Thanks Rob..

I was optimistic

Before you drop dough on pricey WiFi airtime, check out www.fon.com. We used it in Paris recently and it was great

"this thing you attach to the laptop port and you can connect anywhere"

The British English for this is a Dongle. They connect to the mobile phone system and - unless your building has loads of metal cladding - give you internet connection practically everywhere in Europe. They should work with any laptop (it's irrelevant whether they've got WiFi), though elderly machines might run too slowly to make this a pleasant experience.

According to BT, with whom we have a contract for one, they work everywhere: BT claim the usual US/Rest of World problem with mobile phones doesn't apply here. So technically, if you get one from ATT, it shoud work fine in France.

BUT HERE'S THE RUB.

Work your way through the small print of the contract, and you might find HUGE uasge fees outside your own country. They're typically based on the number of megabytes your upload and download, and can be of the order oy €6-8 PER MEGABYTE.

If this is so (and operators don't fall over themselves explaining this), and you're just sending and receiving "I'm here" messages, the cost might be trivial. You MIGHT be able to set your laptop not to accept big attachments, keep the message on the server and check at an internet cafe for big things every few days. Or your ATT contract might not be as extortionate as others.

That risk apart, the laptop/dongle combo is now the easiest way to stay in touch while travelling round Europe. Much more customer-friendly for web-browsing than the BlackBerry we've been using till now.

Flanneruk, thanks for the info and giving a name to the thingle = dongle

Yes I checked with ATT and for $60 US, they give you 100 megs, and do charge above that.

since I have decided to go to Greece from France on the spur of the moment I might be spending quite a bit of time online looking for tours etc. since I dont have time here in the US to pack and search the web. just too much to do. You know, match shoes to dress, slacks to blouse, try on and off etc etc.

Thanks for the info.

Seamus,

I looked at fon.com and that looks interesting.

there is a fon hotspot at both ends of the street I will be on and one appears to be 3 houses away.

They are showing a "fon router" for $29.95 which I suppose I could have mailed to the apartment.

Is that all that is needed?
Is the antenna they're also showing needed?

And is there usage charge after attaching the router ? -which by the way, looks larger than a dongle.

Will I need a USB wire to attach? or a special type of plug ?

Looking for your advice.

and Many Thanks

M

Another fonero in town Doesn't work anyway. You're supposed to offer internet access to others with that hardware, not use theirs, st*p*d.

You don't have to become a full fledged fonero to use the service, don't worry about the router. You can just surf on fon hot spots for a meager fee. Worked fine for us in Paris.