Completely ignorant

Sonesta

I know I am probably asking a stupid question so please don't laugh at my ignorance, but is there any way I can take my laptop with me when on our travels and connect up to the internet whilst in the motor home? I just thought if it were possible it might be helpful when looking up information on the web about particular locations and campsites etc. Someone told me you can connect your laptop to your mobile phone and log on like you do at home - but knowing me I have probably completely misunderstood. If anyone can help or advise me I would welcome some advice but please explain it to me simply because I am not very clued up on the technical side of computers at all. All this clever, computer language is beyond me! I just know I click on an icon and I am online, any more than that and I break out in a cold sweat! #Smile_colors

Sonesta

nobby

If you go back through all the postings in the forum you will find more answers about this subject than you could ever have hoped for.

nobby

spykal · Moderator

Hi Sonesta

If you go here:

BillD

Hi Sonesta,

As Nobby says there is a huge amount of info. and discussion about this topic in the forums.

However to give you a simple answer to get you started, yes you can connect a laptop via your mobile 'phone. There are several ways to do it, the most flexible and likely to get you the best signal in the most places is via a GPRS connection (this can be via your 'phone (if suitable) or a Card in your laptop).
This is not cheap though and must be done with 'Roaming ' enabled and will cost about £6 per MB.

Now, without being rude but in view of what you said, if you understand what I have just said I think you should start searching the forums. If it sounds gibberish either forget it or get someone else to do it for you.

Best of Luck.

peejay

Hi sonesta,

You're a bit like me with all this jargon, what i would say though is that any method of internet contact while abroad is going to be EXPENSIVE and you'll need a fair bit of techie savvy to sort it out, unless, like billd says, you can get someone else to sort it for you.
Purely my own opinion, but If it was me, i'd just visit an internet cafe every now and again to keep in touch and save all your braincells for planning and enjoying the trip Wink

pete.

Sonesta

Thanks all of you for your replies - when I get in from work I will have a good look through past posts and see if any of it makes sense to me. Is it really expensive to use via mobile phone then? Say for example I was online half an hour - how much would you say approximately that would cost? We are also going to Morocco for 6 weeks in November and wondered if I could use this method there and if so - would the costs whilst abroad be enormous? Does any network offer any good deals on internet connection etc as I am due for an upgrade soon and may change my package if necessary to one that would suit me better.

Sorry to ask so many questions! #Newbie

Thanks again and will look forward to hearing more advice.

Sonesta

olley · Campsite DB Admin

Hi sonesta I have an 02 data card in my laptop which allows me to connect to the internet, you should find that you have 1 or 2 slots in the side of your laptop they are about 2" long x 1/2 wide, you can buy a data card from most phone suppliers which will fit into these.

They connect up using the mobile phone network, if you cannot get a signal for your phone, you will not be able to connect up using your data card, I have no idea of mobile phone coverage in morocco.

At the moment their are 3 connection speeds GPS GPRS and 3G, GPS is the slowest and 3G is the fastest, GPRS is available in most of europe, 3G is the new kid on the block, and is still being rolled out. Your data card will come with connection software which will automatically pick the fastest available connection.

If you can get a mobile service in Morocco its almost certain to be GPS or GPRS this is sloooooooooow it took me 20 minutes to connect to yahoo and download 1 email when in france and italy this year (even 3G when available will be slow not broadband speeds) for straight emails it was fine. for surfing its unusable IMHO .It will cost you nothing to stay connected only to download.

But unlike a phone, computers tend to try and send info without you asking ie. windows update, realplayer update and others, you need to block all outgoing data with your firewall except from the data card, one of the other forums explained how to do this.

If i where to buy a card again i would not buy 02 their 3G coverage in britain is abysmal try one of the others. the cost of about £6.00 per meg sounds about right, that will easily cover 10 long emails.

hope that helps, Detourer should be able to advise on mobile coverage and internet cafes and the like.

Olley

Sonesta

Thanks Olley, all sounds a bit complicated to me. Embarassed

It's a pity someone doesn't bring a system out that you can use efficiently and cheaply via your satellite dish. I am sure there must be a huge demand for such a system and I am sure, that whoever is the first to bring out such a service, they will have a huge interest from the public. You would think in this world of high tech someone, somewhere would have jumped on the bandwagon by now!

Sonesta

spykal · Moderator

Hi sonesta

You have not replied with your computer details (and mobile phone) ...did you want the info about what your options are? or are you sorted now?

Satellite is an option...expensive though.

Mike