Internet access Greece

[MASH]

OK, I've searched the previous sites to death but a combination of too much info and too much technicality leaves me no wiser.

First I'm not a techy.

I'm visiting Crete shortly for up to 3 wks with a macbook Air, an iPhone 4s and an iPad w. no 3g.

I need internet on the macbook at least as the others are capable of getting a signal in tavernas etc. This is for email & regular surfing, not downloading big data or movies.

Question is, how best to do this? The phone is on "three". I can do without the phone facility on holiday, or at east replace the 3 sim when I need to.

Options seem to be a mifi modem(?) costing £40 or so but then I need to carry an extra brick around w. battery charging issues etc.

What options are there for local sim cards? Can I put one in the iPhone, create a hotspot and tether it to the iPad or macbook? Or isn't it that simple - disconnecting/jailbreaking/ whatever to the phone first?
The Cosmote site at least seems very coy on the physical practicalities of what plugs int what to make their various plans work. Can anyone explain?
Why does 2Gb of data on one prepaid mobile offer cost 16eu when a 4G offer with 5Gb costs just 20? Whats going on? Clearly I,m missing something!
Why do some data packages cost say Eu30 with dongle and include "20Eu" data? Why is it put in Eu instead of Gb? I smell a scam...

Clarification sought!

 

[vyv_cox]

Too much techy questioning for me! I am currently on an iPad 2 using Vodafone 3G with a greek SIM. We bought the SIM a couple of years ago, forget the price but not a lot. We pay €40 for 30 days PAYG internet, 5 Gb, it works pretty much everywhere, even 15 miles from land. We have a Cosmote SIM in a phone, costs buttons and lasts a year, so we only need to add a few euros each spring.

 

[DaveRo]

It depends how much data you want. One cheap option is to buy an unlocked dongle on ebay (search for 'huawei hsdpa dongle unlocked' - the E220 is old but reliable) plug it in the laptop (assuming it has USB) and put a local SIM in it.

I've recently been using both Wind F2G and Cosmokarte prepaid SIMs. Both currently give you 500Mb for 5€, though the Wind offer is easier to activate because it's done by an SMS (though you have to put the SIM in a phone to do so).
http://www.wind.gr/en/for-individua...ice/wind-mobile-internet/mobile-internet-100/

 

[telford_mike]

There are lots of technical options involving shiney new gadgets, local SIM cards etc.

But don't ignore the simplest of all - just use your existing phone as a hotspot and accept that there will be some roaming charges. Roaming is getting cheaper and cheaper, and although it still costs a few quid it's a lot simpler than all that faffing about. I travel to Switzerland a lot and have had a local PAYG SIM for years. It's now cheaper (and so much simpler) to pay my UK provider's roaming charges.

Check your tariff.

 

[MASH]

just use your existing phone as a hotspot

Very few UK service providers allow tethering. I accidentally switched my hotspot on and had a snottogram from 3 within minutes, and I hadn't downloaded a thing on it.

Or can't they tell if you are roaming?

 

[telford_mike]

I'm on an O2 SIM-only monthly contract - never had any problems using the hotspot on my old Nokia or new Android phones. Not sure whether roaming would hide it if it's not permitted by your contract.

 

[Steve C Cronin]

We went to the Vodafone shop in Corfu, bought a "WiFi Hotspot for €80, signed a contract and walked out with a device which connects immediately and works anywhere in Greece, connecting up to five devices at a time. It costs €15 a month for 5Gb and it sits on a shelf running off of 12vdc and is as good as gold.

 

[affinite]

We went to the Vodafone shop in Corfu, bought a "WiFi Hotspot for €80, signed a contract and walked out with a device which connects immediately and works anywhere in Greece, connecting up to five devices at a time. It costs €15 a month for 5Gb and it sits on a shelf running off of 12vdc and is as good as gold.

Seems good value but OP is only in crete for 3 weeks.
Steve Is your gizzmo on a contract or PAYG

 

[Steve C Cronin]

Seems good value but OP is only in crete for 3 weeks.
Steve Is your gizzmo on a contract or PAYG

Contract. I can double the allowance by paying another €10 but we have rarely found this to be necessary. We can pay for ad hoc top-ups which suffice for the occasional excesses of use. Now I am retired, I don't suppose that I will even use the 5Gb most months now.

The registration for this deal actually gave me a Greek tax account, which I found out later. However, they spelled my Surname wrong!

 

[sailaboutvic]

Sailing from country to country we found what works for us , is a MYFI , in Greece we used Cosmote , , set the MYIF to auto find the APN , stick the new SIM card in , put on the pin code and as a rule it works . The only country we had a bit of a problem was I Tunisia where we had to put in the APN and user name our selfs , so now we have a list of most Internet providers APN and any users name , with the MYFI we can have IPad and PC running at the same time , one big advanced with a MYFI is you can take your IPad and MYFI when you away from the boat and have Internet any where .

www.bluewatersailorcroatia.webs.com