Mobile Broadband: Finding your nearest transmitter

This is the latest post in our series on how to improve your mobile broadband signal. In case you missed the earlier posts, here’s what we’ve already covered:

• How to boost your mobile broadband signal
• Which mobile broadband antenna do you need
• How to fit your mobile broadband antenna

The one thing that I’ve not covered yet though is how to find your nearest 3G transmitter so you can work out how to position the High Gain Antenna or Mobile Broadband Panel Antenna correctly.

High Gain Antenna for USB Modems

Both the High Gain and the Mobile Broadband Panel antenna need to be pointed towards the network transmitter in order for them to work effectively, but chances are you won’t know where your nearest transmitter is. Fortunately there is a great tool on the Ofcom website. Sitefinder shows you not only where the transmitters are, but also which network they belong to, what frequencies they transmit on and how high they are.

Before we get to using Sitefinder, it’s worth putting your postcode into the coverage checker on your network’s website (see links below to network coverage maps) to make sure that you do actually live in a 3G coverage area before you start. If the coverage map shows that you live on the edge of 3G coverage, both antenna’s should help, although the Mobile Broadband Panel Antenna will be the better option. If your network says that you don’t have coverage, then neither High Gain and the Mobile Broadband Panel antenna will be of any use to you.

Edge of Coverage Vs No Coverage - Click for more information.

Once you’ve established that you’ve got 3G reception, you’ll need to know where it’s coming from, so for this head over to Sitefinder by Ofcom. It works in a similar way to the network coverage checkers, but instead of showing coverage, shows you the locations of nearby transmitters as small blue triangles on the map. To see details of the transmitter, you’ll need to zoom in as close as you can, until the ‘Zoom in’ option changes to ‘View Base Details‘ as shown below. Once it’s changed click on the blue triangle on the map to see details of that transmitter.

Transmitter Locations on Sitefinder

A pop up window will then open to show you the information on that transmitter. The first thing you’ll need to check is that it belongs to your network. If it does then you should check the Type of Transmission – 3G Transmitters will be UMTS where as standard GPRS transmitters will be listed as GSM. If it doesn’t belong to your network or is a GSM one then the transmitter is of no use to you and you’ll need to go back to the map to find the next nearest. To do this you’ll probably have to zoom out again until you see more blue triangles, then zoom in on them.

Transmitter Details

If you’re struggling to work out exactly where the transmitter is, I find it helps to have a satellite view of Google maps open in a different browser window so that you can cross reference the main roads from the Sitefinder map with the Google map and work out where it is.

Once you’ve determined which transmitter is your nearest 3G one you’ll be able to point your High Gain or Mobile Broadband Panel antenna in the right direction. Keep an eye on the transmitter height too, as you might need to angle it up or down if it’s mounted on the roof of a tall building or you live on a hill.

Coverage Maps

To get started you’ll need to visit your network to check the coverage where you are. These links should take you straight to the relevant page on each networks website.

• Vodafone Coverage Map
• Three Coverage Map
• T-Mobile Coverage Map
• Orange Coverage Map
• O2 Coverage Map

FAQ’s

We get a lot of questions about the mobile broadband antennas, most of them asking the same thing, so to try and answer your questions here are some of the most common questions and answers:

Where can I find 3g coverage map?

Use the links above to go to the networks coverage checkers

What signal booster would we need?

There’s no set answer to this, but as a rule of thumb:

• Clip antenna is best suited for mobile users that use their laptops while they’re out and about in areas with generally good coverage
• High Gain antenna is best suited for those who get 2-3 bars of 3G signal and want a stronger, faster connection
• Outdoor Antenna is best suited for those who get 3G signal outside, but not inside or those that live on the edge of an area of coverage

Which connection type do you use for my dongle?

Please see our post titled “Which Antenna Do I Need?” or find your dongle on the Mobile Broadband section of the Mobile Fun website

I thought the antenna would help boost that but when I connect it, if anything, it reduces the signal.

This can happen if you’re using an antenna with a long cable in an area that already has good signal. You lose some signal strength the further the signal has to travel, so by using extension cables with the outdoor and high gain antenna the dongle can lose signal. If this happens either disconnect the antenna as the signal is strong enough for you not to need it, or reduce the length of the cable. You shouldn’t see a drop in signal strength if you’re in a poor signal area

Does the 3G USB Modem Antenna work?

