Underhill

My husband is thinking of buying a laptop to take with to France next September. Is there anything he should know beforehand about connectiions in hotels, cafés, and so on? Any things to be careful about when buying? Thanks for any and all information. He's a techie, BTW.

StCirq

If he's planning to use the laptop to connect to the internet in hotels, he should know that except in business hotels, it often doesn't work just to pull out the phone plug and connect to the room phone jack - because everything goes through the switchboard. But if he's a techie he may know a way around that.

Also, I assume he knows he'll need an adaptor for the wall plug and a special cord for the phone, both easily and cheaply available at a FNAC or Phillip's or éléctroménager.

I don't think I've come across a café yet where you could use your own laptop, but I'm sure they exist.

And be sure he buys a laptop that's lightweight and has a lot of battery power. I love my new Dell Inspiron - it weighs 2.9 lbs. and has a battery life of 7-9 hours.

Carmen

I would think Wi-Fi hotspots may be taking hold in Europe as they are here (T-Mobile at Starbucks for example), in which case you wouldn't need to plug in at all. Does anyone know?

Travelnut

Here's a list, however reliable it may be.
http://www.wi-fihotspotlist.com/sear...amp;submit.y=7

MorganB

Many Accor hotels have WiFi hotspots. The Gare du Nord is also one as is a small part of the luxembourg gardens. Many McDonalds in Paris offer free wireless connections.

Carmen

That might actually make it worth going into a McDonald's

MorganB

Or to a cafe terrace next door

Clifton

Not to be gloom and doom, really. Just a word of warning with using the free Wi-Fi hotpots in cafes and such.

Be careful what it is you get into during your session. Try to avoid doing any online banking, etc. Anything that may reveal passwords and logins that you use to access sensitive information. Also make sure your anti-virus software is up to date.

This is not so much a concern at pay or subscription Wi-Fi access points. But at free sites, the standard procedure is that you disable "WEP", which is Wireless Encryption Protocol. This means what you are transmitting back and forth over the cafe's network is open and unencrypted. Anyone else sitting in the cafe with some basic knowledge and some time to kill can "sniff" the information your transmitting and see exactly what you're sending - including passwords, credit card numbers and the like.

This came up awhile back - last year, I think - in the Wagamama noodle shops in London. The wireless devices that the servers carry were not encrypted. People were sitting outside or even in the restaurant, recording credit card numbers as they were transmitted back to the main pc in the restaurant.

The same thing can happen to anyone (very easily) in an open wireless network.

BTilke

St. Cirq, re hotels, one of the things my husband (formerly a senior manager of IP engineering, now director of operations at a telecom) likes best about Accor group hotels is that you can *ping* your computer for a dial back connection at many hotels. So calls don't go through a switchboard. Also, on a general note, all French hotels in the Accor group will offer wifi by the end of this year. Most already do.

Underhill

Thanks to everyone for the info. We'll be staying 2 nights at an Accor hotel, and the Beau Rivage in Nice has both wifi and ASDL access. So that takes of 4 nights at least.

StCirq

That's good to know about Accor hotels, as some of my travels do require me to be able to use a laptop. Thanks!

Underhill

I see that two words floated off into cyberspace from my last post--it should have read "take care of 4 nights at least.)

MorganB

Just to add to the Accor hotel info, the access is furnished by Orange. I have used it in a couple of hotels and it works well. Here is a link that gives you a list of the 2700 Orange Hotspots in France.

http://www.orange-wifi.com/uk/index_uk.htm