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| Thread ID: 85482 | 2007-12-11 20:25:00 | Internet connection... from a bus | Mercury (1316) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 620391 | 2007-12-12 20:01:00 | You can use satellite. If you use a motorised dish with sat finder they align the satellite you need in a few seconds each time you stop. I had this demonstrated to me at a camp site last year by a family with a campervan. The down side is the motorised dish setups are not cheap. . Uhuh. Having a short while ago installed satellite broadband I can tell you its not a 5 minute process to get it aligned properly. And then theres the matter of the correct satellite. Apparently Ipstar is very close to a couple of others, the auto finder is likely to lock onto one of those instead. Anyway its not practical. |
pctek (84) | ||
| 620392 | 2007-12-12 20:19:00 | I had Ihug Satellite for a good few years before I finally went DSL. It took the tech a few minutes to set up the dish in Auckland, then I moved to Wellington and took the dish with me. I set up the dish and ran the cable into the office etc etc then had the tech come line it up. He was there less than 10 minutes. Of that time it took him longer to set up his ladder than it did to align the dish. I guess it is possible if you have the equipment and know what your doing. |
Bantu (52) | ||
| 620393 | 2007-12-12 21:47:00 | I finally got around to ringing Telecom to find out how much I'm being charged. They say 45c a minute because I'm dialling the ihug number. So then I put a calculator on the September bill and found it ranged from 37c to 49c per minute. :confused: One day I had problems connecting and each of the 6 calls got charged at 1 minute for 45c. Ihug also have a small charge - something like $2 / hour for dialup on the broadband plan. So basically it is about $29 for an hour's use (.45c x 60 + 2.00)... I think. Sounds very expensive but if we use 5 minutes a day over 1 week for email only it works out at about $15. And things keep happening to stop us going away for long periods. The other choice appears to be a Telecom flexi plan. Can get one for the mobile. No monthly costs but $8 / Mb. Or go up a step, pay $10/month (whether I use it or not) and get data at $1 / Mb. Speed wise I'd have to get a datacard - for $429. My current thoughts are continue to use the cellphone, get a casual plan and see how it goes. Anyone else had any experience of this? |
Mercury (1316) | ||
| 620394 | 2007-12-13 02:06:00 | what - and strap the dish on to the top of the bus maybe ? :D OK I admit it - I was saying that a little sarcasticly As pctek says, not practical both technically AND financially :) |
bevy121 (117) | ||
| 620395 | 2007-12-13 03:41:00 | I finally got around to ringing Telecom to find out how much I'm being charged. They say 45c a minute because I'm dialling the ihug number. What number are you dialing. IHUG Dial up you should be using 0873 00777 with DNS Servers set to 203.109.252.43 and 203.109.252.42 Aah I see different number and charges for cellphone connection. Sorry |
Bantu (52) | ||
| 620396 | 2007-12-13 04:45:00 | what - and strap the dish on to the top of the bus maybe ? :D Actually... if you check out motorhomes you will see a lot of Sky aerials on top of buses. Some people seem to line them up with ease. We don't. We've spent ages standing by the bus with compass trying to line it up, also behind the bus, in front of the bus and standing on the bed with heads through the skylight (like meercats at the zoo) trying to line the damn thing up. It really didn't help that the angle on the wind up gauge was about 20 degrees out either. We finally grabbed a spare dish and an old tripod light frame and used it on the ground. No where to store it tidily though. And a couple of days ago when we were playing with it here we couldn't get it working. Not sure if it was the high wind or deck rails in the way. I'm fairly certain that those who get it to work easily throw a fair number of dollars at it for better equipment. |
Mercury (1316) | ||
| 620397 | 2007-12-13 04:56:00 | A Wifi interface and Netstumbler? There must still be many people with unsecured wireless LANs and ADSL. :D | Graham L (2) | ||
| 620398 | 2007-12-13 05:10:00 | What is netstumbler? Although I may have noticed the odd unsecured wireless whilst pushing refresh as we head through a town.... |
Mercury (1316) | ||
| 620399 | 2007-12-13 18:57:00 | So am I correct in understanding that you are using you cellphone as a dial-up modem (ie dialing, and then paying a per minute charge)? A data card will be much faster, from Vodafone's website: On the 3G broadband network, the average user will experience speeds between 800kbps – 1 . 4Mbps, peaking at 3 . 2Mbps . I've used GPRS with my laptop many times when traveling and the speed is usable, so even when you aren't in 3G coverage or HSDPA coverage, it would still be usable for less bandwidth intensive tasks and much better than a dial-up modem . |
maccrazy (6741) | ||
| 620400 | 2007-12-13 19:20:00 | A data card - either Vodafone or Telecom - would be the ultimate. But I've spent less than $100 on dialup charges in the last year so a straight cost benefit analysis indicates that $429 plus a monthly plan can't be justified - at this time. Besides, with the way technology changes new things appear reasonably regularly. It's entirely possible that when the time comes to upgrade the laptop one will be built in. My muddled thinking has clarified itself though. I'm going to try a casual telecom plan using the cellphone and see how it works out when we're away in January for a couple of weeks. |
Mercury (1316) | ||
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