Sad to say, my husband must have good internet access whenever we travel ( we own a small data processesing services company). We are interested in hearing about any experience you guys might be willing to share regarding access from your hotel room as opposed to going to internet cafes. I've noticed many hotels offer data ports as one of the ameneties - anyone taken advantage of this and care to share? Thanks so much - I've got a trip to Paris riding on your answers!!

My successes (in hotels) have been fewer than my disappointments, and my luck has been better in private homes.<BR><BR>Somewhat to my surprise, I had just as much success (in a private home), using AT&T Global Access to call back to the US (but very expensive, of course) - - as using the family's own local ISP. The only reason I did this (late at night) was that their residential service is charged by the minute, even for local access, and using the AT&T Global Access is "un appel gratuit" , as far as their monthly telephone bill.<BR><BR>I can't help but think there are some better options nowadays (this was 1999). Just thought you might like to know, in case all else fails.<BR><BR>Best wishes,<BR><BR>Rex<BR>

We "internet Cafed"...it was more fun that sitting in the room while Paris was going on outside, so we went to a cafe in the Latin Quarter and one right off Blvd St Germain and they had this big window,so we could read our mail,check on things, send in stuff-and still keep an eye on Paris.Although this may all be totally not what you need, just thought I would share Have a great time~c

Theresa: You will find a lot of Internet caf&eacute;s in the 5th around the Sorbonne, in the 6th (Rue Medicis, "Cafe Orbital"), also in the 14th, i.e. Montparnasse area. One is at Rue de la Grande Chaumi&egrave;re, metro Vavin 1h/FF 20.-.<BR>I saw one called "Cybercube", Rue d'Odessa, close to the Montparnasse Tower. Some are near the Centre Pompidou, put they seem to be more expensive.<BR>Usually, they are open late, until 10 pm or so. I didn't use them though.

You guys are great - I told him that we would have info within a half an hour! Its good to know that internet cafes are plentiful - Ihad really good look with them when I was in Italy a couple years ago. My only concern with the cafes is the noise level. IF John ( my husband) has to log on , it will be to do emergency programming and I'm thinking he will concentrate better in the hotel room. Does anyone else have experience with access using a laptop and data ports at hotels?

One last thing, Theresa. Although I no longer even try to to connect to the internet in Europe when I travel (i.e., I use cybercafes instead) - - I still do travel with a laptop.<BR><BR>Often times, a cybercafe will be as quiet as a library. And there are an increasing number that issue a little card with a bar code so that he can jump "on" the clock, and off with ease. If the work he needed to do was time-consuming (I understand emergencies like this), he could use a floppy to move files on and off of his laptop - - do the de-bugging or whatever, and then jump back on the cybercafe's computer to upload and download.<BR><BR>Just a thought.<BR>

Cafe Orbital is good but may be a little more expensive. I always have a good time at CyberCafe Latino on Rue des Ecoles Polytechnique (www.cybercafelatino.com). The clientele is very international and friendly. Rojelio (the owner) makes a nice mojito, and serves Latino food as well if you want it.

http://www.cybercafes.com/<BR><BR>We plan on creating an online journal for friends and family while we're there in February. I found the website above to be very helpful in locating a cyber caf&eacute;. We'll be staying in the Latin Quarter, and will probably use Cafe Orbital. Good luck.<BR><BR>-steve<BR>

Bonjour,<BR><BR>We are in Paris about three times a year now, and we also need to keep connected to our e-mail. Cyber-cafes are everywhere and very inexpensive. The most difficult thing is the French keyboard, but since I use it at home as well I'm fairly familiar with it. The cost for the Cybercafes that I use is about 15 to 20 Francs per session, I assume 2 or 3 euros. It's much less of a hastle than trying to connect at a hotel. We have a place in the Latin Quarter and still use the Cybercafes, although we have had folks connect I believe on AOL from our apartment.<BR><BR>Good luck,<BR><BR>RJS

<BR><BR>I too need to connect to the net while travelling and have used Compuserve for about 20 years. They have local numbers in just about any city in the world.<BR><BR>I have had excellent results in hotels, some of which did not have data ports. (rewired the phone plug when necessary). Most of the world uses the same phone plug as the U.S. except for the U.K (figures huh?) . . even there, the data ports are the U.S. style. Sometimes you have to fiddle with the dialing properties to allow for the different dialing styles, but once you have it figured out, it is pretty easy.<BR><BR>One thing to look out for is digital phone systems in some hotels . . they will zap a modem in an instant. I have carried a little phone line checker for so long I don't know where I got it, but I think Radio Shack has them. It also acts as a surge protector for the phone line so I leave it hooked up when online.<BR><BR>Some hotels charge for local calls by the call, some by the time, and some do not charge at all . . just depends.<BR><BR>Hope this is helpful . . Rich

Centrally located at the Louvre entrance, Metro: Louvre are the official French tourism offices they have t1 or dsl setups on about 6 computers there ..no way to save messages to disc or cd but perfect for checking email I think 50 francs for <BR>2 hours but anyway reasonable<BR><BR>Bon voyage

topping<BR>