Internet connection around Europe

Hi All,
I am planning to travel around Europe for a couple of months taking in
mainly France, Italy and Spain and I am considering taking a laptop with me
for accessing email and things. I hear some hotels offer their guests
broadband connection, can someone explain to me how this works and will I
need to go to say a common/public area to access the connection or can I
access it from my room? The cafes with hotspots for WiFi, how do they
operate?

Thanks all!

"Saint" wrote in message
...
Hi All,
I am planning to travel around Europe for a couple of months taking in
mainly France, Italy and Spain and I am considering taking a laptop with
me
for accessing email and things. I hear some hotels offer their guests
broadband connection, can someone explain to me how this works and will I
need to go to say a common/public area to access the connection or can I
access it from my room? The cafes with hotspots for WiFi, how do they
operate?

You need to be prepared for just about anything. I carry WiFi, wired LAN &
phone adapters. Only recently started leaving the acoustic coupler at home.
I have iPass, Boingo and ATTGlobal for Internet roaming. However, on my
recent trip to Italy I never even saw (much less used) a single WiFi signal.
Dial-up internet roaming is pretty expensive in Europe because you pay for
both the phone call and the Internet connection.

What I did for Internet access this trip was to get set up with a Wind
prepaid cellular account. After arriving in Italy I turned on the unlimited
Internet option, which costs 19 Euro/month. I connected to the Net by using
the GSM phone's GPRS data service. This worked out about like a 28 kbps dial
up. Not super fast but more than good enough for anything I needed to do.
And I didn't have to hunt for an Internet connection at each stop. I could
easily have spent more than 19 Euro on Internet cafe's and dial-up roaming.
So this saved me both money and headaches. (This option only works in
Italy.)

--
Donald Newcomb
DRNewcomb (at) attglobal (dot) net

"Saint" wrote in message
...
Hi All,
I am planning to travel around Europe for a couple of months taking in
mainly France, Italy and Spain and I am considering taking a laptop with
me
for accessing email and things. I hear some hotels offer their guests
broadband connection, can someone explain to me how this works and will I
need to go to say a common/public area to access the connection or can I
access it from my room? The cafes with hotspots for WiFi, how do they
operate?

You need to be prepared for just about anything. I carry WiFi, wired LAN &
phone adapters. Only recently started leaving the acoustic coupler at home.
I have iPass, Boingo and ATTGlobal for Internet roaming. However, on my
recent trip to Italy I never even saw (much less used) a single WiFi signal.
Dial-up internet roaming is pretty expensive in Europe because you pay for
both the phone call and the Internet connection.

What I did for Internet access this trip was to get set up with a Wind
prepaid cellular account. After arriving in Italy I turned on the unlimited
Internet option, which costs 19 Euro/month. I connected to the Net by using
the GSM phone's GPRS data service. This worked out about like a 28 kbps dial
up. Not super fast but more than good enough for anything I needed to do.
And I didn't have to hunt for an Internet connection at each stop. I could
easily have spent more than 19 Euro on Internet cafe's and dial-up roaming.
So this saved me both money and headaches. (This option only works in
Italy.)

--
Donald Newcomb
DRNewcomb (at) attglobal (dot) net

"Saint" wrote in message
...
Hi All,
I am planning to travel around Europe for a couple of months taking in
mainly France, Italy and Spain and I am considering taking a laptop with
me
for accessing email and things. I hear some hotels offer their guests
broadband connection, can someone explain to me how this works and will I
need to go to say a common/public area to access the connection or can I
access it from my room? The cafes with hotspots for WiFi, how do they
operate?

You need to be prepared for just about anything. I carry WiFi, wired LAN &
phone adapters. Only recently started leaving the acoustic coupler at home.
I have iPass, Boingo and ATTGlobal for Internet roaming. However, on my
recent trip to Italy I never even saw (much less used) a single WiFi signal.
Dial-up internet roaming is pretty expensive in Europe because you pay for
both the phone call and the Internet connection.

What I did for Internet access this trip was to get set up with a Wind
prepaid cellular account. After arriving in Italy I turned on the unlimited
Internet option, which costs 19 Euro/month. I connected to the Net by using
the GSM phone's GPRS data service. This worked out about like a 28 kbps dial
up. Not super fast but more than good enough for anything I needed to do.
And I didn't have to hunt for an Internet connection at each stop. I could
easily have spent more than 19 Euro on Internet cafe's and dial-up roaming.
So this saved me both money and headaches. (This option only works in
Italy.)

--
Donald Newcomb
DRNewcomb (at) attglobal (dot) net

"Saint" wrote
| I am planning to travel around Europe for a couple of months
| taking in mainly France, Italy and Spain and I am considering
| taking a laptop with me for accessing email and things.
| I hear some hotels offer their guests broadband connection,
| can someone explain to me how this works and will I need
| to go to say a common/public area to access the connection
| or can I access it from my room? The cafes with hotspots
| for WiFi, how do they operate?

