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On Tue, 17 May 2016 17:56:28 +0100, Arthur Figgis
wrote:

On 17/05/2016 09:39, BirchangerKen wrote:
On Mon, 16 May 2016 21:55:33 +0100, Arthur Figgis
wrote:

On 16/05/2016 19:42, Offramp wrote:
I really thought Eurostar would have free wifi by now. Perhaps the newer trains do.

The Velaros do (or at least the one I used did...), but not for the
whole route - coverage in France especially is very patchy.

The Sunday times journalist wasn't impressed by the Wifi
(http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/al...tar-8fhf9d06f).
(Not, apparently, behind a paywall).

It is from here..

How odd. I'm not a Times digital subscriber yet can access the article
using Edge, but not from Chrome or Firefox. I suppose it may have set
a cookie when I entered the open-to-all Where Was I competition a few
weeks ago.

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On 16/05/2016 19:42, Offramp wrote:
I really thought Eurostar would have free wifi by now. Perhaps the newer trains do.

It is odd. On the English side the coffee shops and pubs have free wifi everywhere.
That stops at Eurostar, and free wifi is very rare in France.

Is it really "very rare" in France? I'm not so sure of that.

Under French law you do have to register, but I don't think this needs
to involve more than providing an email address.

Major stations have free wifi provided by SNCF.

Train Company Free Wifi Services
 

On 17/05/2016 18:19, Mizter T wrote:

On 16/05/2016 19:42, Offramp wrote:
I really thought Eurostar would have free wifi by now. Perhaps the
newer trains do.

It is odd. On the English side the coffee shops and pubs have free
wifi everywhere.
That stops at Eurostar, and free wifi is very rare in France.

Is it really "very rare" in France? I'm not so sure of that.

Based on a week's holiday a couple of weeks ago, I would say wifi in
France is much rarer than in Romania and somewhat rarer than in the UK,
but rather more common than in Germany. One issue is that it is often
password-protected, which can cause language issues asking for it.

Croatia has a good system where cafes print the password on your receipt
(which comes with the order, rather than at the end).

France is not good at having obvious names for wifi, which often seem to
be things like pqr1234_94 rather than cafe_rene_free_wifi or
seaview_hotel_guest or whatever.

Something called Free Wifi (or similar) seemed to crop up everywhere,
but I couldn't work out how to create an account - the registration
button didn't work.

Under French law you do have to register, but I don't think this needs
to involve more than providing an email address.

I wonder how much traffic gets through in a day?

Major stations have free wifi provided by SNCF.

--
Arthur Figgis Surrey, UK

Train Company Free Wifi Services
 

On Tue, 17 May 2016 18:43:37 +0100, Arthur Figgis
wrote:

Is it really "very rare" in France? I'm not so sure of that.

Based on a week's holiday a couple of weeks ago, I would say wifi in
France is much rarer than in Romania and somewhat rarer than in the UK,
but rather more common than in Germany. One issue is that it is often
password-protected, which can cause language issues asking for it.

Free wifi my become more widespread in Germany:
http://gizmodo.com/a-rule-change-in-...ree-1776731037

--
jhk

Train Company Free Wifi Services
 

On 17/05/2016 20:33, Jarle Hammen Knudsen wrote:
On Tue, 17 May 2016 18:43:37 +0100, Arthur Figgis
wrote:

Is it really "very rare" in France? I'm not so sure of that.

Based on a week's holiday a couple of weeks ago, I would say wifi in
France is much rarer than in Romania and somewhat rarer than in the UK,
but rather more common than in Germany. One issue is that it is often
password-protected, which can cause language issues asking for it.

Free wifi my become more widespread in Germany:
http://gizmodo.com/a-rule-change-in-...ree-1776731037

Hurrah!

prepares for next trip by bookmarking Gross Eins Monatlich website and
listing elderly Paraguayan relative's old uniform collection on eBay

--
Arthur Figgis Surrey, UK

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So I won't need my dongle on the Dangelbahn?

