The original do-it-yourself travel guide to Europe ^SM

Internet and Email in Europe
Cyber Cafes, Keyboards, Password, Your Laptop

How to send and receive email when traveling in Europe - strange keyboards, new passwords, plugging in your own equipment, and other challenges.

Drive Around Bavaria & the Austrian Tyrol: Your guide to great drives (Drive Around - Thomas Cook)

Drive Around Bavaria
& the Austrian Tyrol
Your guide to great drives
Thomas Cook

Garmin Nuvi 370
Pocket Vehicle
GPS Navigator and
Personal Travel Assistant
with European Maps

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Motorola MotoRizr Z3
Cellular Phone
Unlocked Quad Band GSM

Electrical Plug Adapter
USA to Continental Europe

Grounded Adapter
USA to Continental Europe

Belkin F8E449 Universal
AC Travel Adapter.

Chapter 19 (without photos) of
HOW TO EUROPE
The Complete Travelers Handbook
Internet edition.
A page from Enjoy-Europe.com by John Bermont

This internet edition of chapter 19, "Communicating as You Travel Europe," is in 4 parts due to its large size. Subjects covered in the respective sections are:

This is Part 3	internet cafes, libraries, keyboards, your password, your laptop, connecting hardware, your ISP, hotel lines
Part 4	telegram, wire funds, final notes, homeland security, meeting point
Part 1	calling europe from the USA, country codes, city codes, local numbers, 10-10 services, how to place a call to Europe, list of telephone country codes, local telephone service in Europe, totally metered, telephone booths, coins and slugs, European telephone cards, American telephone cards, discount telephone cards, cellular phones, directory assistance, international telephone service in Europe, from telephone booths, from your hotel, from the PTT, telephone charge cards, costs, potpourri.
Part 2	sending mail to Europe, US Postal Service, mail forwarding, form of address, receiving mail in Europe, poste restante, American Express client mail service, PTT, stamps, express parcel services, FedEx, DHL, Airborne Express, European customs duties.

If you ain't on line you ain't alive.

INTERNET AND EMAIL

Communicating via internet email can be one of the easiest and cheapest ways of staying in touch. It can also be extremely frustrating getting connected.

Internet Cafes

Instead of lugging your laptop all over Europe you can have internet and email access at internet cafes in virtually any city. These places are not as common as they were a few years ago because it seems that nearly everybody has a computer at home nowadays. But the internet cafes are usually easy to find in train stations, hotels, and hostels where travelers pass. Internet service is free in some hostels and in other places it can range up to ten dollars per hour. You use the cafe's computers, equipment, ISP, and cable lines to log into your home ISP mail account. Read and write and surf the web!

Libraries

More and more public libraries throughout Europe provide internet connections. You may need a library card to use the facilities but usually you can just walk in and log on. The beauty of this is that it is almost always free so unless you need to spend your money at a internet cafe try the library first. Time is normally limited to a half hour or an hour.

The Keyboard

Ah hah! You found an internet cafe or library and signed in. You go to the computer and sit down. You pluck the address bar and go to the URL of your ISP. Now you enter your email address. Oops, no you don't. You can't find the @ key. You rush over to the manager's desk to ask for help but he's busy chatting on his cell phone, and the meter on your computer is running. Finally after ten minutes you get his attention and he shows you where the @ key is located. On the internet finally, it feels like your first cup of coffee in the morning. Moral of story — find out what to do before you start paying. Actually there are a few countries with USA keyboards. Surprisingly, these are among the former communist dominated countries, certainly not Germany or Spain.

YOUR LAPTOP

Your Friendly ISP

You are allowed to lug your laptop around Europe. If you have an internet service provider (ISP) which has local dial up service over there you can dial up from your hotel. Carrying a computer around Europe is not in tune with the philosophy of packing light, nor is it good for the health and security of your computer unless it is a battlefield model. Nevertheless when I plan to be in one place for a month or two I bring my laptop.

Sometimes I have had to make international calls to my home ISP in order to send and retrieve my email. I download it quick and then sign off. Then I compose and sign in again for a minute to send my email.

When I lived in Holland I subscribed to a local ISP. This is only practical if you are living in Europe. It also entails local phone costs which can be much higher than at home. In Europe you pay per minute for every call. It gets very expensive if you are spending an hour or so every day on the internet. The phone bill is sent every two months. You can be shocked out of your URLs.

