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Just got myself a laptop to use whilst in the Motorhome. What advice can anyone give on the best way to buy internet access whilst home and abroad.

Caravan Club is £5 for 5 hours but I may not use so much. Notice some campsites are free but others charge by the week.

I also want to access broadband whilst abroad on Aires.

Mrs Billy

Hey Up Mrs Billy

Its really down to what tou use your internet for.

For checking e mail and low usage you could opt for a mobile fone connection, ie use your mobile as a modem.

My 3 phone contract comes with unlimited (3 gb) internet use and the phone can be conected to the netbook via a usb cable and, hey presto, internet.

Just a thought, althogh I don't think youd do much streaming from you tube, Iplayer or abroad.

Regards

Dave

I've got lots of experience of looking for wifi.  3G is very expensive if you're using it abroad, so I look for free wifi.  McDonalds is a good for emails, but you can't upload stuff to a web sites, and the connection is a bit slow.

The best piece of advice I can offer is to buy yourself an ALFA wifi adaptor.  They have a decent range (despite their compact size) and very high gain, it will vastly out-perform your onboard wifi card.  The model I use is a AWUS036H and it can be found [new] on ebay for about £20.  I also have a 'Repeatit' antenna fixed to the roof of my motorhome, and that gives even longer range - but the ALFA is much easier to carry about.

Don't forget the Caravan Club WiFi card will last 6 months. The difficulty abroad is that access to the internet via mobile broadband is expensive. In Germany T-Mobile have a WiFi facility, the last time we used it was about €30 for a month but you can sign on for shorter periods. In France a lot of town halls have free WiFi.

David

Thanks everyone, will look into the advice you have all given.

Mrs Billy

Thanks again for advice. Ordered the Alfa wifi adapter today from Ebay (£26 + postage) Also joined BT Fon because we are a customer of BT.

Just need to test it all out when we are away. Windy Harbour in Blackpool next week with grandchildren and then France and Spain end of May for a month.

Mrs Billy

Nice one!

After you install the Alpha adaptor make sure you disable the on-board wifi adaptor. Right click on the wifi Icon and 'open network connections'.  Select the on-board adaptor and click 'disable'.  I usually rename the connection so I know which one is in use.

What type of range can you get with the Alpha? I`m thinking of getting one.

Thanks

To be honest I don't know. Set it up at home and quite a few connections came up (all but one were password protected) and yet when I disconnected it, only got my own broadband.

Tried it at Blackpool and only the campsite one came up and you had to pay for that!!

Going away next week for a month, so will be trying it out. I am on BT Fon and supposed to be able to get hotspots but yet to see if that works.

Sorry not to be much help but not an expert.

Quote: Originally posted by davewardz on 06/4/2011

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My 3 phone contract comes with unlimited (3 gb) internet use and the phone can be conected to the netbook via a usb cable and, hey presto, internet.

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you could go for the crystop satellite system that give broad band. I have this system and it is great. pull up to campsite in the UK or Europe, push a button and the system finds the correct satellite. much faster than via phone, saying that the cost of the system is not cheap. Also have the router connected to a wifi repeater so that have wifi a good 100ft around the vehicle

you pay per day, more info from http://www.ipcopter.com/en/

system in available from http://www.roadpro.co.uk/