Laptop and Mobile Phone

Mr-X

Hi All,

Does anyone know what the best option is for checking emails and the odd visit to boards, via mobile phone and laptop? GPRS Or Diall Up I want to keep the costs to a Minimum if possible.

Thanks.

garthv

eh dial up,gprs is like mega expensive mate!

Mr-X

So would I be best to use say IOL free or something?

flywheel

depends what operator you use and type of account you have (ref: About to ask how to get connected for Web/WAP/Email/MMS/Bluetooth etc.)

GPRS you pay per KB over any inclusive data allowance, or dial-up you pay per second over any inclusive minutes - O2 GPRS rates are better than Vodafone (unless you use one of Vodafone's data cards), but Vodafone offer faster dial-up (HSCSD) if you have a handset and account that supports that

usually best to use the on-network dial-up mobile ISP the operator provides to take advantage of any on-network rates or inclusive minutes available, rather than a regular dial-up ISP

i use GPRS mostly with a Smartphone/PDA but also with the Laptop if needed mostly for email (with the client set to only take down the first x KB of the email) and light/mobile web browsing - browsing the web like you would on your broadband / dial-up modem connection at home when connected with GPRS will soon have you paying for the privilege

you'd need to provide some info outlined in that linked thread in order to get any specific advice for your circumstances

BrianG

Mr-X

Thanks for that Brian Was going to use pre pay meteor or vodafone but could get an O2 sim if it cheaper. Depends in the costs ill be using a 6310i or a 6610, does it work through Internet explorer?

flywheel

Mr-X wrote:

Thanks for that Brian Was going to use pre pay meteor or vodafone but could get an O2 sim if it cheaper. Depends in the costs ill be using a 6310i or a 6610, does it work through Internet explorer?

on pre-pay the type of GPRS connection you would need (ISP/Internet) is currently only available on O2 or Meteor

on meteor it's charged as €2.50 per 1/2 MB downloaded
ref: Meteor GPRS Internet Access

on O2 it's 3c per KB
ref: Speakeasy Early Bird, Night Owl

pre-pay GPRS is much more expensive compared to the 'inclusive monthly data' options you would have available as a contract customer with the likes of O2 or Vodafone - also for pre-pay the operators don't offer the higher-speed dial-up connections they do for their contract customers (only really relevant for Vodafone's HSCSD service though)

BrianG

Mr-X

Thanks For the Info Brian I can see its going to work out fairly expensive to check a few emails etc. do meteor do a normal diall up connection?

Mr-X

Would it cost much to use yahoo messenger or msn over GPRS?

flywheel

Mr-X wrote:

Thanks For the Info Brian I can see its going to work out fairly expensive to check a few emails etc. do meteor do a normal diall up connection?

Would it cost much to use yahoo messenger or msn over GPRS?

Meteor said they didn't provide an on-network dial-up ISP service when I asked, was able to get it working with a 'free' eircom.net account but at a sloth like 9.6 kbps - here's an example of a call cost for it:
Duration: 3m:24s; Number: 1892150150; Cost: 0.42c

for the GPRS Internet service on Meteor when you connect you get charged Eur 2.50 and you then have 1/2 MB of data available for consumption, when you get through that and continue to use the GPRS Internet service another Eur 2.50 is charged for another 1/2 MB worth of data, and so on...

IM (as long as you are just chatting not doing file transfers) depends how much text you receive and submit and what that comes to in KB of data... thinking of it in terms of every sentence you write/read will cost something...

BrianG

garthv

Mr-x wrote:

Would it cost much to use yahoo messenger or msn over GPRS?

what?!
are you crazy man?
why the hell would you want to?
just use webmessenger

O2 Speakeasy GPRS is insanely expensive. I once clocked up €7 trying to use it! They charge the same for WAP and the ISP; 3c per kb as Brian said. The cheapest option by far is Meteor.