Power Adapters/Modem Connections
 

Plan to bring laptop to Oz. What kind of power adapter/modem connection will I need? Would like to pick it up before trip. Thanks.

i can't remember what kind of adapter you may need (my hubby took care of that). I just know some of the hotels phone lines weren't compatable and we were unable to dial up. Just keep that in mind. Internet cafes are pretty reasonably priced though.

You should have a 110/220 v switch on your laptop.You will need to be on 220v here in oz.

The phone/modem connections here are weird.I would advise going to a Tandy (radio shack) when u get here and getting the couple of connectors you may need in hotel rooms. Call fees from hotels can vary to very expensive..ask at the desk first.

For internet connections you may be better off going to the ubiquitous internet cafes and collecting/sending e mail etc. about A$5/hr.

I agree with johnj_au. We did find that some of the hotels did charge hefty prices for per minute calls. So if you are dialing into a long distance number from the hotel, it could end up costing a fortune.

The problem we had in Australia was that our modem could not detect the ring or dial tone signals from most phone lines. The solution was to turn off the ring/dial tone detect option in the modem/terminal software, allowing the modem to dial even though it has not detected a dial tone.

Internet cafes & kiosks are cheap and everywhere. We were even able to check our email from Alice Springs!

Save yourself the trouble of dealing with the modem and use the public facilities.

Should we leave our laptop at home when we come to australia this summer. sounds like it is more trouble to get the correct adapter than to find a internet cafe. Would you recommend phone cards as the best means of communicating with our loved ones back in the states.

It depends on what you want to do, and where you are going. If your primary need is to exchange email, and you will be mostly near cities, then there is no reason to carry your own laptop. If you are going to do a lot of graphics uploads/downloads and Web design/file exchange, then a laptop would probably be a good idea. I spent too much time Back of Bourke to be without a laptop. There aren't a heck of a lot of cybercafes between Yulara and Coober Peedy!

Radio Shack has an International adapter, around $25, that did us well. They also have a single power surge that saved us, around $8. Phone cards at Sam's are around .035 a minute. All the hotels we stayed at were extremely high, so we used cyber cafes to sned and receive e-mail. If I can help contact me at [email protected]

We just got back from Australia and we brought our laptop with us. We bought an adapter at a travel store in the US and it took so long to charge things. Most hotels have the power adapters, just ask when you check in (That's what we ended up doing, since ours took forever to charge anything. I also found out that the adapter was cheaper to buy in Australia than in the US). The laptop was a bit of a pain to carry around for 2 weeks, but it was worth it to watch movies we brought and to download our digital pictures. The internet cafes are everywhere there, so if you are only bringing the laptop to email, I say use the cafes and leave the laptop at home. Most of the cafes charge only $0.08 to $0.20 per minute. It's better than paying the hotel phone line charges.

Is the phone jack the same as in the
US for the modem?
If I take a strip outlet from the States and plug my computer and digital camera in to that and in turn use a plug adapter to plug into the wall outlet, will that work?
Thanks

The phone jack line was the same and we had no problems hooking that into our laptop.

The strip outlet idea sounds great, but I still think it might take a while to charge the items. It's worth a shot though. If not then just ask the hotel for 2 adapters.