I've decided to take a laptop on our 12 week vacation around Europe. It will have a wireless lan, but I am worried that once I get there, I won't be able to get it working. If anyone out there has sucessfully traveled with one, I welcome your suggestions on what accessories I need to take, what internet company to join, (either before I go, or over there) I want to be able to surf the web to get travel advice and directions once I am there. The sales people here in the states just don't seem to know what to do to get things working in Europe. I'd appreciate any advice. Thank you, Breathe

Hi breathe,

I counsel against it.

However, search "laptop" at http://www.slowtrav.com/
and see what others have had to say.

We've traveled with laptops several times. Just buy the correct plugs (phone and electric) for the countries you will be visiting. We are AOL members and found local lines in nearly every place we've been. Set up the phone numbers before you leave.

When and if wireless is available, it's as easy as 1-2-3. Your card will recognize available connection and depending whether the available connection is free or pay-per-view or a contract connection, you should be on line within minutes.

I have used my laptop all over the world, and wireless is one of the easiest, when available of course.


Here is a short article about availibility and pricing in UK.

<b>Operators and Pricing
Britain's commercial Wi-Fi market is in its formative stage, and companies are still in the process of signing up partners and finding which products appeal to customers.

Partnership deals are typically exclusive. For example, BT Openzone has rolled out its service across the Hilton hotel chain, T-Mobile has teamed up with Starbucks, and ReadytoSurf has alliances with the Bagelmania and Esquires cafe chains.

Many different Wi-Fi products are available, from fifteen minutes' worth of access To a whole year's subscription. Pricing does vary considerably between companies, though.

BT Openzone
Prepay:

1 hour of access (within 24 hours of initially logging on): &pound;6

Unlimited access within 24 hours: &pound;15

Subscription schemes:

BT Openzone 120 (120 minutes per month): &pound;10 per month
BT Openzone 300 (300 minutes per month): &pound;20 per month
BT Openzone 900 (900 minutes per month): &pound;40 per month
BT Unlimited (unlimited access to Openzone's neworks): &pound;85 per month

Swisscom Eurospot

15 minutes (from initial login): &pound;3.50
2 hours (from initial login): &pound;5.20
24 hour (from initial login): &pound;21
7 days (from initial login): &pound;45
30 days (from initial login): &pound;80
A year's subscription: &pound;708

Surf and Sip

1 day (from signing up): &pound;5
7 days a (from signing up): &pound;20
30 days (from signing up): &pound;40
365 days (from signing up): &pound;150

Month-to-month membership: &pound;30 per month
Annual membership: &pound;20 per month (minimum 12 months)

T-Mobile

1 hour pass (from signing up): &pound;5.50
Day pass (from signing up): &pound;16.50
Month pass (from signing up): &pound;47 (max 1Gb data transfer)
120 minutes (valid for 31 days from initial logon): &pound;14


Broadscape

Broadscape operates 'virtually free' hot spots in partnership with sandwich bar firm Benugo. Spending &pound;2, or &pound;4 in rush hour, at certain Benugo stores entitles a customer to 30 minutes' free Wi-Fi access.

STSN

&pound;6 per hour
&pound;15 per day

ReadytoSurf

Please visit http://www.readytosurf.co.uk for further information</b>

This is true for most of the world now. In many places it's limited to hotels and airport lounges, but more and more fast food restaurants (McDonalds, Starbucks, etc.) are getting into the game. Some of the high-speed trains are starting to provide connections as well.

The following is a good hot-spot locator for anywhere in the world. Just remember that 100's of new places get added everyday, so you may find a location that did not make the list yet. I always ask.

<b>http://www.hotspot-locations.com/</b>

The only time I kept my laptop in the suitcase was when no high-speed internet was available, limited to dial-up. In that case I would search out a local internet cafe.

breathe:

I have never traveled without my notebook J

If you can't get the wireless connection going, you can still (often) dial in from hotels by disconnecting the (RJ-11) cable from the phone and dialing in. Please beware the cost of dialing local numbers from hotels, particularly the UK, is excessive.

You may want to check out services that will allow you to dial 800 numbers from Europe, so you do not have to pay the excessive (often criminal) fees from hotels for local calls. My company pays for ?iPass Connect&quot; and I highly recommend it. I can dial in from all over the world on &quot;800&quot; numbers at a fixed rate per hour. Unfortunately, I have no information on how this works for an individual, but it might be worth your while to check it out.

