Internet access at sea

[Guest]

Hello all - again thank you to everyone on the Motors Boat Forum for all your help so far - we've found these forums invaluable for gaining knowledge - there are a lot of helpful people out there.

So today's question is - has anyone discovered a cheap way of accessing the internet whilst at sea (in the Mediterranean). I'm assuming that I have to connect my laptop to the internet via my UK mobile phone hence paying about £1 per minute or more? So, I assumed I'd only be limited to Cybercafes....... ?

 

[jfm]

Get a local dial-in number from AOL or whoever, so it's only a local call

 

[Buck]

Subscribe to compuserve, you will get local dial in numbers for all over the world.

Buck

Is more than one octopus, octopi or octopussies?

 

[boatone]

Hey you guys.......read up...........she said ...AT SEA.....

TonyR
boatone@boatsontheweb.com
www.boatsonthethames.co.uk

 

[paulineb]

But she'll have to moor up to use cybernet cafes, so assume she'll be in a marina. Many med marinas have telephone connections on their berths.

Pxx

 

[Guest]

We will at times be mooring in marinas but while we're at sea we wanted another option. Do you think then that we should buy eg whilst in France a French pay as you go mobile phone to connect locally (and thus cheaply) to eg Compuserve? Anyone know if it's possible for a UK citizen to buy a pay as you go European phone?

 

[Divemaster1]

I am a Norwegian citizen having bought (and used) both UK and Norwegian pay as you go mobile phones without any problems, so cannot see why this should be a problem in Europe.

Regards,

Divemaster1

 

[jfm]

UK citizen buying payasgo mobile abroad

If there's any prob just put on a French accent when you go up to the till with it

 

[phil_sin]

I have looked into this subject in some depth for a couple of customers, some of the main problems with "getting internet" via a mobile is that the speed of connection is only 9600bps this is OK if you are collecting email using Outlook Express, but will not be sufficient to browse internet, pick up web based mail like hotmail etc. Another problem is that most ISP 0845 numbers are only accessible from the UK as the ISP collect call revenue from these calls. Some ISP's will have "normal" numbers that you can call (Demon being one) but the quality of the International Line is quite often now good enough for data call's (Modems cannot talk when you have that delay you get with International calls). Companies with local access numbers like CompuServe (MCI Worldcom) will normal charge you a surcharge to use International Dial Up numbers.

The best solutions for accessing email from the boat are 1. Cybercafes 2. Satellite Phone (if you really need access at sea!) for me the boat is a way of getting away from it all.

 

[boatone]

Marina,
Even if you get a French mobile phone you will not be able to access the web and email with it unless you have it data enabled. Even if you do this it is very slow compared with a landline connection. I use my mobile in this way sometimes but only when really necessary. The Internet Cafes are much cheaper and much easier to use with full speed access etc. Even if you got a French phone you'd still be faced with the roaming problem if you went to Spain or Italy etc.
I think this is good reliable info but someone else may know something I dont...........ccscott knows a bit about this i think as he's based in Portugal.

TonyR
boatone@boatsontheweb.com
www.boatsonthethames.co.uk

 

[tcm]

Re: trac phone

yes, I have a trac phone with all domes and such. But the salebod says it is $3 per minute to read/writer this garbage, so soddit.

 

[Trevethan]

Internet solution

What works well for me is Nokia 8210 phone and Personal Digital Assistant ( like a Palmpilot)

Mine is actually a Handspring Prism. It hooks up to the phone using infra red (no cable) and I have a Stowaway keyboard for it. This amazing keyboard unfolds in a very clever way to produce a laptop sized keyboard for when you want to type long emails.

The advantage of this system is that most browsers for it use a proxy server. This server takes a regular internet site and strips most of the frills away, leaving text and links and pictures, if you want them and then sends it to you. Web sites load very quickly. Usually in just a few seconds.

You'll need a local Sim card and a local dial up number. The equivalent of Freeserve wherever you are. Sim cards can often be picked up at independant mobile phone shops.

There is a host of different PDA's out there. Names to look for are Palm, Handspring (which produces a device that is a phone and a PDA all in one) Sony, Compaq, to name just a few.

A word of warning. There are two competing operating systems out there. One built by Microsoft called Pocket PC. and one built by Palm. The Palm system is more prevalent and much easier to use in my view. In addition, there is a host of free and shareware available fopr teh Palm platform.

Palm based products start out much cheaper, but at that level lack colour, sound etc. High end palm products like the Sony Clie N760, have good colour screens, sound and expansion opportunities and still tend to cost less than their Microsoft based equivalent.

