Tablets and Internet

[Gerry5063]

Hi- Hope someone can help me.......I usually bring my laptop with me to Cyprus when coming over to stay at our house for 6 weeks or so and use a Turkcell dongle to connect to the internet. This has worked fine for me, but I am finding it a drag to carry a heavy laptop back and forth and am thinking of buying a tablet!

Question: Dongles won't work with a tablet, what if anything can I get to connect a tablet to the internet? We only come over twice a year at the moment for about 10 weeks in total so have never felt it economical to enter into a contract with an internet service provider!

Look forward to any helpful suggestions! G

[Marions]

I know it own't help at home but there are loads of places with wi fi tha tyou could use. Otherwise, I wait for the IT geeks to answer your question as to what you can use at home. The onlyother thing is if you have a neighbor who has wi fi and you can share for the time you are here.

[Confused]

Certain ISPs (Nethouse is but one) will allow you to switch on the internet for the time you need it and off when you don't. A years up front payment could last quite a while.

[kbasat]

Option 1:
Some tablets have 3G service built into them, so you dont need a dongle, just insert your sim card thats 3g activated and you have internet. Just buy one of these.

Option 2:
Multimax offer freedom package. You pay 250TL per year maintenance fee, and then you can get Internet on a per day basis. (2.25TL/day for 3Mbit, 2.75TL/day for 5Mbit etc). You can pay into our office, pay via paypal or online with CC on our website.

K.

[Marions]

That osunds great. Does anyone know if I can have a similar package in Italy!

[Smiler]

Nowadays there are lots of wifi hotspots in North Cyprus that you can connect to and pay for using your credit card (as long as you're not somewhere really remote). Just turn on the wifi on the tablet, pick the strongest signal, pay for how much time/data you'd like and away you go! Most bars, cafes, restaurants and hotels offer free wifi too so a good excuse to go out

[Gerry5063]

Thank you for your replies so far, I have some thinking to do. G x

[Col]

As you have not purchased your tablet yet the best way by far is to get one with 3g sim connection as posted already. You can get a sim on a 30 day usage. From memory it is something like 40tl for 2gb, 60tl for 4gb and 70tl for 10gb. We get the 10gb as we watch some tv when we are out there but if you just want emails and a bit of surfing then 2 or 4 would do you.

[whatnochips]

you can buy a remote dongle from any service provider that comes with a sim card

[CatalkoyChris]

Alternatively you could buy a cheap laptop just to leave out in Cyprus. If you have to take any documents back and forth a USB stick will suffice.
I have a netbook over in Cyprus which is good enough for emails, and I can even connect it to the TV to watch online programs.
A reasonable second hand laptop for surfing would be £100, £150?

[terry2366]

If you have an iPhone you can pair it and use the personal hotspot.

[dippersgirl]

buy a small netbook instead, they do take the dongle

[Col]

If you have an iPhone you can pair it and use the personal hotspot.

depends which iphone. iphone 5 does it not sure about iphone 4 but earlier ones do not tether. You would also need to check that the provider allows it as well.

[flint42]

Hi
I had exactly this problem, I had bought an Ipad without 3g sim connection and have always used a dongle with the laptop whenever Im in TRNC but got totally fed up with carrying what was a heavy lap top,
I bought a cheap router with a usb port then all I do is plug the dongle into the router then just connect the ipad via wifi - it works a treat in my house

Cheers

Flint

[Keithcaley]

If you have an android 'phone you can also use it as a 'Wi-Fi hotspot' if you put a local SIM in it and buy some credit - the 3G coverage is pretty good here, as long as you're not out in the wilds!

[Gerry5063]

Thanks all, I spoke to our IT bloke at work yesterday and he suggested that I could tether my Samsung Smartphone to a tablet once I have got a local SIM for my phone OR

I buy a tablet which has 3G and WIFI connectivity, but these are quite a bit more expensive OR

As the chap in PC World and flint42 have said, buy a wireless router....... decisions, decisions!

I get a better signal at our house in Catalkoy, than I do where I live in UK!!

I so want a tablet, the graphics are brilliant and my arms will be a few inches shorter on each journey to and from Cyprus not carrying a laptop.

Cheers, all very helpful responses! G x

[Keithcaley]

I did initially think that I should buy a 'pad' with 3G, but the choice is rather limited, with not much availability (in the High street, at least - I'm not saying that you can't find 'em if you look) and they tend to be pricier than comparable non-3G models.

I compromised, and bought a non-3G model and a 'Mi-Fi' which is a portable 3G device which shares it's 3G connection by either USB or Wi-Fi - it's essentially a 'dongle' with Wi-Fi, if you see what I mean. I bought a Turkcell SIM, paid to put some 3G 'credit on it, and it worked perfectly well.

When I got an Android smart phone, I concluded that I either needed to pay to get that to work on 3G as well, or continue to use the Mi-Fi 'dongle' gizmo to give the 'phone access to the internet, until it dawned on me that you can use a 3G enabled 'phone as a 'mobile hotspot' (tether) and manage without the dongle, which is what I eventually found to be the best solution for me.

Of course you can check your emails, and such on a smartphone anyway (you wouldn't want to write War and Peace tho' ) so you won't need to lug the 'pad' around with you. You could always use the 'phone to provide Internet access for your laptop, come to that, and not bother with a 'pad'. You could still end up with your knuckles grazing the ground though...

[Dawnie1]

I too have a Turkcell mifi with my ipad wifi only. Works perfectly & always have wifi at home or when out & about as long as it's on my person. Bought it for around £65 from Laconic in February. I too used to have a net book with Turkcell Dongle.

[Maisiemoo]

If you're in the UK at the moment take a look at http://www.idealworld.tv as they have some refurbished 3g ipad's for sale with a 1 year guarantee, you can also spread the cost over 4 months and there's no p & p. There's also a video you can watch about the product. I am sorely tempted myself.

[Gerry5063]

Hi Flint42

There are so many wireless routers on Amazon would you let me know which one you use so I can connect my Turkcell dongle and pick up WiFi on a tablet. I have now bought my tablet, a Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10.1 and it's fab.

Look forward to hearing from you.

G

[dawleydan]

if your Tablet has wi fi you can get a turkcell vinn wi fi dongle, it can be used anywhere and we use ours at the beach and the signal is always stron

[Gerry5063]

Hi Dawleydan, yes it's a WiFi tablet, how does vinn dongle work, are you able to connect direct to tablet or do you need a wireless router? G

[erol]

Hi Dawleydan, yes it's a WiFi tablet, how does vinn dongle work, are you able to connect direct to tablet or do you need a wireless router? G

http://www.kktcell.com/tr/kurumsal/kesf ... /vinn-wifi

With this device, that contains a GSM (mobile phone) sim card you can directly attach any device to it that has wifi. So you can connect a laptop, tablet, mobile phone etc to this device and route these devices internet access via wifi to the VINN and from there out through the GSM/sim card to the wider internet. As others have said however many smartphones will allow you to do this themselves using 'tethering and portable hotspot' features. Using this way the GSM / sim card that provides the access to the wider internet would be in your smart phone and other devices like tablet or laptop would connect to the smart phone via wifi and gain internet access via the GSM /sim card in the mobile phone.