Internet Cafes
|
|
| When available and reasonably close at hand, these are useful and economic to use. Perhaps the most important debate for many is whether to use a service such as Hotmail or Yahoo Mail for email. Both are web based email services and have the advantage of being usable through any server. A disadvantage is the need to compose emails online. This may not be a particular problem from an Internet Cafe but would be prohibitive from a mobile phone. If you are going to use a mobile phone on the boat from time to time, then it means having to use two addresses and two sets of email to connect. Hotmail has had a bad reputation for collecting Spam and Junk mail although those that use them find that there are filters which are effective. There are
alternatives to Hotmail or Yahoo Mail. First, if your server uses POP (Post Office Protocol) then it may well be possible to collect mail direct from your own server from any browser. With ClaraNet, I can use |
www.clara.net/pop which brings up a dialogue box. The second alternative is to use mail2web. This is a straightforward Internet based email client that can as far as I am aware, be used from any browser. Mail2web is a free service. All three systems receive attachments without limit. There may be limits on attachment size when sending. Mail2web can be used from almost any POP3 or IMAP4 email server. Instead of offering another web based email service, like Hotmail or Yahoo Mail, they use your usual or normal email account. Large attachments can be deleted without downloading them first! These services leave read mail available on your server
unless deleted. WARNING If you have been using email in an Internet Cafe it can be possible for the next customer to access your email address and to use it as the reply address for junk mail and worse. If you think that this might be likely, then reboot before you leave. |
Mobile Phones
|
| A mobile phone linked to a laptop gives great flexibility - at a price. During 2003 around France and Italy I used a UK mobile phone (Orange) with my UK server. This entailed using international calls to a UK number. Call charges were about 70p a minute inc VAT. Depending on how much incoming mail there was, I could send and receive emails, including a daily GRIB of 5.6 kb and, sometimes, download an Internet page of text from the Météo France site within 1½ minute. The advent of GPRS has changed matters somewhat. Using GPRS you get higher speeds. More importantly, you only pay for the amount of data up and downloaded. For a contract phone, when roaming costs are about £5 per Mb. I am now using GPRS and a Bluetooth
connection. The results in Malta, Italy and Croatia have been good. A detailed page on linking up a laptop to a mobile phone has been produced by HROA member, Ivan Andrews. His advice is on my Phone Set up page. If you are using a GSM phone, the it is important to minimise connection times and some useful advice from David Hide is at the Appendix. It is also important |
to identify a mobile phone service that is reliable. Around Spain with my Orange Mobile, I found Movistar to hold the connection better than the other companies. Around Italy TIM was good. Others may find differently. Reception of mobile phone signals at sea can be very uncertain because aerials are likely to be optimised for use on land. Over 10 miles out, and less in places, reception may not be possible. One trick with Bluetooth is to connect the phone to the computer and then put the phone in a safe container and lift it up the mast - a maximum of 10 m from the computer. That can improve reception. A further way of reducing costs is to use a data compression service such as
Onspeed. This costs about £25 a year and gives a reduction in data volumes of about a factor of three overall, text and picture files. MailASail is another data compression service. In harbour, you might be able to use a WiFi connection. Prices can vary greatly. Some people have been able to piggy back on a private unsecured wireless connection. There are pages on the Internet advising how to do this. |
Satellite Phones
|
No doubt, these will become cheaper to buy and use in time. If you really want to use a telephone connection at sea wherever you are, then these may be the
|
solution. The bandwidth is far too small for anything but email. I have no direct experience and cannot comment further at this stage. |
INMARSAT-C and -M
|
| Both these systems can give connections for email or other text purposes but both are too slow otherwise. Both could be used with the various services |
involving GRIB code and ftp services discussed on the email page. Again, I have no direct experience and cannot comment further. |
HAM and Marine HF Links
(see also the page on
HF and HAM radio)
|
| The sailor has three choices for HF/SSB radio providing email services. There are commercial operators which, obviously, work for a profit. There is SailMail, which offers user funded co-ordination of ground stations. Finally, there is HAM radio. Which is used depends upon your requirements and, perhaps, the depth of your pocket. There are various ways in which email and other services might be accessed and the commercial companies are likely to have their proprietary software packages. Amateur operators may use their HF rigs in conjunction with Airmail software to connect to the
Winlink2000 system for email and weather data services, while SailMail users will use their HF rigs and Airmail to connect to the SailMail system for similar services. For advice on setting up these services see the RCC notes page on this site. HAM radio or SailMail users can receive and send emails, using Airmail, a messaging program similar to Microsoft Outlook. They can also retrieve weather and other information from the Internet via their respective shore side stations. This is done by the user using his/her Airmail software and SSB/HF |
radio to connect to the HAM Winlink or SailMail shore side systems, which are distinct from one another. Some weather-related files are already on-hand at each shore station and receipt of them occurs immediately upon connection; GRIB files are also quickly retrieved. Winlink users typically experience data rates running from a 'worse case' of 300 baud using the Pactor II mode to 2000-3000 baud or more with a solid connection using Pactor III mode (which uses more bandwidth). See the Mediterranean page and the Winlink Catalog page for more information. Please send enquiries, requests and comments regarding Winlink to Steve Waterman,
K4CJX. Until such time as satellite telephone services becomes affordable, this seems to be a viable solution to accessing Internet products when at sea and out of GSM telephone contact. Even with GSM telephone, and current charges, HF radio offers a cost effective alternative to Internet access and email. However, due to propagation and reception problems it may not be available 100% of the time. |
Appendix
|
| David Hide offers the following advice (with some minor editing and additions) to reduce the use of mobile telephones for email and accessing information from the Web. |
Internet Connect Times
|
|
Little can be done to affect Internet connect times except through modified operating technique. The following are some useful guidelines for the less experienced user.
