[Hampshire] Crash course mobile broadband

Hi all



Given my eyesight, I’ve never had to worry too much about smartphones or
mobile broadband but a monster train journey shortly is about to change all
of that so I need to know (by Tuesday if poss!) what kit I need.



I have about 7 hours on a train on Tueday and need web access while doing
so. Thus far, I only have access to a Toshiba satellite laptop running
Ubuntu. In theory, I think all I need is [1] a usb dongle from argos or
somewhere similar and I’m away. But I have several questions:

1)      Will a high street dongle work with Linux?

2)      If so – I don’t want to do any sort of contract – I want to just pay
£20 for some sort of 1Gb limit and chuck it away post use – do these things
still exist?

3)      How good are these things really?   Say I wanted to catch up on
something on iplayer in between faffing about with spread sheets for work –
is this really feasible on a fast moving train?

4)      Said laptop is 2009 vintage and I’ve been thinking of getting a new
one – is it worthwhile buying a 3G laptop?

Cheers

Rob



[1]
http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/5491047/c_1/1%7Ccategory_ro
ot%7COffice%2C+PCs+and+phones%7C14418968/c_2/2%7C14418968%7CMobile+broadband
%7C16527170.htm#pdpFullProductInformation

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