When I invest in a wireless card will I be able to use my notebook
out and about the city of Paris, and it may seem silly but will I be
able
to post on Le Forum. I dare to ask because in my very short(un mois)
of interacting in this forum I have%26#39;nt seen anyone post from Paris
not even Les Fideles/Les Devotees.
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Hi there - if you have a bit of a read you%26#39;ll see that there%26#39;s a few Parisians who provide us with up to the minute information, Alexth82 being one of them..I%26#39;m certain you can post from Paris
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If you%26#39;re asking whether you%26#39;ll be able to sit down randomly at a park bench or in a corner of the Louvre and hit the internet, I don%26#39;t know, but I think I%26#39;d consider it a lucky break rather than something to be counted upon. Two years ago in Italy, I managed to bat about .500 in getting free WiFi signals from our rooms in hotels that didn%26#39;t explicitly offer the service. I assume this was bleed over signal from nearby neighbors who didn%26#39;t password protect or otherwise encrypt their wifi routers. Presumably, two years further into the wireless revolution it might be possible to do better (or maybe worse as more people worry about hackers and set up firewalls).
If you%26#39;re willing to pay for wifi access, my impression is that it%26#39;s pretty widely available. For instance, the Mappy site (http://www.mappy.com/) gives an option with its online maps to show locations of Orange wifi hotspots. Based on spending about 30 seconds on the Orange website (http://www.orange-wifi.com/), it looks like they offer some kind of prepaid wifi plan that might be competitive with the fees for stopping in an internet cafe to go online. Certinaly more convenient to do that than to try to deal with webmail and/or a franch keyboard (the Italian ones I tried gave me fits).
Here in the bay area, some Starbucks and other comparable places offer free wifi access to their customers. Might be similar arrangements in Paris?
FWIW, I doubt that I%26#39;ll want to be lugging the extra 4 pounds and rather inconveneint shape of my laptop around from site to site duirng the days when we%26#39;re there in a month. But going to a place near the hotel after dinner to upload the day%26#39;s pictures to a safe %26quot;place%26quot; or to check in with the dogsitter sounds like something I would want to do.
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Merci%26#39;, I was just exploring my options, one, I realize we have some
of the best posters coming from Paris, I was just wondering about
the frequency differences if there are any; and secondly, I appreciate
the info and your are probably right I wouldn%26#39;t want to lug it around
my feet would not appreciate it. I like this forum because you get %26quot;where the rubber meets the road%26quot; advise, which is what you want when preparing a venture.
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Geekspeak explanation: All commercial wireless cards and routers use some version of the 802.11 standard (a, b, e, g, etc.). Most wireless access cards and routers currently on the market use 802.11g. They are also backward compatible with routers and other cards using the slower, older b (and I think a, too) standards.
Translation: Wifi is wifi the world over. You%26#39;ll almost certainly be able to use your recently (i.e. last several years) purchased wireless-equipped laptop to access the internet in Paris (although it may not be for free). Note that data transfer rates are likely to be about 30% slower than here thanks to the crappy exchange rate, though. ;o)
Disclaimer: I%26#39;m not an wireless communication engineer or even a computer/tech support guy, but I do occasionally play one on the internet.
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Thanx again! I bookmarked this page for future reference. I luv
tapping into brainpower. This one galaxtic %26quot;Brainstorming Session.%26quot;
Eat our heart out, Captain Kirk and Star Trek Crew!
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