Computer/Internet Issues & TroubleshootingAnyone with questions about the terribly complex world of computers or the internet should try here. We will also try and help with troubleshooting any technical problems you may have with the forums.
(1) Turn on wi-fi and search for connections
(2) Pick one who's name looks like is a commercial service open to all
(3) Get its login screen with a web browser
(4) Enter your credit card details and buy as long as you need
Yes really, typing your credit card details into a randomly discovered wi-fi network does seem to work and does seem to be safe. (In NZ. Haven't tried it anywhere else. Probably wouldn't!)
It's hard to give a realistic answer without the information which mixture has sought (above).
In many countries there are providers offering wireless internet devices with prepaid broadband plans at attractive price. Often the device itself is locked to the provider so buying a different card for each country where the original provider's service is absent may be money wasted. An unlocked device would be a good start.
Alternatively it is possible to buy a sim card which may be able to be used on your mobile phone as a tethered wireless modem - assuming again that it is not locked to the original service supplier.
There are quite a few good deals on offer in Australia which cover most of the populated areas of the nation without the need to change anything. Elsewhere it seems that things get a bit complicated.
This is one area where a genuine multi national service provider could be a good thing. It doesn't seem to happen however.
For those who asked for more info, I spend a couple of a days at a time in places like India, Ghana, Nigeria, S Africa and the list goes on! At some hotels there is free internet, but others charge excessive amounts for the service. Yes, I try local internet cafes, but I am looking for internet access from a hotel room in the middle of the night, maybe not the time I would choose to be out at a cafe!
I have a UK account with Vodafone, and also one in the ME, but the latter are damned expensive, or so I believe.
Hope that's more to work on, and Thanks again for the advice from the experts.
I know that it looks like a novelty gimmick that won't work, and I thought that until I bought one, but now I have it, I've totally changed my mind.
Using the adaptor, I can easily get on to wifi routers that are 50 metres away, and where ever I've used it, I don't normally have to much of a problem to find an unencrypted open network.
These are the signals available when I use the my laptop connection
and these are what's available using the gizmo I referred to
I'm currently in a fairly quiet residential area so there aren't too many houses close by, but when using the adaptor in a town or city, it's not unusual to get 20 or 25 different connections, a few of which are often unencrypted and with a good signal strength.
Last edited by 419; 10th Mar 2012 at 19:04.
Reason: edited to add pics
The cheapest solution to avoid roaming charges, but a cumbersome one, may be to buy a prepaid 'dongle' for the countries you visit most often, and top it up as needed. It's practical if you have several countries you visit regularly, but not if your travels take to many places on a one-off basis.
By the way, using private wifi connections, even if the owners are foolish enough to leave them unencrypted, is illegal in some countries. That said ..... yep!
In Hong Kong I use a prepaid Peoples Card sim and get "all you can eat" and calls and txts for (IIRC) HKG 39 for seven days (and about HKG 98 for 30 days).
In UK, I use 3 prepaid and get all you can eat data for GBP 15 for 30 days (plus calls and texts).
Here is an article I wrote a while ago on this general topic.
The best thing I have found so far for abroad is to buy the E585 GPRS/3G-WIFI radio, stick a locally purchased data-SIM card into it, and off you go... just works, with everything. And several people can use the wifi concurrently.
The next best thing is to stick the local SIM into a normal phone and install Joikuspot on it.
Locally bought data SIMs can be great value e.g. 2GB for 10 euros, valid for 10 days (Greece).
If you cannot get a local data SIM then obviously you are looking at WIFI (which may be easy, impossible, or anything in between according to where you are, and nowadays it tends to be charged for heavily if you can get it) or GPRS/3G roaming data which will always be expensive, one way or another.
I'm currently in a fairly quiet residential area so there aren't too many houses close by, but when using the adaptor in a town or city, it's not unusual to get 20 or 25 different connections, a few of which are often unencrypted and with a good signal strength.
Ahem, cough.... section 125 of the Communications Act 2003.
Ahem, cough.... section 125 of the Communications Act 2003.
But as I'm not currently in the UK this act doesn't apply to me and to what I may or may not do.
Even if it did, it wouldn't be a problem as I am using the wifi connection at the top of the available networks, and this is the one in the house I'm in. I was just using the list to show that unencrypted networks are easily available in many places.
But as I'm not currently in the UK this act doesn't apply to me and to what I may or may not do.
Alright Smart Alec.
Let's look at this from another point of view that you can't dispute.
By randomly picking an unencrypted network provided by an unknown operator, you are using an untrustworthy network.
This leaves you vulnerable to communications interception, man-in-the-middle attacks and all sorts of other fun and games.
If you think you are safe because your online banking or whatever uses SSL. Think again.
Just because you "can" do it, does't mean you "should" do it.
(I also strongly advise against the use of unencrypted WiFi networks anyway, even if you do know and trust the operator)
Here's an example of an Android vulnerability that was found by researchers in Germany:
Quote:
Vulnerability is specific to unencrypted Wi-Fi hot spots, where the team demonstrated an attack that gained access to all items of contacts, calendar events, and private pictures, including those currently being synced. This is done with an impersonation attack.
Don't worry. I'd never dream of using an unencrypted connection for anything other than e-mails, and even then I don't send anything of any importance over it.
I admit that I have occasionally piggybacked of unsecured connections, but this has been extremely rare as 99% of the time I either use a dongle (if one is available for the country/area where I am, or I will use the internet provided in a hotel or internet cafe.
The main reason for my earlier post was simply to let gehenna know that they may be able to access the internet from an internet cafe near to their hotel without actually having to go to that cafe every time.
Quote:
If you can find an internet cafe or other place fairly close to your hotel which gives you internet acess using wifi, one of these may help.
As internet cafes usually have a secure wifi and a password and user name is required, this would still need to be paid for so accessing it from a hotel room or somewhere similar wouldn't be in any way illegal.