Another option that you might consider is using phone cards, from your own US phone provider or locally purchased phone cards. For example: I have used Bell Canada phone cards and dialed toll-free numbers to access an account in Canada. As long as the account has been set up to give you a low cost option for international dialing, then the cost is not excessive, and , from MY experience, lower than using local numbers from hotels.

I have also purchased local phone cards and managed to set up the dialing protocol. I will admit that I AM a computer winky, so I found it is easy enough to set up the dialing procedures, but you will need some time to familiarize yourself with the procedure, so you should purchase a similar card in the US and test.

I always bring a long telephone (RJ-11) cable with me (about 10-25 ft). If you have to do a &quot;dial-up&quot; option, then you should be aware that there are slight differences in the UK and France. If you are in the UK and can?t disconnect the wire to the phone, and have to plug into wall, you will probably need a connector. Seek out a shop called &quot;Curreys&quot;, they will have one. In France, they have a very strange adapter - FNAC sells adaptors and adapters with cables attached.

AAFF ? thanks a million for your great information. I have built-in wireless on my PC and have yet to use it outside my own home.

This is a rather behind-the-times view of traveling with a laptop - - which I always do. I think that making sure that you have a diskette drive (&quot;floppy drive&quot is very worthwhile, and then don't worry too much about direct internet access with your own laptop. Compose outgoing e-mails on your laptop and load them on to the diskette, and likewise, capture incoming e-mails on to the diskette for later reading - - all from the very affordable and no hassle use of a cyber cafe.

Best wishes,

Rex

I'm in computers and realy can see *some* advantages of having one with you. But I probably wouldn't take ours, even though it too has wireless capability and we have it tapped into the wireless here at home.

I think the reasons to take one would be for the times that you AREN'T hooking up to the internet. Say if you're renting a villa and you're a writer, for instance. Or you plan to download digital pictures to it and do a little photoshop in your downtime.

But just to access the internet? Wouldn't be worth the hassle to me. Unless you are going to have some very high-tech gizmos to let you connect up via a cell phone or uplink technology, you are going to have to take your laptop somewhere where there is a wireless lan. You have the ability to hook to a wireless network, but someone else needs to supply the network you're hooking to. They will charge for this and supply the ISP (think cyber cafe, but you bring the PC) Therefore, unless you're doing dial up with that RJ11 and a phone line, you don't need an ISP.

For all of that trouble, and you still usually have to pay connection fees, I'd just go down to the local cyber cafe. Get a cuppa, surf and read my email through a web-based client. Much easier and safer than dragging a laptop around. If you do still wish to take it, often someone admining the wireless station can assist. Depending on their setup, you'll probably need either a &quot;authentication key&quot; or login credentials that will be supplied to you. You should be able to ask questions about what to do with those from someone there.

This wasn't very clear: <i>&quot;For all of that trouble, and you still usually have to pay connection fees, I'd just go down to the local cyber cafe.&quot;</i>

Meaning: I'd go use their computer and leave mine at home.

You are wrong Clifton. There are multiple <b>free</b> wireless hot spots all over the world. I just turn-on my laptop, and few minutes later I'm looking at my designated home page, FREE. There are also many commercial ones, so you are correct, it will cost, but if you find the right company, like BT in my case, they are at most Hiltons (my prefered chain), so I pay around 50BP for 900 minutes during my UK travels and I get 15 hours of surfing and e-mailing.

I will agree with you that for some that just want to check e-mail from the wife/husband/kids/parents, the internet cafe is the better option, but when you actually need more sophisticated communication and research when traveling, the wireless option is <b>priceless</b>.

Well, for a hotel wireless system, yes, I'd trust that.

Open wireless networks though, &quot;instant-on&quot;, no I wouldn't put my notebook on one. I've got too many friends that go sniffing around these areas. (yes, I mean laptops tapping away inside cars on parking lots) Odd, I know but I'd not even considered the option (still wouldn't). 20-ish years of doing technology security stuff leaves you a little paranoid. Probably without reason, I'm sure.

Never mind. I just re-read that you're subscribing to a service. That requires the login credentials I was originally talking about, even if they're tucked into your system somewhere (they have to know who's time is ticking down, after all). Yes, that's different and still just a bigger scope on an extension of a more local wireless area. We don't see those as much away from the big metropolises, but I have used wireless quite a lot on authenticated lans at the airport and in hotels.