OT mobile and online

Essentially you use your mobile phone as a modem. You can connect the two together, dependant on age and features, via a serial cable. Infra Red or Bluetooth. You then create a new dialup connection using the phone as a modem and away you go.

Some ISPs offer numbers for specific networks so, for example, if your phone is with Orange you can dial a number that is another Orange number so you only pay the lowest tarrif while connected. (Demon offer this).

The bad news is that you are pretty much limited to 9600 baud connection which is a bit slow for general use - especially when a "mate" has sent you the latest funny flash animation that's a 4MB attachment !

You may also need to enable data calling on your phone if you don't have it already.

cheers

Dave W.

This is whalt I am doing. Most convenient is a plug-in PCMCIA mobile phone card, or a wireless connection via a bluetooth link. I use the second way, with a HP notebook or HP PDA and a Nokia GSM/UMTS mobile phone.

In germany it is expensive, but it works...

regards - Ralph

In laymans terms, you can buy a credit card sized thing that now plugs into a laptop and operates like a mobile phone connecting you to the internet at approx 128 mbps (about twice the speed of a 56K dial up modem.

You can buy these direct from vodafone or whoever.

Or you can still connect a cable from your laptop to a mobile phone for the same result (not sure what spped this will give you).

I'm sure an expert will come along and explain this in more detail as that's about as far as I understand it all.

Muddy

You want a nice red Vodafone 3G card, which gives you 56K modem anywhere that there is mobile coverage. If you find a 3G zone (which is getting easier, but still limited to major population centres, and only big ones at that) you get the full 380kbps. Which is nice.

The bill, however, is not so nice. Orange are about to launch summat similar (and may have done already), so prices may fall.

Orange also do High-Speed Data, which gives 19200 on their standard network. Also not especially cheap for what is still a too-slow connection for the kind of thing I think Mark is likely to be wanting to do.

If you do go for the 'standard mobile as modem' approach, you might like to invest in a bluetooth model. This means you can use your laptop to talk to t'internet via the mobile, but keep the mobile in your pocket. Much easier than trying to keep the two lined up, especially on the train.

Lots of public places are now offering internet via 802.11b - airports, motorway services etc. Full broadband speed, and lots of times it is free. Where it isn't free it is not all that expensive, so if you are in a position to get to a Starbucks, MacDonalds, service station etc you might find this viable for website updates. I updated my website from Dublin airport t'other day just like so.

HTH

*grin*

Right, all this about 9.6kbps is rubbish today, however the actual speed you'll get depends on your location and appropriate coverage.

The things you'll depends on whether you want a dedicated device or a phone and data device. The former will plug into a PC slot (PC/PC Card/PCMCIA) on your laptop, whereas the latter will require some sort of connection. Forget serial cable, the interface is horrendously slow. Infra red is better, but requires line of sight which can mean awkward balancing acts. Bluetooth is best, though you want to look at online articles about the security of Bluetooth and make sure you're locked down[1].

Then you want to consider your service. There are three types of data service available. GSM, GPRS and 3G.

GSM is what your basic mobiles use and is made of 9.6kbps channels. Most providers these days use HSCSD which allows you to use multiple channels simultaneously, allowing connections up to 28.8kbps. Charges are per unit time.

GPRS is a half-way house between GSM (second generation, or 2G service) and the new third-generation services (3G - as opposed to the 3G operator, "3"). It gives you an always on connection at up to 64kbps and you pay per unit data downloaded (by the Mb usually).

Finally, you can choose a 3G service which allows you to connect at up to 384kbps (theoretically). Pricing is typically as for GPRS. Note that eventually, fixed location 3G services will allow you to connect at up to 2Mbps.

Then, depending on which technology and which provider, you may need to choose an ISP. For that, I'd recommend looking at

at the rants there, and don't forget - like most things in life, you get what you pay for. The old adage still holds true - cheap, fast, good: pick any two.

Cheers, Aled.

[1] At this point I'd like to say hi to those people in PC World in Woolwich and Tottenham Court Road last weekend whose mobiles were in "discovery" mode on Bluetooth and, had I been more evil, would by now have a large phone bill as I used them to connect to the Internet.

