Laptops & Email

[DKnight]

Summer Cruise coming up, now have navsoftware installed, DVD's to keep Child (and mother) amused. But need to pick up emails daily from my office (I know I'm sad!). Software loaded for mobile to talk to laptop via infra red, but my ISP provider does not allow me to down load data from a foriegn country (France!)

Do I need another ISP provider & Email address (this would not cause too many problems as I only need to pick up the office ones) or is there an alternative route?
I only need this facility for a few weeks a year, but it would be nice to do it as cost effectivly as possible. Any ideas!!!!!!!!!

Oh, and my mobile is hooked up to Orange

DK

 

[gtmoore]

What ISP are you using? Most have geographical/National access numbers that will work internationally. There is a list at http://www.freedom-mobiles.co.uk/data.htm

Not sure about Caller Line Identity (required by some ISP's) working from France although it does work from Spain via Orange on some networks.

Easiest option may be to set up a free orange.net dial-up account (http://www.orange.net/) then use one of their other access numbers (listed at the freedom-mobiles site) which should definitely work abroad. You can forget the orange email bit and access your existing pop email account from that - no need then to give out any new addresses.

As with all these types of solutions, it's rather difficult to test short of going to Dover and signing on to one of the French networks and trying it.

HTH

Gavin

PS Might be worth confirming with Orange on 159 that you have international roaming enabled on your account.

 

[gtmoore]

Sorry to follow on from my own post but just to clarify you'll need to use the orange.net smtp server to post email but receive email from your existing pop server.

Oh and while Orange are checking your roaming status get them to check you have data and fax enabled (if you can use your phone and laptop for data here in the UK then obviously you already have it). The last thing you want is a long international call to 150 trying to get things added when you're away.

I'll keep quiet now!

 

[david_bagshaw]

why dont you dial back to the uk & use oranges set up.

If orange are anything like vodafone the "cheapert" local call does not exist. it iis the same price as a call to the uk. needless to say there is no cheap rate evenings or weekends.



David
www.euroboating.net

 

[robp]

Whichever way you do it (I just dial back to my Virgin account with a regular UK national number they give), make sure you limit the download file size in Outlook or whatever you use. I limited mine to 65K, or I get problems waiting forever at 9800 bps if people send out big attachments, then it disconnects!

I agree. I would rather deal with it each day and then relax, rather than not be in touch. It works great.

 

[boatone]

I have an orange mobile and have set up orange as an access account through their website. I have also set up a numbert of different email addresses so as to ensure that only stuff I actually need to read goes to a primary email address and other stuff that can wait goes to a seperate address ( I belong to a number of very active email lists so have set all these up to go to a single email address which I can read when I get back).

Its also worth looking at setting up a web based email address such as hotmail which will let you look at the contents of your email box and decide which messages you actually want to look at or reply to. This way you can recognise junk mail and spam without actually downloading it. If you can arrange to divert emails from your regular address to the web based address even better.

The other problem with using a mobile link abroad is that the foreign operator needs to support data send/receive and I have had some difficulty with this in France.

Oh, and dont overlook using interent cafes whenever you can. Usually very cheap and much quicker than a mobile link.

MoBoChat Images and Profile Pics at www.arweb.co.uk/argallery/mobochat

 

[Gunfleet]

What you need to do in France is to avoid Bouyges-tel or whatever it's called. If your Orange phone logs on to them they won't allow data calls. All the others do, SFR, Orange, Itineris. Just select your network manually and it'll work fine for dialling back to the UK and getting emails from Orange.net. Also, Orange GPRS is available in France for no supplement (above the UK gprs fee) until Sept 1st. I haven't tried it, but if like me you get industrial strength/size emails when abroad it would be worth investigatine

 

[Forbsie]

Also if you have Outlook in the office through Microsoft Exchange Server, ask your techies if they have Outlook Web Access. This enables you to look directly at your office e-mail from any web browser, particularly in an internet cafe. You can also access your calendar and contacts as well.

 

[ccscott49]

As far as e mail goes, I use fastmail.fm they are excellent and will retrive to them asl;l your mail form elsewhere, no frills, no adverts and they trim the mails down, an excellent service, which I admit you have to pay for, but it's cheap, and fast especially on a mobile phone link up.

 

[MedMan]

Interesting! My UK phone is from One2One (now T-Mobile). Bouygues Telecom was my network of choice when I was in France in 1998/99/2000 as it was by far the cheapest. I downloaded data (emails) twice a week during that period with no problems. I have also logged on through their network using a UK phone on Cellnet (now O2) - that also worked.

