Mobile phone dongle for Laptop

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Chugger

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Hello,
We sail in the Med...currently the boat is laid up afloat in Almerimar..and I'm trying to find the best solution for getting on thre net - principally for getting weather. We try to spend most of our time, when not sailing or chugging, at anchor. It's not justthe high fees but we really enjoy anchoring when we can.

I was told by our local phone shop that (mostly) broad band signals are weak and fadre as a square of the distance away.

Anybody any views please?
 
We sail in Croatia and use a Vipnet broadband dongle. It's branded Vodafone (there is a technical tie-up between Vipnet Croatia and Vodafone) and is exactly the same as the dongle you buy from Vodafone in the UK. It also works fine in the UK with the Vipnet sim card but is expensive because of the roaming charge.

The dongle costs about £30 in Croatia and we top it up as and when required.

I think that the Croatian transmitters are on the mainland rather than the islands as the signal seems to get weaker as you sail out. We can receive a weak signal on the north side of Vis island but virtually no signal on the south side of Vis and none at all on Bisevo (the furthest island out in the Adriatic towards Italy). That gives a range offshore of about 30 miles to the north of Vis and 40 miles to Bisevo.

I don't know if all countries will be the same but it seems that once you are more than about 30 miles out you will need Navtex, satphone or SSB for daily weather.

Richard
 
internet in the med

My boat is based in Denia .I use a T mobile dongle when at anchor which is fine for grib files and weather but hideously expensive for anything else as they charge on download amounts. Internet cafes are incredibly cheap and some cafes and clubs have free wifi
 
Dongle

Chugger said:
Hello,
We sail in the Med...currently the boat is laid up afloat in Almerimar..and I'm trying to find the best solution for getting on thre net - principally for getting weather. We try to spend most of our time, when not sailing or chugging, at anchor. It's not justthe high fees but we really enjoy anchoring when we can.

I was told by our local phone shop that (mostly) broad band signals are weak and fadre as a square of the distance away.

Anybody any views please?
Click to expand...

If you get an unlocked dongle, you can use local sim cards for your broadband, I got a unlocked 3.co.uk dongle from e-bay we use the 3 sim in UK and then purchase a local vodaphone one for Portugal
 
Chugger said:
I was told by our local phone shop that (mostly) broad band signals are weak and fadre as a square of the distance away.
Click to expand...

From 2006 to 2009, I used an unlocked phone, or an unlocked dongle, to get mobile broadband on my laptop/netbook.

Used local PAYG sim cards where I could get them - Yoigo in spain, TIM and WIND in Italy, and Go Mobile in Malta, (contract.... I think Vodafone do a reasonable PAYG deal nowadays).

Had no problem connecting when close to the coast, (5-10 miles or so), sometimes getting GPRS rather than 3G, but fine for email, gribs, and slow browsing.. At anchor, or in a marina, had no problems whatsoever.

So dont be put off by what your phone shop tells you.

Used my UK T-Mobile sim without problem for limited stuff on the trip back over the summer. Not cheap, but didnt have time to get local sims anywhere.
 
Moodyjim said:
That's a data card sim is it? (I'm not much up on this stuff!)
Click to expand...
A SIM that goes into a dongle (or a datacard - both are mobile phone modems) and a SIM that goes into an ordinary phone are the same. What services any particular SIM provides - voice, data, SMS, etc. - depends on the operator who provides it. Some dongles are sold with SIMs which only provide data and these are sometimes called 'data SIMs'. Most SIMs aimed at mobile phones provide voice and data and these will usually work in a dongle - provided the dongle is unlocked.

The tariff for data, for a particular SIM, may depend on what 'access point name' (APN) you connect it to - though normally there is an APN for 'the internet'. If you use a local SIM you have to find out the name of this APN and configure it in the program that manages the dongle - sometimes called a 'mobile helper'.

You can use many mobile phones as a modem - connecting to your computer via bluetooth or a cable. This is called 'tethering'.
 
GSM roaming

Go for a local SIM card always - by far the cheapest option.

You can see the coverage of all of the networks, anywhere in the world, with the following link: http://www.gsmworld.com/technology/roaming/index.htm

The maximum range of a transmitter is normally about 22 miles, for timing reasons. In remote areas they will occasionally put in a longer range one, but this is the exception.

You may be interested in looking at our SmartCom Mobile software to aid connectivity - it has the network settings for most mobile operators, optimises your network connection, and allows you to preview your e-mails without downloading them. See http://www.smartcomsoftware.com/smartcomsoftware.html

You can also look at Onspeed for web and e-mail data compression, and Mailasail for e-mail compression.
 
Almerimar marina provides an acceptable wifi service at a reasonable price. Bandwidth can be an issue and the marina ask you to respect this and NOT use P2P type services. Problems can be that no one respects this and P2P downloads are prevelant and for others the service can then be ****.

To Bill12 - My boat is based in Denia. If you are in Marina de Denia or Club Nautico then you should be able to see the "wlan" wifi service - leave your wifi open and you should connect for free. If not the I can provide the setup codes that give you automatic access ;)
 
3g me mobile rental PAY AS YOU GO internet spain

the best option and the cheapest modem internet in SPAIN at the moment is
me mobile , 5 mbite down load with no min. spend, they supply open modems for travellers also ask for a dual sim mobile phone, www.memobiletrental.com good luck
 
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