At a bit of a loss here as I have no idea of the protocol. I'm doing a course at the Lodge on 17 July and will be driving up from Wasdale on 15 July. I need to " work from home" on the Friday morning. So I need access to the internet to view Webexes, update documents and other thrilling things.
I have no idea how this is done...
I guess I could get some sort of dongle, or connect via my phone.
Obviously I've heard of people sitting on a cwoffee shop for hours on end, but I need to be on calls most of the time so that won't work.
I've seen that there are places offering short term office space, but they seem pretty rare and not cheap.
I was hoping someone might let me park my van ( little one) in their drive for the morning and borrow their WiFi for the morning?
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
I remember driving around Aviemore at night until I found a house with an open Wifi connection then parking outside and borrowing their internet for half an hour. (Back in the 90s).
Plenty of cafes in Aviemore, or just turn up early at the Lodge and borrow theirs?
There are probably a few FON hotspots operating from various Wifi routers if you go looking for them, you just pay by the hour IIRC.
Tether your phone to your laptop? I use my iPhone as a local hotspot when out working, works really well. Will depend on network strength but as you are in a van I assume you can move around to find a good signal.
4G signal should be ok for most office work and unless you are downloading some huge files like quality videos you shouldn’t use loads of data over 1 day.
Maybe split the day up a bit with some time in a cafe and put in your diary that you aren’t available. I don’t think I’d be too bothered if someone was talking quietly on a hands free or headset for a while in a cafe
https://www.visitaviemore.com/contact/aviemore-wifi/
If you're stuck, let me know.
Plenty of cafes in Aviemore, or just turn up early at the Lodge and borrow theirs?
So is it actually a thing to sit in a cafe for four hours hogging a table? I guess the upside is that I'm reasonably adept at eating shit loads so they might not mind too much.
I asked if I could get B&B at the lodge early, but they said no, due to Covid
Tether your phone to your laptop? I use my iPhone as a ......you shouldn’t use loads of data over 1 day.
OK. Wasn't sure how well this works in practice, so it's good to get your view. Still not 100% convinced that it'll work well enough, but that's easily solved by just bloody well trying it this afternoon at home 😃
/blockquote>
Doh🥵
but that’s easily solved by just bloody well trying it this afternoon at home
Well that tells you how well it works there at that time. The main limiting factor for mobile data is how busy the local mast is. A colleague is the only user on his local mast and therefore gets DSL style service 24/7. We were in Keswick last week and the local masts were working overtime, 4G was snail pace on O2's network pretty much all week.
Yeah, tethering to your phone should work. EE/BT likely has the best signal if you're actually in the town but it doesn't work at Glenmore. You could sit in your van outside Costa for a couple of hours at least and hog their WiFi. Just watch out for the car park time limit.
Doh
Yep. Next it'll be free water ..
or just turn up early at the Lodge and borrow theirs?
I was thinking of suggesting that but unless they have had a massive upgrade the connection there is somewhat shaky and wouldnt be something I would want to rely on "working from home".
Using the phone as a hotspot can work nicely. I have had to from time to time when I have had broadband issues and I will often be shifting a lot of data to and thro. However signal strength could be dodgy. Will depend on provider but I find three can be a bit dubious there.
At least one of the main cafes is next to a carpark so you could do a hybrid. Ask to borrow their wifi and pop in and out with takeaway drinks.
If you can't get into B&B early can you not just sit in their car park and use the WiFi?
Tethering will work well (as long as you have a good signal). I have spent a few days at a relatives house working as normal on my laptop tethered to my phone. Regular tasks included Teams calls and online video training sessions. No issues at all with 3 (out of 4) bars of 4G showing on my phone.
Check your network cover before you go, if you would be better with another carrier there are lots of options. I now have a Smarty unlimited monthly SIM only contract running full time at the property and it’s just like regular WiFi. Speeds are down on fibre to the cabinet (about 8Mb up, 5-6 down), but it’s roughly 3 times faster that the previous ADSL connection and it’s half the price per month!
So is it actually a thing to sit in a cafe for four hours hogging a table?
Yep, I've done it fairly often, as long as you keep buying tea/coffee/lunch it's never an issue. I tend to pick somewhere bigger/chainy too, then I have lower guilt...
Tethering also works fine, obviously the weak link is the strength of the 4G connection though.
WorkSpace Highland
Looks to me like they haven't updated their website since before Covid - "No one likes to be alone".
I don't even have broadband. Laptop tethered to phone full time. I've never noticed a difference. But then I don't do things like TV/Gaming/crypto mining. Started doing it about five years ago when i moved into a new place whilst shopping around for broadband, and then just thought, why bother?
footflaps
Full Member
I remember driving around Aviemore at night until I found a house with an open Wifi connection then parking outside and borrowing their internet for half an hour. (Back in the 90s).
Well, thats a lie.
Well, thats a lie.
Might have been 00s thinking about it. Was before smart phones existed and when finding an unsecured 802.11a wifi was pretty easy. Certainly before most holiday lets had broadband, hence the need to borrow someone else's.
Edit could have been late 90s....
The first version of the 802.11 protocol was released in 1997, and provided up to 2 Mbit/s link speeds. This was updated in 1999 with 802.11b to permit 11 Mbit/s link speeds, and this proved popular.
