Overcoming 'internetlessness' in paradise - the verdict is...
Sunday, April 6, 2008 at 7:18PM Thanks so much to everyone who responded to my question about how one overcomes the ravages of not having a steady broadband connection.
So, the verdict is.......!
Most of those who responded (from within South Africa - that excludes Paddy the Monk with broadand in his monastic cell, and Murray the Anglican who can download videos of Morning Prayer in HDTV and still not slow down) use 3G of some sort (either via a USB dongle, a PCMCIA card, or via their cell phone).
Well, we happen to own a PCMCIA 3G card with a Vodacom prepaid sim card. Thanks to Gus and mevdominee I learned that you can convert purchased airtime to data bundles! That is just incredible!!! So, Megie has the datacard in her computer and we've got her a 500MB data bundle.
As for me and my house (the Apple Macbook Pro), we've decided to load a monthly 1 Gig data bundle to my regular MTN contract. That way I can use the data on my Nokia E90 when traveling in South Africa, and hook it to the Macbook Pro at the office and at home at HSDPA speeds for regular net connection...
Using Apple Mac OS X 10.5 I can even share my network connection via Wifi and turn my Macbook Pro into a wireless hotspot for our home for Megie, Courtney (and the neighbours) to share from their computers.
Thanks again to everyone who responded. I appreciate it a great deal. As soon as I've settled I'll be back up to bloggin speed.
I have a few VERY interesting trips coming up! In two weeks time I shall be boarding a private jet to Kenya for a 2 day trip to meet with government and business leaders, then a few weeks after that I head to Israel and Turkey... Please could I ask you to pray that my leg heals quickly! It will not be fun to travel on crutches!
Please also spare a prayer for my friends and colleagues in EMMU (and at John Wesley College). I miss them already, and I know that my departure places extra strain and expectation upon their already sparse resources and energy.
Reader Comments (5)
Hee hee
nice patch there Mr Forster sir!
I'll come by and use your little private wi-fi hub when I get broadband withdrawal for our 'intro baby (who is still not out yet) trip' in Oct!
Isn't there a way to password protect when using your macbook as an air-port? Sharing and generosity is one thing... but when bandwidth is limited and you have cheeky neighbours sometimes extreme measures are called for!
Hey Murray, I am praying for you guys! Don't hang in there... If you know what I mean ;-)
Paddy, yup, you can set up either WEP or WAP encryption and passwords so that only those who have the key can access the shared wifi streaming from the Mac.
Isn't Apple amazing!? Yes, they are!!
apples are just fantastic - they say that 1 a day keeps dr forster away
or awake - what was it?