tromp43
New member
Who can advise me about the best way to stay online, use internet and so on, while sailing along the North French coast. I have a laptop and a mobile phone.
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mobile internet on board
- Thread starter tromp43
- Start date
GAJ
Member
A friend of mine has a GPRS enabled mobile that he used in Italy/Spain/Portugal last year. The charges seemed very reasonable, 20 Euros a month, I think, and the service appeared to be reliable. I think that the monthly charge is determined by the amount of info (Megabytes) that are included before being charged so much per Meg thereafter.
I believe that it is not the easiest of systems to set up, the local phone shop in Sardinia suggested that he took in his computer and then they got it up and running for him.
The Italian and Spanish phone charges are much lower than UK so he set up an Italian account, try the French and see if they can do the same sort of deal.
Internet access and emails were no problem and of course the phone works as well!
I'm told that Vodaphone are the people to try here but in our local Vodaphone shop they have no idea so I am going to have to investigate further.
When you leave the UK bear in mind that you pay for the international part of the call when receiving a call.
If you have Voicemail, the same applies, every time it calls you to say that you have a message, bear in mind that it will keep calling until the messages are dealt with. I turned my phone off for 4 months in 2002 and still had massive bills because even though the calls were not received I was still charged for them!
Frank Singleton wrote an article that appears on the Cruising Association website on the subject which is worth a read.
Colin Jones wrote a series of articles in PBO some time ago on the same subject.
Internet Cafes may be a proposition but they can be few and far between and never seem to be open when you want them!
Hope this helps.
Regards
GAJ
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I believe that it is not the easiest of systems to set up, the local phone shop in Sardinia suggested that he took in his computer and then they got it up and running for him.
The Italian and Spanish phone charges are much lower than UK so he set up an Italian account, try the French and see if they can do the same sort of deal.
Internet access and emails were no problem and of course the phone works as well!
I'm told that Vodaphone are the people to try here but in our local Vodaphone shop they have no idea so I am going to have to investigate further.
When you leave the UK bear in mind that you pay for the international part of the call when receiving a call.
If you have Voicemail, the same applies, every time it calls you to say that you have a message, bear in mind that it will keep calling until the messages are dealt with. I turned my phone off for 4 months in 2002 and still had massive bills because even though the calls were not received I was still charged for them!
Frank Singleton wrote an article that appears on the Cruising Association website on the subject which is worth a read.
Colin Jones wrote a series of articles in PBO some time ago on the same subject.
Internet Cafes may be a proposition but they can be few and far between and never seem to be open when you want them!
Hope this helps.
Regards
GAJ
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fairweather
New member
Have a chat with Marine IT
www.marineit.com
I found them extremely helpful for my Laptop and GSM issues
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www.marineit.com
I found them extremely helpful for my Laptop and GSM issues
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poggy
New member
Hi,
You may find that some marinas have wireless broadband and you buy access time by voucher from the marina office. A lot of new laptops have the cards built in or you can buy one quite cheaply.
In the UK, BT offer an hour for abot £6 I think and this is broadband speed. YOu can also buy 24 hour access and subscribe.
Check out www.btopenzone.com they have more details and a directory, maybe there is an international list.
Poggy
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You may find that some marinas have wireless broadband and you buy access time by voucher from the marina office. A lot of new laptops have the cards built in or you can buy one quite cheaply.
In the UK, BT offer an hour for abot £6 I think and this is broadband speed. YOu can also buy 24 hour access and subscribe.
Check out www.btopenzone.com they have more details and a directory, maybe there is an international list.
Poggy
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spark
Member
I spoke to a very helpful man at the boat show who told me all about this. He was selling satellite phones but when he had questioned me enough he showed me his own laptop which had a GPRS card plugged into one of his PCMCIA slots. The aerial was a little red tab that stuck out the side - no wires required. The connection was faster than my dial-up at home (over 50Kbps) and is 'always on' i.e. no waiting for it to dial-up.
The card thingy came from Vodafone and cost c. £70. He thought that the monthly charge was c.£5/month and they then charge you for the volume of data that you download. I can't recall the cost but it might have been around 2Mb/£ - whatever it was it sounded bearable.
I'm definitely going to go for it myself.
<hr width=100% size=1><A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.qei.co.uk/spark.html>http://www.qei.co.uk/spark.html</A>
The card thingy came from Vodafone and cost c. £70. He thought that the monthly charge was c.£5/month and they then charge you for the volume of data that you download. I can't recall the cost but it might have been around 2Mb/£ - whatever it was it sounded bearable.
I'm definitely going to go for it myself.
<hr width=100% size=1><A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.qei.co.uk/spark.html>http://www.qei.co.uk/spark.html</A>
simon
Member
I've got a Vodafone Mobile Conect card. It has a sim card in a a credit card sized card that slots into the lap top. Speeds are about 2 to 3 times that from a mobile and costs are working out much lower. You only pay for the amount of data downloaded, and depending on the contract you take out you get a certain amount free per month. I have used it in UK, Europe, Australia and Hong Kong without problems, and it is working out considerably cheaper than using my mobile conected to the lap top.
Try www.vodaphone.co.uk/business or telephone 08701 646464 or 191 from a vodaphone mobile.
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Try www.vodaphone.co.uk/business or telephone 08701 646464 or 191 from a vodaphone mobile.
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poggy
New member
Hi,
This doesn't work on the GSM or GPRS networks, this is based on localised access points at marina's, hotels, service stations etc. The range is about 100M from an aerial point. The card is the same as a wireless lane. The speed is like broadband and you have unrestricted data transfer as it is access time you buy.
Poggy
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This doesn't work on the GSM or GPRS networks, this is based on localised access points at marina's, hotels, service stations etc. The range is about 100M from an aerial point. The card is the same as a wireless lane. The speed is like broadband and you have unrestricted data transfer as it is access time you buy.
Poggy
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spark
Member
I've just done some research and the thing that we want is called Vodafone Mobile Connect and the best price I can find is £87.99 inc. VAT for the card (here - http://www.airlandata.com/Specpages/datacards/mobile_connect.html ).
Use Simon's link (above) to check out the monthly fees and data charges to find the one that suits you best.
<hr width=100% size=1><A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.qei.co.uk/spark.html>http://www.qei.co.uk/spark.html</A>
Use Simon's link (above) to check out the monthly fees and data charges to find the one that suits you best.
<hr width=100% size=1><A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.qei.co.uk/spark.html>http://www.qei.co.uk/spark.html</A>
MedMan
New member
Have a look at 'Communication in European Waters' on my website - link below.
<hr width=100% size=1><A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.yachtretreat.com>http://www.yachtretreat.com</A>
<hr width=100% size=1><A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.yachtretreat.com>http://www.yachtretreat.com</A>
qsiv
New member
It will be well worth subscribing to one of the services that strip unneccesary data out of emails, and thus minimise online time the one I know is
<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.globalmarinenet.net>Global marine</A>, but there are many others.
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<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.globalmarinenet.net>Global marine</A>, but there are many others.
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Re: GPRS
Your write-up on mobile comms needs an update. Even if you have no personal experince you should suggest that the reader investigates the the newish GPRS option as well.
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Your write-up on mobile comms needs an update. Even if you have no personal experince you should suggest that the reader investigates the the newish GPRS option as well.
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