Over the last year, mobile posting to the site has been sporadic to say the least. This is in part due to the problems of getting internet access. Posts made late lose their interest because the news (such as it is) and opinions become stale. Purchase of a Sony Ericsson phone with Bluetooth did help a bit as I found that the phone could be put on the roof by the Houdini Hatch and still maintain excellent bluetooth connectivity. Apart from the risk of forgetting where the phone was, this would at best be a multi-stage procedure and not conducive to a quick post at the end of a long day. Connectivity via the Orange network was not bad on the whole, at least up the spine of the canal network.
I had a trial fling with btOpenworld and a wireless plug in card, but the battery on my Sony VAIO was at the end of its life, so I could not take it outside and I never managed to connect to anything from within the boat, so gave that up. Besides, I want to be able to work from the comfort and privacy of my own boat and not sitting in a pub somewhere.
At the IWA National a company called G-Comm was offering the new Vodafone 3G/GPRS connect card free of charge in exchange for a service contract for 50MB a month at £20. (plus VAT). As I was already paying £13 for 25MB this didn't seem too bad, so I signed up.
When I got home I installed the software and the card, which fits in the card slot on the laptop, and got immediate 3G connection, but mysteriously the computer failed to shut down properly and every time thereafter, when starting the computer with the card in situ, it would hang (at a very early stage in startup) and if the card was inserted after startup, the computer would lock up. The company who sold me this contract was enormously helpful in trying to solve this problem. There must have been hours on the telephone, mostly at their expense and I was mailed trial alternative software and a slightly different (older) Vodafone card all to no avail. Interestingly, in the end it all boiled down to driver problems with the interface which SONY refused to acknowledge saying that their drivers were intended to work with their own proprietary cards and it was not their problem. I was left with the option of returning the Vodafone card and canceling the contract, or buying a new laptop. I chose the latter.
I now have a brand new ACER (not Sony note!) with built in wireless connectivity, and the Vodafone card works a treat. I can get on the internet almost instantly and at 3G the speed on the connection is impressive, not up to full broadband speeds of course, but nonetheless good. Now a word of caution. I have not had the opportunity to use in on the canal system at large, so it still remains to be tested for purpose, but I am hopeful.
This post was made by email from my newsreader software (Agent) - the most economical way in terms of bandwidth.
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