mobile Internet access?

[peter Hobday]

Hi guys - I am a copywriter and travel to various places I own in Spain, France, USA and UK. I have a computer in each for writing and design and communicating with clients. My question is: What method do you use to access Internet and email that can be used in any country?

I don't want to have to install a landline in each place, and sign up for broadband etc. I will be sending large attachments.

I understand some mobile phones can be used as a mobile modem to connect up to the Internet, but will obviously need to know a bit about what telephone service to use. In the States, Cingular is the only phone service that works in our area. In the UK, it's something else.

I don't own a mobile phone, by the way, but I will buy anything that will work overseas.

Thanks for your help!

[roban]

Hello Peter and welcome to the forum.

In my opinion a web based customer relations system (CRM) would work very well for you. Sugar CRM comes to mind because I use it myself. All you would need is a hosting account. You and whoever you delegate can access the system to retrieve files, schedules, contact lists and other business tools. There is a gantt chart for tracking projects as well. The advantage to this type of system is that it uses sql database and can be accessed from anywhere in the world.

I have an instance of Sugar running on one of my domains. If you would like to set up access PM me.

[peter Hobday]

[QUOTE=roban]

"You and whoever you delegate can access the system to retrieve files, schedules, contact lists and other business tools."

Thanks for your prompt response!

Actually my problem is accessing the internet, so I wouldn't be able to get to your system, no matter how wonderful it is. I don't need to organise my stuff, just get to it from whereever I am! So it's a hardware, not a sofware problem.

I know mobile Internet access exists, but who to ask? If I go into a phone shop, I'll get half an hour of sales talk from an 18 year old who idea of travel is a beach holiday..

Peter

[JPnyc]

When you say "will work overseas" do you mean overseas here or there in the UK? I don't know any wireless companies over there but I have quite a few friends that I can ask. You are in the South so I'll ask my friend in Ealing.

[peter Hobday]

I own houses in Spain, France, USA and UK. I have a computer in each house. I don't want to install landlines, broadband etc because I am only in each place a month or two a year. So these computers cannot access the Internet or send emails.

So what I need is a device (mobile phone / modem?) that I can take with me and plug into the computer in whichever country I am in and access the Internet through that connection.

Many people use 'hot spots' or Internet cafes to do this, but I work from the house so I have to create my own connection.

Hope that makes sense!

Thanks for responding!

[roban]

I know that Sprint has a mobile card for their phones but whether they are available in Europe.....

[peter Hobday]

I'll look at their website

[rfresh]

You basically have three choices:

1. A data card of some kind that plugs into your laptop and gives you an internet connection via a cellular network. In the US I use Verizon. You'll have to check with Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile to see where they work over seas. This is your best option.

2. Cell phone so you can use it as a modem to connect your laptop to the internet. The speed will be slower than a card but for text emails that should be ok. I have not used this method in many years and the last time I did, while it worked, it was painfully slow. I consider this to be a last ditch effort. If someone has sent you an attachment in an email, it will take hours to download it and you can't get to your other emails until you do so you will be dead in the water!

3. iPhone. I'm interested in the iPhone but not for it's phone capability - I'm interested in it's browser which can be adjusted to any scale so you can actually use it on existing websites. In other words, it's connection to a cellular network and it's Safari browser make it a viable small internet access tool. But I don't know what carriers it works with overseas.

[peter Hobday]

Many thanks for those options, which I will look into. I suppose the computer manufacturers sell those data cards? E.g. Dell?

[TipPro]

I'm interested in the iPhone but not for it's phone capability - I'm interested in it's browser

The iPhone is great, the WiFi feature is my favorite thing about it, but when you connect the iPhone to the internet through its data phone service it is painfully slow... I cannot see how you could get any work done on the Internet through a cell phone's data network.

Looking forward to the upcoming auction of the radio spectrum