We will be in Spain, Italy, Greece and Turkey. I am not up on the latest tech stuff out there as I do not travel for business. Is there a phone or PDA that you can use internationally to get e-mail? In the past, the phone card things are not as easy as people say. Buy them in the US and spend lots of time trying to get it to work only to give up. Buying phone cards in an English speaking country is easy and the best. Bought a phone in France and had to have an interpreter set it up and then try to find people who could find out why the phone kept tex messaging me only to find out it was solicitations (that's what happens when the calls in are free). So I am now looking just to find e-mail without having to try to find an internet cafe with an used computer.

If it's just for emails why not just use internet cafes?

A Pocket PC with a WiFi link works fine. So does a laptop with a wireless or wired connection. Most hotel rooms have some kind of jack you can use, and many have a PC in the lobby for the use of guests.

Phones are great for texting, but setting up email that works is tricky, in my experience.

Hi RA,

> In the past, the phone card things are not as easy as people say. Buy them in the US and spend lots of time trying to get it to work only to give up.<

You could buy an international phone card in the country to which you are traveling. They are quite cheap.

Also, you could use an internet cafe for email.

Another vote for internet cafes. It doesn't get easier than that.

I wouldn't worry about carrying something else around, and expensive at that, to lose,misplace, or not have work. Internet points are all over the place, very inexpensive, and easy to use. I'd simply use them, it's so much easier and cheaper.

since the OP is going to italy, maybe he or she doesn't want to submit to all of the privacy invasions that are mandatory for users of italian internet cafes....all in the name of terror prevention.

What privacy invasions are those? I used internet cafés extensively on my two trips to Italy in 2006 and don't recall any "privacy invasions."

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I used internet cafés extensively on my two trips to Italy in 2006 and don't recall any "privacy invasions."
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in italy, a law was passed after the london bombings that requires customers to have their passports copied, all internet activity is logged against the person's identity and submitted to the government.

has this law been repealed (it may well have been)? or did you have this treatment and not see it as a privacy invasion?

2Italy - welcome to the 19th century.

I used several internet cafes in Siena in March, and was always asked for documentation, although the cafe I used most frequently was happy t accept my UK photo driving license.

Keep in mind that anything you type into a public computer is potentially visible to the entire world.

Do NOT use anyone else's computer for sensitive email or accessing financial sites.

Thanks for the info. Internet cafes when you have a busy schedule are not what I want to be doing. I worry about privacy and you spend time waiting for a computer. I just want to know if anyone has used anything else. I will look into the pocket PC.

Is it safe to use internet cafes to transfer money from our bank accounts. We intend to transfer monies along the way rather than have all money in our visacard? we are away for 7 weeks - California, Calgary, Europe extensively.

I think I used a total of about 10 different internet cafés/sites on two trips, one in Rome and all the rest in very small villages in Umbria. In one place in Umbria that I used several times, the first time I used it I was asked to show my passport, and the owner typed my passport no. and name and address into his computer before giving me the password to use a computer. I don't recall that or any other "procedure" being followed in any of the other places I used. I didn't think at the time that asking me for my passport was an invasion of my privacy. I guess I just assumed it was the same as a hotel asking for it.

64- <b>Don't do it!</b>

Criminals sometimes run programs called &quot;key loggers&quot; on public computers that record your every keystroke and transmit them to the criminal.

Most 3* upward hotels have internet access for a few euros at most. I use these to check email and often to look at train tickets for the next leg of the journey when we are making it up as we go along.

Uh, the possibility that the hotel computer has been compromised is greater than zero.

I would not check on my investment portfolio from <u>any</u> public computer.

we have used internet cafes from Stockholm to Sydney to email friend and family.

Even banks and card companies get hacked in, so it is better not to input personal info. ( in some cities you have to watch your bag, backpack or purse because they can be stolen while you are busy on the net - happened to a friend in Amsterdam)

Every hotel, pension, and B&amp;B that we stayed in on our two trips to Europe last year had a PC available. That doesn't mean that all accomodations will, but it is much more common than a few years ago.