Mobile 3G/4G for Chromebook

[ITManLT]

Hello EduGeekers,

 

Just wondering if anyone has been asked this recently - I know a few schools have solutions, just wondering which solutions they are.

 

We have been asked to look into providing some 3G or 4G dongles + Chromebooks to our disadvantaged pupils who don't have computer/internet access at home.

Back in the Windows days we would have bought a Windows Laptop & a pay monthly 3G USB dongle to plug straight into the device.

 

Does anybody know if that would still work with a Chromebook? do they know how to launch the software on the USB stick properly?

If not, we would have to use one of the newer Mobile WiFi kind of devices for the Chromebook to connect to, but has anybody used one of these, and can you lock down what MAC addresses can connect to this router?

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Lee.

[PotNoodleTech]

You may find the USB 3g/4g dongles work in chromebook. Everything I've plugged in to my chromebooks so far has worked perfectly without installing any drivers etc, from USB headphones/microphones to USB cat5e Ethernet adaptors.

 

May be worth buying one to try out?

[MatthewL]

Yes with the MiFi you can restrict the MAC address, well you can on the EE one I have. You may wish to change the SSID and password and remove the sticker. If it was me I would just change the details and not worry about MAC filtering. I prefer these over dongles as if you live in a house with poor signal you can leave this at the window and it will reach.

[rich_tech]

From when I used mine, they work well with a Huawei dongles, I think theres a list for them somewhere, MiFi are alright too but their obviously a more expensive device and require power/charging, whereas the dongle powers off the chromebook.

[ITManLT]

Thanks for the responses guys.

I had read a Google article saying that "some" Huawei dongles work, but nothing more than that. No list specifying which currently work that we could go by.

 

I think MatthewL's response is a good point actually about the signal. With a MiFi style device the students could plug this in near a window for better signal, and we can guarantee the laptop will connect to the WiFi pushed out from this a lot more than we can guarantee that a USB dongle will work judging by the Google statement above.

 

Thanks for your replies.

 

Just for reference - EE are currently doing a deal to businesses on the Netgear Nighthawk MiFi device - 25GB data for £10 a month so that's very reasonable.

 

Lee.

[dhicks]

We have been asked to look into providing some 3G or 4G dongles + Chromebooks to our disadvantaged pupils who don't have computer/internet access at home.

 

If you haven't purchased the Chromebooks themselves yet, would Chromebooks with built-in 4G be an option? Might be a bit more expensive than other Chromebooks, but should reduce the number of parts to be kept charged / plugged in / not lost by the pupil.

[fiza]

We are currently looking into this too. We did it last year for a student and at that time EE were doing a 4GEE Wifi Mini for £89 that was loaded with 24GB data which was restricted to 2GB per month. That was a really good deal as we just purchased it outright and didnt have to worry about monthly payments. We need to get 2 more now and EE no longer do that deal. The other thing to think about is which network you use and the coverage in the area you want to use the Mifi device. Around here Vodafone signal is really bad indoors so there is no point looking at Vodafone Mifi devices.

[simpsonj]

Apologies for raising this thread, but it has suddenly become very relevant for our school!

 

I like the idea of a 3G/4G device with a set amount of data released each month, paid for upfront, whether that be a USB dongle, or router. Anyone know if any companies are offering this at the moment?

[ITManLT]

Hi @simpsonj

 

I'm guessing it suddenly became relevant for a lot of schools.

We went down the portable MiFi hotspot route as we have an account with EE for a few already.

 

We calculated who needed these and we have got 20 on 1 year contracts with 25GB data a month.

I spoke to a manager about the number of these devices and anything they could do to help our disadvantaged students. The manager understood the situation and drastically reduced the monthly price.

We are doing this approach for 2 reasons:

 

1) we already had an account with EE and they invoice you and you can pay via PO - this greatly appeased our Finance dept!

2) after the 1 year contract, we will have the devices to keep. So if we have any students in upper years from disadvantaged backgrounds, who do need a WiFi solution to learn we will only need to get a SIM only data deal

 

 

In direct response to your question, I'm not sure if there is anything like that out there where you can just release an amount of data. save from doing something funky with EE's "data gifting/sharing" ability as if you're sharing your data with your family...

Sounds potentially messy though.

[simpsonj]

Hi @simpsonj

 

I'm guessing it suddenly became relevant for a lot of schools.

We went down the portable MiFi hotspot route as we have an account with EE for a few already.

 

We calculated who needed these and we have got 20 on 1 year contracts with 25GB data a month.

I spoke to a manager about the number of these devices and anything they could do to help our disadvantaged students. The manager understood the situation and drastically reduced the monthly price.

We are doing this approach for 2 reasons:

 

1) we already had an account with EE and they invoice you and you can pay via PO - this greatly appeased our Finance dept!

2) after the 1 year contract, we will have the devices to keep. So if we have any students in upper years from disadvantaged backgrounds, who do need a WiFi solution to learn we will only need to get a SIM only data deal

 

 

In direct response to your question, I'm not sure if there is anything like that out there where you can just release an amount of data. save from doing something funky with EE's "data gifting/sharing" ability as if you're sharing your data with your family...

Sounds potentially messy though.