All of the big four (Orange, Voda, T-mobile and O2) offer 3G services. Quality is another thing. Strangely, 3 don't. :)

Ah yes forgot about this. 802.11 can be quite handy, but if you're getting a card, I'd get a 802.11g or 802.11a compatible on (802.11b will come with that) as most places these days are dual-standard.

*ahem* On that note, it looks like almost all McDonalds' accross the UK are getting HotSpots installed. Nice. :)

Ta, Aled.

Get either 802.11b or 802.11g

802.11a may as well be dead - it's not compatible with either of the others.

Centrino supports 802.11b.

P.

Hi Mark, I use a simple bluetooth dongle and dial up, works with any bluetooth phone (some easier than others) only works at 9k6 but is fine for normal email, not data pushing.

Regards, Roy.

I was in a meeting a few days ago with someone who was telling me that they had done a lot of work on network security in the last twelve months. I kind of shot him down by asking him which of his servers he'd like reformatting first, using the unsecured 802.11b connection his network had granted me as I drove into his car park....

;-)

In the new manuscript , Mr.Nice. penned the following script...

Nokia 8310 with Infra red and one old laptop gives me email access... at

9.6k... Calls are free with my mobile phone tariff, due to the local rate phone no.

ISP Plus.net. Cheap, reliable with excellent support.

Don't expect to surf the web though, that's a 'mare at that speed.

thanks for the info so-far.

I'm not worried about speed, 9600 will be ok for this, I'm not intending using it for press work as I do very little of that so no big uploads to do, mostly it's for contacts via instant messengers, email and a website or 2 as required. I'll be working in the back of beyond (within UK) so no wireless broadband stuff.

My current mobile is a motorolla t191e on a PAYG thing with orange. I need cheap ro run (prepay please) and good uk coverage as priorities. I like the sound of the plug-in card thing.

Regards. Mark.(AKA, Mr.Nice.)

With UMTS/3G up to 384 kbit/sec.

regards - Ralph

Which at Orange's current GPRS per Megabyte charges, that's roughly one GBP every 30 seconds...

Steve

Huh, fu**in expensive :( I have 5 megabyte per month included, and it is not too expensive when there is some more traffic...but the included amount usually is enough for checking mails and news sometimes.

regards - Ralph

Well, if you were in Oz, Mark, you'd just buy a wireless modem and connect to the wireless internet providers as a wireless broadband connection. No need to use your GSM phone etc.

Does the UK have anything similar to

Ron Beckett Emu Plains, Australia

1995 P38A Range Rover HSE 4.6 Litre V8

Ron,

Looking at

that wirelessnetwork only covers Sydney and would be of no use if you were deep in theoutback. Generally speaking, the UK does not have wireless networks coveringas large an area as this. In the UK, most towns and cities have ADSL broadband available via the standard telephone wiring or via a cable television network. In outlying areas provision is much more patchy, depending on the distance to the closest telephone exchange.

Broadband is available, to the whole of the UK, via satellite (?SP), but this is either 1-way (you need dial-up for traffic from your end to ISP) or extremely expensive for 2-way (I've read horror stories about the reliability of both).

Some areas do use wireless networks similar to the Unwired.com idea, but this is usually a community lead project. There are also wireless hot-spots provided by some consumer chains (McDonalds (?SP), Costa Coffee, etc.) but, as I understand, you have to pay for these as you use them.

For outside use, the most recent developement is a PC-Card that provides 3G network, if available. If not, it will fall back to GPRS. It will also function as a wireless network card. It has the advantage that it leaves your phone free for calls.

Foxy.

No, we only have 802.11b networks in localised areas such as airports, department stores, social venues etc. It's sometimes free, sometimes pay per use. The range of 802.11b is too short for the sort of coverage Unwired provides. I'm not sure what frequencies it is using

- the key issue may simply be that this frequency is not available unlicensed in the UK.

There are wide area networks in place throughout the UK (e.g. for position tracking etc), but to my knowledge nothing with sort of bandwidth described by Unwired.