Yes, although the difference it makes to your dongle will vary depending on the dongle you have, the current strain on the network, distance to the transmitter etc. Other customers have told us that the antenna with a physical connection to the dongle seems to give more of an improvement over the universal one, but an improvement is still seen on both. If you are considering taking out a Mobile Broadband agreement, I’d recommend that you opt for a dongle that has an external antenna connection if you are given the choice.

If you’ve got a question that’s not been covered here, feel free to ask it in the comments section below.

How to fully integrate your Parrot car kit into your car

The Parrot MKi range of Car Kits are still the best car kits on the market. They’re fully compatible with just about every handset out there and no other Bluetooth Car Kit can come close to them on the number of features. With them being this great, you’d think that it’s not possible to make them much better, but Parrot have raised the bar again and introduced the Parrot Unika to further enhance the MKi Car Kits and allow you to fully control them using the controls already fitted to your steering wheel.

Parrot Unika integrates your Parrot MKi Car Kit with your Steering Wheel Controls

As standard the MKi car kits include a wireless remote control that will let you answer and end calls, activate voice dialling, control music playback and adjust the volume of calls and music which is great, but finding somewhere to mount the remote in car can be a little bit tricky.

Parrot Remote can be mounted on steering wheel

The MKi Car kits come with a couple of mounting options for the remote control – an adjustable strap that lets you attach it to your steering wheel or an adhesive plate that you can stick to the dash of your car. Both of these mounting options are good, but you can’t beat the stereo controls built into the steering wheel of your car. I’ve had the MKi9000 in my car for about a year now and I still try to adjust the volume with the stereo controls instead of the Parrot Remote.

Since the launch of the MKi series last year, the technical team at Parrot have been working hard to fully integrate the kits into cars and have just released the Unika – an additional control box that allows you to connect the Mki & RKi Car Kits to the stereo controls on your steering wheel, completely eliminating the need to use the remote control.

The Unika can be fitted to most vehicles, and if you’ve already got an MKi car kit fitted you can retro-fit one to your car without too much hassle. If you’re technically minded you should be able to fit it yourself, although you will probably need to remove some parts of your dashboard, I’ve just changed my car and didn’t fancy pulling it apart, so I got AutoTec to fit mine for me. The cost for the Mki9000 car kit, Parrot Adapter Cable, Parrot Unika and fitting worked out at 279. The kit and accessories on their own add up to about 210, so fitting was only about 70 quid which I think is more than reasonable.

Unika is compatible with Vauxhall, BMW, Ford & Honda Steering Wheel controls

Once installed, the Unika will use the the buttons on your steering wheel to control the kit instead of the remote control. The buttons that you use for each function will vary depending on your vehicle, and you don’t need to have any phone buttons on the steering wheel as the Unika will ‘re-map’ the functions of the steering wheel controls when connected to your phone or iPod. When you’re phones’ not connected you’ll be able to use the controls to operate your radio or CD player as normal.

You can check to see if your car is compatible and find out which buttons perform which function in your car on the Parrot Unika Support Site.

At the time of writing this post, these were the prices for the kit and accessories:

• Parrot Unika- 89.99
• Parrot MKi9000 – 89.99
• Parrot MKi9100 – 122.35
• Parrot MKi9200 – 159.95
• Parrot Accessory Harness ~ 30 (varies depending on car)

I’ve had mine in for a couple of days now, and I’m still getting familiar with the controls, so I’ll update this post in a couple of days time to give you an idea on how well it works.

Syncing your iPhone contacts to your Car Kit

Bluetooth Car Kits are getting smarter, and most of them now support synchronising the contacts stored on your phone to the car kit to enable faster dialling, caller display, and enabling voice control – even on phones like the iPhone 3G that doesn’t support voice dialling.As great as this is though, it’s not quite as straight forward as you’d think as there are two different ways that phones and car kits talk to each other. I’ll apologise now if this gets a little confusing, but I’ll try and keep it as simple as I can.

Although Bluetooth is a pretty generic technology, there are a number of different bluetooth profiles and each bluetooth device uses different ones. The two that are needed to synchronise your contacts between your car kit and your phone are either PBAP – Phone Book Access Profile or OPP – Object Push Profile, but in order for it to sync, both the phone and the car kit need to support the same profile.

• OPP – Object Push Profile -This is an older Bluetooth Profile, so should be supported by most phones and car kits that support contact sync. If the car kit supports the OPP profile then it is capable of receiving information that is sent or ‘pushed’ to it. In order to send your contacts to a car kit that uses OPP you will need to initiate the transfer of your contacts from your phone, either one by one or all at once. The only downside to this is that not all phones support sending your entire phonebook in one go.
• PBAP – Phone Book Access Profile -This profile is one of the more recent Bluetooth Profiles, so not all phones or car kits support it. The advantage of the PBAP profile is that you don’t need to send your contacts to the car kit, the car kit will retrieve them from your phone automatically every time you connect.

