Mobile Phone to Laptop Connection

Almost all cruising sailors use the Internet in some shape or form, often from cafés or libraries. Although "wireless networks" are developing rapidly it is still the case that on many occasions, at anchor, on a buoy or in a strange harbour, when the only practicable way to access the Internet is via a PC and a mobile or cell phone. Cell phone coverage is almost total around Europe within about 5 or 10 miles of the coast. We have had virtually unbroken coverage around the Mediterranean and the Adriatic although, I believe, it is less good around parts of western Scotland. The sailor can buy aerials that can extend the range considerably further to 30 or more miles.

One advantage of using a mobile phone connection is that once you have the system set up, moving between countries is, essentially painless. The issues of "foreign" mobiles and how to keep costs down, are dealt with below.

To the phone companies, the Internet used to mean, primarily, WAP (Wireless Access Protocol) which gets the Internet displayed on a mobile phone. This is fine for some purposes, but many of us, especially those with poor eyesight, find it more convenient to use our laptops. For me, it is virtually essential; there are more options open to you than using a PDA or a mobile phone. This underlying technology is the same as WAP, but is subtly different.

While PDA/mobile phone access to the Internet has some benefits, their small screens can be awkward, and the software that they can host limits their use. Their main advantage over a laptop is that they are more robust. Except in fairly benign conditions, the laptop has to be packed away in a dry, padded place when at sea. Much depends on your type of sailing and the information that you wish to access.

Initially, accessing the web was by GSM "data call" like a dial up connection on a landline. This piggy backs the data onto an ordinary mobile voice call, and results in maximum speeds of 9.6 kb/sec . The drawback is that you pay voice call rates all the time the connection is "open", regardless of whether you are doing anything or not.

Then GPRS (General Packet Radio System) became widely available. GPRS breaks the data up into "packets" and squeezes them in between other peoples voice calls. This results in a much faster speed (115kb/sec) and has the benefit that you only pay for the volume of data sent and received. It is widely used for WAP and for sending Photos. It has a lower priority than voice calls, and occasionally may get "squeezed out". (I have had this happen in Italy and Greece. FS).

GPRS connection is usually but not always available so, if you want to be able to send and receive emails without delay then it may be useful to be able to use either GSM or GPRS links and to change from one to the other easily. However, remember that GSM data connection speeds are slow. Only use GSM for data if you really have to and there is no alternative.

The spread of G3 has meant, effectively, that GPRS is now almost universal around European waters. GPRS can be regarded as "G2.5", that is, a technology between the second and third generations of mobile telephony. If your phone is GPRS compatible, it will receive data over G3 and at G3 speeds.

Intentions to extend GPRS have been superseded by G3.

The easiest and quickest way (in theory) of getting up and running is to buy one of the "data cards" that the phone companies sell. These simply plug into a PCMIA slot in your laptop, and away you go. However, there have been complaints about the reliability of these things, and they do not help you keep charges down if you go abroad. The reality is that if you use a mobile phone as a modern and a laptop, you have pretty well all you need, why

pay more? A further disadvantage with data cards is that the aerial is at laptop level, usually on the chart table and reception may be poor. Bluetooth with a mobile phone can improve reception. All you have to do is get them to talk to one another.

Now, read on.......

If you are going abroad, get it working before you leave the UK. Any problems will get sorted much more easily from the comfort of your armchair with access to English speaking help lines. Once set up, it should work abroad with no or few problems.

There are four stages to go through to get up and running. When this page was first written you needed a modicum of luck, to get them all right the first time. The world has moved on both with mobile phones and computer software.

The steps are

1. Connecting the phone to the PC.
2. Getting the right settings on the phone.
3. Configuring the PC to connect to the Internet
4. Changing Email account settings.

After that, a little cost cutting work is needed.

one way of doing this is by Cable, which needs a phone with a cable socket to a serial port or USB lead. It can work well but is subject to problems with dirty or worn contacts.

Infrared (or IrDA) allows the PC and phone to talk to communicate if they are placed within sight of each other. On a boat, this does not work reliably.

The most reliable connection is via Bluetooth; this uses a short range wireless technology, originally intended for cordless headsets. Not all laptops come with Bluetooth and so you may need to buy a "dongle" (about £12 from Maplins) which plugs into the PCs USB port.

Windows XP and Vista include Bluetooth software so that the CD supplied is usually superfluous. Whichever technology you choose, you will end up with the phone looking like a "modem" to the laptop, as though you plugged it into a telephone land line.

