LAPTOP WEB CONNECTION

[JENIAN]

I have orange broadband connection at home on my pc ,which as a router, so I can connect at home to a laptop, which as wireless connection. How do i connect to the web wirelessly while travelling in my camper , do i have to setup another account with an ISP??? I have contacted orange support twice without a proper answer?????? Basicly how do i connect to the web wirelessly using my laptap???????? thank you

[Don Madge]

JENIAN - 2007-06-30 10:24 AM

 

I have orange broadband connection at home on my pc ,which as a router, so I can connect at home to a laptop, which as wireless connection. How do i connect to the web wirelessly while travelling in my camper , do i have to setup another account with an ISP??? I have contacted orange support twice without a proper answer?????? Basicly how do i connect to the web wirelessly using my laptap???????? thank you

 

This ain't my remit but I have a laptop and it automatically connects to the wifi connection. Some are free and some issue a pas word to get connected.

 

If you want to have a practice go to your local MacDonald's and have a play.

 

I ain't explained that very well, maybe one of our more computer wise members will explain better.

 

Don

[carolh]

Hope this helps

Your laptop will be wireless enabled if you are connecting at home - on mine there is a switch on the side which turns the wifi on and off.

Say you are parked up and you switch you laptop on and the wifi on too, then on the menu bar at the bottom of the screen is a monitor icon with two semicircular lines to the right of it and there will be a little red cross if it hasn't automatically picked up a nearby wifi connection.

right click on this icon and it will come up with a dialogue box which will have an option to refresh network list - do this.

If there are any connections nearby you will see a list - and list will also tell you if they are open for use or password protected and also the signal strength - some as at macdonalds are open for public use (I don't go into macdonalds very often and never with my laptop) but there again have never needed too.

I found 6 unsecured wifi connections while we were parked up in a carpark in Binche in Belgium a couple of weeks ago - the signal strength was poor -

we were surrounded by houses - at least 100 - so who could I ask for permission - so I used one (illegally I presume) and it was only for 15 minutes - so there is a moral issue too!

Also there is a security issue with these open access wifi connections - so don't do your internet banking whilst using one!

Carol

 

 

[Don Madge]

You might find one of these useful http://tinyurl.com/3dvf57 also you might find this site useful http://www.totalhotspots.com/

 

Don

[Vic]

Unfortunately, just because you manage to find an unsecured WiFi connection, it doesn't give you an automatic right to use it. I have read recently that some folks are being prosecuted for doing exactly this. However, it could be argued that an unsecured connection leaves itself open to abuse and the owners should make it password protected.

 

In some Cities, certainly Norwich for one, you can get free WiFi connections anywhere within 2 Kilometres of the City centre. A bit slow, but it works.

 

I know that some camp sites have this facility freely available and I would reckon that this will grow. I mean, why not? If the camp site uses WiFi internet, it doesn't cost them to allow people to share it.

[Brian Kirby]

If one is to avoid using a private connection the owner doesn't want used, how can one distinguish between that connection, and one the owner has deliberately left open so that all may use it, as some folk do?  Does anyone know?

If the two cannot be distinguished, the onus surely must be upon the owner of the connection to ensure it does not broadcast it's SSID?  So far as I know, all wireless gateways come with instructions as to how this can be done.  Ultimately, it is the owner's choice whether the gateway is "visible" to other computers, or not. 

If the connection is visible, and access has been left open, is it unreasonable to assume this is from choice?  It seems to me a bit like maintaining fences.  If you want to keep farmer Giles' animals off your land, it is generally your duty to maintain your fences to keep them out, not farmer Giles' to do so to keep them in.

[Don Madge]

Brian Kirby - 2007-07-01 11:27 AM

If one is to avoid using a private connection the owner doesn't want used, how can one distinguish between that connection, and one the owner has deliberately left open so that all may use it, as some folk do?  Does anyone know?

If the two cannot be distinguished, the onus surely must be upon the owner of the connection to ensure it does not broadcast it's SSID?  So far as I know, all wireless gateways come with instructions as to how this can be done.  Ultimately, it is the owner's choice whether the gateway is "visible" to other computers, or not. 

