I live in Germany but will be on a two-month road-trip in the USA from Febuary to April. In this time my Axim with its Wifi-Card will be my first choice of comminication (e-mail etc.) Now I'm looking for a cheap wifi-hotspot-network with many locations troughout the country.
Here in Germany for example nearly every Starbucks coffee-shop has free Wifi provided by T-Mobile at the moment, but in the US they seem to charge 10 cent per Minute. That's not that much, but they chage at least $6,00 each time you connect. So checking just your Mails will be quite expensive there.
Do you have any other recommondation for a wide-spread and low priced wifi hotspot network that i can use?
I also looked Sites like www.wififreespot.com to find free hotspots. Wich free hotspot list on the web seems to be the best in your eyes?
By the way, our trip will start in New York City and will go down till Florida to turn west (AL-MS-LA-TX-NM-AZ) to California. And if we still have time, we plan to go back east on a further northern route.
Thank you very much for your help in advance. I've been reading on aximsite.com quite a while, but this is my first posting...
For the best coverage across the country as bad as it sounds T-mobile's "rip-off" service might be the best bet. http://www.t-mobile.com/hotspot/services_plans.htm has the pricing plans and the $39.95 per month would save quite abit over the day by day charges. ($25 cancellation fee if service is only kept for 2 months) Most hotels offer internet service at a per day rate of $10 but not all hotels have wireless access so you would need a way to accesses a phone line as well. Finding alot of free wifi access spots that happen to be along your wandering trip could be an adventure in itself. I'd let you log on to my wifi network to get email but it doesn't sound like you will be in the Chicagoland area. Happy traveling !
I haven't tried using their service yet, but Schlotzsky's Deli has free Wi-fi for anybody that wants it. In case you don't know, Schlotzsky's is a "casual-dining" deli based in Austin, TX. We have several restaurants locally and I think they have great food (but I might be biased because I own stock in the company). You can check out their website at www.cooldeli.com. I did a quick location search on their site and it looks like they have quite a few locations throughout the southern US. If these locations are on your route, it might be a great free access point. I'm not sure that every location will have Wi-fi, but you can get more details on their site. I'm getting my X3i today and will be trying out the service at one of our local Schlotzsky's and will let you know how it works.
Hope you have a wonderful trip!
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Wired Internet: Which provider would you recommend?
Thanks for your answers. I just bought a Compact Flash Modem to be able to connect to the internet for example in motels, where there is no wifi-hotspot in range.
I know this is not a wireless-question, but I did'nt want to open a new thread for this little question:
For my trip in the US, witch Internet Service Provider would you recommend to use with the cf-modem and my Axim X5?
I know that there are even free ISP's in the States, but as far as I know you need a different phone number in each city you are.
Because we are going to be in a new city nearly every day, it would be much nicer to be able to use the same phone number all the time. An alternative would be a software for the pocket pc, that finds out the right number when typing in the city.
Panera Bread restaurants also offer free wifi, but i'm not sure there locations throughout the US, check www.panera.com for locations.
I think AOL might have an 800-number dial-up service, but it's probably an additional charge, check out NetZero for free access and just record the numbers, that's what i usually use when I go on trips.
The first 5 hours are free, then they have different plans. I buy 10 hours at a time and it is $3.95 USD. They were written up in USA Today. I was interviewed as well, since I use their service, my Axim and infrared cell phone as a modem. I have been able to connect off the coast of St Thomas USVI as well as San Juan PR.
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I've been using Budget Dialup for 18 months now. It's definitely a great service for those who need dialup only occasionally. It's certainly better than a monthly plan if your needs are not consistent month-to-month.
it seems that budgetdailup.com is just a service provider like I was looking for. Does anybody know where/how I can get a complete electronic list of all their access numbers?
I would like to store that list on my axim, so that I don't have to use the online Access Number Search on the homepage.
That would be really nice, because when we're on the road we might decide spontaneously where we are going to stay. In this case it would be difficult to find out the right numer the day before on the homepage...
it seems that budgetdailup.com is just a service provider like I was looking for. Does anybody know where/how I can get a complete electronic list of all their access numbers?
Do you have ListPro? I have a ListPro list with all of their access numbers. If not, I can convert it to Pocket Excel.
ListPro is nice, though, because you can filter it by state.
@doogald: I don't have ListPro, so it would be really, really great if you could mail me the list for Pocket Excel. You will have a PM in a few minutes... :)
Hilton Hotels have free internet access, but I am not sure how many have wireless. I was recently at a Hilton with just my Axim, and their WiFi network was not yet functional. Plug in with a laptop in room was free.
Some Panera's have free Wifi.
Also, tmobile at Starbucks has a month by month fee, I think $10 more than if you buy a year at a time (maybe $49.95).
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