Travelling with Wireless in Europe?

MMC asks: "Later on this year I'm going to travel in Europe for a honeymoon (specifically Italy and maybe others) and now that I have a digital camera I'm going to take a laptop etc. Dialing up is fine, but I'm really keen to find places which have publicly accessible wireless networks or somewhere I can plug the laptop in with Ethernet. I'm happy to pay for access in a Cafe or Hotel etc. Does anyone have any pointers (other than wandering around with NetStumbler)? Most Internet Cafe references seem quite incomplete and out of date."

Comments

What to do

[esorense]

Maybe on your honeymoon you should worry about "plugging in" other "devices." These are usually more fun than a PDA.

Beware of the 50hz/60hz power difference

[PD]

One thing that's not generally well known (I have no idea why) is that European power is 50hz vs. North American 60hz. Obviously one of those is much more logical than the other, but that's an entirely different topic.

Anyway, that difference in power means that the phase of the radio waves will not match when you travel to Europe. Only 1 in 6 of the cycles will match perfectly, making transmissions much slower than you'd expect. It'll still work, but only at about 1/6th the speed.

There is a solution though. Your laptop power supply will most likely work with no trouble at 50 or 60 Hz. But, you're going to want to get one of those 110/220V converters anyway. Besides boosting the current of the voltage, it will also rephase the European cycles into North American cycles. You'll definitely want one of those. BTW, it'll also keep your BIOS clock running at the right speed. If you find it dropping 6 minutes an hour when you get to Europe, then that's why.