Good morning!
I have a question for you. I will be in a very small village in North Devon, England, this summer and I know that there is no library or any place that would offer internet access in the actual village itself. I do have a laptop which I could bring, but probably wouldn't be able to log on to any network. Is there any way that I can still connect to the internet from my laptop? Is there a device that I could buy or maybe even rent? Any ideas? I do realize that this is not necessarily travel-related, but thought I'd give it a shot anyway!
Thanks!

Use the post code of your holiday cottage to check if there is mobile broadband coverage at the this site.

http://www.mobilebroadbandcoverage.m...FQc9lAod6SmBJw

If there is then you could buy a dongle for your laptop and connect via that. All the major mobile phone companies supply them at a pretty low cost and the websites should give you a plethora of payment options to suit.

Yes get yourself PASG mobile broadband when you arrive in the UK. All the major providers do them but this is from O2

http://shop.o2.co.uk/promo/o2mobileb...tab/Pay_and_Go

Just check which network has the best reception in the village.

However do check that the village pub etc. doesn't offer free wifi; a lot do now

sorry PASG should PAYG!

Damn the lack of edit facility on this board!

"<i>I will be in a very small village in North Devon, England, this summer and I know that there is no library or any place that would offer internet access in the actual village itself.</i>"

Do you know that for sure or just assuming since it is a small village?

Where are you staying? There is a more access in some areas than you might think. Also, are you renting a cottage or staying in a B&B? Many B&B's will let you log on to their computers to at least check e-mail or look up info. And cottages often do have internet connections.

Where will you be staying? Ask your hosts/landlords. I run a small B&B in a rural village in deepest Lincolnshire and provide our guests with wifi internet connection.

Thank you so much for all your help, everyone! It is greatly appreciated!! We will be staying in a cottage in a village called Monkleigh near Bideford in North Devon. I know that I can always just drive to Bideford, but was hoping that I could avoid that somehow.

Enjoy a break from being online?

alihutch, your link doesn't work outside the UK .

Texastrips: my "problem" is that my husband will be in the US while I will be in Devon, so I just would like to have internet access mostly for that reason! Just to stay in touch while I'm gone.

I have checked coverage in Monkleigh and only T-Mobile and 3 have a moderate 3G coverage. So it will be a hit-and-miss whether you can connect to the internet with a strong enough signal to be usable. Coverage appears better on the north side of the village than the south. You can buy a T-Mobile USB modem from a T-Mobile shop or Carphonewarehouse, top up and see how it goes, but there's no guarantee. It's a kind of expensive at £20 for modem and £10 top-up.
http://www.t-mobile.co.uk/shop/mobile-broadband/

mm - not quite on topic but while you are there, do take the time to spend at least half a day in Appledore. [about 10-15 mins drive from where I guess your cottage is]. we used to have a cottage there and I miss it still - wander along market street, have a look up One end Street and send it my love [we used to live at no 21] sit on the front and eat one of Hockings' delicious ice creams [the v.v best IMHO] and then stroll along Irsha street [past the scenic car park and keep going] looking at all the brightly painted houses.

Have a great trip!

regards, ann

In most of the undulating bits of rural England, it's impossible to say what your mobile phone reception will be like till you're there. My mobile phone doesn't work in my house: Mrs F's does, for example: mine works in the churchyard 20 yds away, hers doesn't. But in any case, web reception on our mobiles seems not to come and go in exactly the same way as phone reception. The problem's not about being rural: it's about having a hill between your phone and the nearest aerial.

So, depending on how important having a web connection is, here are the options:

- are you sure the landlord hasn't got wifi on the premises anyway?
- the population density of most places in rural England where people actually live is substantially greater than most spacious US suburbs. So if your laptop's got wifi, chances are you can just hack into your neighbour's: password-protecting your router's generally regarded as not really English
- Is there a phone in the cottage? A straightforward phone cable (make sure it's bought here) will let you dial up - albeit at VERY steam age speeds - PAYG dialup systems like Freeola, generally at local phone rates
- Buy a T-mobile dongle (as we call USB modems) and if it doesn't work in the colttage, try the end of the garden, or the top storey of the house. If there's still no joy, just drive round the village with it till you find decent reception. Chances are you'll get a decent speed somewhere within half a mile
- Ask the local pub if they've got Wifi. Or see if your dongle works there

oh wow!!!! Thank you sooooo much for the wealth of information!! I don't know what to say....you are all so wonderful! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! I guess there really is no way of knowing for sure until I either get there in person or talk to the landlord. Trying to see if the pub in Monkleigh (The Bell Inn) has a website or at least an email address but don't think so....anyway, thanks a million!

Here you go

http://www.britishpubguide.com/cgi-b...:-Devon:101166

why don't you rind the pub? If they don't have it, they may be able to tell you where else you can get it. But I also suggest you speak to the person you are renting from....