Happy New Year to All!

Can anyone suggest the best way to connect a laptop in the field? Our camp will not be in cell phone range. Is satellite phone the only way to connect?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thank you,

Jack,

happy New Year to hyou too.

I hope you enjoy your safarai.

You can connect your laptop to a sat phone if you have the right cable.

But, I am afraid it is going to be a VERY SLOW connection.

Just want to piggy-back on Jack's question.

Planning on spending a couple of months in Namibia next year. PH has cell coverage in his area and I can use US AT&T cell from there - about $2.50 per min.

I would like to be able to find a local (Namibian) wireless Internet provider that might offer a USB device capable of connecting at at least G2 speed or more so I can email and Skype back to the US.

I've Googled the providers in Namibia and emailed them all but none have responded back. Anyone familiar with Namibian Wireless Internet providers/programs?

Speaking from experience sat phone will work but try to keep emails small and to the point.
As for ATT see if their phones will work in Namibia. Took a cell ordered from Verizon supposed to work world wide, not. Worked in Europe passing thru but was dead as door nail when trying to call from Tanzania Dar es Salaam, absolutely no signal would accept it.

Mike

quote:

Originally posted by Jack D Bold:
Happy New Year to All!

Can anyone suggest the best way to connect a laptop in the field? Our camp will not be in cell phone range. Is satellite phone the only way to connect?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thank you,

I've tried this and as Saeed said, very slow connection of nebulous stability.

In both Zimbabwe and Namibia I simply used my Iridium to send and receive texts to email addresses as well as cell phone numbers.

I brought my Verizon cell phone as well (BlackBerry Bold or Curve or whatever the "World" version is) and where there was signal I could email, text and send photos. But having signal is the key and that wasnt so in our tented camp in Khaudum, Namibia or in Charisa, Zimbabwe.

quote:

Originally posted by retreever:
Speaking from experience sat phone will work but try to keep emails small and to the point.
As for ATT see if their phones will work in Namibia. Took a cell ordered from Verizon supposed to work world wide, not. Worked in Europe passing thru but was dead as door nail when trying to call from Tanzania Dar es Salaam, absolutely no signal would accept it.

Mike

Had the same happen to me this July in Joberg and Harare. I called ATT before the trip and provided them a bunch of info. They assured no sweat - it will work fine. Dead exept in London.

contact Roger at vieranassafaris.com. he will knmow probably

i do emails every day via satellite - its a system called bgan - andy cool at explorersatellite set it up for me -

it is costly , costs about $6 a meg but as long as your emails are just text and not too much pioctures or web surfing it works well , its quite fast and i can usually get connected in under two minutes- i recommend an extra long cable between your computer and the unit that way you can lay it out in the open and dont have to sit out there (clear view of the sky is best)

andy cools email address is Andy Cool <acool@explorersatellite.com> i know he attends the DSC show and SCI in vegas so if you are going to either show you can talk to him direct -

hope that this helps - feel free to email me if you need more help -

Same as Ivan, Andy Cool set us up two years in a row with a bgan unit and it worked like a charm at Chete...and Andy is good to deal with.