We had planned for a break in Bali for a couple of weeks to unwind for our holiday and just veg out before the more full-on activities in Europe. When traveling around in resorts and hotels internet access is very expensive. So we didn't do much more than check our emails and spent limited time using the connections provided by the hotels where we were staying.
Our next stop was a week in Dubai where the Internet costs were even higher, so we hardly bothered except on the last day to check out our arrival details in London.
Meeting up with our daughter Traci and her partner Tim in London enabled us to setup our base and with their assistance we attempted to organise ourselves for our travels.
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Out Of The House
I had set up the MiFi 3G Mode at home and had done the basics so I felt confident that it would do the job for us, but the final test is how things go in the wild.
When we had let our house we had to move into our caravan and leave all the creature comforts of home (such as they were) and tailor our living requirements to the more compact form. In setting up our printer we had to engage the technical support from Internode, they were very helpful and we were up and running in no time.
As time went by I became aware that the MiFi device was working overtime and would overheat and shutdown. Then it would not reset itself with the only button available. As we were near to heading overseas I was keen to get this fixed. Internode supplied me with a replacement unit but it appeared to have similar symptoms. The only way to get it to work on some occasions was to remove the battery and completely reboot the device. With time running out we left for OS with the MiFi device unlocked so that we could use it on European networks.
When we had let our house we had to move into our caravan and leave all the creature comforts of home (such as they were) and tailor our living requirements to the more compact form. In setting up our printer we had to engage the technical support from Internode, they were very helpful and we were up and running in no time.
As time went by I became aware that the MiFi device was working overtime and would overheat and shutdown. Then it would not reset itself with the only button available. As we were near to heading overseas I was keen to get this fixed. Internode supplied me with a replacement unit but it appeared to have similar symptoms. The only way to get it to work on some occasions was to remove the battery and completely reboot the device. With time running out we left for OS with the MiFi device unlocked so that we could use it on European networks.
Setting up for Travel
As we were planning for travel around Australia in our caravan I wanted to have something more akin to our WiFi setup at home rather than just relying on tethering from our phones. Checking out the options available at the time I settled on the MiFi 3G Modem that was available through our broadband provider Internode.
This device was quite sleek, could easily fit in ones pocket and could handle up to 5 connections. When using it in the caravan we can plug it in and it connects well with our WiFi HP 5560 Printer. The plan that we decided on was for 5 Gigabytes a month which is stopped when the limit is reached so that no overcharging is possible and this can be supplemented in the short term with additional gigabytes as required. This is provided via the Optus network, which I am hoping will provide reasonable coverage on our Australian leg. In any event I have upgraded my Telstra data account to 6.5 Gigabytes per month (more on that later) in case we really get stuck.
This device was quite sleek, could easily fit in ones pocket and could handle up to 5 connections. When using it in the caravan we can plug it in and it connects well with our WiFi HP 5560 Printer. The plan that we decided on was for 5 Gigabytes a month which is stopped when the limit is reached so that no overcharging is possible and this can be supplemented in the short term with additional gigabytes as required. This is provided via the Optus network, which I am hoping will provide reasonable coverage on our Australian leg. In any event I have upgraded my Telstra data account to 6.5 Gigabytes per month (more on that later) in case we really get stuck.
The Genesis
I have created this blog in response to the interest I have received since returning from a six month tour overseas - mainly in Europe.
We had made a decision to rent our house out for a couple of years and to head overseas for an extended holiday and then to continue living in our caravan while our house was still occupied, spend the next couple of years traveling and working our way around Australia.
Having had an IT background I have long had the desire to be truly mobile and be able to access the web and develop a business model which enables me to work and travel without any limitations. At the time we had a wireless broadband setup in our home which enabled my wife and I to share the internet connection via a home computer, two laptops and my iPhone. This meant that we could do our normal software updates and software downloads easily and without killing our data allowances on our phone plans. I had a minimal 150 Meg allowance through Telstra which proved quite adequate for the average browsing that I was doing and as I mainly downloaded Apps from home that didn't cause me to go over my limit, even with that small data limit.
We had made a decision to rent our house out for a couple of years and to head overseas for an extended holiday and then to continue living in our caravan while our house was still occupied, spend the next couple of years traveling and working our way around Australia.
Having had an IT background I have long had the desire to be truly mobile and be able to access the web and develop a business model which enables me to work and travel without any limitations. At the time we had a wireless broadband setup in our home which enabled my wife and I to share the internet connection via a home computer, two laptops and my iPhone. This meant that we could do our normal software updates and software downloads easily and without killing our data allowances on our phone plans. I had a minimal 150 Meg allowance through Telstra which proved quite adequate for the average browsing that I was doing and as I mainly downloaded Apps from home that didn't cause me to go over my limit, even with that small data limit.
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