A useful feature of Bluetooth is the radio connection which enables the phone to be put higher up, perhaps on the cabin roof or, even, in a bucket a few metres up if the mobile phone signal at chart table height is really poor!

To use the Internet, the phone needs a "profile", which tells it which service to use. This may well be dealt with using the phone software; if not, then speak to the phone company's "data" helpline. This might require a text message that sets up the phone. With modern phones, the menus on the phone should be self explanatory. On my Nokia 6300, I went to Settings, Connectivity and selected Bluetooth. That was all that I had to do.

To set up the initial connection to the laptop, is easy if the phone comes with software such as the "Nokia PC Suite". Otherwise using Bluetooth, right click on the Bluetooth icon in the bottom tray, RHS. Then use the set-up Wizard. Select "I know the service....", then "Dial-up Networking". That should bring up a panel with your phone name (eg Nokia 6300), double click on this to connect to your phone. On the first occasion, you will be

asked for a 4 digit password. Type in 0000 (or whatever you wish) and hit Enter. Your phone will bleep and ask "Pair with (your computer name)". Hit OK on the phone which will ask for the password. Enter your chosen password and hit the OK button. You are now connected and can dial either your GPRS or GSM number. Thereafter, using the PC Suite, the phone and laptop will connect automatically. If not using the PC Suits, it may be necessary to right click on the Bluetooth icon and select Quick Connect, Dial-up Networking and the name of your phone. After the first occasion a password should not be required. But, if asked for a password, simply repeat the performance.

Even with the PC Suite connection wizard, it will be necessary, occasionally, to go through the set up procedure again.

Because your phone will look like a modem, much of the setting up will be familiar or, at least, Windows driven.

Unless you are a young computer whiz-kid, this will involve speaking to your mobile phone company. With Windows XP, they will probably ask you to go to Control Panel and open Phones and Modems. Then select Modems, Bluetooth, Advanced. They should then give a string for "Extra initialisation commands". It will be some gibberish like - "at+cgdcont=1,"IP","orangeinternet"

Then go to Control Panel and open Network Connections. A New Connection Wizard will guide you through configuring the PC. Select "Connect to the Internet", then "Setup a connection manually" and "Connect using a Dial up modem". You must select the right modem but this is usually fairly obvious e.g. "Bluetooth Modem". Give the connection a name such as "Orange Mobile". Set the phone number as *99#. Then give a username and password. To do this, Vodafone tell you to enter

Username : web (Orange will tell you "user" ). Password :web (Orange will say "pass" but anything will do).

The next section deals with setting up or modifying your email account.

Of the two types of Email, POP/SMTP mail is the more cost effective as it uses servers to download emails to your PC for "offline" viewing and composition. Web based email services, such as Hotmail or Yahoo. only need an Internet browser, and so are almost always guaranteed to work in any Internet cafe. However, the surrounding graphics add considerably to the cost of downloading emails. They are a definite NO on a mobile phone.

(To avoid having more than one email address and/or to avoid using a different email address when away, a useful web based facility is Mail2Web, a free service using your normal home email address and password.) POP/SMTP using Outlook, Outlook Express, Mozilla Thunderbird etc are much more suitable for mobile use. As Outlook Express (OE) is the most used, the following refers to it and it alone.

To get Outlook Express to work correctly with GPRS you will need to make a couple of changes to its setup from that used at home. You can use your normal home ISP's incoming mail server BUT you cannot use your home ISP's outgoing server.

To set up a new outgoing mail (SMTP) server - go to "Tools, Accounts, Mail, Properties, Servers. Leave the My incoming Mail as it is. normally. In the Outgoing mail SMTP put that of your phone provider. You will have to ask the phone company for this address, it is not widely published. (Vodafone's is send.vodafone.net, with Orange it is smtp orange.net).

One of the beauties of GPRS is that you do not need a UK ISP; the phone company provides the Internet connection.

It may be useful to use a different Identity for GPRS use and keep it separate from your normal land line connection. In Outlook Express go to File, Identities, Add a new identity and give it a name eg Bluetooth Clara.. When using the GPRS connection, go to File, Switch Identities. Address books and mail folders can be imported from one Identity to another. For ease of access, keep all your addresses in "Shared Contacts".

NOTE For those using MailASail, there is no need to change the SMTP.

