woman, nothing ever was.
“I would love for the family to chip in and buy me a dongle for my birthday.”
If my daughter Zoe was astonished by my request she didn’t show it. I know it’s a strange present for a 50 year old menopausal woman, but when you’re strange and menopausal you just know what you want. To the uninitiated, this oddly named device plugs into a computer USB port enabling access to the internet.
I am aware that, to most people, my gift choice is rather like requesting a lady shave for you wedding anniversary or an electric whisk for Christmas, but I had a plan in mind which required internet access and no online connection in which to carry it out. With money tight, my husband John and I cancelled our landline subscription a while ago and made do by using pay-as-you-go mobiles phones to receive calls. It really cut costs but we had to forgo our internet connection. It was something I didn’t miss much until now.
A couple of months ago, my favourite woman’s magazine contained an article on how to make extra cash; suggestions ranged from selling handmade arts and crafts to offering your services as a virtual PA. In fact the internet was sited as holding a wealth of opportunities for a budding dot.com entrepreneur. My interest was ignited by reference to ’subsidising your income by doing paid online-surveys’ and I thought to myself how hard could that be? By chance, the same magazine held a leaflet advertising mobile phones and mobile broadband connectors (dongles). A pay-as-you-go mobile connection seemed the answer to my humanist prayers.
The first step, in my money making venture, was to check that I could obtain a strong enough signal for a prospective mobile internet connection and to compare costs and monthly price plans. I checked out all the mobile websites for information.
For the first requirement, it seemed you simply typed in your postcode and with a click of the mouse I was given a resounding YES there was a signal in my street more than adequate for my needs. It was very reassuring as I knew my area had a history of signal problems, specifically for the GoConnect* mobile network but hey, that was a couple of years ago.
All the pay-as-you-go broadband dongles were about the same price to buy (you get one for free if you subscribe to their monthly rental plan) so I based my choice on the cheapest download package; GoConnect looked like the one for me. John wasn’t so convinced but, as I profess to be the computer expert in the household, he didn’t argue his point too much.
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I had a 3 dongle – it worked great. Then after the trial period ran out it suspiciously dropped to a speed somewhere between slug and salted slug… Conspiracy anyone?
I don’t think we have dongle’s over here in the US but I sure can relate to “the hole in the bucket” side of your story. Your article was delightful Erin, and I enjoyed every word of it.
I’ve also bought electronic stuff that’s easy to use, till it comes to using the device and nothing happens, and you’re right about the instructions – not quite what you need to know at the time!
My last purchase was a new digital camera, which took me literally hours to figure out where I was going wrong as nothing appeared to work no matter what I tried. Until I took a closer look at those instructions – they were for a different model of camera! Don’t you just hate it when that happens …
Anyhow, will keep an eye out for more of your articles. Would it be okay to add you as a friend?
This was a great read. I really enjoyed it. I was not familiar with the Dongle – but your piece was descriptive enough that I was able to get up-to-speed with what you were talking about.