If the connection is visible, and access has been left open, is it unreasonable to assume this is from choice?  It seems to me a bit like maintaining fences.  If you want to keep farmer Giles' animals off your land, it is generally your duty to maintain your fences to keep them out, not farmer Giles' to do so to keep them in.

Brian,I've got a http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/83697/trendnet-tew429ub.htmlthis gives details of the wifi connection (I think) I had it for my old laptop which was not wireless enabled.Don

[martin r c]

Hi .I use a wap enabled mobile though Nokia suite / via a data cable ,It uses O2 as an isp.and is almost as fast as my home broadband connection. BUT at 20p a min is not cheap. but it,s handy for things like multi-map/ yell.com etc . and for on-line booking if we our touring. secret is to down load then disconnect, and work off line if poss.also set up was so easy, as all the settings and passwords are on the phone not the laptop. as it knows on XP that the phone is connected ,It only tries to use that connection.and goes back to "normal" when I use it at home.

Works really well every time ,providing a GPRS signal is available.If the phone works, then the internet also seems to work.

 

Cheers

 

martin r c

[Brian Kirby]

Thanks Don

That detects available wireless networks OK, as will a wifi enabled laptop.  However, so far as I could see, it doesn't tell you whether the networks are publicly accessible because that is how their owners want them, or merely because they haven't yet realised the need to set up their security. 

In other words, are you welcome, or are you poaching?

[sax]

Hello Brian,

I have said on several threads regarding this subject that I have no scruples whatsoever whether I am welcome or poaching. A contentious issue, I know. I have nothing on my machines that I would be worried about if someone hacked in and when travelling I am quite happy to follow the practices of most 'reps' and travelling businessmen for several years now of poaching. This is of course when near a business area. A previous poster mentioned Norwich and I know the ease of access there very well.

 

However, once the Banks and city centre businesses shut for the evening, when passing through a town then head for nice suburban roads and the likes of us will be active in the evenings and can be poached without knowing.

 

As I have posted before elsewhere on one of these forums, winter and summer alike a daily bunch of MHs pass me on the way to our seafront and all are welcome to use my connection if I am logged on. The main point is to be discreet and do not use a laptop in the front but out of sight in the back. Also, move on fairly soon, there will always be another road, another street.

 

I have stated in the past that if I spot a MH parked up near me I shall pop out, introduce myself and invite them in for a drink.

 

I was brought up deep in the countryside and taught by visiting true gypsies to poach fish and game. I am past that stage but cannot wipe out the habit completely. Sorry if my views upset some peoples moral thoughts.

Best Regards, Mike

[JENIAN]

Thank you everybody. It is now alot clearer. Off to Eire in the morning for 2 weeks. Will try out the new laptop then.

 

Jenian

[Ralph]

JENIAN - 2007-07-03 2:37 AM

 

Thank you everybody. It is now alot clearer.

Jenian

 

Is it? Not for me I'm afraid. I followed this thread hoping to devine the answer to your question but apart from an interesting discussion on the morals of poaching a wi-fi connection I haven't learnt anything.

 

I followed Don's link to see what hot spots are available and it gives a number of providers available. It seems that you can't expect to just subscribe to one and then get on line.

 

So please, what's the answer? Is one of these wi-fi providers best? Do you have to haul your laptop to an internet cafe? I'm really keen to understand how people get on line from their vans as many on here say things like "I'm typing this whilst watching the sunset at La Blah" and I want to know how they do it.

 

Incidentally my own attempt at remote connection failed dismally. I bought a Vodofone 3G card. Horrendously expensive at £2 mb or £8 mb abroad. Tried it in the UK and it worked OK. Took it to France and couldn't get a connection. I should, of course, have phoned Vodafone to get it sorted out but at 60p / minute mobile phone charges (I use Virgin) I didn't think I'd bother... But I suppose cheap mobile connection is another story.

