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Hi Folks,

Does anyone know if it is generally possible to upload "stuff" (namely photos to a website, ie smugmug) from a generic internet cafe?

The reason I want to know is that I about just about to travel around Aus for 18 months and would like to Blog my progress via a site like smugmug, but if I cannot upload content then its not going to be worth my while...any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

Escapism

Generally yes if you already have it on CD or disk (though some bar outside media). If you think you will install Nikon View, download from the camera, etc I think you may be out of luck. For this trip I would probably buy a CD burner storage device or a notebook, if you dont already have one

Glen wrote:Generally yes if you already have it on CD or disk (though some bar outside media). If you think you will install Nikon View, download from the camera, etc I think you may be out of luck. For this trip I would probably buy a CD burner storage device or a notebook, if you dont already have one

Yep sorry I should have put a bit more info in my question...I will be travelling with a laptop which will allow me to gather and process (resize etc etc) all relevent photos and text, then burn all this to CD.

This CD will then be taken to said internet cafe and the contents (in a form that needs no further modification at the cafe) will be uploaded directly to smugmug.

Does your laptop have wireless capabilities?
If so I would be tempted to go buy a milkshake and sit in macdonalds and use their hotspots.

rokkstar wrote:Does your laptop have wireless capabilities?
If so I would be tempted to go buy a milkshake and sit in macdonalds and use their hotspots.

Yep it does...and thats a great idea IF its available. What I really need to know however is can I upload from the generic small town internet cafe???

Taking files into an Internet cafe on USB key or CD-R can work well, especially if the place you need to upload them to doesn't need any special software installed on the PC (which might be Windows, Linux, or even Mac and in any case you probably won't have admin access).

But personally when travelling (in Australia at least) I run everything from my Powerbook and use a combination of dialup and WiFi. I use Telstra prepaid dialup as it has a single 0198 access number that's a local call from anywhere - so if I'm in a motel it won't cost me the earth in STD calls. In some places with no in-room phones I've even ended up sitting in the motel reception using their fax line...
If there are wireless hotspots in town I'll use those for faster up/downloads. On the road it can be a week or more between connects, which can result in a lot of backed-up mail, so faster access helps. It's not as cheap as dialup (unless you find someone's unsecured access point which I haven't managed to do yet) but it's much faster.

Sometimes it just involves sitting in a Macdonalds car park, but not all Maccas have Telstra WiFi (which is convenient if you have a Telstra mobile as they'll SMS the passkey to you and put the charges on your mobile - no special setup required). You can get a list on the Telstra website of which places have it, but recently in Alice Springs I found a Telstra hotspot accessible from the carpark of a Four Seasons motel (which I wasn't staying at). Because it's done through some hotel franchise I hadn't found it on the Telstra website, but because it was Telstra gear it ran in exactly the same way as the Macdonalds ones.

I have visited internet cafes in Townsville, Darwin and Christmas Island in the past few months and have been able to upload from all of them to my Smugmug site, using a USB key device. (Also known as a 'Dirty Needle because they can easily get viruses.

As for smaller towns, you may be lucky if they even have an internet cafe, although they are becoming more popular and necessary as more tourists/visitors demand them in small towns. There is always the library as well, if the town is big enough to have one. Most regional centres will have some form of public internet access somewhere.