Most Palm devices come with 8 megabytes of RAM. Pocket PC (PPC) devices with 32 or 64 megabytes built in. However Palm programmes are much much smaller that PPC. Also Palm proccessors are slower, however the operating system is more efficient so a 33 mhz palm device can easily keep pace with a 200 PPC device.

Many of these devices can be used in conjunction with GPS to produce mini plotters. Not tried that yet, but frioends say it woprks great on land. There is also nautical charting available.

Best of all you have a package that stows very small - not larger than a paperback book and puts scarcely any strain on your domestic batteries.

 

[DavidJ]

The first problem you will hit will be when you try to install a different SIM card. Most mobiles are locked so you can only use the providers card. However, you can get mobiles unlocked and it's not illegal. My little guy does it for a fiver.
David

 

[Guest]

I'm confused - if I'm using a French pay as you go phone to connect my laptop to the internet via my modem - what's the problem with the SIM card? The phone is just a conduit surely? Sorry for my naivete.

 

[Divemaster1]

Marina,

If you want better performance and connection you could look for a local mobile phone with bluetooth technology, a bluetooth card in your laptop and connect that way.

Having "fun" with this right now and accessing e-mail etc. straight to both laptop and PDA (Compaq IPAQ 3800 series), when on my travels (UK, Norway and elewhere in Europe). Believe that France's mobile phone networks supports this technology so could be an alternative... Believe I'm frequently getting connection rates between 28800 and 48000 and is actually quite good (compared with 9600). Not a cheap option as you need to aquire these tools, but once on, everything should work better and lead to shorter connection times. Of course assuming that you go on, do the business and leave again.... staying on, doing more than before is a temptation as it is faster etc.

Have fun...


Divemaster1

 

[ccscott49]

OK, In spain and portugal, you can buy a local chip (SIM) for your phone, if you have a vodafone,bt mobile contract, you can use the chip in this phone. Not an orange phone, different! I use a nikia 6210, which comes with a biult in modem and the software for your laptop. It can link with infrared, but I use a cable. You need a local ISP or a UK one with local acess, I use the portugese one and its ok. In spain Movistar have there own mobile isp, which gets rid of most of the crap from the pages to allow faster responses. Basically I think its the same in france, Colin Jones knows about that, and Spain I think. The best thing I found was to go to a cyber cafe and ask or a computer shop type place, theyare very helpful and usually will set it up for you for peanuts or free, you sometimes have to buy the disc from them for the internet isp, most of them are freee anyway. The system on mobile is slow, but adequate for E mail and simple weather charts. If you are already in the UK, you can arrange oit all before you leave, get an ISP with local access, then buy a chip in whichebver country you are in to make it cheaper, or use your UK phone for local calls, which is a more expensive way to go, but makes all your bills paid in the UK, which may be beneficial. I hope this tirade helps! Good luck, Cheers, Colin.

 

[Trevethan]

Dive master

Its not the Bluetooth in your phone that is speeding things up, its that your phone makes use of GPRS to transmit data. Bluetooth links your Compaq to the phone.
The link between phone and network goes over GPRS.

GPRS allows far higher transmission speeds than the 9600 baud that regular GSM alows by allocating you 2 or 3 times the amount of bandwidth that regular GSM allows.

You could use a cable or an infra red connection to link phone and computer and you'd likely get similar perfomance. Infra red performance does degrade as distance between devices increases, but on most chart tables that isn't going to be an factor. The one thing you need to do when using IR is keep line of sight open between phone and device. Coffee mugs really mess up transmission

I believe GPRS is relatively expensive still, however you often pay for the quantity of data you send and receive not the length of time you are on the net. So this waffle is likely costing someone a fortune!

Regards,

Nick

 

[ccscott49]

Re: Dive master

Is GPRS available in portugal and spain? I haven't heard of it down there, but would like it if it speeds up net acess on mobile.

 

[kimhollamby]

No to satphones...data is much slower than GSM. I administer websites for weeks at a time on GSM but it is very expensive especially when roaming which makes boating itself look cheap. Taking a French GSM account and using local dial-ups would help a lot.

Also helps to be quite organised...ie making sure you only stay online for minimum amount of time, keeping cached versions of your favourite web pages (and making web archive versions of them in IE when on less expensive hook-ups).

Associate Publisher ybw.com websites kim_hollamby@ipcmedia.com

 

[ccscott49]

I don't understand all this web page cache and stuff, does this mean I'm going to need proffesional; help, like taking the computer to somebody and telling them the web pages I normally use, like YBW forum and stuff like that, hotmail etc, does this make it faster? Or is this a bit beyond the scope of a chat on the forum? It's becoming more and more obvious I will need help in these things. I can drive my computer to a certain extent, but will have to just do the simple things, letting some whizz kid dset it all up for me.