How to you always keep connected?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Craig Martin on January 18, 2009 at 4:20am

Sounds rough. We're really struggling in Australia as we can't sign their ridiculous 24 month contracts. I don't know what Goa's coverage is like, but try a 3g mobile connection. You can use a special USB stick to connect with the telephone network and pay a monthly or per-gig fee.

Permalink Reply by Benny Lewis on January 18, 2009 at 4:53am

Oh I hate contracts!! They are just not designed for digital nomads! I keep seeing amazingly cheap deals for cell phones etc. but only for the long term. The worst place by far in the entire world I have seen so far to have a cell phone is the states by the way. I have never paid so much just to send some text messages and receive calls. Why? Because I wasn't on a contract...
I have heard good things about 3G coverage in Goa so that will likely be my best bet! I checked out the prices and you can pay per month :)

Permalink Reply by Thursday Bram on January 18, 2009 at 9:30am

I'd agree that the 3G mobile connection is a good bet. It's not available universally, unfortunately. I've known some people to rely on satellite internet back in the boonies — it's not as fast as any other connection, but you can get access pretty much anywhere.

Permalink Reply by Dave on January 20, 2009 at 6:59am

I agree with the WIFI suggestion here. When I was in West Africa internet was as a serious issue (not to mention power). And not having a big budget I was stuck for a while. But...

Two options I used: Befriend the local cyber cafe owner, either socially or economically. At one stage my local guy would take a flash disk of photos and I'd leave it with him for a week and he's upload them for me at night. Not so secure, but with little option. It worked out well, as at the time the host had me as admin and him as a user so he couldn't do any damage.

But the best option I found was find a friendly expat. They will have internet, and most likely a good connection. Goa will be full of them. Just pick the right one and not someone looking for a party pal or you'll never get any work done. Likewise, you can always offer to share the costs with an expat for the months you need, and keep it business like. Worked very well for me.

Permalink Reply by Benny Lewis on January 28, 2009 at 7:01am

OK, for India you can get a USB dong and connect through the 3G network. The speed is ok; obviously much less than broadband but still workable. The best one by far is http://www.tataindicom.com/ , but there are others (slower and less coverage).

If you stay in some long-term accommodation, then it's quite easy and cheap to set up broadband in built-up areas and in nearly all of Goa, even if it's just for a month or two. But only the more expensive hotels will ever have wifi, everywhere else it's harder.

There are some free wifi spots, but everything has changed since the terrorist attacks in Mumbai; they have removed a lot of them because of fears of how the terrorists communicated and organised themselves (quite a silly thing to remove, hopefully it's temporary). There are a couple of wifi spots from a provider that you pay in advance for (works out cheap) for a username and password, but I forget the name.

Also, there are a LOT of Internet cafés. A lot of them seem to be flexible and let you plug your laptop into their router (wireless is less likely).

I have only been in Mumbai and Goa so far, so everywhere else will be much harder, but I'm sure the same rules apply in major cities and touristy areas.

Permalink Reply by Gary Arndt on February 3, 2009 at 4:35am

I have stayed 2 weeks in a spot because they had a good connection. I treat good bandwidth like gold. In the month I've been in the Middle East, I've had crappy bandwidth everywhere. A hostel in Qatar is the first place I've found with reasonably fast, uncapped bandwidth.

Mostly I use internet cafes. If I need to upload photos, I put them on a USB stick and use that to upload.

Australia and Dubai have been the most disappointing places I've been in terms of internet. I expected both locations to have better connections than they did. SE Asia was surprising how good it was. I could find free, open wifi almost everywhere.

Permalink Reply by Lis Sowerbutts on February 3, 2009 at 6:11pm

Australia is a nightmare - the best places to get access is either hostels or 5-star hotels the bit in between is useless. Remote areas forget - except the local govt run "telecentre" - which is open 9-4 m-f - if you are lucky and won't let you plug a laptop in or even a usb if you get unlucky!

Although I am setting up an internet business to be mobile I think it will be more a serial expat than a real moving on each week - its just too hard in most parts of the world. I think SE Asia is your best bet for cheap access WIFI. You need to remember that only 3 years ago in NZ it was rare to have broadband - I never had it! I wish a few more site designers were forced to work on dialup - make them think about what's important and whats not

I am looking to develop pasisve income from my sites to get around these sort of issues- I also write - which I can often do off-line and then connect to upload the story

Permalink Reply by Tim Leffel on June 22, 2009 at 5:31pm

If I were in your shoes I would go the 3G route or find a hotel owner/manager who will let you hole up in his/her place somewhere unused each day and use their wi-fi connection. Work out a monthly payment and then eat or drink there sometimes to keep it social. Take a little gift from home to make a nice gesture along the way. OR rent a place that already has a broadband connection, either in the apartment or from the adjoining landlord's place. (That's what I've got right now in Central Mexico where I'm working. No fuss no muss.)

Permalink Reply by Josh on December 30, 2009 at 7:22pm

I use tfthostels.com to search for accommodation because it searches all the hostel booking engines and lets you filter results by whether they have wifi and lockers. I base my destinations on that site, just to make sure there is reliable wifi :)

I did a quick search and found one hostel in Goa that has wifi at $16 USD per night for a dorm bed.

Permalink Reply by Dina & Ryan VagabondQuest on March 4, 2010 at 10:24am

Haven't been in India, but here are some tips about other locations

North America: Go to Starbucks for free WiFi (at least those that I had visited had it)
Western Europe: McDonalds have free WiFi
New Zealand: choose motels with WiFi, they are not much more than the one without, or you can pay 5 kiwi dollars for 50 MB.
Australia: I don't know how in general, but in the only McDonalds I visited they have free Wifi (quite crappy, to be frank), so maybe other mcdonalds in the country have that too?

I bring laptop with me and use Skype to call my relatives everywhere in the world.

My husband's job is internet base, he is pretty much staying with the same company he worked for before we left, but remotely. Have been on the road for 10 months, and he requires 20 hours of internet time every week. Mostly internet-conferencing. We just choose accommodations that have decent internet access. If we can't get that, we go to McDonalds.