Mobile phones and laptops

[hilaryjane]

I had a problem connecting as my Toshiba Satellite laptop didn't have a serial port so I couldn't connect a data lead. However I have just bought a Nokia Cardphone (£49.99 from the Mobile Republic) which slots into the PC card slot.
This works well for email, internet (as fast as our home PC) and to send and receive text messages - you can buy an extra kit to make it voice mail but we will use ordinary mobile for this. Initially I had a problem because I have Windows XP but updates can be downloaded from the Nokia site. Hope this helps anyone with similar problems.

 

[jleedham]

As an alternative I use a nokia 6210 with InfraRed and a Toshiba 4600 which also has IR. Works a treat...

http://www.johnleedham.co.uk

 

[pandroid]

What do you guys do for SIM cards? I have a similar thing (a Ubinetics) and wanted to get a pay-as-you-go SIM card as I dont use it all the time and didnt fancy keep swapping the SIM between my monthly cellphone and the laptop, but all the PAYG SIMS dont do data. Any ideas?

 

[david_bagshaw]

personaly use a nokia 6310 or 9110 0n a cable connection to laptop, so no sim swapping from hand set is required.

David
www.euroboating.net

 

[mldpt]

I use my 9110i on its own to get all my e-mails its much faster than connected to laptop and it downloads headers only then you can delete the junk and download the rest to read, and its possible to leave the mail on your isp and down load later onto the laptop if needed. I wish I could get hold of a 9210 though.Mike

 

[Allan]

THE 9210 IS AVAILABLE NOW, IN FACT IT IS SOON TO BE REPLACED BY THE 9210i. What network are you using? I beleive they are not branded on Orange and T-mobile. But that does not mean you cannot use them on your network.
regards Allan

 

[mldpt]

I use vodafone, I nearly changed last week to (02) they even sent me the sim card but when I tried to instal it there was no signal, so I am staying with Vodaphone, unfortunatly they have stoped including 0845 numbers with free minutes with monthly accounts, so I a now looking for an ISP that uses a normal code (01) etc, any ideas, I have several mates with 9210s I love the colour screen but also love my 9110i
regards Mike

 

[Guest]

I've used the Cardphone in the past and it's been very good. The one I tried had an option for bundling two HSCSD (High Speed Circuit Switched Data) SIMs to increase the bandwidth to between 14 and 28K.

Another possibility is Bluetooth, a radio standard that does away with the need for connecting cables. Ericcsson and Nokia are both selling Bluetooth phones at the moment, and on the laptop side of things, it's possible to use either PC card or USB aerials, although both of these use extra power, draining the batteries.

Actually, that's also a consideration with the Nokia Cardphone - it will use a bit more juice than Infrared or a cable, but it's certainly more likely to work than IR if you're bouncing about on the oggin.

As far as I can tell, Orange is the only operator in the UK to have HSCSD. Additionally, there'll be GPRS and UMTS options for yet more bandwidth, but these are dependent on your operator, and roaming (using the phone abroad) may be more limited than standard phones, which use GSM.
I'm considering a feature on this in the magazine, so I'd be keen to see what you all think about mobile data.

Ben

Features editor, Practical Boat Owner

 

[gtmoore]

You can find a comprehensive list of ISP's that have geographical access numbers in addition to the normal 0845 at http://www.freedom-mobiles.co.uk/data.htm. These are normally used for international access but work from here too.

These include Virgin, Tesco, AOL, BT etc.

HTH

Gavin

 

[claymore]

I use a Toshiba 320CDT laptop installed with my navigation software and ARCS charts. I'm an Orange mobile phone user. The boat lives on the Scottish west coast. Orange coverage is not good there so after much deliberation I decided to stick with Coastguard weather forecasts on VHF and not bother with emails or the phone - after all I am on holiday when on the boat. There can't be anything that all fired important that it can't keep for a couple of days - we used to manage before the blasted mobile was invented.

regards
Claymore

 

[joe17]

Re: 2 SIMs

> I've used the Cardphone in the past and it's been very good. The one I tried had
> an option for bundling two HSCSD (High Speed Circuit Switched Data) SIMs to
> increase the bandwidth to between 14 and 28K

I dont think it is 2 SIMs that are bundled. You need only one SIM. What is bundled are the slots. One speech call or 9.6K data call uses one slot. HSCSD lets the mobile take more slots and combine them into a data call up to 42.3K. Obviously the more slots you use the more you pay.

 

[Guest]

Re: 2 SIMs

Ah - so it's two timeslots instead of two SIMs? I shall stand corrected. Thanks for that.
Ben

 

[Guest]

I've just bought a Ubinetics phone card, similar to the Nokia but I got it network free so I can use my current mobile sim.

Seems to be an excellent bit of kit. It comes with a quality headset so you can still use it as a phone, also bundled with fax, data, phone and text messaging software.

Excellent service from Expansis who also gave good aftersales service and provided a software patch to improve performance with Win ME.

Regards,

Peter
http://www.mistressofmourne.com

 

[pandroid]

I got one of those things, but it seemed unreliable (on Win98), sometimes dialling, sometimes not, and generally being a pain in the ass. I also didnt like having to switch SIM cards all the time (I was distraught to find that Pay-as-you-go sims dont do data)

Have you found the thing unreliable, or should I persevere?

 

[Guest]

Seems OK so far although I have found that I need the phone tools program open so the phone connects to the network. If I try just to dial out when connecting to the Internet it doesn't seem to be able to locate the network. As far as swapping the sim card, the headset allows the card to be used as a normal phone so I don't see any problems really.

Regards,

Peter
http://www.mistressofmourne.com