Just as a matter of interest, I changed from Cellnet to One2One in 1999 as Cellnet more than doubled all their roaming prices in order 'to make it simpler to understand'! For 1 month I had both contracts in force. To make an in-country call (I use AOL which has local numbers in every country in the world) using Bouygues Telecom after 2130 on my Cellnet phone cost 99p/min. The same call made at the same time on the same network (Bouygues Telecom ) but using my One2One phone cost me 18p/min. No - that's not a mistake - eighteen pence inc VAT. Bouygues Telecom no doubt passed on the same charge to Cellnet and to One2One but Cellnet were being much, much greedier and marking it up by a huge %. Such differences still exist so it is well worth checking out every providers' roaming charges for the countries you intend to visit. When I last did a detailed survey (18 months ago) One2One were still by far the cheapest but these things can change overnight so it is worth checking again.

 

[MedMan]

If you tend to spend your nights in marinas/harbours, Internet Cafes are a viable option as more and more are opening up. If your ISP uses a POP3 or IMAP4 mailbox you can pick up your mail by going to www.mail2web.com. Having read it, you can choose to leave it there to download when you get back home or delete it from your mailbox.

We like to anchor whenever we can so I favour the laptop/GSM phone approach. I use a laptop connected to a Nokia phone by cable. I prefer a cable as, when using the setup on board, the phone is at water level. Using a cable I can hold the phone up through the hatch. If I used an Infra red link it would have to lie flat in order to talk to my laptop and would, therefore, be at or below waterlevel. In poor signal areas this difference can be critical.

I used to use CompuServe but now use AOL. Both have access numbers in every country in the world so you only have to dial a local, in country number, not an International number back to the UK. As I live on board in the Med that is important. However, if you are only going for a week or so, dialling back to the UK is a reasonable option. As someone else has already pointed out, to do this you must use an ISP with a regional number - 0800 and 0845 numbers do not work from abroad.

 

[ccscott49]

I need to speak to you! I have the nokia 7110 and lead, which won't speak to my ME equiped laptop, I believe there is a fix. I would rather use the spanish phone system, which is even cheaper, but I'm still having trouble with a server! I had a Portugese one, but need one I can use anywhere, AOL I've heard tends to take over your computer! Adding it's settings everywhere, I don't want this, I have my own Email sysytem (fastnmail) and don't want theres, I need hellp with this, I am computer literate, but this is beggining to piss me off!

 

[markdj]

The system I use while abroad is as follows :-

Orange as they have the cheapest international rates (prob. One to No-One is similar)

A great e-mail program for deleting spam before downloading is www.mailwasher.net

And then I use Outlook Express after using mailwasher - the system works great.

I use www.iberpass.com for international local call ISP. They are fantastic value.

I use the demo software of Raymarine Navigator to view GRIB data for the weather

I use http://iwin.nws.noaa.gov/pub/data/text/FPUK71/EGRR.TXT
to download the BBC shipping forecast in only 2 Kilobytes

I use http://www.navcenter.com/grb/EastAtlantic.zip
to download a free 5 day GRIB forecast which is invaluable.

And I use http://www.meto.gov.uk/datafiles/inshore.html
for the inshore waters forecast but it's html and is quite a big file compared to the shipping forecast txt file.

I use http://www.rcds.co.uk/ for navigation with the printable ARCS charts - definitely the most accurate and really cheap for yearly updates.

I think that's it. Oh, I use an Ericsson T39 with infra-red and Windows XP Pro. I also use www.Getright.com to manage my weather downloads.

Hope this is helpful

Mark

 

[Gunfleet]

You are a very smart chap and all your links have gone straight into my favourites file. |This info should have a wider audience!

 

[markdj]

Thanks for your compliment.

It has taken about 3 months for me to come up with the system I currently use and over 8 months to decide on www.rcds.co.uk for the navigation. I think I have about every demo disc there has ever been on nav software. I certainly was giving Google a hard time when I was searching for downloadable weather data.

In the next year, the Meridian Seatrak software will have weather data included - the guys who design it told me a couple of weeks ago, thanks Dick and Aaran from Meridian.