- Always save the specific addresses of the web pages you plan to use - as Favourites
- Save pages and read or print at leisure, off line.
|
- Do your 'surfing the net' research at home.
- Generally print (if necessary) directly from the screen.
- Avoid downloading .pdf files.
- Avoid peak times.
|
E-mail Connect Times
|
- Use a dedicated e-mail system, such as Outlook Express or Netscape, not an Internet web-based system.
- Connect and sign on automatically to your e-mail account.
- Use the automatic disconnection features of the e-mail system
- Do not use Hotmail or similar public systems.
- Use the blocking facility (in Outlook Express - Tools - Message Rules - Mail) to limit the size of any acceptable incoming e-mail. [Our limit, when on board, is less than 10 kbytes]. NOTE - this will eliminate much undesirable junk mail such as Viagra adverts.
- Use the same facility to block mail from unwanted sources.
- Educate friends to send short plain text emails and not to use the "include message in reply" facility..
- Never read or even open e-mail or attachments from unknown parties.
|
- Never execute macros from unknown sources.
- Send attachments as text files or, .html if it is essential to preserve formatting
- Set up a separate e-mail account for use on board or with the mobile.
- Test the system from home as if abroad, by using the foreign telephone numbers.
All of the above significantly reduce the chances of receiving worms or viruses (both of which can have nasty affects on your computer system) as they usually come in the form of attachments with hidden macros and other software. Examples of how file size depends upon the way in which it is coded are as follows for the same information content
| Word File |
42 KB |
| .html file |
6 KB |
| .rtf |
5 KB |
| .txt |
4 KB |
|
Choice of ISP
|
| Several UK ISPs provide local dial-up numbers in the Mediterranean basin. Several of these services are based on either an additional monthly subscription (either flat rate) or more usually on an hourly rate with a limited number of hours 'free' or a minimum charge. An exception is ClaraNet who say that "They have no limitations or extra charges for accessing your account in Spain/France and you are only charged at local rates set in the aforementioned countries. It is very similar to accessing your account from the UK, provided you dial into the correct dial-up number(s)". Connection to a local ISP in each major country could well be the preferred option if on an extended cruise and spending extended periods in a country or
countries. However, if not taking this option nor using a local dial up number with a UK ISP then it means being able to use your UK ISP over international numbers. The ISP chosen should have a 'normal' telephone number for access, i.e. a number starting with 01 or 02. The 08 series of numbers normally used |
for UK access are unlikely to be available from abroad via a mobile phone. [Check this out with your mobile phone operator - who will often not know the answer anyway!] I have used ClaraNet from my mobile using 004420 etc with no problems. Also check you can access their support desks via e-mail, if you cannot get access from within the country one is visiting. While not essential, this line of backup can be of great assistance if having to sort out problems. Most ISPs support the V34 access protocol, i.e. 34 kbytes/sec when using a land line. Some locations will not accept access at the lower rates of a mobile phone. Check that the chosen ISP will support mobile access at the lower rate of 9.6 kbits/sec at the access
numbers they list for your use. [ ITT Global Network, Dial Pipex and ClaraNet are all accessible at mobile speeds at all their published access points.] |