Bluetooth support is limited on the iPhone and although it’s improving, it still doesn’t support all Bluetooth profiles – in particular the OPP profile. There is no way of sending any information from an iPhone over Bluetooth. This means that if you have a Bluetooth Car Kit that only supports OPP, you’ll only be able to use the car kit for calls, although features such as last number redial should still work fine. The iPhone does support the PBAP profile though – in fact it supports it brilliantly, so if you want to be able to sync your contacts make sure that the car kit you buy supports the PBAP profile, it should be listed in the technical spec of the user manual.

I’ve got the Parrot MKi9000 installed in my car and every time the car is started and my iPhone 3G connects, the kit checks my phone for any changes and and updates itself. Like I said before, the iPhone supports PBAP brilliantly, and when paired with a compatible car kit it gives you control over the information that is synchronised with the kit. You can chose which groups of contacts to sync – if any, as well as recent calls and favourites.

iPhone Car Kit Sync Options - iPhone OS 3.1

From personal experience I’ve found that the best car kits for syncing your contacts are those made by Parrot. As well as supporting the iPhone fully, they also feature Text to Speech technology that announces the callers name when you receive a call and some will allow you to use voice dialling – even on the iPhone. It does this by matching the wave print of what you say against the Text to Speech wave prints for the contacts stored in the car kit. Most voice dialling kits require you to train your voice to them or to record your own voice tags for the contacts, and this normally doesn’t work too well. The current Parrot car kits that do all this are listed below. If you want more information on any of the kits, just click on the image or read my post on Parrot Car Kits.

Parrot MKi9200 Fully Fitted Bluetooth Car Kit

Parrot MKi9100 Fully Fitted Bluetooth Car Kit

Parrot MKi9000 Fully Fitted Bluetooth Car Kit

Parrot MK6000 Fully Fitted Bluetooth Car Kit

Parrot Minikit Slim Portable Bluetooth Car Kit

Parrot Minikit Chic Portable Bluetooth Car Kit

Setting up Hotmail, Gmail or Yahoo mail on your Samsung Tocco

One of the questions I get asked the most at the moment is “How do I set up email on my Tocco” and although there are suggestions and a settings spread across the web, I thought I’d bring it all together into one post to make setting up your Hotmail, Gmail or Yahoo email accounts on your Samsung Tocco F480, Samsung Tocco Lite or Samsung Tocco Ultra quick and easy.

Set up email on Samsung Tocco F480, Tocco Lite or Tocco Ultra

Now, before I start I just want to say that these settings should work on all phones, not just the Tocco’s. You may find that they need a little tweaking depending on your network – particularly the SMTP settings. Without getting too technical on you, the SMTP server is similar to your local sorting office, you send your letters there and they then get sorted and sent on to the person you sent the email to. In an attempt to cut down on the amount of spam being sent, some mobile networks restrict the SMTP servers that you can use and in most cases force you to use their own.

So, if you set your phone up using the same SMTP server as your email provider, but find that you get an error message when you try and send a message, go back to the account settings and change the SMTP server to that of your network. Don’t panic if you don’t know what they are – I’ve listed them all for you at the end of this post.

Read more »

How to find your Nokia Model Number

Nokia have the largest handset range of handsets out of all of the mobile phone manufacturers and I’ve recently started to think that most of their handsets are all looking pretty similar. While it’s nice that Nokia phones all have the same look and feel, it does make finding the right accessories for your Nokia phone a bit tricky – especially if you don’t know the model number of your phone.

Nokia have tried to keep it relatively simple over the years by dividing their handsets up in to ‘series’ or ranges. I’d say that the most well known range is the more recent N-Series, but every one of their handsets belong to a series of handsets whether it be 1000 series, 2000 series etc, where the series is determined by the first digit of the model number. Interestingly they’ve never done any phones starting with a 4 – anyone know why?

This short guide will show you a few quick and easy ways to work out which Nokia phone you have.

Check your phone

Nokia N96 Model number printed above screen

This might seem like a really obvious thing to suggest, but some Nokia handsets will have their model number printed on the housing somewhere. If you have bought your Nokia direct from your network, you may find that the model number has been replaced with the networks logo. If this is the case – try the next step:

Read more »

How to find your BlackBerry model number

BlackBerry phones have really taken off over the last few years and are no longer seen as just a business users phone. As their popularity has grown, so has the range of devices – the days of just having a range of 2 or 3 BlackBerry’s has gone and with most of them looking pretty similar, getting the right accessories for it can be quite tricky if you don’t know the model number of your BlackBerry.