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On Mon, 16 May 2016 23:43:34 +0100, Arthur Figgis
wrote:

On 16/05/2016 22:51, Recliner wrote:
Arthur Figgis wrote:
On 16/05/2016 19:42, Offramp wrote:
I really thought Eurostar would have free wifi by now. Perhaps the newer trains do.

The Velaros do (or at least the one I used did...), but not for the
whole route - coverage in France especially is very patchy.


I believe the e300s will also have free wifi after the refit. Remember,
until then, these are unrefurbished 20 year old trains.

If the refit ever actually happens.

Is it just the refitted ones that are in the new colours? Because I
was on one today and there was no WiFi. It was also overall rather
poor compared with the ICE I was on before that...

The SWT WiFi is (or was) broken because registration is done on an
insecure page. I made up an email address, of course.

The WiFi on that ICE was much better. The free version, from the
homepage, has real-time train info and Deutsche Bahn stuff, as well as
news. It is a beta service, but the original one is similar, just
less pretty. If in first class, the "login" link goes straight to
free internet, which seemed to perform well, until crossing into
Belgium when even the WiFi access point was switched off!

Our TOC efforts really do need to be better. At least take the chance
to inform passengers about themselves for no effort.

Richard.

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On Sun, May 15, 2016 at 07:46:33AM -0700, CJB wrote:

Has anyone had any success with the various wifi services on trains?

On East Coast and Virgin it seems to work very well when it works at
all. Having to "sign in" is a bit of a pain and I don't really see why
they bother given that they can't verify any of the nonsense I put in to
create an account, and I assume that most people just fill in a load of
********.

When it doesn't work at all - well, that's OK, everywhere I go has
sufficient mobile data coverage.

--
David Cantrell | Pope | First Church of the Symmetrical Internet

Repent through spending

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On Sun, 15 May 2016 07:46:33 -0700 (PDT)
CJB wrote:

Has anyone had any success with the various wifi services on trains?

Recently I tried on GW and SWT local services.

At Paddington I was on a local - it had stickers which said that
there was free wifi. I booted the laptop, and searched for wifi
services. There was one labelled GreatWestern (or something), I
connected to that.

Then I tried to access BBC.co.uk but this was reported as unavailable
or rather the DNS was. Usually this attempt should have thrown up a
GWR splash screen. Then I tried GWR.com This went to another login
website which did throw up a splash screen inviting me to set up an
account. I entered suitable details. Then clicked on Submit. I got
disconnected. I tried again, and the connection went through, and
apparently an account was created. I then tried logging in, but the
response was to send me to GWR.com - which was unavailable due to the
DNS not being found. I gave up.

On SWT the wifi connection flew - faster than Pret or McDonalds etc.
- and I quickly created an account OK. I then logged in and decided
to try BBC.co.uk This failed as the DNS was not being available. I
then tried SWT.com and indeed it connected and went to a website to
try and sell me tickets. Ah - but I was already on the train and
din't want to buy tickets. But the selling site did work and it even
searched for prices for a notional journey.

But when I tried normal websites like BBC.co.uk and even Google.com
all were unavailable due to missing DNS.

So whilst all connections could be made, and indeed accounts could be
created, the services failed to actually connect to any real
websites.

One word of warning - whenever trying to make a connection to a wifi
service - or even connect with a mobile/ dongle - its best to be in
a station. It seems that whilst on the move initiating a connection
usually fails.

BTW I'm glad they don't make a charge for these services since they
are so unreliable.

CJB.

WTF do you want for FREE?

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On Mon, 23 May 2016 13:14:38 +0100
David Cantrell wrote:
On Sun, May 15, 2016 at 07:46:33AM -0700, CJB wrote:

Has anyone had any success with the various wifi services on trains?

On East Coast and Virgin it seems to work very well when it works at
all. Having to "sign in" is a bit of a pain and I don't really see why
they bother given that they can't verify any of the nonsense I put in to
create an account, and I assume that most people just fill in a load of
********.

The fewer trains that have wifi the better. Nothing more annoying that some
clod tapping away doing his work in his seat because he's not competant enough
to get it done in the office, or some teenagers squeeling over some vacuous
crap on farcebook.

--
Spud