Netbooks and Mobile Internet - Portugal

There are netbook & internet deals here in portugal, but most of them are fixed one year contracts with the mobile operators TMN, Kanguru/Optimus and Vodafone. Pay as you go exists but is no good for Skype owing to limited traffice volumes.

The free volume of traffic/upload/download bandwith available from fixed contract deals with these provides is also limited. So if one uses Skype a lot one soon will be paying a lot over the odds for excess traffic.

Using a UK operators dongle on roaming will cost a fortune is you use skype regularly.

Regular use of Skype, in my opinion, still requires a fixed line adsl or cable broadband connection with a good monthly download data volume. e.g. SAPO 4G/ e 8GB.

As regards no hard drives, only the the very basic models have small flash drives. The more expensive models of netbooks now all have hard drives.

I bought my other half one of the first Asus EEEpc machines sold here in Portugal as she travels a lot. It runs Linux and is fine for email, Skype with webcam and basic office stuff. Skype works well on it but it is only viable when she is in locations with free or low cost wifi.

She is currently on New Zealand on business and has been istaying n business hotels. The wifi rate at these hostelries are ridiculous. So I Skype her from my laptop here over the landline to her hotel room phone in NZ. Not free but still much cheaper. Her netbook stays in her bag. Next week she moves to a hotel with free wifi and we will then use it more.

As regards loading MS Office onboard....YUK!!!!!!!

Linux equipped netbooks already come with OpenOffice loaded. This is an opensource (free) package like MS Office from Sun. It can open, edit and save excel spreadsheets, word documents and powerpoint presentations.

There is a version for Windows, Mac and in various languages here:

http://download.openoffice.org/other.html#en-US

These are downloadable of the internet so an external DVD is not necessary.

Worten at present have a basic netbook sans dongle as follows:

Aspire One D150 BlackACERPC Portátil Intel® Atom™ N280 - 1,66GHz / TFT Wide 10,1" / 1024 MB / 160 GB / Windows XP / Intel® 945 GSE / WebCam. Price € 279.

Note this comes with Windows Xp installed and you can be sure with 99%
certainty that it will be XP Portuguese version. If you want it in english you will have to buy a new XP license and cd.

Recently, I have been encouraging expats here to look at Macs or Linux as a solution as you can setup one's preferred language on starting the machine for the first time. I did this with my partner's Asus and recently with an Apple Macbook a client bought at FNAC here.

Finally, note that netbook screens are small. If you are getting one, go for a minimum of 10'1" TFT Screen. The smaller one are a hassle.

Free Wifi Access - Albufeira, Algarve, Portugal (cont.)

I have been to Albufeira again to check the availability of the free wifi algarvedigital signal around the Camara building.

At the Camara, as one enters the atrium, there is a prominent notice outside advertising the free algarvedigital wifi service. There is also a map indicating that most places within 50/75 metres radius should be able to pick it up.

I then asked the security guard on duty if I could sit in the Atrium to connect to the Internet. He said no. He then explained that the service has now been equipped with a directional antenna that blasts the signal out of the Camara Building only in the direction of the gardens and Bombeiros. There are no cafes in this direction.

He said to use it I would have to sit in the gardens. Luckily it was not raining and again I tested it and again connected to algarvedigital with no problems. I tested it again over the road at the Bombeiros. There was still a signal but it had dropped to 9%.

I reckon that the whole world was using the system and someone (the Camara) was receiving a huge broadband bill. So instead of saying that the service was uneconomic, it was more politically correct to install a directional antenna and blast the signal into an area where there are no cafes etc. Consequently, it can only be used in fair weather when there is no glare, or in a car parked in the car park, I mentioned previously.

However, the Camara can continue to say they are part of the AlgarveDigital free wifi Project!

So to use it, one has to sit in the gardens or in a car in the car park P5.

Free Wifi Access - Albufeira, Algarve, Portugal

OK. Finally made it to Albufeira.

I am sitting in the car in Car Park P5 in front of the Camara Municipal at 14:23.

I fired up my Acer 4310 with Ubuntu 8.10 installed and it immediately found the public wifi signal for the algarve digital project - signal strength 35% on the internal broadcom wifi card.

The machine automatically found the algarvedigital signal and access was immediate and free as in the Lagos Cultural Centre. (Centro Cultural).

I am writing this from the car in the Car Park.

However, there is free broadband wifi here!

Free Internet Access - Lagoa, Algarve, Portugal

See:

http://www.expatsportugal.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=7079&highlight=internet

Telephone Line/Mobile internet access Portugal

This is my speciality. I am based in Lagos.



Can you tell us where you are? There are various options depending where you are! If you are in a rural location, you may be restricted to PT (Portugal Telecom) or Vodafone (dependent on line of site to Mobile Mast - THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT). Also if you are more that 5000m from an adsl equipped exchange/sub-exchange you probably will not be able to get broadband over the phone line.



In certain urban areas you may have a broader range of options, including cable.



If you can post and idea of your location as well as what type of PC/operating System you have may be able to give more information.

Low Cost Notebooks

For those who don't normally head back to the UK frequently, most Worten/Vobis/Radio Popular shops have been retailing the bottom of the range ASUS EEEpc and acer aspire one here in Portugal for several months now.

Although prices are a bit higher than £99.00, the local ones come with a 2 year local guarantee. Unfortunately, the Windows versions tend to be installed with Windows in Portuguese.

However, although the LINUX version of the Asus EEEpc comes installed in Portuguese, running a simple script in the terminal changes 95% of the operating system and programmes into English. It also runs beautifully with Vodafone/TMN/Kanguru dongles.

Bought one for the other half in July. She travels around Europe a lot and loves it.

Ours came from Chipsite who have shops in Lagos and Lisbon. They also do mail order.

They currently offer the Asus EEEpc with linux for € 195.00

See: http://www.chipsite.pt/list.php?fm=343

Algarve - Quinta do Lago - Blackberry and ADSL Access

There are three 3G operators broadband operators in Portugal, all of whom offer blackberry service.

www.vodafone.pt
www.tmn.pt
www.optimus.pt

Vodafone is probably your best option in terms of service and coverage.. However, you will need to make sure your existing Blackberry is unlocked so that it can take a Vodafone Portugal/TMN/Optimus SIM.

See this link:

http://forums.crackberry.com/f34/how-can-i-use-italian-blackberry-portugal-14060/

As regards, ADSL, I am based in the Western Algarve but to the best of my knowledge there is only one landline operator providing ADSL access into the Almancil/QDL area. This is PT. This would make their SAPO brand the cheapest ADSL access.

See:

http://www.telecom.pt/InternetResource/PTSite/UK/

http://adsl.sapo.pt

Alternatively, depending on the volume of traffic you use, you may find that 3G Broadband HSPDA dongle modem access over the mobile phone network to be an alternative.

The three operators above offer these options. Note Optimus offers such a service under the Kanguru brand.