Happy boating

MarkDJ

 

[MapisM]

I've been also spending some time looking at navigation SW, before deciding to give higher priority to other refittings, thus postponing the electronics stuff.
Therefore, I'm surprised to discover not only a new name which I was not aware of, but also that after your accurate selection it was the winner.
I gave a look at the link (BTW, now it brings automatically to www.norcom.demon.co.uk/meridian), and this SEAtrak thing seems in fact interesting, though not cheap at 350+VAT.
I would be interested in having your viewpoint on its main pros and cons, based on real-life experience.
Thanks in advance for that.

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://web.tiscali.it/mapis/Sausalito.jpg> Is liveaboard what you’re looking for?... </A>

 

[MedMan]

You have raised a number of quite separate issues:

Your Nokia 7110 certainly ought to talk to your laptop using the lead. I have an older model so I do not know the specifics of the 7110. Do you know if it has a built-in modem or does it use a so-called 'soft modem' installed onto your hard disk from a CD? Have you tried connecting using its infrared link? Did that work?

Many of my friends use a local mobile phone company when cruising. In many countries you can purchase a 'SIM Card only' contract on a pay-as-you-go basis. You then just slip the SIM card into your existing phone. This will work if you use O2 or Vodafone but TMobile and Orange (I believe) 'lock' their phones so they cannot be used with another company's SIM card. However, if you have had the contract for 2 years they will usually 'unlock' it for you on request. The main advantages of a local card are cheap(er) in-country calls and, provided you are in the country of issue, the ability to receive calls without having to pay anything. (Your callers pay for the whole call)

AOL is not as bad as it is reputed to be in taking over your PC. It will set itself as the default browser and suggest you set it as the default mail client. However, these settings are easily reversed. It may also put an AOL icon in the top right hand corner of Internet Explorer and the top line will read 'Internet Explorer provided by AOL', even though it isn't! If these cosmetic items offend you they can be reversed bu using an official Microsoft 'Tweaking' program that can be downloaded off the Internet or obtained off a PC Mag CD.

I must confess that I do not like the AOL software but I do like their provision of dial-up numbers in every conntry. I also like their price structure. I use Light User when cruising (under £5/month) and the £15/month all-inclusive package when back in the UK. The latter is particularly good for me as their 0800 numbers can be used from any phone, BT, NTL or whoever rather than from a specified phone as with many ISPs. When I am back in the UK I stay with many different friends and family (my house is let out) and I can use the Internet freely knowing that it is not costing them anything as I have already paid on my credit card.

It is possible to use AOL to gain access to the Internet and then use a different ISP for your email. Once you have logged on with AOL you can minimize it and then run either Internet Explorer or Ouutlook Express 'piggy-backed' using the AOL connection. I always use Internet Explorer piggy-backed in this way as I like it much better than the AOL interface, even though the latter is based upon IE.

If you piggy back Outlook Express you will almost certainly be able to download your mail from a standard POP3 mailbox but their could be an issue when sending mail this way. Some ISP's only allow you to send mail through their own SMTP server.

An alternate way of accessing your own mail is to piggy back IE and then go to mail2web.com. This excellent service works with many ISP's mailboxes.

If you really don't like AOL you can look at their stable-mate, CompuServe that uses much the same network of overseas numbers but you may not like that much better! Alternatively, you could look into www.iberpass.com or www.net2roam.com. These companies provide overseas POPs (Points of Presence) that enable you to use your existing ISP with a local country number.

Good luck,

 

[ponapay]

Re: Laptops & Email - USE AOL

AOL is great, you can use it anywhere.

But buy a local SIM card otherwise your phone bills will be astronomic.

ponapay

 

[ToMo]

I currently use O2 and have been told that pay-as-you-go does not allow data transmission, which means that I can't send e-mails.
I really wish there was a definative answer to all this, there is so much conflicting advice and information it is impossible to know what to do.

TôMö

 

[MedMan]

Much of the the conflicting advice comes because, looking at Europe as a whole, there are scores of Mobile Phone Companies each one of which has, say, ten to twenty or more different pricing plans. Some plans allow data transmission, others don't. Few, if any, come with data by default - you have to ask for it. Perm that lot together and you have many 1000's of possible contracts that one could use, some of which will allow data tramsmission and others that will not. Each one of us out there has experience of but a handful of the possibilities leaving all sorts of other permutations that might give a different answer. Add to that the fact that all too many Mobile Phone HelpLine Operators simply do not have experience of using data abroad and it can indeed be a frustrating game. IMHO you have two choices: copy the precise combination of Cellphone Provider/ISP/Handset/Computer/Modem/Cable successfully used by someone already in the country you propose to visit or go it alone and suck it and see!