Hey,

 

Don't know if it's possible, but I'm after something that would plug into my laptop so that I could use the internet anywhere in the country without having to plug it in or being in one of those wi-fi areas? don't know if anyone uses this technology or knows if its available? I guess it would be a mobile phone company if anyone?

 

Cheers

 

Jon

Many(most?) mobile phones can be uses as a GPRS modem for a laptop.

Does that connect by the old infra-red device thingy then? what sort of speed do you reckon you get from that?

Fairly slow speed and it will cost ...

forgot to say, the alternative is a GPRS PCMCIA Card. Slots into Laptop, has built in Antenna. Stick in a Phone sim card, and off you go.

 

Speed is is potentially around 40 kb/s (slightly slower than modem), but it varies.

 

I use a Nokia D211 GPRS card in my built-in car computer.

Does that connect by the old infra-red device thingy then? what sort of speed do you reckon you get from that?

 

 

Avoid using it over Infra-red, very slow. Most phones come with a Cable for connecting to PC/Laptop via USB port.

the PCMCIA thing is what i was thinking about initially. Just been on the Vodafone site. What would you say was the average data processed on the net per month!! 75MB just doesn't sound like a lot!!

the PCMCIA thing is what i was thinking about initially. Just been on the Vodafone site. What would you say was the average data processed on the net per month!! 75MB just doesn't sound like a lot!!

 

This is for prepaid Data allowance package ?

 

1MB is equivalent to browsing 150 - 200 pages, depending on content.

 

I use a o2 PAYG sim card in mine (about £5 of ebay), which O2 offer with free unlimited data transfer for a month....except I've had it for about 5 months, and have yet to be charged a penny :D

 

Many others have reported the same with an O2 PAYG card.

I might just have to give that a go!! So just to understand it fully. you get the card, put a sim card in it. Does the software come with the card to install to the laptop, then I suppose it just uses that as a normal modem?

I might just have to give that a go!! So just to understand it fully. you get the card, put a sim card in it. Does the software come with the card to install to the laptop, then I suppose it just uses that as a normal modem?

 

Yep correct. Should come with drivers and its own Configuraton software, and it just acts as a modem.

 

David

ah cool, cheers for your help mate. that cleared that up for me.

 

Cheers again

 

Jon