Internet access at sea

[Divemaster1]

Re: Dive master

I know that it is not the Bluetooth technology that speeds things up but the phones will support GPRS. The Bluetooth technology just gets you away from the additional cables and stuff that you drag along with you. (The less I have to drag with me on my travels, whilst still managing to do business, the better I believe.... subjective, I know....). Price... yes I would agree that is more expensive, but speed of transfer compensates somewhat for that. The ability to "be connected" whilst travelling makes you more productive, which in turn means less time lost in airports etc., where I find myself far to frequent (great for air miles though). Would prefer to be at sea in a boat somewhere and not having to "be connected"



Divemaster1

 

[Buck]

lets lose the myths.

Phil,

A few observances from someone who does this all the time i.e. me, I pay £7.50 a month to compuserve, I get local access wherever I am, and have never been charged any sur charges although they are possible. When using a hotel or marina phone line generally local calls are free, so no call charges, otherwise I use my mobile phone, the same one I use in the U.K. Ericsson T39 tri band, monthly contract etc... I always get a connection of at least 14400 baud which although slow is adequate for emails and the local access number gives reasonable call charges.
As to connection at sea, then its down to super expensive satellite phones, £1 to £5 per minute and baud rate between 9600 and 14400. plus expensive initial equipment costs.
Hope this helps.

Buck

Is more than one octopus, octopi or octopussies?

 

[zefender]

Re: line speeds?

I'm no techie but I've never got more than 9600 from my mobile - in the UK or abroad. As for satellite, I understood that Iridium phones only transfer at about 2400 - can't say for Immarsat C etc but since you'd need all that space for the radome/ball, I doubt its very practical.

 

[ccscott49]

Re: line speeds?

No ball or radome for inmarsat C, just a small pyramid round antenna. But the speed is terrible! very very slow.

 

[DavidJ]

Interesting that you have not hit the problem that I have experienced. I'm on Orange with a Nokia 8210. Someone in the thread has indicated that this is not a problem with some service providers. Out of interest what 'pay as you go' do you use in France
David

 

[Steve_D]

Re: Internet solution

I fully agree with the mobile phone (8210 in my case) and pda solution for mail etc

I am the proud guardian of 3 palms (iii, v & m505) and one compaq iPaq (I have to develop on them for work....Honest!). I like the palms a lot for ease of use etc BUT I have to say that my favourte is now the compaq. Even the m505 cannot compete, the Compaq screen is much better and responses are significantly quicker its possible to browse web pages without getting eystrain and the conversion of office documents is more or less seamless, images and mpegs are handled in native format. the only down side is the battery life.

I really feel that Palm will have to do something special with the next model, the last few have felt a little like stopgaps with few significant improvements, the palm use of memory cards is tatty. The other thing is that its a hell of a lot easier to write programs for the Pocket PC than the Palm but I realize that may not be a consideration for everyone!

Steve D

 

[tcm]

Re: expensive gsm

erm, i understood that bit of this thread. This new boat has gsm. Dunno wot gsm stands for. But it isnae connected. Any clue as to how much to connect it up - if anything, or like get an account erm or whatever? And how much to run it per minute? Word one two syllable max pls.

Note : kindly avoid the following phrases/words : packet switching, proxy sessions, VANS, compressed mode, host controller, proprietary syntax, protected mode as i don't know what these really mean.

 

[ccscott49]

Re: expensive gsm

GSM, Hmmmm. It must have a built in phone somewhere, which would take your sim card, the little chip in your handheld, I had a built in phone, originally one of the early GSM phones, with 15 watts, I put a masthead antenna on and the range is grteat, but no computer connection etc, so it hardly gets used. I think sincve all else has failed, it's time to read the manual!