 

 

[mom]

Just on the Vodaphone 3G card - I have one provided (fortunately) by my company, so I don't see the invoice. I have had intermittant success in France - I couldn't get it to attach to a service in Cognac, even though it said it could see 3 providers, yet the next day, further up north, everything was fine. A hint when using the cards, to keep the mb down, is to uncheck the browser option to download images, and check placeholders instead. That way the page comes in image-less and it is amazing how much smaller the transfer effort is - up to 100th the size of a full page. If you need to see an image, and often you do when looking for a "Submit" button etc, just hover and right click and choose "download image". Only that image will be downloaded. Annoying, yes, but the £££ saving is tremendous.

 

Back on "how does one connect to WiFi when travelling... assuming we know how to set up the laptop for WiFi to start with, and it appears from this thread that most of us have it working already at home, then you simply need to be in the presence of an "open" WiFi signal and to have the patience to wait for your wireless software to realise and connect (can take many minutes sometimes). As mentioned above, you can go into your wireless setup panel and refresh the list and connect (this is often needed if there are several competing signals), but often the PC will see and connect automatically, especially after a reboot.

 

This establishes the physical connection to the internet and is of no charge. The next step is to open your browser to go to, say, Google. Usually the browser page is then hijacked by the provider and you are taken to a page that may ask for login details or payment, or simply say "Hello, I'm free". When you are finished with that page you are in, and it may take you onto Google, or you may have to navigate there again. In some cases, with the free ones, there is no page hijacking, it all just works like at home.

 

The payment screen is like any internet purchase - choose the best payment plan (e.g. 1 hour, 1 day, 1 month), enter your CC details, email address etc and you will probably then be given a login and password to write down. You only need these if you reboot your computer and want to reconnect to the same service.

 

As to where those WiFi connections are... I'm sure that in 5 years time WiFi wil be as ubiquitous as landline telephones, and any service worth its salt (cities, campsites, chainstores etc etc) will provide it, but in these middle years, we are left to find them ourselves. As previously described, there are handheld devices that we can carry with us while scouting out the territory, and a plethora of websites listing hotspots. And you can't beat phoning the campsite ahead of time to ask - that way they will get the message if they don't have one! One trick with campsites is that, more and more, they have their own WiFi in reception for their own purposes. On two occasions now, once in the UK and once in Ireland, I have asked to sit in a quite corner in the office and use it and they have been delighted to oblige. Parking "near" the reception office might allow you to catch any leaking WiFi waves.

 

Just to finish, the essential difference between an open WiFi and a protected one is that you can see and use an open one at will, but so can everyone else. This means that bad people with advanced software can peek on your data transmissions. It's up to you as to whether you consider this an issue. As with most data issues, in the rare event of data theft (extremely rare in practice), the vast majority of stolen data is useless to the thief anyway. I wouldn't conduct busines on one, but I would happily browse and do email.

The protected ones mean that you need to enter an identification name to see the signal properly, and you might need another more complex alphanumeric key to be able to use it. If this were the case, only the owner can provide them so if you encountered one of these that was available for use, the owner would give you the details. These connections are "reasonably" secure, but not common in the public WiFi arena.

 

Hope some of this helps!

 

[mom]

Me again, sorry! Just one more thing re Ralph's question on just subscribing to one provider... there are several providers you may encounter, and some have inter-relationships where your purchased time can be used with any provider in the group, and you have other independant ones. So, yes, when touring, the worst case scenario is having purchased unused hours with multiple providers. The purchase plans always favour the longer times - more time for your money if you purchase a day or month, than an hour. But you may then have unused time that is a waste of your money. So choose the plan that makes sense, and do a bit of research - BT Openzone is a start, so make a coffee and wander through their pages at www.btopenzone.com. But there are many others, and multiple subscriptions are likely if you tour.

 

[Brian Kirby]

Last little point is e-mail, which I guess may be more on people's minds than just net-surfing.  I assume the answer here is a Hotmail, or similar, web based e-mail provider?