For occasional, minimum thinking use, this may be adequate. Having connected the phone to your computer, simply use your UK server just as though you were at home with a BT dial up line; but remember that calls on a mobile will cost more. From abroad, you will be using a +44 prefix to a UK server. In Outlook Express, Tools, Accounts, use your normal account settings for sending and receiving email.

When aboard, whether you use your UK server or a local one is a matter of choice, your familiarity with different servers and the effort that you go to. Before I had GPRS, I (FS) always used to use my UK server and telephone number. It was simple, but I had to be careful with usage or the mobile phone company got rich.

With computers, anything! A big problem is that when the system does not work, it often comes up with this panel. If you click "More Info" all you get is an obscure error messages which might as well be written in Swahili.

With care and a modicum of luck, particularly with modern phones, it will work at the first go. Otherwise, perseverance, and help from the phone company, will always get you working. Experiences with company help lines varies but I (FS) have always found Orange staff to be well informed and understanding of an old buffer and his problems.

The mobile phone charging system is a jungle through which the EU is now trying to hack a path. In particular, roaming charges have been a rip off but the rules are currently changing and roaming call costs are being reduced.

Roaming costs in 2008 were 36 p a minute for GSM. Data charges varied greatly from £8 per mb (0.8p per kb) for GPRS roaming to £12 for 5 mb (inc VAT)

Some PAYG accounts do not allow data calls. This forces the user to a contract and which one will depend on your overall usage. Those wonderful

and much hyped N minutes of free calls are useless when away from your home country. Again, this situation is easing and PAYG is becoming more feasible for data calls.

The expanding availability of WiFi hotspots, the introduction of 3G services with dongles to give direct and continuous broadband access are changing the landscape. Costs are coming down and the user must be alert and keep asking around. One problem is that some staff at the companies and, even more so, those in mobile phone shops are rarely up to speed.

For anyone still using a GSM link it is most important to minimise the time that you are connected. With GPRS, download size is the important factor. In both cases, suggestions are to

• Set up a Tools, Message Rule in Outlook Express that prevents large (say > 50 kb) downloads. This avoids friends and relations sending you umpteen pictures of little Johnny but is large enough to cope with most emails.
• Tell your friends about this and add a few words* of text to your email "signature" by using Tools, Options, Signature. ; eg "Please note that I am using a mobile phone connection. Please keep messages brief and do not send my message back. Emails larger than 50 kb will be lost.'''
• Change the Internet Browser settings not to display pictures - in Internet Explorer. Tools, Internet Options, Advanced.
• Switch off any automatic update software (e.g. for Windows, anti-Virus and some hardware such as printers).

That last may seem dangerous, but you will avoid much trouble by minimising download size. It also helps if your ISP has good anti virus and anti spam software.

See also the appendix to another page of this site for more advice on minimising email costs. The text retrieval facility is useful to get web page texts at much lower cost than using a browser. See Saildocs or MailASail . Additionally for GSM

Further actions to minimise connection time are to

• Set up OE not to connect automatically. You then get your mail by clicking on the "Send/Receive" icon and telling it to dial your server..
• Disconnect when you have finished. Disconnection will not happen automatically unless you choose the option on the OE Tools, Options menu. On the dialogue box, select Connection and tick the box against "Hang up after sending and receiving".

If you are using GPRS it can be better to stay connected if you may want to send more emails, perhaps send an immediate reply to one just received, are expecting a reply during your session or want to look at a web page. There is a cost to connect and, thereafter, mainly a cost on the data volume up- or down-loaded but with a small ongoing cost to stay connected as the computer keeps in touch with the GPRS server. You can use the phone for a voice call while still connected to GPRS. Putting the laptop into standby will disconnect for you. I (FS) set up Outlook Express and the Internet browser Tools, Connections to say "Never dial a connection".

• I dial using the panel shown above.
• I then hit Send/Receive to get my email..
• If any need or are capable of immediate brief reply, I do that.
• Otherwise, as any new emails are unlikely within such a short time, I usually close the connection by clicking Disconnect after the sending and receiving is finished.
• If I do not disconnect, then I monitor the Connection display (opposite) as there will be a small cost. This can mount up insidiously

It will pay to experiment and see which procedures give the smallest total of sending and receiving as shown.. Re-connection will be cheaper than staying connected for a long time. Staying connected is cheaper than quick reconnections.

As noted earlier, GPRS might not be available is some places. It can be useful to switch from one to the other at will.

See, also, the section on Compression below.