 

Thanks for that, with the price of unlimited data packages nowadays, we will probably buy a router and an unlimited data deal.

 

Right, technical side resolved, now to check any safeguarding issues!

[paulkerton]

I think there will soon come a point where 1:1 schemes will be running with Chromebooks that have virtual 5G SIM cards in as standard.

Seems inevitable to me. WiFi for on-site, then fall back to 5G/4G/3G when not on-site. Guaranteed always on connectivity provided centralised by the school/ISP/MNO.

[dhicks]

Right, technical side resolved, now to check any safeguarding issues!

 

If this is a school-managed Chromebook you can limit such devices to only allow school-managed accounts to log on, and for school-managed user accounts there are various solutions for on-device filtering. The setup follows the user around, not the device, so you should be able to limit a pupil's access to undesirable sites even when they are working away from the main school building.

[SchoolsBroadband]

Hi folks,

 

we already do unfiltered sim cards on both O2 and Vodafone and have been doing for about 10 years.

 

Regarding @simpsonj points on safeguarding, we are about imminently launch a filtered 4G / 5G service with via private APN so any data used on it goes via our hosted Netsweeper and Fortigate platforms. There's no installation on the end device (bar a certificate) or Wagent dependent on the end device type. SIMS are likely to appear as another virtual interface on the Fortigate platform so you can do different firewall policies as well as still do user based filtering policies that link into Active Directory etc.

 

These sims can also be used for 4G / 5G backup for a schools main Internet connection.

 

We've mi-fi devices and routers up and working already and we're just doing the final part to do the same using a Huawei dongle.

 

If you're interested in beta testing for us then please let us know. You don't have to be a customer but if you are then you can use the same filtering policies you already have setup for your school(s).

 

Thanks

 

Dave

[Edu-IT]

What sort of data allowances do those come with?

[SchoolsBroadband]

Hi @Edu-IT,

 

for the moment for an individual user is 40GIG although I am working on some bigger bundles. You can use app control and filtering policies to help reduce data consumption if required.

 

We can also do them on rolling 30 day contracts if required too. We're getting a lot of enquiries on this at the moment.

 

Dave

Edited April 6, 2020 by SchoolsBroadband

[Ex-MGSTech]

Hi folks,

 

we already do unfiltered sim cards on both O2 and Vodafone and have been doing for about 10 years.

 

Regarding @simpsonj points on safeguarding, we are about imminently launch a filtered 4G / 5G service with via private APN so any data used on it goes via our hosted Netsweeper and Fortigate platforms. There's no installation on the end device (bar a certificate) or Wagent dependent on the end device type. SIMS are likely to appear as another virtual interface on the Fortigate platform so you can do different firewall policies as well as still do user based filtering policies that link into Active Directory etc.

 

These sims can also be used for 4G / 5G backup for a schools main Internet connection.

 

We've mi-fi devices and routers up and working already and we're just doing the final part to do the same using a Huawei dongle.

 

If you're interested in beta testing for us then please let us know. You don't have to be a customer but if you are then you can use the same filtering policies you already have setup for your school(s).

 

Thanks

 

Dave

 

Hi Dave, yes i'd be interested both as a solution for some disadvantaged users and as an emergency backup connection.

 

Please contact via PM

 

Steve

[SchoolsBroadband]

Pm'd ...

[SchoolsBroadband]

Hello again everyone.

 

As of next week we have a new unlimited data tariff which includes our netsweeper filtering / reporting and Fortigate firewall security solution.

 

You can use your own hardware, purchase dongles /mifi through us or put directly into an LTE capable device such as an iPad or chromebook.

 

Send me a pm if interested.

 

Thanks

 

Dave

[the_quick]

Dave @SchoolsBroadband

 

Do you have 4G dongles that work with Chromebooks?

 

Thanks

[SchoolsBroadband]

Dave @SchoolsBroadband

 

Do you have 4G dongles that work with Chromebooks?

 

Thanks

 

hi @the_quick

 

we certainly do. I'll send you a PM.

 

Thanks

 

Dave

[SchoolsBroadband]

Hi everyone,

 

FYI we delivered this to over 1,000 disadvantaged pupils last week.

 

We also now have an unlimited data option as well as increased data usage limits for other packages.

 

Prices start from only £10 for 12GIG including filtering.

 

See http://www.edugeek.net/forums/cloud-services/214986-4g-connectivity-including-cloud-based-filtering-security.html

 

and

 

https://www.schoolsbroadband.co.uk/mobilebroadband

 

We can also pre-configure all of the dongles / mi-fi devices so you don't have to manually setup them up. They are literally just plug and play.

 

PM me if anyone is interested.

 

Thanks

 

Dave

[Wave9_Lee]

Apologies for raising this thread, but it has suddenly become very relevant for our school!

 

I like the idea of a 3G/4G device with a set amount of data released each month, paid for upfront, whether that be a USB dongle, or router. Anyone know if any companies are offering this at the moment?

 

Hi @simpsonj (or anyone)

 

Drop me a PM or enquire here https://www.wave9.co.uk/2020/05/01/waveconnect-e4g-safe-secure-filtered-4g-internet-support-home-learning/ if you'd like to review 4G options for your school,

 

cheers

 

Lee