traveling to UK

I am going to the UK and Ireland in June, specifically on a cruise. I am hoping to get onto SL some. What do i need to know? Can anyone give me tips?

I have a notebook that runs SL well at home. But I discovered that it won't work if firewall settings are wrong. Does anyone have experience using laptops in UK? Has anyone used public computers with SL on a thumb drive or something? Does anyone know specific places I could access SL?

Anything else I need to know?

Can't live w/out SL for 3 weeks. OK, I can but don't want too.
Sylvan

There is no difference in using your computer in the uk than touring your own country.

You may have difficulty finding electricity though but you can always buy some from gas stations. Just be sure to ask the attendant for a "box of juice cartons" and you will be fine

Most of our caves have broadband but you have to keep the sound down in SL as it tends to annoy the bears.

Pep (Make sure you get a separate visa if you are intending to visit Wales)

Pep invites all SL'ers who venture to his home country in for a spot of tea.

Little known fact.

Be sure to take him up on it!

Turf-powered Macs are a common preference in Ireland - much quieter and more fragrant than them rattling wind-up things they use in England.

Smoke gets in your eyes, however, so you should only log-on from a well-aired location. Luckily most bogs are equipped with dolmens focusing the latest ADSL crystal emanations.

Important note: Bring a traditional mac also: if it isn't raining, it's going to rain.

I'm British and SL has always worked as well for me as it seems to for anyone else on these forums.

I think some public computers here are set to block access to games, but that's probably the same in the USA or wherever you're from.

There are three main things to look out for when using a laptop in the UK (if you are coming from the States):

1. Power: the mains voltage in the UK is 230VAC not 110VAC (so make sure your power transformer is either 230/110 selectable, or get yourself a transformer that is before you go

2. If you intend to connect via a cable to a telephone wall socket (in a hotel room or cabin room), the sockets in the UK are different to those in the States, so get an adapter

3. If you are connecting wirelessly, then make sure your wireless card is compatible with the UK (European) standards.

I went on a cruise recently, and connected to SL whenever we made port, as almost every port I arrived at had internet cafes on the quayside. They also had all the adapters necessary and are well set up for visitors from all over the world.

Rock

Sorry, I left Wales 36 years ago to help try civilise the immigrants from France, Germany, Scandinavia etc who had settled in the eastern part of the British Isles.

Well, it worked for St Patrick, but the Irish were easier to fool.

Pep (has been known to entertain improverished visitors to tea in London - but that was when the dollar was weaker against sterling)

it is VERY unlikely that you will be in a hotel where plugging into the wall socket gets you a connection!

Ethernet cables are the same. Wireless connectivity in hotels is universal but far from cheap; I suspet you will have the biggest difficulty making that work, whether in the UK or europe - it's never very high bandwidth and some providers (notably Swisscom) choke everything except HTTP, without being very clear abotu the results of doign so.

Lol...that's a good one... You're from Wales right?????

We will be on the cruise ship except a little at the beginning and end in London. But I imagine the same policy will apply.

Yep!

Pep (and you're from Ireland and will know that St Patrick was also Welsh)

That's one school of thought on the subject, it's also believed that he came from Scotland.. the exact birthplace is not known for sure.... but wherever he came from I'm delighted he decided to come to Ireland.... whether or not we were "easier to fool"....

Well, persuading the natives that he had banished snakes (when there were never any on the island in the first place) was an easier "miracle" to accomplish than killing a Lebanese dragon.

Pep (The Irish are only the Welsh that could swim, anyway)

Most big brand pubs ( drinking places of the beer variety ) have wireless ( shock horror ).
crapdonalds and other such eating establishments have wireless.
You could buy a 3 mobile or any other paymonthly usb dongle and use a LITE edition sl client so you can speak to your friends when ever you wish and were ever you are.
You could get a nifty program from GOOGLE for sniffing wireless coonections.
you could get FRAPS and video a 10 minute session on sl and then watch it whenever you get homesick and pretend your playing.
you could get the opensim island server thingy on your laptop if its building your missing.

>>You could buy a 3 mobile or any other paymonthly usb dongle and use a LITE edition sl client
Have Old School. Don't understand rest of sentence.

Sylvan

In my experience you aren't going to find many places having good enough wireless to do SL without cranking the settings all the way down and being VERY patient. You are also going to have to pay for service, too. I have found a few B&Bs that offer free wireless but most now cover their costs by using BT OpenZone ( http://www.btopenzone.com/ ) which you have to pay for.

Also, most british houses are horrendous for wireless, especially older ones - the stone walls make it very difficult to get a decent connection unless you're in the same room.

I plan to run Old School, which runs a simple, older version of the SL client with glitches fixed. Don't expect to try to log on from any old buildings, except maybe pubs.

Don't care how expensive. I'll pay. Seriously addicted. Hi, I'm Sylvan and I'm an SLaholic. Actually, I just have lots of very dear friends in SL.

Sylvan