traveling to Europe, packing thinkpad in luggage, wi-fi

[newmanm]

if i can't carry my TP on the plane, would it help to take the hard drive out and carry that with me? I've packed my TP in the past and ended up with a grinding drive.
I'm thinking of taking my old A22e instead of my T43P.

are wi-fi standards the same there? (France)

[jdhurst]

I was in Europe last year (May, 2005), took my T41, and didn't find wireless anywhere convenient to me. I used Dialer.net for dialup access. That worked, even if slow. If you do find wireless, I think it is pretty much the same (at least that is what I read).
... JD Hurst

[newmanm]

oh, I hope I don't have to use dial-up.
I used dial-up in Hawaii last year. it was very painful. I was also using my ISP's webmail, that seemed even slower.

[GomJabbar]

There is some information regarding Europe on this page.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wi-Fi#Wi-Fi:_How_it_works

[bill bolton]

are wi-fi standards the same there? (France)

The 802.11 group of (WiFi) standards are implemented globally so you will be able to connect to hotspots.

However, paying for the hotspot connection to get communication beyond the default "captive portal" page can sometimes be difficult as that is often dependent of local financial conventions which are not always particularly obvious/intuitive to "foreigners".

BTW, the coverage information on the Wiki article that GomJabber referenced above is miselading in terms of coverage and operators. For instance if you tried to rely an Azure in Australia you would get quite poor hotspot coverage, while Telstra who have massive hotspot Australian coverage (including WiFi flooding of the Sydney & Melbourne CBDs) is simply not mentioned at all.

Similarly on the "worlwide provider level" there is no mention of iPass, which has ~150,000 hopstpots worldwide (far exceeding BOZII), or mention of the Mobile Broadband Alliance group etc etc.

I suspect that the Wiki entry has mostly been done by Telco representatives who are only interested in pushing their own services.

Cheers,

Bill

[DIGITALgimpus]

Yes, wifi standards are the same there.

As far as taking your HD out, if they don't allow the laptop in the cabin (as was the case for US-->Britain), no HD's either. So it won't make a difference.

If your really concerned, keep backups at home. Also use encryption on the drive in case it gets stolen.

[newmanm]

which encryption program do you suggest?

[JaneL]

oh, I hope I don't have to use dial-up.
I used dial-up in Hawaii last year. it was very painful.

I used dial-up this past week on vacation. It was very painful, and I'm afraid I used a scorched-earth approach to any images I came across that were posted with no warning in the subject line.

[jdhurst]

Dial-up generally is painfully slow given that most people appear to have broadband now. However, dial-up is better than nothing, and when I was in Europe last May in the Hotels I was in (central London, central Paris and central Amsterdam), there was no WiFi (I checked), there was no wired internet access, only phone connections. So it was dial-up or nothing, and I was happy for Dialer.net. ... JD Hurst

[christopher_wolf]

I recommend TrueCrypt, works pretty well and has good support.

Last time I was in Europe, I could latch onto hotspots on university campuses, via a guest reg and a portal page, or cybercafes (some had portal pages, others didn't). Being 802.11x, the standards are universal and are adhered to by the hardware as they are in the states, as tight or loose as that adherence may be. Some APs require special certs you get and use to authenticate though. This can have the nasty side effect of changing some of your pre-amble and handshake settings, causing you grief when trying to connect to another AP.

Hotels can also be a pain when it comes to WiFi as they either have none or charge for it alot. In such a situation I would either go dialup or Bluetooth to my RAZR and then dialup. Yeah, it isn't broadband hi-speed, but I generally don't needs *that* much bandwidth to check my email or research newsgroups.

Using a Wikipedia article for info regarding coverage about WiFi, supposedly universal, in Europe? I am suprised at their failure to mention iPass, having used them several times, or MBAG (new, but large enough to warrant mention)

Nonny is right, I am going to *enjoy* that emoticon muchly ; I think that one and the banana.....yeah, Mike likes his bananas.

[DIGITALgimpus]

I'll second TrueCrypt, I use it myself, and love it.

The above was my strategy for when I was in Europe last month (left before the whole terror alert, and flew back the day after the news broke)... thankfully was well prepared, but was allowed to carry it, since I was flying AMS->EWR.

[leegaard]

are wi-fi standards the same there? (France)

Yep - almost - at least you should have no difficulty in connecting to hotspots on hotels, and in airports etc etc.

[GomJabbar]

Using a Wikipedia article for info regarding coverage about WiFi, supposedly universal, in Europe? I am suprised at their failure to mention iPass, having used them several times, or MBAG (new, but large enough to warrant mention)

I have not been to Europe myself to corroborate the information in the Wikipedia article, and I was not inclined to spend a lot of time verifying it. It seemed like useful information. But as you and others have pointed out, that information is not current. I appreciate the correction and additional information.

As you pointed out - information found in such places has to be taken with a degree of skepticism. Often times it is quite useful, but other times misleading. Searching such places can save one a considerable amount of time, but depending upon the importance of the information, additional corroboration may be needed. Discussions such as we have here in this forum help to weed out the bad information, and it saves time for those with the questions. Of course, anything posted here has to be taken with skepticism just as in a Wikipedia article. It takes time to discern the quality of the information posted from any one individual.

[christopher_wolf]

Too often have I seen such information quoted, more like hailed, as the "truth" only to seriously affect people later on when it comes time to apply it; the old saying "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing" can apply here. The 802.11x protocols are, technically, *universal*; in real life, whether it plays nice with a particular AP or router is sometimes another matter entirely. As far as the access goes, it was a little bizzare to see the absence of such significant providers. Information taken out of context can be rendered usless *immediately*. In some cases that I have seen, a real life Monte Carlo sim of the old 1000 Monkeys on a 1000 typewriters (or IBM Selectrics) scenario with an large amount of time would be able to produce more relevant information.

As for thinking about the information? It is almost as if critical thinking has disappeared from day to day use for some; which might, I guess, go some way in explaining the large numbers of Dell laptops sold in the consumer market. Reminds me of the old saying that "a person is an intelligent and reasonable creature, but the public at large is a large, nasty, not particularly bright, reactionary creature."

Just because something is open to modification and editing by all doesn't, in many ways, guarantee accuracy, coherence, relevance, logic, or other sane trappings.

[GomJabbar]

Too often have I seen such information quoted, more like hailed, as the "truth" only to seriously affect people later on when it comes time to apply it; the old saying "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing" can apply here. <snip> In some cases that I have seen, a real life Monte Carlo sim of the old 1000 Monkeys on a 1000 typewriters (or IBM Selectrics) scenario with an large amount of time would be able to produce more relevant information.

As for thinking about the information? It is almost as if critical thinking has disappeared from day to day use for some; which might, I guess, go some way in explaining the large numbers of Dell laptops sold in the consumer market. Reminds me of the old saying that "a person is an intelligent and reasonable creature, but the public at large is a large, nasty, not particularly bright, reactionary creature."

Dick Nite comes to mind.