We are thinking of buying a mini-laptop for our upcoming trip to London as a way to stay in touch with family and use the web for various tourist info while there
Trouble is, we're techno idiots, I guess, and we've never owned a laptop so are unfamiliar with the basics of how they work.
We're staying at the Holiday Inn Kensington and would be most grateful if someone could advise if we could use a laptop there. I'm seeing 12 pound charges for internet use, and don't understand if we would have to pay that if we have our own computer. If so, it would be cheaper to just walk down the street to the internet cafe.

I need help!

It is my biggest pet peeve about hotels, but many charge an extra daily fee for internet access. Yes, that fee is even if you have your own laptop computer. It belongs at the top of the list of worlds biggest rip offs. One alternative is to use internet cafes but even those are not as plentiful as they used to be. Another option available in London is tmobile access at Starbucks. www.tmobile.com. A fee (I think you can get one month for about $30 but check their website.) Another website that purports to map free wi fi spots is http://londonist.com/2007/05/free_wifi_in_lo.php. On that list are the chains Coffee Republic and Corney and Barrow wine bars. Go to their websites to see if there is a locations near your hotel. Others may be able to advise of other paid or free wi fi services in London. Best advice whatever you do, use that laptop around your home neighborhood first (Starbucks, McDonalds wherever wi-fi is available) so you know the techno basics with your machine. Nothing is harder than being your own personal IT department when you don't really know what you are doing.

I just found this response to a review of the hotel on TripAdvisor:

Management Response
(Management representative)
Dec 16, 2008
"For the size of the place it was great" - we love to think of ourselves as cute and perfectly formed. Remember this Yuletide season that the best gifts come in small packages!

Wireless internet is available throughout the building and is absolutely free of charge (except perhaps for the bribe of a Krispy Creme doughnut please).

So it looks like they DO have free wireless.
Now to figure out best (cheapest) way to print out boarding passes.

The hotel is quoting WIFI of 12 GBP as the initial fee, not the total price. I would email them and ask what other charges could be incurred. Is this a per diem charge or for a flat number of minutes/hours or for the duration of your stay.

With a laptop and wireless card (almost all laptops today are sold with built in wireless cards) you do not need to have an ethernet cable (white wire thing that looks like a phone line) to connect to the internet. The hotel will give you an access code to use and they should be able to help you set up your laptop to use their wireless router (very easy to do). Apart from the connection to the router your laptop will work just like your computer at home, if you have wireless at home. If you dial your Internet Service Provider from your home computer then you will not need to do this from your London hotel. The wireless connection will give you direct access to the internet by clicking on your browser icon, such as the blue "e" for Internet Explorer or the "n" for Netscape or the globe with the wall of flame around it for Firefox, etc.

You next question will be about a voltage regulator. Laptops and other electrical devices now come complete with a rectangular box as part of the AC cord. This is the voltage regulator from 110 to 220 volts. You will need adaptors for the English wall outlets which are different from American AC outlets.

Thanks Adrienne and Laurie Ann,

I feel so stupid and out-of-date! But I just googled internet spots on Gloucester Rd., and it looks like there's a Biz Internet Cafe just behind our hotel, with rates starting at 1 pound. I think we'll take the easy/safe way out and just use them.

We definitely need to be able to get seat assignments and print out boarding passes the day before we leave - we're on British Airways - and I wanted to go online to check the TKTS site in the AM's. Other than that, a few e-mails back home to let everyone know we're OK, and that would be the extent of it.

So maybe I've just talked myself out of getting a mini-laptop for now!

I was just going to post about the internet cafe on Gloucester Rd. As I recall it is 1 GBP for a half hour. If you don't use your full half hour up on the first visit it is good on further visit.Keep the ticket , it will have your password number on it. I'm thinking of leaving my laptop at home since we are staying right across from the cafe and I've used them before.

I'm typing this on a so-called "mini-laptop" from a hotel room in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

I have stopped taking my regular laptop on trips..this little number is lighter and easier to handle and does everything my larger one does.

As to internet and wi-fi hotel charges..a lot of people think the rates are rip-offs..depends on how much you want to pay for convenience.

Right now I'm paying $5.00 per 24 hours for wi-fi access in my room which for me is pretty reasonable.

Thanks Avalon,
You've definitely convinced me to use the internet cafe. Sounds like it's convenient AND cheap, and will serve our needs.

Hagan,

I feel your pain! that's too much too pay to use the web in London, check out this great site that lists a whole bunch of FREE wifi, laptop friendly cafes in London, check it out at:

www.laptopfriendlycafes.com/london

The site also has other cities such as New York, Sydney and melbourne.

Happy surfing!

C

McDonalds have free wi-fi as do starbucks and many other places used by complete knobheads.

Sorry , I am confused - does the fact that they use McDonalds or starbucks cause them to be "Knobheads" - or are these two named places free from such people who go to other places? Or is it the use of the free wireless at such establishments that causes the condition?

I was going to add that some branches of Costa coffee have free wieless as well - and at busy times it is damn annoying to see tables full of people with laptops who are 90 minutes into their single skinny latte not moving on. It is possibly these folks to whom CW was referring.

Using a computer in a caff is the hallmark of a knobhead. It's up there with talking loudly in restaurants and taking your children to restaurants as a way to spot the knobhead.

Anyone who's ever been in a starbucks is, ipso facto, a knobhead. This is probably the only thing I agree with Peter Mandelson about.