# GPRS phones & laptops



## sagart (Sep 28, 2006)

Much as I would love to leave work behind, I still need Internet access while wildcamping.
Has anyone had experience of linking a Gprs phone (Sony Erisson P910i in my case) by Bluetooth to a Blutooth laptop?


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## Bullet (Oct 2, 2006)

*Get a data card!*

I have a T-Mobile datacard, gprs and 3g. Its quick and i pay £20 a month with unlimited use... and of course as long as you have a mobile signal you can get on the net.  I'm on it now!!!

Rgds,
James.


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## sea lion (Oct 3, 2006)

I'd like to kmow the answer to this one too! Am just about to purchase a bluetooth adaptor for my new laptop.


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## KenReay (Oct 3, 2006)

*Internet Access*

Hi Bullet

Sounds good, does that £20 a month give you Internet access in Europe (ie France, Spain, Italy in particular).

Regards

KEn


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## sagart (Oct 6, 2006)

*GPRS phones and latops*

Data cards are a good idea, but I only need access maybe 3 months a year, thus not economic


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## Bullet (Oct 11, 2006)

*eerr*

no, you could use it in Europe but the bill would be horrific!

I use my datacard instead of broadband...that makes it cheap enough year round.  I would'nt pay for b/b at home and only use this in the van!
I'm far too tight.


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## Admin (Oct 14, 2006)

T-mobile pay-as-you-go has "web and walk", this service is capped at £1 per day usage. If you dont use it you dont pay, but if you do you can use it all day for £1.

Certain services are not allowed; like voice over ip (VOIP).

T-mobile say it can only be used in a mobile phone and not in a laptop. But if you connected the phone to the laptop.....

SIM cards are normally about a £1 from t-mobile, but sometimes they do them free.

enough said I think.


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## pappajohn (Oct 17, 2006)

*wireless internet*

maybe i shouldn't say this but here goes anyway. 
if you have a wireless adaptor on your laptop all you have to do is park up somewhere in a residential area, preferably near blocks of flats, and scan for available connections. theres always some numpty out there that hasn't encrypted their network. i've had connections in france and spain this way as well as in the uk.
just make sure you have good security on your laptop.
i'll probably get all sorts of comments about this  but, hey, if they leave it open it's their problem. works for me!


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## sagart (Oct 18, 2006)

Shock! Horror!!!! Have you tried NetStumbler?
Actually the suggestion works in many residential areas...but there aren't too many hotspots in the Highlands!


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## Graham Hadfield (Nov 30, 2006)

I've been using dial-up via mobile phone to access my e-mails on my Palm PDA whilst away but was frustrated by the slowness - even worse for web pages. 

I started asking Vodafone what I needed to do to set up a GPRS connection for my Pay As You Talk account at the beginning of October. It's been a long and frustrating slog but at last they managed to sort it out yesterday. 

It won't be anything near broadband speeds but at least it should be acceptable, especially for e-mail. 

If it works for a PDA then it should work for a laptop - but I've still to try that.

Basically, the three elements you need are:
1. Bluetooth connection between PDA/laptop and phone.
2. Mobile account set up to use GPRS (not always done by default)
3. The correct parameters/connection script for initiating the GPRS connection from the PDA/laptop. The parameter values may differ from the bog standard wap access parameters.

Your phone service provider should be able to provide you with the information you need but you may need to insist that it is escalated to a senior technician. It turned out that one of the problems I had was that I am a PAYT customer and the support mechanism seems only to be set up for contract custiomers where this sort of service is required.

Graham


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## Graham Hadfield (Nov 30, 2006)

Following up to my last post.

I just fired up the laptop with bluetooth adapter plugged in and set up a new connection to the mobile phone. The dialogue has an option for entering GPRS connection strings etc. I used the same ones which Vodafone had given me for use with the PDA and it worked fine.

Graham


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## jandmwales (Jan 24, 2007)

*Laptops and 3g gprs*

Hi
I am new to the group and this thread caught my eye, we are hoping to pick up our camper in April or May so not yet owners, but I am preparing . I bought a laptop that came with an offer of a Vodaphone 3g gprs card for 49 quid on a pay as you go account so if anyone is thinkng of buying new it may be wise to choose one with this offer as I think it is still available depending where you go.

John


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## dbh1961 (Jan 31, 2007)

*Internet access from motorhome*

I use a 3G datacard, from T-mobile. It costs me £19.98 per month, for unlimited usage. I was on dial-up internet access at home, and looking to go broadband. Then I found this option, which gives me access 24/7, wherever I am.
The marginal cost, over broadband, is about £7-8 a month, and for that I get the additionasl use on Fri/Sat/Sun, when I'm in the motorhome. I can now look up the nearest site/pub/garage/shop/restaurant when I'm out (instead of trying to pre-plan what I might want to know). Also, e-mail 24/7 is great.

I tried it in France, and it does work, but you pay extra. As soon as I connected, I got a text message on the laptop, saying what the rate would be (per minute). When I got back, the bill was less, because I was billed on volume of data, not time spent. I only downloaded a few e-mails, just to prove the theory, cost was 17p total. Prolonged browsing would run a bill up, and yes, there will be cheaper ways of ineternet access abroad. Taking the whole package though, I'm happy to overpay a little in France, and have the convenience of 1 package doing everything.
I'm not sure what the latest deals are. Mine was £19.98 per month, sign up for 18 months and get the hardware free. It's called Web'n'Walk Professional, and you need to make sure you go for the laptop datacard, not the phone options. It doesn't allow VOIP, and you need a laptop that can take a PCMCIA card


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