For 'broadband' connection you will need an Ethernet network card on your
laptop, usually with an RJ45 style connector. You plug into a wall socket in
the room (not the one labelled Modem). If you are using Windows ME/2000/XP
you run a Wizard on your PC and it should set things up for you
automatically. This is similar to most office networks.

For Wifi connection you need one of those wireless network cards, again
using Windows you run a Wizard and it should set things up for you.

The technology works the same everywhere, so practice at home before you
leave.

Owain

"Saint" wrote
| I am planning to travel around Europe for a couple of months
| taking in mainly France, Italy and Spain and I am considering
| taking a laptop with me for accessing email and things.
| I hear some hotels offer their guests broadband connection,
| can someone explain to me how this works and will I need
| to go to say a common/public area to access the connection
| or can I access it from my room? The cafes with hotspots
| for WiFi, how do they operate?

For 'broadband' connection you will need an Ethernet network card on your
laptop, usually with an RJ45 style connector. You plug into a wall socket in
the room (not the one labelled Modem). If you are using Windows ME/2000/XP
you run a Wizard on your PC and it should set things up for you
automatically. This is similar to most office networks.

For Wifi connection you need one of those wireless network cards, again
using Windows you run a Wizard and it should set things up for you.

The technology works the same everywhere, so practice at home before you
leave.

Owain

"Saint" wrote
| I am planning to travel around Europe for a couple of months
| taking in mainly France, Italy and Spain and I am considering
| taking a laptop with me for accessing email and things.
| I hear some hotels offer their guests broadband connection,
| can someone explain to me how this works and will I need
| to go to say a common/public area to access the connection
| or can I access it from my room? The cafes with hotspots
| for WiFi, how do they operate?

For 'broadband' connection you will need an Ethernet network card on your
laptop, usually with an RJ45 style connector. You plug into a wall socket in
the room (not the one labelled Modem). If you are using Windows ME/2000/XP
you run a Wizard on your PC and it should set things up for you
automatically. This is similar to most office networks.

For Wifi connection you need one of those wireless network cards, again
using Windows you run a Wizard and it should set things up for you.

The technology works the same everywhere, so practice at home before you
leave.

Owain

"Saint" wrote
| I am planning to travel around Europe for a couple of months
| taking in mainly France, Italy and Spain and I am considering
| taking a laptop with me for accessing email and things.
| I hear some hotels offer their guests broadband connection,
| can someone explain to me how this works and will I need
| to go to say a common/public area to access the connection
| or can I access it from my room? The cafes with hotspots
| for WiFi, how do they operate?

For 'broadband' connection you will need an Ethernet network card on your
laptop, usually with an RJ45 style connector. You plug into a wall socket in
the room (not the one labelled Modem). If you are using Windows ME/2000/XP
you run a Wizard on your PC and it should set things up for you
automatically. This is similar to most office networks.

For Wifi connection you need one of those wireless network cards, again
using Windows you run a Wizard and it should set things up for you.

The technology works the same everywhere, so practice at home before you
leave.

Owain

"Saint" wrote
| I am planning to travel around Europe for a couple of months
| taking in mainly France, Italy and Spain and I am considering
| taking a laptop with me for accessing email and things.
| I hear some hotels offer their guests broadband connection,
| can someone explain to me how this works and will I need
| to go to say a common/public area to access the connection
| or can I access it from my room? The cafes with hotspots
| for WiFi, how do they operate?

For 'broadband' connection you will need an Ethernet network card on your
laptop, usually with an RJ45 style connector. You plug into a wall socket in
the room (not the one labelled Modem). If you are using Windows ME/2000/XP
you run a Wizard on your PC and it should set things up for you
automatically. This is similar to most office networks.

For Wifi connection you need one of those wireless network cards, again
using Windows you run a Wizard and it should set things up for you.

The technology works the same everywhere, so practice at home before you
leave.

Owain

If you don't mind dialup, you can get a free account at Wanadoo (France) and
Jumpy (Italy) and get access for only the cost of a local phone call. I did
this for 3 weeks last year with no problem. It helps to have command of the
languages though, for signup, but you may be able to manage with an online
translator (try www.faganfinder.com/translate) and a dictionary.

"Saint" wrote in message
...
Hi All,
I am planning to travel around Europe for a couple of months taking in
mainly France, Italy and Spain and I am considering taking a laptop with
me
for accessing email and things. I hear some hotels offer their guests
broadband connection, can someone explain to me how this works and will I
need to go to say a common/public area to access the connection or can I
access it from my room? The cafes with hotspots for WiFi, how do they
operate?

Thanks all!