Hi, Your comments are always most welcome
Sue, you said : " If you want a program to be able to monitor your data usage, the best is DuMeter, it isn’t free, but its the best." Just looked at the DuMeter web site and found that this program is almost exactly the same as "NetMeter" which I have used for some time now and which is FREE! It's actually a beta version but is very stable. You can get it here: http://readerror.gmxhome.de/
Just save a few pennies!
Hello Sue.
Sadly, tried the Orange thingy all day today. No go. Orange WAP dept insist it is for browsing on your phone ONLY. Not for connecting it up to the Internet. Are you still able to connect up in this way? Had me slavering for a while Thought I was in on a good thing. Even dragged my 3G phone out of hiding. That was a good thing for a 3-month trial from April onward this year - at least, whilst in a good reception area ....
Last year had a good go with 14.4K mobile uplink and satellite downlink via my Sky dish. 20 quid a month, tho', plus 15 to set up an account. Worked great on my Everyday50 tariff Eves & weekends only, tho'.
Keep up the good work.
Regards, Bill.
Sent an email for you Bill to see if we can't sort that out. It still works just fine, and I think Orange are trying to fob you off with their "Wap only"!!
Just they don't want you to spend all day downloading the entire Beatles collection of all their albums!
John
Many thanks for that link.. I do actually have DuMeter now, but I am sure others would be interested in a free one.
Maybe it is the same people involved in dumeter that are involved in netmeter
Hi sue could you explain a little more to me how this works. do I need software on the pc, and how does the phone connect
I can not see the Orange offer any more - they do a 24 month contract for £15 a month...
http://shop.orange.co.uk/shop/mo...band?
WT.svl=204
This is up to 3.4MBs
Are there better deals now?
The big problem is getting coverage in weak signal areas.
TMobile do a pay per day - at £4 per day! Or between £15 and £44 per month - if you want to use VoIP then it is £35 or £44 a month and only a 1.8MBs service
Not sure about the others...
dominic, Goodness you looked at a very old blog!
T-Mobile is the best at the moment, please look at my link on the side of the blog for the most up to date info..
http://www.choiceforum.co.uk/blo...ks/
internet.htm
Many thanks for your comment dominic
Thank you for this, the joy of the internet to find things buried so deep.
You are lucky to have always had a signal for t-mobile - I home base is Froud's Bridge Marina, which has no t-mobile signal 
I am trying to persuade the marina owner to start wireless broadband sharing from his landline, but he is none too technical...
I have seen an increasing number of aerials on boats which look like signal boosters, any idea where these come from, or if they are worth it?
Finally - on the cheap t-mobile tarrif you do not get to use VoIP which we need to run our business from the boat - so lots of things to work on.
Lovely BLOG, we are new to boating (only owned since Oct 2007) and we had an RYA course the other day which was VERY useful - http://www.canalexperience.co.uk/
Thank you for writing back to us.
Dominic and wendy, I need to update the page.. "MY CONNECTION NOW (200
" talks about my contract running out in April, well that has just happened and I managed to find a deal with carphone warehouse, and am paying just £10 a month with a cashback, and that includes VoIP.
I will update that page over the next couple of days so keep an eye out for that.
As far as those aerials on boats, I think you can get those off ebay or the like for mobile phones.. what I do is hang my phone/modem thingy outside the window in a waterproof aquasac type holder. That gives me the best signal.
Tell the marina that you would be willing to pay £10 a month to share his wifi connection.. he might even think about that! 
Many thanks for you comments on the blog
Thank you - look forward to the update... in the mean time, I found this on uSwitch, not sure if it is any help;
http://www.uswitch.com/BroadBand...8.lp?
reset=true
dominic & wendie,
That site is for broadband via a telephone line. Mobile internet is via a mobile phone or mobile modem so that site wouldn't help at all.
Use google to find the best deals, bearing in mind that T-Mobile probably have the best coverage at the moment.
Not done the update yet, too much walking around here!
How very strange - when I go to the link it brings up a page entitled;
"Mobile broadband – dongles and all"
USwitch, still does not help me much as VoIP is a crucial component for us... however, as I have a t-mobile phone contract, it looks like I am probably in the best place already for coverage. Just need to work out how to improve the signal strength in weak areas...
dominic & wendie,
T-mobile is the best and the deal with carphone warehouse at £10 a month with cash back did include VoIP and 3gb data usage, not capped but as a fair use policy. That included a free 'dongle' by the way.
You need to dangle the dongle ( )out of the window in a waterproof sleeve for best results
