UK WiFi hotspots and roaming

Caravanning usage touring the country.

As I understand it to use a laptop on the move around the country we
need to find Wifi hotspots and use something like a TP-Link 54Mbps
Wireless USB Adapter (£8 from SVP). To use this we need an ISP that
allows access to these hotspots. This would allow us to access our
webmail, and occasional surfing for info about the area we are in at
the time.
PAYG would be best for us as we rarely use it, and it would be minutes
at a time initially.

Questions.

1: Is there one access provider that covers the country, as currently
it appears there are hundreds! Which provider would you recommend?

2: What is the best USB adapter I should get? (P4 laptop running XP)

3: How far, ish, would you be able to work from a hotspot?

Thanks in anticipation for your help.

Go to http://www.btopenzone.com

You can download a list of all the paid for hot spots mostly operated by
TheCloud. They are mainly at Public Places. Hotels and Airports, Pubs.

BT have now partnered with FON and that allows owners of BT homehubs to
reflash their routers if they are on BT Broadband. After that their router
has two channels one for the client and the other as a BT Openzone hot spot.

In Stonehaven tonight there were 4 of these showing on one street.

You can either log in as a BTOpenzone or TMobile or TheCloud account holder.
The other way in these hotspots is to become a FON and this gives you free
access to them.

IMHO outside buildings the connection is at best marginal to Ok but being
inside the building is much better.

You really want a separate aerial and a connectable wifi adapter to get a
connection from some distance. Look at http://www.solwise.co.uk for this
kit. It will usually be ether a USB or PCMCIA adaptor.

A friend had a Repeatit and used it from his boat around Europe and the
Canaries with some success

Eddie

On Tue, 6 Nov 2007 20:06:58 -0000, "That Bloke" <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>Go to http://www.btopenzone.com
>
>You can download a list of all the paid for hot spots mostly operated by
>TheCloud. They are mainly at Public Places. Hotels and Airports, Pubs.
>
>BT have now partnered with FON and that allows owners of BT homehubs to
>reflash their routers if they are on BT Broadband. After that their router
>has two channels one for the client and the other as a BT Openzone hot spot.
>
>In Stonehaven tonight there were 4 of these showing on one street.
>
>You can either log in as a BTOpenzone or TMobile or TheCloud account holder.
>The other way in these hotspots is to become a FON and this gives you free
>access to them.
>
>IMHO outside buildings the connection is at best marginal to Ok but being
>inside the building is much better.

Do these places (pubs. McDs etc) usually have a power supply one can
use as well, or are you expected to be on battery?

Most places I have been there is no power, pubs can be ok sometimes.

If in a car look at Inverters

Look at
http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/s...category_31297

I use this one Can get hot and cut out to cool down, but works fine.

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/s...tegoryId_31297


"Sue" <878768~@rrtrt.com> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> On Tue, 6 Nov 2007 20:06:58 -0000, "That Bloke" <(E-Mail Removed)>
> wrote:
>
>>Go to http://www.btopenzone.com
>>
>>You can download a list of all the paid for hot spots mostly operated by
>>TheCloud. They are mainly at Public Places. Hotels and Airports, Pubs.
>>
>>BT have now partnered with FON and that allows owners of BT homehubs to
>>reflash their routers if they are on BT Broadband. After that their router
>>has two channels one for the client and the other as a BT Openzone hot
>>spot.
>>
>>In Stonehaven tonight there were 4 of these showing on one street.
>>
>>You can either log in as a BTOpenzone or TMobile or TheCloud account
>>holder.
>>The other way in these hotspots is to become a FON and this gives you free
>>access to them.
>>
>>IMHO outside buildings the connection is at best marginal to Ok but being
>>inside the building is much better.
>
> Do these places (pubs. McDs etc) usually have a power supply one can
> use as well, or are you expected to be on battery?
>
>

On Sat, 10 Nov 2007 21:46:06 GMT, "Paul" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Most places I have been there is no power, pubs can be ok sometimes.
>
>If in a car look at Inverters
>
>Look at
>http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/s...category_31297
>
>I use this one Can get hot and cut out to cool down, but works fine.
>
>http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/s...tegoryId_31297
>
>
>"Sue" <878768~@rrtrt.com> wrote in message
>news:(E-Mail Removed).. .
>> On Tue, 6 Nov 2007 20:06:58 -0000, "That Bloke" <(E-Mail Removed)>
>> wrote:
>>
>>>Go to http://www.btopenzone.com
>>>
>>>You can download a list of all the paid for hot spots mostly operated by
>>>TheCloud. They are mainly at Public Places. Hotels and Airports, Pubs.
>>>
>>>BT have now partnered with FON and that allows owners of BT homehubs to
>>>reflash their routers if they are on BT Broadband. After that their router
>>>has two channels one for the client and the other as a BT Openzone hot
>>>spot.
>>>
>>>In Stonehaven tonight there were 4 of these showing on one street.
>>>
>>>You can either log in as a BTOpenzone or TMobile or TheCloud account
>>>holder.
>>>The other way in these hotspots is to become a FON and this gives you free
>>>access to them.
>>>
>>>IMHO outside buildings the connection is at best marginal to Ok but being
>>>inside the building is much better.
>>
>> Do these places (pubs. McDs etc) usually have a power supply one can
>> use as well, or are you expected to be on battery?
>>

Was in McDonalds today, and no they don't have a power supply usually.
I had a full signal (5 bars), and good speed. Outside in the car park
the signal dropped to 4 bars, but worked just as well.