I believe it is generally possible to obtain details to access and view your own, regular, ISP provided e-mail account; but that sending mail is not possible unless you are logged on to that ISP's network.  Could anyone comment on that from the point of view of what works, and what doesn't?

[Bazza454]

Brian Kirby - 2007-07-03 11:01 AM

Last little point is e-mail, which I guess may be more on people's minds than just net-surfing.  I assume the answer here is a Hotmail, or similar, web based e-mail provider?

I believe it is generally possible to obtain details to access and view your own, regular, ISP provided e-mail account; but that sending mail is not possible unless you are logged on to that ISP's network.  Could anyone comment on that from the point of view of what works, and what doesn't?

Hi Brian,

My ISP is Supanet and if i'm away from home I connect to their home page, log on and then send/receive e-mail as normal. Tends to be slower but it does work.

Gave up with Hotmail many years ago, their filters were useless at stopping "dubious" mail.

[billbaillie]

Hi Brian

If you are connected via a 'borrowed' wireless connection you would need to use web based mail. Many ISP's provide web mail access for their subscribers. With web based amil you would be able to send and receive as mail normal.

If you use POP3 mail accounts (the type used by Outlook etc) then you would be able to receive mail via a wireless connection, but you would NOT be able to send.

If however, the wireless connection you are hooked up to is provided by the same ISP as your normal one, it MAY be possible to send as well as receive.

Hope this helps.

[Ralph]

Brian,

 

I have 2 e-mail accounts. First and main one is with 1&1 and I also have a Google mail account which I use for web forums such as this because it has a good SPAM filter.

However my ISP is BT (their e-mail account was useless so I dropped it) and I can connect to 1&1 or Google mail either using their web sites (which would be necessary if you were using someone else's machine such as in an Internet cafe), or using POP3 from my own PC or laptop.

 

Hope this helps, but bottom line is that you don't necesarily need another account.

 

 

[Ralph]

billbaillie - 2007-07-03 2:47 PM

 

If you use POP3 mail accounts (the type used by Outlook etc) then you would be able to receive mail via a wireless connection, but you would NOT be able to send.

 

That was so in the past, but most ISPs use authentication for sending now. If you have to have a username and password set for SMTP you will probably be able to send on any connection.

 

The big advantage of using Outlook etc. rather than web based is that it considerably reduces the amount of traffic generated.

 

 

[Brod]

A word of caution to all those that have a home WIFI without access protection.

Any missuse of that connection and if picked up by the police, they, the police, will be knocking on your door not that of the poacher

[Peter42]

Brod - 2008-09-21 10:55 AM

 

A word of caution to all those that have a home WIFI without access protection.

Any missuse of that connection and if picked up by the police, they, the police, will be knocking on your door not that of the poacher

 

i cannot understand this. Why should the police be interested in the fact that I am silly (stupid?) enough to allow others access to my computer? What I do know is that the Devon & Cornwall Constabulary have secured at least one conviction of someone illegally 'poaching' a connection recently.

[Ickabod]

As I understand, the police come after the unsecured network owner as they are a regular source for scammers use. They use the connection and then gone, leaving only the trace to the network owner and I suppose "aiding and abetting in a felony" or the like. *-)

[michele]

jack of all trades master of none ! How many more jobs do the police know about this :D

[Brod]

That touched a few nerves. Now consider for one moment piccies of a dubious or ILLEGAL nature downloaded off your site. You could now find yourself part of that investigation

[Rainbow-Chasers]

You do have to be careful of the more sordid side of things, as these criminals that abuse the internet for fraud etc, and paedophiles will happily hi jack your wi-fi connection to save themselves getting done!

 

Also true of bluetooth as well, with that you can access anyones phone and anything on it, send texts etc. Activate your bluetooth search in a a public place such as a train, pub or whatever and you will see what i mean!

 

But do secure yourself. I do remember a prgram once where by hi jacking a internet connection they watched the owner book a holiday. They had the holiday details, the credit card number and all his personal info! Before he had finsihed they had spent a bomb at his expense!