You can now dial from anywhere without having to reconfigure the phone or the PC, however you will pay for the privilege. Roaming data rates are reducing but it can still be worthwhile getting a "local" phone. Fortunately this is not that difficult, now that "SIM-only" cards with GPRS are widely available and you can use these in your own phone.

The biggest problem is selecting the right card, as very few companies advertise their GPRS charges before you have bought the thing. As noted above, you may well need a contract and language problems may make this difficult. In theory, you simply slip the foreign SIM card into the phone. The PC and phone configuration lives in the phone, not on the SIM card, so you do not have to go through that again.

A problem is likely to be the locked phone. Most phone providers "lock" their phone to their network, so you cannot use it with a rival. The provider will unlock it at a cost, but your local "railway arch" provider will usually do it for less.

A DIY unlock service for a number of types of mobile phone is at www.unlock.nokiafree.org and an online service is at http://ucables.com/remote-unlock-online.html However, some phones have to be sent away for unlocking. Check eBay for such services.

It may be best to upgrade your UK phone before you leave. The phone company will let you keep your old phone, and you can use this for "local" SIM cards (so you have two phones). You can "pair" more than one phone with the same PC.

You will need a new "profile" for every country that you have a SIM card for. (that is how the companies know a "foreign" mobile from a "local"). This increases the chances of getting the profiles on the phone confused.

One way round this is to "edit" the profile yourself on the phone. If you compare two profiles (it will be in the Settings /Data Communications menu on the phone) you will see that the only thing that usually changes is the "Access Point Name" or APN. If you edit this to the local value, it will probably work. Usually everything stays the same on the PC, although at least one country using *98# as an access number (rather than *99#) but this is rare.

As described above, if you use POP/SMTP mail, you will have to change the SMTP server to that of your local provider. Getting this out of them can be difficult sometimes as they have no idea what you are on about. One company in Sweden provided three addresses before they got the right one! A safe way is to use the MailASail service.

One way of reducing costs is to use one of several compression packages such as ONSPEED .(probably best known from its advertisements in the press) or MailASail . Each offers compression services, but there are significant differences in the total packages. There is also. SmartCom, not strictly a compression service although it does reduce costs.

ONSPEED compresses both outgoing and incoming emails. Having loaded and set up the software, you just send and receive as normal using your normal email account. It pays to watch their compression display carefully and, also, to monitor your mobile phone display for the total kb transferred. I had to contact ONSPEED to optimise my settings.

The saving will depend upon your use per day and the nature of the messages that you are sending or receiving. Attachments of pictures, .pdf or .zip files are already compressed. Similarly for files of GRIB coded information.

MailASail removes all formatting from emails and attachments. It removes images and pdf files.. Hence, you need not have a size block on incoming mail. To receive an attachment with full formatting, including pictures, pdf files or an email that was sent in Rich Text Format you can still get the full version, but at a time and place of your choosing - eg using a WiFi link or in an Internet cafe. This is a major plus.

With MailASail, you set up a replacement to your existing email account. You then get a new email address eg joebloggs@mailasail.com. However, you can use your home address and account, in which case MailASail will continually search for and forward emails to you. That is a major plus. Outgoing emails are not compressed but this is not a serious problem because you can control what you send and when.

SmartCom is different again. Outgoing emails are reduced in size but not incoming. But, you can block incoming emails greater than a certain size and receive just the header. You then can decide whether to download or not.

Cost is still important while the mobile phone companies make large charges for data calls, especially when roaming. However, cost is only one factor. Each service has other features that should be taken into consideration.

ONSPEED costs £25 a year. With an average monthly usage of around 10 Mb before compression, my mobile phone bill was around £40 a month roaming, less than half what it would have been without a compression service. The disadvantage with ONSPEED is that you will probably want to have a size block on incoming mail. Further, it does not always connect and can be frustrating.

There is a modest one off payment for SmartCom and no annual charge. The emphasis is on managing your connection whether by mobile or satellite phone

At £240 for two years, £140 for one year or £90 for 6 months, the cost of MailASail is, on the face of it, considerably higher than ONSPEED. The greater speed of MailASail and avoidance of the handshaking

overhead will reduce the total GPRS download size to compensate, at least in part, for the extra charge. There is no need to block large emails; that is a very real plus and one well worth considering..

The total MailASail service is very attractive. For example, there is a Web Diary link to upload information and pictures for friends and family at low cost. The latest version has GPS tracking so each time you mail in an update you create a track of where you have been. There is good treatment of virus and spam, also (importantly) free email technical support.

