net connection travelling

[boatman]

I folks i have a cheapie laptop in the house here and while i used to just jump on the bike and wander round europe i find that i now feel VERY disconnected when i am away from my information connection
Anybody tell me what would be the way to go, i know that lots of folk find the scrolling on a mobile screen. to be kinda frustrating Ideally i would like to open the pannier and take out a device with a decent screen which would work almost anywhere is there such a thing that works with an inbuilt phone connection ? something which would not be ruineslly expensive to use sensibly to look for hotels n contact home ect

 

[GunZenBomZ]

My brother flys all around the world for work. He swaps his phone card into a dongle which then connects to local networks. It can however cost a fortune in certain country's. So you only do emails/essential porn viewing..I mean...do'h

 

[Bigdave]

I pad with 3G and wifi

 

[Roberto]

I'm not completely up to date on what the permutations are for data charges in Europe, but that can certainly can be expensive if you connect via a mobile phone network.

That said, I've biked in Europe with a laptop for many years now and generally you can find wireless connections at hotels at relatively low cost or on many occasions free. McDonalds and the like also have wireless, again free or low cost, and they can be found in most places.. God bless America

 

[boatman]

cheers folks i will go n have a wee think aboot all of that

 

[stolzy]

Data roaming charges are ruinous. I just did my email, about a dozen messages, mostly spam or low priority stuff - £5.50 + vat.

15 mins Googling and mapping when I got lost in Freiburg - £32

 

[skyenet]

On our trip around Europe for 4 weeks we used an iPad and an Acer Aspire One laptop via WiFi. Managed to get Free or very cheap WiFi access at most stops. The iPad was used a lot for Photo uploading, Web Browsing, YouTube and emails. The Acer Aspire was used mainly for Skype and for Photo backup. The iPad had less problems getting connected in low signal areas.

 

[Red Rock]

You can buy a prepaid voucher from BT OpenZone for 500mins wireless access from a list of European carriers for £28. The voucher is valid for 14 days use and starts from when you first connect. - Seems better than paying roaming charges, as long as you can find hotspots provided by BT's partners.

 

[andyclift]

We have taken the laptop with us for the last few years and send regular emails home with pics rather than postcards.

In Eastern Europe (Romania, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland) we have never had a problem finding free wi-fi. It can often be found in bars and cafes and just about every hotel we used and most campsites have been on-line for free.

Western Europe can be a bit tougher. Most hotels we have used offer some sort of free service, e.g. free in lobby but pay in room or limited time per day free (one hour). Either is enough to check email and send a few emails plus limited browsing. Out in the street it can be tough but it has only been the odd day when we have not found anything free. Our experience is that Germany is about the worst "offender" with really stupidly high costs in some hotels. When that happens we just tether the laptop to the smartphone. OK it generates charges but for the odd headline check, hotel booking and email our bill over a couple of weeks has never been more than £20.00. Hardly worth the effort of buying local sims etc.

There does seem to be local "standards" so you can't make assumptions that companies that are free in one country will be free in another. MacDonalds, for example, is free in UK with the very good Cloud service but in many European countries it makes charges.

I will e interested to see what happens this year as I have just changed to BT and my UK deal offers free use of Fon and Openzone sites and this seems to extend into Europe.

 

[DanielM]

May I suggest...

A Kindle 3G. £150 gets you an odd device, great for reading books, but I am reliably told that it has free 3G network connection pretty much round the world. See the coverage map (60 countries):

http://client0.cellmaps.com/viewer.html?cov=2&view=intl

Its a bit basic for doing fancy stuff, but is meant to have a battery that will last days/weeks - even up to a month if you turn off the radio. I do like the idea of free surfing worldwide though.

 

[llotse]

I use a 3G dongle modem and buy prepaid sim cards for the country I am in for all my access. Some of it is very fast and very cheap, whatever the cost it is a fraction of the cost of roaming.

 

[STUBBS]

theres a mc donalds in just about every town now a days

 

[Micky]

I usually carry a Samsung NC10 NetBook with me. Great bit o' kit

You can download your photographs as you go along, but the best bit is that most hotels, McDonald etc have WiFi

We travelled down through Turkey in to Iran and Pakistan and had free WiFi at virtually every hotel ... even in the sticks

The NC10 travels in the rear Peli case with charger therein for phone, iPod etc. but charging the NetBook on the bike needs to be done when running otherwise you'll flatten the bike battery

You'll not get on to social networking sites in Iran though ... total government block

 

[andyclift]

but I am reliably told that it has free 3G network connection pretty much round the world. See the coverage map (60 countries):

There is no such thing as a free lunch!!! The 3G provided by Kindle is for downloading their books. Amazon make it clear on their web site that other use is chargeable but I guess the Kindle is a bit limited on what it can do with no web browser or email functions.

 

[wessie]

Acer Aspire One netbook or similar and wifi hotspots saw me right last year in Belgium & France. The Aspire runs Mapsource so GPS routes can be planned & uploaded.

Most of the hotels I used had free wifi - only the Mercure in Reims wanted a silly daily rate so I went cold turkey for 48 hours. I'm sure I could've found a wifi hotspot in a bar or café if I had not been able to tolerate the loss.

As said above, all McDonalds in France have wifi - just buy a coffee or ice cream and get a code for a fixed time. Handy for finding a hotel with a room if you are travelling with a loose itinerary as you can check reviews on Tripadvisor.

 

[stolzy]

A Kindle 3G. £150 gets you an odd device, great for reading books, but I am reliably told that it has free 3G network connection pretty much round the world. See the coverage map (60 countries):

http://client0.cellmaps.com/viewer.html?cov=2&view=intl

Its a bit basic for doing fancy stuff, but is meant to have a battery that will last days/weeks - even up to a month if you turn off the radio. I do like the idea of free surfing worldwide though.

Free 3G, I'd be delighted if it were true, but I very much doubt it. The whole purchase price of the Kindle would buy you less than 60M of 3G download.

When it looks too good to be true . . .