We will be leaving for Paris In two weeks and wish to take our laptop in order to store digital pictures and to be able to E-mail our children at home. Our hotel has an internet connection, my question is how will we be charged to use this connection? Per call, by the minute etc. and of course would I need to put aol or another server on my laptop before we leave?

I would nto assume that your hotel's internet connection means that you can connect your own laptop to their internet connection. More likely, they mean that they have a computer for the use of guests.<BR><BR>If this is crucial to you, you should write to your hotel and ask for clarification.<BR><BR>Best wishes,<BR><BR>Rex<BR>[email protected]<BR>

The last time we were in Paris our hotel had an internet connection. As rex said, it meant we had to use their system which was part of the TV. I felt the cost to use the internet at the hotel excessive. (I just wanted to check email.) I did not notice any way to connect a laptop. You may want to do a search on digital wallets and internet cafes. The wallet to store your photos and the cafes to send them.<BR>Have a great trip!<BR>Ron

Depending on the hotel, there may be no charge to go to their business center and use the computer. I found on a recent trip to China that many were free and some were very cheap. It sure beat lugging my laptop and going through security with it. Check with your hotel.

I think this question has been asked before &amp; the general consensus has been not worth the trouble. Either use your hotel or an internet cafe for email (you can send &amp; receive by going to aol.com) &amp; get some other storage for photos. If you do a search here on lap tops you should find info.

As the others have said, it's not clear what is meant by saying that your hotel has an Internet connection. This could mean that the hotel provides a high-speed Internet connection from your room, in which case they would generally charge you to connect to the service, and you would probably have to have an Ethernet card on your laptop. When I stayed at the Intercontinental in Paris, they offered Internet access via the television (a WebTV-like system)for which you used either the keyboard or video game type controls that the hotel provided to enter information (rather than your laptop). There was a charge to use the system.<BR><BR>You can always use your laptop over a dial-up line from your hotel, but you will need to make sure that you use an Internet provider that can provide you with local access numbers in other countries (AOL has local numbers in many countries, for example). In this case, there is usually a per-minute charge by the Internet provider to use their local access number, in addition to any charges from the hotel for the phone call. Some Internet providers also now have pre-paid cards which allow you to pay for a certain amount of access time in advance when you travel. I haven't used one of these yet in another country, but it might be worth looking in to.<BR><BR>What you might find easiest, though, if all you want to do is check e-mail, is go to an Internet cafe in Paris. I used one in St. Germain during my last trip. They come and go, so it's best to check to find out where such cafes are currently located. Just make sure that you have an e-mail account that can be accessed from the web (e.g., Hotmail, Yahoo, etc.). Even services like AOL have now made e-mail accessible from their web sites, so it shouldn't be too difficult.

It sounds like to me you are worried you will not have enough memory in your digital camera - hence havving to download to your laptop. I suggest getting a 256mg or even a one gig memory card for your camera (try Ebay much cheaper) - with an extra 256 mg flash card you will be able to store well over 500 pictures maybe more at standard resolution.

Thank you all for your help, it sounds to me I need to leave my lap top at home. use an Internet cafe for E-mail, and just get another memory card for my camera. Thank you so much for the great info.