Best way of getting online when out and about?

[ParkviewCoffee]

Need your technical expertise please lovely MNers

I work from home a couple of days a week.

But It would make my life MUCH more palatable if I was able to get internet access when out and about- the days I have childcare I am pretty much tied to my screen.

Would be awesome to be able to check in on my email etc but be getting other bits done (I am specifically thinking of a visit to the hairdresser but there would be other more serious occasions, I'm sure )

In an ideal world I would have an iphone (I'm a Mac girl thru and thru)

But I don't for 2 reasons

1 In a foolish moment of customer loyalty having been with orange for over 10 years, we didnt ditch them for o2 way back when the iphone first came out and are now LOCKED into a contract with our current phones until this time next year (will cost about £400 to get out according to my DH)

2 I already have an ipod touch and feel that it's a bit like overkill

All advice gratefully received.
Thanks

What phone have you got? Can it not do emails or wap?

nope sadly not
Have a hunk of junk nokia which doesn't do anything well atm- battery used to be good but isn't now
Camera rubbish
Keeps freezing.

Hmmm, sounds like you're buggered. Have you spoken to Orange? They may be up for a bit of bargaining as the iPhone is now on their network. Just tell them you're going to bugger off to o2 or Vodafone next year. Or they may be tighter than a duck's arse but worth a try if you haven;t already.

As far as I can see you can either pay a couple of quid a month for wifi from the Cloud or the like, hover round houses till you find unprotected wifi or buy a PAYG dongle for your laptop.

Internet cafe?

"either pay a couple of quid a month for wifi from the Cloud"
erm, wot's that then?

It's a wifi network oft found in coffee emporiums, pubs and McDs. There are a few of them, BTopenworld is another, to be found in caffe Nero.

bt openzone is another. You could then jsut use your ipod tocuh to check emails. I can usually find unsecured net pretty easily when out and about with my pod though.

I was going to suggest a Vodafone PAYG dongle, but it seems the deal has changed. You used to get a 180 day expiry, but that seems to have gone .

I have a netbook and PAYG dongle. It costs £2 for a day's access. If you want it for a week or month, you can get appropriate tariffs.

Saying that, I now have an iPhone 3g, so will be happy with that at the hairdresser.