Accessing email/internet whilst away from home

[daw]

Hi there I am in need a bit of general advice to point me in the right direction. Am planning on being away from home studying for approx. 6 months and therefore away from my broadband connection and home pc. Now I have a UK mobile (nokia 7250i) with orange and will plan on purchasing a laptop with the usual bells and whistles (wireless etc).

What are my options for accessing email and the ocassional internet pages from where I will be studying (based in a caravan in Bournemouth!)? I have seen GPRS cards that plug into the PCMCIA slots on a laptop and also read about (but don't know much of) the handspring devices which I think take a sim card and can work as a phone. The GPRS card seems an expensive way to go. If all I really want to be able to do is to type emails in Outlook Express and send and receive what do you suggest is the best route for me to go?

Thanks in advance.

[seacue]

Studying? Wouldn't the school have Internet access for students?

[BLUE SKY THINKER]

daw.....

A lot of "If's" here, but if as you indicate, your only priority is e-mail, then this is likely to fall into one of two categories: 'involved (lengthy)' or 'keeping in touch'. .....If it's the latter why not configure e-mail direct to/from your mobile, via your ISP?

Works on AOL; can't speak for any others.

[Daysleeper]

Why not get a wi-fi finder. Then aimlessly drive/fly around the more affluent/business districts of Bournemouth looking for an open wi-fi network. Then just log on.

Something like this LINK (http://www.kensington.com/html/3720.html)

Although I have read some poor reviews of the device above.


Article about war-flying, the art of wi-fi network sniffing from light aircraft.

:}

war-flying (http://arstechnica.com/wankerdesk/3q02/warflying-1.html)

[daw]

Some great advice and much appreciated. Have a few more questions though:-

1) if you have a gprs enabled phone (like I do) then to get the internet/email up and running with a laptop do you simply connect via infrared, bluetooth or cable? Is there any connection software required for this?

2) is buying a pcmcia card for your laptop necessary if you have a gprs enabled phone? Or does it give you a more reliable connection perhaps rather than connecting via cable etc? Not sure I understand the point of these cards if you have a gprs phone.

As you can see I am leaning towards being completely self sufficient here. I have been to schools before and sat waiting around for ages whilst other students hog the 1 free pc. Conversely after a day of ATPL studies I am not sure I will be motivated to find the local library. I like the idea of "sharing" someones wifi connection though. Had a mate do it with his laptop not so long. Goes to show how many people aren't careful with security....

[BOAC]

daw - firstly remember GPRS costs NOUGHT unless you download bytes. If you 'filter' your emails and check 'headers' so you do not download HUGE attachments you should find it pretty cheap. Basic emails are pretty low on bytes, and time on line is not charged. Web browsing will be more expensive and best done either via wifi or at the library/Internet cafe.

1) Any of the connection methods should work - I use Bluetooth. The service provider (make sure they offer GPRS facilities on your particular tariff) will have a 'set-up' help prog. Orange do. Check their website.

2) No

[daw]

Thanks for that BOAC. So are you saying that the connectivity software with GPRS allows you to view for example email headings and sender details before you actually download? I was assuming that I would be working in outlook express and clicking on send/receive and therefore using up bytes rather than having a facility where I could view emails in a type of buffer before selecting to download. Pretty cool if that is the case for sure as I can make sure that the spam gets left behind!

[seacue]

Mailwasher is a method of looking at headers even if you will be using Outlook Express (or similar) for reading. It will display

Subject
From
To (much SPAM doesn't have your address in the TO field)
Message size.

It allows you to delete messages on the host and not download them. This can save a lot of connect time with dialup access. While it can automatically mark some messages for deletion, I don't find that feature to be very effective.

MailWasher- http://www.mailwasher.net/