So when you have discussed this subject with the two Clubs how have they responded?oldagetraveller said:
David
David
Yes, I have raised this issue with both clubs. They insist that their charges are OK. As I said, they seem complacent and out of touch. I am quite happy to pay for a service, but the charge should be reasonable. Experts seem to be saying that the cost of providing WiFi is very small - why, then, do the Clubs charge so much and then compound the insult by congratulating themselves??
I am glad that you have at least made the effort to discuss it Clubs, I do wish more people would do the same rather than just commenting on forums. I doubt we will see any changes in the near future as they have just embarked on their new system and that is the business model they have decided to follow. I have some sympathy with that rather than what some people have suggested that they have a more Heath Robinson approach. One problem I have found is that wardens are not very proactive in getting the system back online should there be a fault so sometimes having a more costly system is better than none at all! In the UK there is also this dilemma regarding the widespread use of Mobile Broadband (its always my first choice) which must take away some of the incentive to provide an even cheaper solution. Give it time!
David
David
Just to add my 2p worth. I used a Vodaphone dongle during the summer with mixed success, even though I hung the dongle on an extension lead out through the Heki roof light. We stayed at the CC site at Chatsworth and during a visit to Bakewell a few miles away, I asked at the Tourist Information office about the availability of Internet access in the area. I was pointed towards the local library where I had the use of the internet for half an hour and it was free and I was told to come back whenever I wished.
It can't get much cheaper than that.
It can't get much cheaper than that.
I am halfway through contract with Orange and had words with them today about my contract generally(2 phones and a dongle) and they gave me dongle free for the rest of contract so it works out at £2.50 a month. The big clubs should be able to do a lot better than that imho
Im with bt and joined "fon" up until now Ive found that the c&cc use the same system which means that I get free wifi, we used a cc site at utoxiter race course and found that when searching for a wifi signal there was at least two free services being broadcast, its obviously worth searching first before using the clubs own system.oldagetraveller said:
Derek the Second said:
I was at the C&CC site at Norwich in October. I got a connection because I'm signed up with BT Fon. I assumed that it was because the site has houses nearby. I didn't realise the connection was through the site. I know that CC sites were with The Cloud which was a partner of BT. When on a CC site a BT login page came up but even by logging in it wouldn't let me connect.
The new Samsung Galaxy S smartphone is like a router in it's own right I believe. If you get one on a £20/month contract you get unlimited broadband and your laptop can wirelessly connect to it. When I get one it will be goodbye to my 3G dongle.
Teh problem with using a phone to make the connection to a mobile network is that in areas of weak signal you need to have the phone outside of the faraday cage that the caravan creates. I have had a few laughs from people when they see my old Nokia E71 phone on the roof in a plastic bag (to keep it dry). While most phones will work ok with speech inside the caravan to get the stronger signal for data I still maintain that something like a mifi device up high would be a more reliable option. I wish it was possible to get external aerials for phones like in the early days. I used to have a phone aerial mounted on top of my tv mast that fed to a cradle mount in the caravan that was set up as per a hands free system with a cable connection to laptop. It worked all but slowly due to the slow data speeds of the day.
graham_somersham said:
limecc said:
I liked this idea but checking the detail on both Three Mobile and T-Mobile T&Cs they specifically don't allow you to use their mobiles as modems even though physically the smart phones they sell have this feature. Just as you state some phones offered using the later Android OS can even be tethered to your laptop via WiFi; looks like with these mobile phone service providers the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing.
Do any mobile providers allow it and would the others that don't ever know??
Tried that Chris, for some reason phone mostly needs to be about six inches or mor above the roofline to get a decent signal and on some sites it has to go on my telescopic tv aerial about 5ft above the roof of the van. Probably the wonders of the dark depths of rural Norfolk!
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