http://www.globalsim.covermore.com.au/ I saw the above advertised today at the travel expo. Is it any good? Are there better options? All I need is the ability to receive SMS and data access. Phone calls while travelling generally aren't of interest to me. -- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/
On 10/02/2013 6:50 PM, Russell Coker wrote:
http://www.globalsim.covermore.com.au/
I saw the above advertised today at the travel expo. Is it any good? Are there better options?
That looks a bit interesting, but 25c/MB can still add up heaps.
All I need is the ability to receive SMS and data access. Phone calls while travelling generally aren't of interest to me.
I usually send SMS via email only (email2sms) -- cost 7c / message. Incoming SMS get sent to my mail account using an Android app [1], so whenever I check email, I can see SMS. I think it would be best to get a local SIM when you travel so that you pay the least for the data. I advise against using free WiFi for safety and security reasons, especially if you aren't using some kind of tunnel to protect yourself -- anybody using POP email has their username and password sent in clear text (usually). Kind Regards A. [1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nilvec.smsforwarder
Andrew McGlashan <andrew.mcglashan@affinityvision.com.au> wrote:
On 10/02/2013 6:50 PM, Russell Coker wrote:
http://www.globalsim.covermore.com.au/
I saw the above advertised today at the travel expo. Is it any good? Are there better options?
That looks a bit interesting, but 25c/MB can still add up heaps.
Probably not for reading e-mail over an ssh connection to another Linux machine. If it's prepaid, at least you won't be subject to unexpectedly large bills.
On Sun, 10 Feb 2013, Andrew McGlashan <andrew.mcglashan@affinityvision.com.au> wrote:
On 10/02/2013 6:50 PM, Russell Coker wrote:
http://www.globalsim.covermore.com.au/
I saw the above advertised today at the travel expo. Is it any good? Are there better options?
That looks a bit interesting, but 25c/MB can still add up heaps.
Yes, it's rather expensive. $0.63 per meg for data access in the US is unreasonably expensive given the low costs to end users there.
All I need is the ability to receive SMS and data access. Phone calls while travelling generally aren't of interest to me.
I usually send SMS via email only (email2sms) -- cost 7c / message.
Incoming SMS get sent to my mail account using an Android app [1], so whenever I check email, I can see SMS.
That's not going to work for Nagios SMS regarding the reliability of the mail server... Of course I could use a Gmail account for that, I expect that none of my customers would complain if I didn't fix something because Google was down.
I think it would be best to get a local SIM when you travel so that you pay the least for the data. I advise against using free WiFi for safety and security reasons, especially if you aren't using some kind of tunnel to protect yourself -- anybody using POP email has their username and password sent in clear text (usually).
Yes. It's a trade-off of convenience vs price. But as for checking email, all you need is a MUA that checks SSL certificates or which tunnels POP/IMAP over SSH and you don't have any problems. Not that 3G net access is a suitable solution to such problems either, don't trust everyone who has root at your telco. -- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/
On 10/02/13 18:50, Russell Coker wrote:
http://www.globalsim.covermore.com.au/
I saw the above advertised today at the travel expo. Is it any good? Are there better options?
Those rates come to $250/Gb, which is - to put it mildly - disgusting. Buy a prepaid data-sim in every country that you travel to. I did that while travelling, and it worked well. In a few places, they'd give them to you either completely free (3, in Sweden) or for free when topping up with a small amount of money (3 and O2, in the UK, £10). Even in the countries with relatively poor competition and bad deals (The Netherlands, France) it was still much cheaper than that GlobalSim. (If I may put in a self-plug here, I've been trying to compile a list of various prepaid internet sims and rates, around the world, here: http://worldmobilenet.com/) When I wasn't going to spend long enough in a country to justify buying a sim, I'd just make use of free wifi; it's usually not hard to track it down somewhere; libraries, public squares, fast food restaurants. Also, the general rule of thumb for wifi in accommodation is that the cheaper your hotel, the more likely it will be free. Private hostels/backpackers almost always had free internet. YHA/HI Hostels usually charged through the nose for it.
All I need is the ability to receive SMS and data access. Phone calls while travelling generally aren't of interest to me.
Carry a second phone with you (maybe an old Nokia that weighs next-to-nothing) with your Australian post-paid sim it, for receiving SMS messages; it doesn't cost you to receive them overseas. -- Paul Dwerryhouse | PGP Key ID: 0x6B91B584 http://weblog.leapster.org/
On 11/02/13 9:50 PM, Paul Dwerryhouse wrote:
Buy a prepaid data-sim in every country that you travel to. I did that while travelling, and it worked well. In a few places, they'd give them to you either completely free (3, in Sweden) or for free when topping up with a small amount of money (3 and O2, in the UK, £10). I had planned to do that when I visited the US in 2005. I also had VoIP setup with a US number for voice. As it turned out, I ended up getting a lend of a friend's phone while over there, so we could contact each other. As for data, I had data through wifi at each place I stayed, all free except the hotel in Vegas, which was $10/24 hours. I was able to keep that down to 2 x 24 hours for my 3 night stay, by picking my purchasing times well.
-- 73 de Tony VK3JED http://vkradio.com
participants (5)
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Andrew McGlashan -
Jason White -
Paul Dwerryhouse -
Russell Coker -
Tony Langdon