Internet access abroad

[ovenpaa]

We are off to the new house in Denmark for 3 weeks next month on a decorating and furnishing mission and the wife would like Internet access

I see no point at this stage in getting a phone line or ADSL laid in as we will only be in the house for a month maximum this year. Also it is a bit off the beaten track so the trek to an Internet cafe is not very tempting, so what are my alternatives?

I have around me an XDa, a couple of mobiles on O2 who have a roaming agreement with DK, also a couple of laptops and a couple of wireless cards so I have the tools but what is the cheapest option?

What do other people do?

 

[cookie]

see if any of the neighbours has an unencrypted wi-fi

 

[ovenpaa]

see if any of the neighbours has an unencrypted wi-fi

Well TBH it is not such a problem if it is encrypted, but it is not a good way to start off with the new neighbours

 

[cookie]

Well TBH it is not such a problem if it is encrypted, but it is not a good way to start off with the new neighbours

i thought that myself, but it's the best i could think of

 

[(RIP) Bin Ridin]

Guys, are you going to tell us how to hack a wifi ? Please?
Bin

 

[richie]

yes, could come in handy a few times a year

 

[ovenpaa]

Hack? HACK!! - That is illegal and wrong and stuff

You could do a lot worse than getting your hands on a copy of Warlinux - you will need a Laptop with a decent and compatible wireless card and then purely for research purposes off you go so to speak....

http://sourceforge.net/projects/warlinux/

A bit old fashioned these days but still free and from memory the ISO is about 70 megs, burn the CD, turn your laptop off and restart, assuming the CD drive is the primary boot device (check your BIOS) you will be booted to an all new operating system, unfortunately it is console only (no pictures or windows) a vague knowledge of DOS will be a huge advantage as this OS uses BASH

DO NOT BE AFRAID!

Worst case is you take the CD out and use it as a coaster, restarting without the CD will get you back to you original operating system

Best case is a whole new world of Linux and ermm stuff

As an alternative you could look at stumbler - a windows based application thing that will at least tell you about networks around you but it is very very limited.

ENOUGH!

 

[ovenpaa]

BTW - get into this and you will find yourself buying a can of Tesco's mango puree very quickly....

That was a hint

 

[(RIP) Bin Ridin]

Jeez, cryptic or what.
Can we have Simplex clues, please?

 

[ovenpaa]

At some point you may feel you need to add an external antenna - professional ones are pricey. The bumper sized mango puree tin has near perfect dimensions and you can build a really good directional for around 20 quid

 

[(RIP) Bin Ridin]

Interesting!
Reminds me of the 500w floodlight globes we used to use for tv aerials at sea.....

 

[ovenpaa]

Well a combination of this thread and finding my old Compaq laptop nearly prompted me to get the car out for a drive but it is a bit obvious in summer and I have a 20M/bit pipe here. You can buy a parabolic antenna on eBlag now for under 20 quid and with a cheapie wireless card, a pig tail and a small soldering iron you can be set up in under 20 minutes.

General information on the webynet has also improved a lot but TBH people are so poor at locking systems down you can just do a quick scan and take your pick. I was in a Kensington hotel earlier this year and had a choice of over 60 networks to use had I wanted to, a couple of guys I know took it a bit further and were getting their MAC addresses blocked by a different IP every hour or so

If you do ever go driving look to the housing estates as they 3 bed semis are more likely to be running wireless than the bigger places (Allegedly) I have no idea why, a mate who used to change flats every 3 months assured me he had never ever paid for Internet access and even used to drop a text document on the users desktop when he was ready to move advising them to tighten up security!

Interestingly a neighbour who is an 'IT Pro' locked his network down by MAC address only and forgot to count how many machines he had, I still have access via his network to this day I really should tell him at some point, and before you ask, no, I never use wireless at home and will not permit it on our corporate network either, too many people like me around.