Laptop usage on the road???

[KingAirer]

Some of the hotels ive been stuck at have a flat rate of like .50 per call no matter how long the call is, so i will just leave my computer on for that whole time. Others are the 50Cents for first hour then .50 a minute afterwards and can get completly insane and expensive. I dont know what kind of hotels youll be staying in or what the company policys are, But if ya get lucky youll get a hotel with a network line. Then you need nothing but an ethernet card and and ethernet cable and no ISP, and on top of that its FAST. But from my experinces those are few and far between. I did the AOL trial thing, and then went to cancel and they begged for me not to and gave me 3 months free. After that was up I called to cancel and i got another 2 months for free...I still havent paid them a cent.

 

[Snoopy58]

satisfied (if not wildly happy) aol user

For prpjt,

I've kept AOL for a lotta years, and still use it on the road. I have highspeed access at home, where I use AOL for email & IE for surfing (both over the highspeed internet access). On the road, I connect with AOL & surf with IE. Works okay for me. AOL has plenty of access numbers, and I've never caught it installing spyware on my computers (tho I've found other things that do... Gator, Real Networks, etc). Of course, I don't have other dialup networks that I use; wanabe is correct that AOL doesn't coexist very well with such things. Only a factor if your laptop is setup to dial in to a corporate server of some sort.

Don't know about uninstalling AOL & how much trash it leaves behind, but a reasonably smart tech rep can fix your internet settings from the Control Panel. Reformat is unnecessary overkill (tho probably a more effective deterrent).

The AOL content & the AOL browser aren't all that exciting any more, but it is a reliable way to connect to the internet, and enough people use it that most internet software out there (thinking specifically of the SWA crew portal & our ability to access our scheduling system over the 'net) will generally explain how to set things up to run with AOL.

The other reason that I keep it is because everyone I know has my AOL email address (no, it isn't Snoopy58) & I don't feel like changing it.

Cheers!

 

[100LL... Again!]

AT&T sells internet cards that work just like calling cards. Buy 'em at the gas station. Be careful, I THINK that the retailer has to acivate them. Check out AT&T's website. Buy a CD with thwe software and a card, then just buy replacement cards.

 

[328dude]

Falcon, I use my laptop for the same reason you are going to. I had a HP, but it broke fairly easy with me carrying it around all over creation. I have since bought a Dell and the support is so much better then HP.

This is not a computer debate here. Just stating fact.


PM, if you have any other questions.

 

[Draginass]

The phone lines in many hotels are so poor that you only get 24kbps out of them. Some have high speed ethernet lines, but the last room I was in they wanted $12.95 for use of it.

 

[T1bubba]

Go wireless!

I just wanted to be able to check email and do some very basic surfing without having to carry a laptop around, so I got a Handspring Treo 300 Palm Phone. It's a little bigger than a normal cell phone but still easily fits in my pocket. It connects at normal 56K dial-up speeds, but since I use mobile-designed sites whenever possible the speed works fine. It also has a thumb-keyboard which is faster and more accurate than graffiti.

I get unlimited wireless data for $10/month more than my normal Sprint wireless plan, and it's worked everywhere I've tried it so far. Another nice feature is you can sync Avantgo before getting on a flight, then surf the Avantgo channels during flight (from memory).

It's no replacement for a laptop and I wouldn't want to type more than a couple paragraphs on it, but for what I need it works great (plus amazon.com had some great rebates on it).

 

[azpilot]

Re: satisfied (if not wildly happy) aol user

For prpjt,

Don't know about uninstalling AOL & how much trash it leaves behind, but a reasonably smart tech rep can fix your internet settings from the Control Panel. Reformat is unnecessary overkill (tho probably a more effective deterrent).

I hate to say it but I have seen it ruin multiple computers and no you couldn't just go into the control panel and reset things. AOL messes with your system registry which makes it extremely difficult to find things and remove them. Sometimes you can get lucky by just re-installing your operating system. I have had to reformat the drive on multiple machines before. Unless you want to use AOL's proprietary online service and chat rooms I see no reason to sign up for its service. If you want to surf the Internet then sign up with an access provider like MSN, AT&T or Earthlink. My preferred dial up provider is AT&T.

- AZPilot

 

[Chas]

Aol is a virus!

Aol has all the signs of a virus. It takes over your computer . Just say NO to AOL !!!

 

[flaps30]

Sprint PCS

Sprint PCS sells an aircard for your PC, the speed is good, but the data is compressed and some pics and video are so, so. You can add an additional line to your exisiting service and not tie up your cell. Your ISP becomes Sprint and comes with the plan. I pay 90 bucks, have two lines, one for cell one for aircard, unlimited internet minutes using aircard, 2000 anytime minutes. You can use it anywhere, no phone lines, ect. I was concerned the speed would suck, but better than dial up, slower than a Cable modem.