Just popping up to say we’re finally here!  In Javea on the Costa Blanca, in case we have any neighbours on this forum,

Maya x

Hello and welcome to J?vea.  😉
We seem to be neighbours, even close to each other, as I have to turn in at carrer de la Margarida to go to my villa 😉
Fabulous to see you made the big step and moved to Spain. 
I have my villa, but for the moment I only use it as my holiday home. 
Making the big step will take me some more years, although I am planning to do it.
I read your blog and you all seem to adept very good and enjoy it all, go on like this !!
I hope the weather is getting better in February, as I am coming over for a week.  😉

I have a question for you:
What kind of internet connection do you have and at what cost, because that’s my problem for the moment.  As I am only using it as a holiday home, getting the ADSL from Telefonica is crazy expensive.  But at the other hand, I need to check my mails every day or two, so I will have to look into getting some kind of connection ...

Well enjoy your stay at J?vea, and maybe we meet some day ...

Gavin Lawrence - 26 January 2009 04:10 AM

To the other poster asking about Internet.  While there are other alternatives, for occasional use you can get a Pay As You Go 3G USB dongle to plug into a laptop.  Speeds are actually better than my 1M ADSL connection.  Vodafone do one, I’m not sure about other companies here and you’ll have to ask several times before you find someone at the Vodafone shop that admits they do do one - but it’s a money saver compared to having to pay for 9 months of the year that you’re not here!

Thanks !!!
I have already been to the Vodafone shop and asked the possibilities and they didn’t mention the Pay As You Go, allthough I asked for it.  I am going back for a long weekend this Friday and will go to an other Vodafone shop and ask again for this solution.  I hope they are going to help me with this.

Vodafone PAYG USB dongle is available ?69 at the moment including first ?19 for 150mb download. Vodafone catalogue gives different prices for different download limits. Each top up has a life of 3 months. I also believe that speed on PAYG is limited to 1mb (it is 3mb on contract). Movistar do not do PAYG, i don’t think.

Thanks Gavin Lawrence & shaggymon.

I am going to the Vodafone shop this Friday or Saturday to buy the dongle.  I found more information on the Vodafone website.

For some reason I never received the notifications of replies to this thread, sorry everyone I totally ignored!

Firstly Gavin wonderful advice about the net radio, I am going to look into that asap.  Why didn’t I know about this??

And Clav we have Telefonica internet, promised 10meg in December when we signed up, achieving slightly less than one meg which is a total pain some days as both of us working simultaneously on VPN and ip phone, but it has been reliable and consistent despite recent storms etc.  Telefonica have promised us 6meg ‘later in the year’ (uh huh) and insist no one would ever have promised us 10..?  Would be way to expensive for occasional use, but there do seem to be lots of net cafes in the Arenal which should be walking distance for you too 😊

Have no experience of 3G but I can speak very highly of the Vodafone shop staff in the Port.  Apart from their having their shop rebuilt around them they have been extremely helpful in sorting out my mobile contract, which (like everything here) took several visits, but their patience and friendliness and excellent English was a great support,

Thanks everyone!

Maya

BuenosDiasPet - 04 February 2009 12:54 AM

For some reason I never received the notifications of replies to this thread, sorry everyone I totally ignored!
Firstly Gavin wonderful advice about the net radio, I am going to look into that asap.  Why didn’t I know about this??
And Clav we have Telefonica internet, promised 10meg in December when we signed up, achieving slightly less than one meg which is a total pain some days as both of us working simultaneously on VPN and ip phone, but it has been reliable and consistent despite recent storms etc.  Telefonica have promised us 6meg ‘later in the year’ (uh huh) and insist no one would ever have promised us 10..?  Would be way to expensive for occasional use, but there do seem to be lots of net cafes in the Arenal which should be walking distance for you too 😊
Have no experience of 3G but I can speak very highly of the Vodafone shop staff in the Port.  Apart from their having their shop rebuilt around them they have been extremely helpful in sorting out my mobile contract, which (like everything here) took several visits, but their patience and friendliness and excellent English was a great support,
Thanks everyone!
Maya

I already got me the Vodafone USB dongle (I went to Murcia and got it in a Vodafone stand in a shopping mall) for my internet and it works fine, so no net cafes for me.
At first they didn’t have the “Prepago” type of dongle anymore, only the year contract type.  As I told them, I was only willing to take the “Prepago”, they looked for it and they found one ...  Speaking some Spanish was very helpfull.