resort with wifi

[Arie]

Originally Posted by davfitz

Becks! Thanks, Thanks, Thanks for the wonderful tip.

I don't know about WI-FI in Siquijor but the Smart Bro modem is a Godsend. I'm writing this from my cabin on the MV "Our Lady Of Medjigorje" in Manila harbour waiting for the ship to sail. I bought one of the modems on the weekend and I'm using it now.

Basically you get internet access wherever there is a SMART cellular signal. The better the signal, the better the service. I'd be happy for 56K just to check E-Mail etc. I'll get that anywhere in the Philippines and better in some locations, including Dumaguete.

Cost? 2800 pesos for the modem. Access is, get this, 10 pesos for 30 minutes!

What hath God wrought?

great I had seen there where decent options last time I was there but did not have the time to explore it deeper and finding resorts hotel etc with internet is a hassle. Does anybody know how much the internet access by Smart phone costs? I assumed I could make a connection to my laptop from it.

[glamourpuss]

thanks davfitz... already been to siquijor and back.

as for the smart bro modem thing, i was actually pretty disappointed with it. it's basically exactly the same as connecting your laptop to your phone... so blew 2800 pesos on it when it's no faster than what we were already doing.

[MrShim]

I should add that while in Siquijor, we ended up dialing out on our cell via bluetooth to check email and whatnot. But it wasn't suitable for transferring larger files of any size.

We did go to kiwilodge for diving, a few meals, and to get on the web using their "internet hut" by the bar. Speeds were decent, but no wifi. Fantastic wall diving in Siquijor makes it worth a return trip!

[davfitz]

Fair enough. But connecting a laptop, which can go anywhere to a Cellphone, which can be used anywhere is a wonderful idea to me. It's not a perfect world.

On the way home from Manila, I left the modem "ON" in my stateroom. The signal received varied greatly in quality as the ship was constantly moving. I did use it again to connect to the internet in Bacolod while we were berthed there. SMART does not claim miraculous speed. I don't need that either. Just enough to read news and E-Mail is all I require when I'm away from home. SmartPro delivers exactly what I require at a reasonable price.

[MrShim]

Hrm, can I not edit my posts? Should be Kiwi Dive Resort, not Kiwi Lodge. Whoops! Kiwi Lodge was in Cebu. :-S

davfitz, I can understand Smartbro might be a good setup to check email, provided you're not getting any large attachments but we're pretty dependent on internet connectivity for our work. When we tried the Smartbro modem in Dauin, we were getting average speeds of about 2-5k per second. So you can't even really surf the internet given most pages are 100k+ these days. It's sold as a broadband solution, but that's not the case when you're any distance away from a major city. Smart needs to increase their coverage area signal strength for this to be a viable "Internet Anywhere" solution.

[Arie]

Originally Posted by MrShim

Hrm, can I not edit my posts? Should be Kiwi Dive Resort, not Kiwi Lodge. Whoops! Kiwi Lodge was in Cebu. :-S

davfitz, I can understand Smartbro might be a good setup to check email, provided you're not getting any large attachments but we're pretty dependent on internet connectivity for our work. When we tried the Smartbro modem in Dauin, we were getting average speeds of about 2-5k per second. So you can't even really surf the internet given most pages are 100k+ these days. It's sold as a broadband solution, but that's not the case when you're any distance away from a major city. Smart needs to increase their coverage area signal strength for this to be a viable "Internet Anywhere" solution.

Just that if you outside main cities the wifi localy is often just a mobile hooked to a wireless LAN since there is just not the infrastructure and than your own phone is a better/cheaper option.