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AOL now want £34.99 a month to use dial-up when away from the home broadband connection, so apart from GRIC, Icafes and Laptoplink, does anyone have any other fully mobile access services at a reasonable price?
Question reminds me of when I worked in Vietnam (Hanoi) many moons ago.
One of the first times I tried to use (dial up) internet access on the "company" Compaq laptop.
No joy via the hotel room phone connection.
I inquired at the lobby how I could get access and 10 mins later this guy appeared who apparently studied Computer Science.
He took me and my laptop to his house where he rigged it up via a host of open circuit boards and a spaggetti junction of wires hanging out of the window. He had a connection in no time!
And top of it it was free! (well, a bottle of Mehkong is just about free)
One very proud vietnamese student!
BOAC, I could give you his house location if that helps?
As soon as RE sets up the LGW 737 route to Hanoi I'll take that address...................
RTFM - the problem for all moderators is that the line between information and advertising is a thin one! The first gratefully received, the second should be paid for to help with forum running costs.
It's a slight shift of direction, but I travel with a bluetooth card (3com 3CRWB6096B) and a three-band GSM GPRS phone (Nokia 6310i) with a contract account with Vodafone and the result blows me away!
I have used it in many countries (admittedly all 1st World) and the results are excellent. It costs £4.30 a Mb, with no fixed charges, and runs at 56Kbps, the same as a domestic modem. It works on trains and boats.
It has cost about £100 in the first year.
Oh, and BOAC I have nothing to do with any of the three companies, so this isn't advertising, it's just a ringing customer endorsement
AOL for mac is missing quite a few european countries, like Belgium. So I run virtual PC and AOL for PC as well. Its a bit convoluted. Otherwise, a lot of hotels are doing reasonable WIFI deals. Seen rates from £6 an Hour in Oslo to £12 for 24 hours in Vitoria.
Maglobe seems quite expensive at $8 an hour.
But keep the suggestions coming.
Last edited by Daysleeper : 18th January 2004 at 09:05.
I stayed in Orlando over Xmas. The Courtyard by Marriot on WDW (Now a Holiday Inn) had Wayport (broadband) in the room - and it was free! Apparently this is a Marriot programme - although when you log in it says you will be billed.
They had Wifi in the lobby - also free.
I ended up spending a few extra days there (Long story!) so moved to the Sheraton Safari same wayport access but at $9 something per day - look out a day starts at first connection and ends at the next standard check out time so if you check in early be careful when you log on for the first time.
Orlando airport has WiFi if you sit near the hotel, you get automatically logged on to a Wireless Lan called, if I remember right, "Hotel Guest"
I've taken the plunge and now have a cf wifi card for the IPAQ so when I get the other bit (GPS jacket) I'll be 'playing in the dark', wandering the streets of Europe in a shabby mac (nothing new there, then ) looking for 'hotspots' (ditto )
while on the subject of wi-fi access. VIE has free wi-fi just now in the upstairs restaurant. as part of a trial.
Odd thing at LTN, wi-fi in the burger king smoking seating. (from where I am typing this) walk about 10 yards in any direction and the signal drops to zero. As I dont smoke its Bloody Annoying. (oh and there are no power points without nicking the cleaners extension lead.) Still its free, so thats something.
Location: Quite near 'An aerodrome somewhere in England'
Posts: 16,076
Wi-fi has got to be the best bit of technology there's been in recent years. If only companies like Vodafone invested more in useful applications like Wi-fi than kid's games, cr@p mobile phone cameras, pointless 'streaming video' on tiny mobile phone screens....
There seems to be more interest in pandering to yoof-txtmsg kiddy-culture than in the development of useful communications facilities by the mobile service providers....
Location: Quite near 'An aerodrome somewhere in England'
Posts: 16,076
Although I've been using the Vodafone hotspots in Lufthansa lounges for a while now, I have only been able to access the Internet and receive incoming e-mails, but not to send any outgoing e-mails using my normal ISP, Virgin.net. But the same e-mail account works fine at Birmingham airport using a UK Explorer hotspot. The incoming and outgoing servers are both mail.virgin.net. As usual, Vodafone's customer service has been totally hopeless. Am I using the wrong outgoing server settings? Or is the issue with Virgin.net? Every time I try to send e-mail from a Vodafone W-LAN hotspot, I get 'Error - relaying to (the address I'm trying to send to) is not allowed'.....
Outgoing mail has to use the outgoing mailserver of the local ISP that you're connecting to. This is easy if you're using a dial up connection as you've presumably got the details off the ISPs website to enable you to connect in the first place.
It's a little more complicated when wireless roaming and I must admit I've never tried it because my ISP has a webmail site so I don't have to use Outlook when I'm travelling or at work.
I presume Virgin has a webmail site, if not you can use www.Mail2Web.com or similar sites to send mail from your normal email account.
Location: Quite near 'An aerodrome somewhere in England'
Posts: 16,076
Thanks, Speccers. It's just puzzling that all works fine from UK Explorer wi-fi W-LAN hotspots, but I'm currently unable to send from Vodafone D2 hotspots unless I use mail2web or a similar web-based mail service.
I keep asking Vodafone what the outgoing mail server should be set to - I can easily create a bespoke W-LAN e-mail account but just need to know the server name!
This forum is amazing! I was looking for a roaming account that wouldn't cost me a fortune or need lots of upfront cash (cos I won't use it that much). Ipass wanted 100 Euros upfront, and charges $2.99 an hour in the USA.
MaGlobe was happy with $15 upfront (I chose $30) and charges $0.59 an hour in the US.
So now I have a MaGlobe ID to add to the lengthening list!
PPRuNe only pays for my home broadband access. altogether now - ahhhhh, bless
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