MailASail is certainly well worth considering for long distance cruising yachtsmen. It has many attractions for those using satellite phones or terrestrial phones with GPRS. Perhaps SmartCom plus MailASail might be the optimum. They seem to be complementary. For the casual user, perhaps cruising for short periods, ONSPEED might be sufficient. However, the speed increase might make it worthwhile using MailASail even when at home and using a dial up connection or, even, broadband.

ONSPEED can give some very good compression of web pages when these are largely in text format. One particularly good example is the DWD 3 day grid point forecast. To download this from the web without compression means a download of some 140 kb; connecting to ONSPEED and downloading the same page is about 20 kb. This is an impressive saving..

On the other hand, to download a synoptic chart - say from those listed on my Chart Page, there is no or little saving using ONSPEED. Web page

compression is really only useful when using links to pages of text, such as those on my GMDSS page . However, it is worthwhile trying, when at home, to see which types of web page are compressed and which are not.

If you know what a web page looks like and do not want the pictures the text retrieval service using Saildocs can be very effective indeed. Send an email to query@saildocs.com Subject: (anything). The message should read "send http:// www.whatever.net" The reply will come back within a minute or so.

The whole area of mobile data is undergoing a revolution and the landscape is changing rapidly. The good news is that wireless networks ("WiFi") are becoming more common and useable as Windows XP or Vista, have reliable, easy to use software built in.

Connecting up is using "Connect To" on the desktop, asking for "Wireless", letting Windows search and selecting one. Windows does the rest. The downside is that coverage from an access point is limited in range.

Availability is increasing; in 2009, a friend found 12 marinas out of 14 between St Malo and Belle Isle had WiFi. Out of 28 marinas in Spain, the Balearics and Portugal, I found half had WiFi. Mostly it was free. The lowest charged service was €3 for 5 hours. The most expensive - and worst - was at Gibraltar at 4.5 an hour or £27 for 10 hours. For limited use, it may be cheaper to use a mobile phone to get onlins.

Bandwidth capability is very variable. In some places, notably Gibraltar and, to a lesser extent, Lagos I spent some frustrating times just trying to get a connection. At Gibraltar, that was a costly exercise.

There are various devices available from computer shops and online that can increase range of reception. The Internet has pages of designs of aerials, some home made, that can be used to increase range of reception. There is a device at http://www.5milewifi.com/ that has had excellent reports. The name is self-explanatory. It is not cheap.

Rarely, there might be an unsecured privately owned WiFi connection that can be used, but be careful; there have been reports of prosecution for using a private unsecured link although the only instances that I am aware of is in the UK.

However, most sellers of WiFi routers now ship them with security as a default so that freeloading is getting harder. Unsecured links might be from bars and restaurants that offer up free WiFi. Buy a beer and get a code - or sometimes there is no code. Take the code back to the boat and, connection permitting. you are in.

With all of the competition out there - buying couple of days of WiFi is getting cheaper. Most of us have no problem with paying a reasonable fee when we don't want to take the computer ashore.

Using WiFi you will find that Outlook Express will work fine for incoming mail but, as with using GPRS, you may need a different SMTP for sending mail. One way is to go to www.yahoo.co.uk and set up a free account there. Specify your normal home based email address to receive email, but set up a new one for outgoing mail. Then, in Outlook Express go to the Tools - Accounts menu and -

1. Set up an account called WiFi or whatever takes your fancy.
2. Under General the outgoing address will be the Yahoo one, the incoming will be as normal.
3. Under Servers the incoming server will be as at home, the outgoing SMTP will be yahoo.co.uk.
4. Under Connections, uncheck the box that says "Always connect to this account using"

You should then be able to send and receive emails just as at home through any WiFi connection. An alternative is to use web based services such as www.mail2web.com

Using MailASail, there is no need to change the SMTP.

Contrary to popular myth, and despite the dire warnings the PC tends to flag up, both the mobile phone, and WiFi (even "unsecured" and "hijacked" WiFi) are secure. It is probably more secure than using an Internet café. As for high security links like Banking, the connection between your PC and the Bank is encrypted, and using your PC ensures you do not leave a "history"

around on someone else's PC to be interrogated. All your "favorites" work too. It is only prudent, however, particularly if using WiFi, to run up-to-date Virus checkers and a firewall, as you do not know where these networks have been, and infection is a definite possibility.