internet on the go (again!)

[downward dog]

Hi all,
Well it's a wander round across the channel for us this year. We are going for about 4-5 weeks (!!), and so we need some internet access without searching out cafes all the time. We expect to stay mostly on municipal type sites on a touring basis. At the moment we have a couple of cheapo PAYG mobiles, and only use about £2 a month on calls each....so no smartphones at the mo!! and a laptop on talktalk home wifi. I looked back on here and the last thread just confused me, cos I am a bit of a technophobe..talk of masts,wifi,mifi,dongles, etc. I have confused myself even more by looking at android tablets and suchlike.... Is there a simple economical way of doing this that even I can understand ?

[Poohbear]

A lot of sites on the continent have Wifi so just use that. Ask at reception for the password and don't camp too far from the router.

[Simon Jones]

Just a thought, pick up a PAYG sim in the country you are in otherwise you'll have to pay international roaming charges.

[Poohbear]

Just a thought, pick up a PAYG sim in the country you are in otherwise you'll have to pay international roaming charges.

Not for Wifi they won't

[Simon Jones]

Well, obviously Mr/Mrs/Ms D Dog will need some form of donglemabob to use it in if they want to use 3G instead of wifi

[downward dog]

Ta for the replies.....Yep,, not exactly confident that village municipal sites will have wifi... if I bought one of those dongle thingies and popped into my thingy socket on the laptop....what would that actually do??.....whose dongle is best??

[Poohbear]

Yep,, not exactly confident that village municipal sites will have wifi

Most of them do, certainly in France and Germany

[MarcT77]

Ta for the replies.....Yep,, not exactly confident that village municipal sites will have wifi... if I bought one of those dongle thingies and popped into my thingy socket on the laptop....what would that actually do??.....whose dongle is best??

A dongle basically gives you access to mobile 3G internet,so your laptop becomes a big more capable
mobile phone with a slower connection than your home WiFi. Unless you pay the extra
and have access to a 4G connection where ever you roam to...
As for which is best,they're much of a much-ness,price is pretty similar it's the coverage
that will be the main issue and that depends on the mobile cell network of the area you are visiting.
If you just want to be able to keep in contact with family via Facebook or indeed this site and store photos
you'd be best served with a Tablet,personally I prefer Android and would advise you to go for a Nexus 7,available here on the Google Play store 16 GB onboard storage for a very reasonable £159 : https://play.google.com/store/devices/d ... xus_7_16gb
After a little research,it seems folks prefer using MiFi (available from 3 )

Quote : There is a very good 3G dongle that will easily connect to a Nexus 7. In fact, the connection is via wireless so no cables required and no other complications because the Nexus thinks it is using regular wifi.
The dongle in question is called a MiFi and is marketed by Three. I recommend the Pay-as-you-go option, and you can buy relatively cheap top-up SIMs from Amazon or eBay. (Topup cost is around £12 for 3 months validity).
Look for Mifi model E5331 or E585 in PC World, Amazon etc (manufacturer is Huawei).
There is a BONUS because the MiFi will also allow its wifi signal to connect to 4 additional devices at the same time, so your laptop, ipod etc can also benefit from instant internet wherever you are.

Sorry I can't be much more help.

[downward dog]

Brill advice thanks all, I will sort it out........by the way...I didn't know there were muncipal sites in Germany, I will have a look as the plan is to start at the Vosges/Rhine...down thro the Alps to Provence, then Camargue, then Pyrenees, home via West France or N.Spain/Ferry.
Ta!

[dblake]

Something to be aware of is the MiFi will be locked to 3 Mobile so you can't just put any sim card in it.
Unless you get it unlocked of course. I got my old MiFi unlocked via an online/ebay dealer for around £12.

[briwy]

A dongle will cost a lot to use if abroad as you'll be on roaming charges which cost an arm and a leg.
A local PAYG will normally only be for non data use, they can be upgraded but will still cost a lot.
I've just splashed out on one of these as we've got a use for it apart from the Bongo, pretty expensive but but reportledly excellent at picking up wifi signals.
http://www.faculty-x.net/NET-WL-usb-cpe2512bgn
I should have in a few days so I'll post how well it works.

[downward dog]

Looks good, I will keep an eye out for your post!!

[the1andonly]

What would be best advice for UK only. Again we have no smart phones and need a magnifying glass to see the thing let alone the screen. The family uses payg phones on GIFGAF and it has cost me £10 since last easter (don't talk to many people). Considered a laptop as way to go as could also use as DVD player and the odd game of patience as well. Are there any unlocked dongles, what is the most cost effective

[briwy]

The USB wifi aerial arrived this afternoon so I've been having a play.
Drivers come on a CD so simply loaded them up, Win 7 recognised it straight away no problem.
It also comes with a program called RALink Wireless LAN which shows all the available networks in range. This is basically like Netstumbler which doesn't work (at least for me) on Win 7.
Fired it up and chose the USB LAN.
Brilliant, with the omni directional aerial stuck on the lounge window I immediately got 25 networks. Reverting back to the inbuilt wifi in the laptop it shows 3.
Most of them had security on but about four are open, I couldn't connect to them though, bit more playing required but I suspect it's because the signal is very low or it wasn't automatically assigning an IP address (possibly have to manually assign one). I'll hook up the directional aerial and try with that when I've got more time.
Conclusions so far is that 1. It works as it says on the tin. 2. Well made. 3. Would certainly pick up campsite wifis from a distance and then with the security code away you go.
I have also found a free program called Connectivity. Basically this uses he wifi network card in the PC to broadcast as a hotspot, so, when the PC is connected using the USB aerial the PC becomes a password protected wifi hotspot that I can connect the phone and tablet to. This means that a number of devices can connect to the wifi connection from the USB aerial at once.
I'll try out in the Bongo on Sunday at the meet assuming there is a suitable wifi nearby.

[g8dhe]

Try inSSIDer from here http://www.metageek.net/ to replace Netstumbler...