To confuse things a little, BlackBerry have recently started to give their handsets nicknames such as BlackBerry Pearl, BlackBerry Curve, BlackBerry Storm & BlackBerry Bold. These names aren’t always the model number of your phone as there are currently 5 handsets that carry the name Pearl and 5 handsets that carry the name Curve. To get the right accessories for your BlackBerry you will also need to know the 4 digit model number that normally starts with an 8 or 9.

This short guide will show you a few quick and easy ways to work out which BlackBerry model you have.

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Use your iPhone as a Modem

Along with Stereo Bluetooth, one of the other big new features of iPhone OS 3.0 is the ability to use your iPhone as a modem with your Mac, PC or Laptop.

Tethering your iPhone is as easy as using a Mobile Broadband Dongle. You enable Internet Tethering on your iPhone, connect it to your computer using your USB Cable and away you go.

Use your iPhone as a Modem

If you want to avoid having to rummage around in your bag for your USB Cable you can also connect your phone using Bluetooth – most Mac’s have Bluetooth built in as standard but PC’s don’t so you might need to get yourself a Bluetooth Dongle. The process is just as simple using bluetooth and takes no time at all to set up. All you need is the latest version of iTunes.

Connecting with the USB cable is just a case of enabling tethering on your iPhone and plugging it in to your computer. After a few seconds you’ll be connected and see the blue tethering bar across the top of your screen.

Using Bluetooth is slightly different and the exact process will vary slightly depending on the Bluetooth Dongle that you are using, but this is how to tether your iPhone 3G to Windows using Bluetooth:

1. Turn on Bluetooth & Tethering on your iPhone
2. Search for Bluetooth Devices on your PC
3. Find your iPhone and enter a Passkey of your choice
4. Enter the same Passkey on your iPhone
5. If asked to select services for device, select PAN or Network Access
6. Device will install and connect to your iPhone
7. Blue Band will show at top of iPhone home screen when PC is connected to your phone

The whole process is amazingly simple and I have to admit, this was about the easiest phone I’ve ever set up for use as a modem. There are no drivers to install and no complicated network settings to enter, you just connect using Bluetooth and it works.

Not Got Bluetooth?

If you don’t have a Bluetooth enabled computer then don’t panic, it’s extremely easy to add Bluetooth to any PC. All you need is a USB Bluetooth Dongle.

Nano USB Bluetooth Dongle

Adding a Bluetooth Dongle to your PC won’t just help with tethering your iPhone, it will allow friends and family to send files and photo’s to your computer quickly and easily and you will be able to use a Bluetooth headset for making calls over Skype and listening to music.

Installing a dongle is quick and easy and you don’t need any knowledge of PC’s, just plug it in to a spare USB port and wait for Windows to set it up – Easy!

If you do have any problems setting it up, I’ve put a guide together onInstalling your Bluetooth Dongle that will talk you through it step by step.

Don’t forget though, in order to use tethering, you will need to have the service activated by O2 and there is an extra monthly fee for the service.

How to update your iPhone or iPod Touch

Last night Apple released the long awaited iPhone OS 3.0 for iPhone and iPod Touch. The update adds a number of new features to the latest versions of both devices, including adding support for Stereo Bluetooth Headphones and Speakers.

The update is free for iPhone 3G users, and there is a small charge of 5.99 for iPod Touch users.

To update your device, you need launch iTunes and connect your iPhone or iPod Touch. Once it is recognised by iTunes, you need to select it from the list of devices and click on the summary tab. Here you will see the option to ‘Check for Update’.

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Connecting your Mobile Broadband Aerial

You’ve probably already seen on my previous post, that the best way to improve the signal to your 3G Mobile Broadband Dongle is to attach an external aerial.

Although this may sound like a complicated procedure, it really isn’t!

There are two main types of aerial, one with a dongle specific connector, and a universal one. The steps below will show you how to connect the Clip Aerial and High Gain Aerials to your dongle.

Universal Aerials

Clip Aerial:

The Clip Aerial clips on to the top of your laptop screen and is attached to the antenna pad by joining the two cables together. It’s a simple screw connection so shouldn’t cause you any hassle.

To connect the aerial to your dongle, you just need to sit the antenna pad on top of your dongle, and then securing by wrapping the velcro strap around it.

That’s it – just plug the dongle into your laptop and you should see a difference in signal straight away.