Hardware

European electricy is supplied at 220 volts and 50 Hz. Most laptops sold in the USA are now rated for this voltage and frequency in addition to the American specification which is 110 volts and 60 Hz. To make sure, flip your laptop over and check the manufacturers nameplate.

The plug on your laptop will not fit in standard European electrical outlets. Europeans use a plug with two round prongs. Grounded plugs come in different configurations. See chapter 11, "Electricity in Europe: Travel Voltage Fundamentals, to get up to speed on this subject.

Also, you will probably need a telephone plug adapter in order to plug your modem into a European phone line. Each country has its own version of telephone plugs, and some countries have more than one style. Check your European hotel or residence to see what you need and then go out to a shop which sells telephones and buy the proper plug adapter.

Switzerland's phone plugs are unique. Adapters are more expensive than any I have seen anywhere. In Germany the data connection in the house was different than the regular phone line. This required a different type of adapter. Fortunately, Holland uses the same phone jacks as the USA. I plug in my phone, fax machine, and modem as if I was at home in the USA. Thanks KPN for making it so simple.

Your Password

Getting on line is a snap, but signing on for your email or financial accounts can sometimes be a problem. Make sure that the caps lock is off or your password may not work. Also, if your password includes a Y or a Z you may have problems. For example, in Germany where the qwertz keyboard is used instead of the qwerty keyboard you need to know some pretty deep computech to make it work. As noted above keyboards throughout Europe are often different from the American version, mostly because they have unusual characters in their alphabets. To ease access, change your password to all numeric for the duration of your trip.

Hotel Lines

If you are in a hotel you might also have a problem between your modem and the hotel's telephone system. There are different types of phone systems and your modem might be cooked on some of them. Check with your local computer store or seek out intelligence on-line to make sure your modem will work and not be destroyed if you use it in a hotel.

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Home and general index.

Read half of the book for free: HOW TO EUROPE The Complete Travelers Handbook
	Europe Intro Clothing Packing List Luggage	Guidebooks Electricity Photography Trains	Driving Telephones Moving to Europe Living in Europe	Shopping Languages Metric System Seeing Europe

Learn the basic infrastructure: Prime Travel Data Elementary Travel Information for Europe
	Austria Belgium Czech Republic Denmark Finland	France Germany Greece Ireland Italy	Luxembourg Netherlands Norway Portugal Spain	Sweden Switzerland United Kingdom

Utilize John Bermont's exclusive: TRAVELERS YELLOW PAGES A Directory of Links to Products, Services, and Information
		Airlines to Europe National Tourist Offices City Tourist Offices City Information and Tours Country Information and Tours Luggage and Backpacks Discount Air Travel	Villas and Homes for Rent Hostels in Europe Hotels in Europe Auto Rental in Europe Rail Services of Europe Eclectic Travel Sites Internet Search Engines	Photography Guide Books for Europe Educational Programs Newsletters from Europe Personal Travel Pages Personal Trip Planning

Get open hours, costs, locations, and more: Travelers Portfolio Essential Visitors Information for the Top Sights of Europe
	Amsterdam Anne Frank Huis (Anne Frank House) Rijksmuseum (National Museum) Van Gogh Museum	London British Museum Buckingham Palace National Gallery Natural History Museum Palace of Westminster St. Paul's Cathedral Tower of London Westminster Abbey	Paris coming soon Arc de Triomphe Tour Eiffel (Eiffel Tower) Hôtel des Invalides (The Invalides) Musée de l'Armée (Army Museum) The Opera Montmarte Cathédrale Notre Dame Musée d'Orsay Musée du Louvre

Exchange rates, weather, maps: Up-To-The-Minute Be informed before you go.
	Money Exchange Currency exchange rates, including the euro, British pound, Swiss Frank.	Weather in Europe Current European weather conditions and forecasts. Good luck.	Maps and Time Zones Free online maps of Europe. Guide to setting your watch ahead.

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FLAGS of EUROPE

Austria	Belgium	Czech Republic	Denmark	Estonia
Finland	France	Germany	Greece	Hungary
Iceland	Ireland	Italy	Latvia	Lithuania
Luxembourg	Monaco	Netherlands	Norway	Poland
Romania	Russia	Sweden	Switzerland	Turkey
Ukraine	Yugoslavia (Serbia & Montenegro)