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Month-to-Month Dial-Up 'Net Access in the UK?

Posted by Cliff on from the avoiding-long-term-contracts dept.

Wee asks: "I'm traveling to London (from the US) this coming Saturday. For various reasons I need to be able to stay occasionally connected to the Net while there. Instead of risking one of my daily-use laptops to the rigors of travel, I've built a working Toshiba 430CDT laptop from parts, purchased an appropriate power adapter, equipped it with an old modem/10mbps NIC (plus an Orinoco card, just because), searched Google for temporary two-week, UK-based dial-up accounts, only to find... nothing whatsoever. Zip, nada, nothing. Maybe AOL, but I'd have to think long and hard at giving them a credit card. I did find some companies that would sell me a monthly plan, but there were usually minimums. Does anyone know of 'temporary' dial-up accounts (with various local PoPs) in London? Failing that, does anyone know of an ISP I can sign up with for only one month?"

7 of 38 comments (clear)

  1. Jolt by rastachops · · Score: 3, Informative

    http://www.jolt.co.uk They offer a very fast 0845 (price per min) dial up service that is free to sign up for.

  2. Don't... by Noodlenose · · Score: 3, Interesting
    I would leave the computer at home.

    London features am abundance of large internet cafes and if you forward your mail to an web-based account you'll be able to access it without a problem. British ISP's are not a pleasure to deal with and AOL's international rates are a rip-off.

    Have fun in the UK,

    Dirk

  3. Don't sign up at all by Howie · · Score: 4, Informative

    Assuming you already have a mail account that you want to access, then don't bother signing up to anything. There are many UK ISPs that offer "0845" access - these numbers are charged at local rate from anywhere in the country (don't forget that we still are charged for local calls in general), and make their money from revenue-sharing with the telcos, so you don't pay a bill to the ISP. You should be able to pick up a CD/Installer/Signup-Screen for one of these pretty easily.

    Drop me a line if you need help - my employer offers such a service (usually through resellers, but anyway).

    --
    "don't fall into the fallacy of believing that Perl can solve social problems. Maybe Perl 6 can, but that's a ways off"
    1. Re:Don't sign up at all by bob_dinosaur · · Score: 4, Informative

      Example providers of the you-just-pay-for-the-call service are Freeserve No Ties and Tiscali Pay As You Go. No credit card or personal details required.

    2. Re:Don't sign up at all by biglig2 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Well, duh! If he intends to use an analogue modem then he has to find a phone socket to plug the damned thing into, and consequential negotiation with the owner of said socket about who pays for the calls. That's sort of a given.

      Have you ever stayed in a hotel, or a friends house? You'll find you don't have to arange for the Telco to install a phone, nor do you need to get in touch with the power company to get electricity into the room, nor do you have to hire a plumber to put a bathroom in.

      Wrenching myself back on-topic, I recommend BT Click, 0845 757 6333, any username and any password.

      But I also agree with the earlier poster that you will have no trouble finding internet cafes, internet kiosks, business suites in hotels, and all sorts of ways to get on-line in London, so you don't need to bring a laptop just to check your email every few days.

      Lastly, one point to watch for - you will need a US - UK phone adaptor, since I imagine your modem just has a RJ11 connector on the end. They're a few pounds, you can probably get one in the airpoort if all else fails. You know we have different power outlets here too? Another adaptor to buy. If you;re visiting a company over here talk to the local IT guys, they may be able to lend you a local power cable for the tosh, which I find to be much handier than fiddling with adaptors.

      --
      ~~~~~ BigLig2? You mean there's another one of me?
  4. Try this - no signing up required by steve.m · · Score: 4, Informative

    It's basically a BT dialin, but yahoo branded

    0845 609 1350 (local call rate)

    login: "yahoo" (but it seems to accept anything)
    password: "" (again, it seems to accept anything)

    DNS: 194.72.6.52
    DNS: 194.72.6.59
    DNS: 194.72.6.57

    (it works with Linux PPP, using PAP auth)

  5. If you've got an Orinoco card... by Zocalo · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Why not just look for the warchalking logos on the pavement? Actually, warchalking symbols are quite rare in the UK, but open nodes certainly aren't... ;)

    --
    UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!