High Gain Aerial:

The High Gain is Aerial designed to be a more permanent solution, and as a result. installation for this aerial is slightly different as the aerial needs to point in the direction of your nearest transmitter.

The 1.2 metre cable that is included will need to be connected to both the aerial and the antenna pad. As with the clip aerial, its a simple screw connection to attach them, and it’s not possible to connect them the wrong way round. If you need a longer cable, 3 metre and 5 metre extension cables are available (High Gain Aerial only).

To connect the aerial to your dongle, you just need to sit the antenna pad on top of your dongle, and then securing by wrapping the velcro strap around it.

You can now plug your dongle in and launch the broadband control panel. You just need to position the aerial so that it now points towards your nearest network transmitter. If you don’t know where it is, then just rotate the aerial until the signal strength increases.

Dongle Specific Aerials

Clip Aerial:

The Clip Aerial clips on to the top of your laptop screen and is attached to the antenna pad by joining the two cables together. It’s a simple screw connection so shouldn’t cause you any hassle.

To connect the aerial to your dongle, you need to locate the antenna connection – this is normally hidden under a dust flap. Once you’ve found it, gently push the aerial connector in as far as you can.

That’s it – just plug the dongle into your laptop and you should see a difference in signal straight away.

High Gain Aerial:

The High Gain Aerial is designed to be a more permanent solution, and as a result. installation for this aerial is slightly different as the aerial needs to point in the direction of your nearest transmitter.

The 1.2 metre cable that is included will need to be connected to both the aerial and the antenna pad. As with the clip aerial, its a simple screw connection to attach them, and it’s not possible to connect them the wrong way round. If you need a longer cable,3 metre and 5 metre extension cables are available (High Gain Aerial only).

To connect the aerial to your dongle, you need to locate the antenna connection – this is normally hidden under a dust flap. Once you’ve found it, gently push the aerial connector in as far as you can.

You can now plug your dongle in and launch the broadband control panel. You just need to position the aerial so that it now points towards your nearest network transmitter. If you don’t know where it is, then just rotate the aerial until the signal strength increases.

If you want help finding your nearest network transmitter, the OFCOM sitefinder website has maps showing the locations of all transmitters.

Transfer music to your phone using iTunes

iTunes is one of the easiest ways to download and organise your music if you use an iPod or iPhone – but what if you use iTunes to organise and play your music and don’t have an iPod or iPhone?

I’m sure that most of us don’t know that you can sync pretty much any phone with iTunes. Generally speaking, you’ll get a software disc in with your phone that will have a program on for copying your music to your phone, but this can sometimes be clumsy, lead to duplicate songs on your computer, or require your songs to be changed to a different format, but there are ways around this.

I recently came across 2 free programs, (one for Windows, one for Mac OS X) that will let you sync just about any phone with iTunes.

iTunes Agent for Windows users:

This is a simple and easy program to use. It doesn’t matter what phone you have, as long as your PC can recognise it as a storage device once you’ve plugged it into a USB port.

Once you’ve downloaded and installed the program, you just need to tell it:

1. How to organise the music on your phone:
   • iTunes saves it in the format: Artist / Album Name / Song.mp3
   • Artist Folder saves in the format: Artist-Album / Song.mp3
   • Flat saves in the format: Artist – Song.mp3
2. Where the music should be saved to on your phone
3. Which playlists you want to synchronise with your phone

That’s about all there is to it. It really couldn’t be easier. Further instructions on how to use it can be found on the iTunes Agent support website.

iTuneMyWalkman for Mac OS X users:

Again, a very simple and easy to use application, that will install scripts that will automatically sync your music when your phone is connected, without the need to launch a separate application.

Once installed, you’ll need to change some of the preferences to tell it where to save the music to on your phone, whether to autosync or not and what type of files you want to synchronise. (Movies, Podcasts, MP3 etc..)

You can use a combination of playlists and smart playlists, and iTuneMyWalkman will transfer over as much music as your phone will hold, or up to a threshold that you choose.

As with the Windows version, this really couldn’t be any easier, and this will work with all phones that can be connected via USB.

If you have a Nokia N-Series device, you may also want to check out Nokia Multimedia Transfer for Mac. This software is currently in Beta, but will also allow you to sync your photo’s with iPhoto, as well as sync your music and playlists over Bluetooth and USB.

One thing to bear in mind with both of these applications, is that they will delete any music off your phone the first time that they sync. So if you have purchased or downloaded an music files on your phone that you don’t have on your PC, you’ll need to back these up or send them to your PC before you start.