travel: Wireless or Dial Up access in NZ

I will be traveling around the North and South Islands for four months with my family (from USA). My sons will be using the internet extensively to keep up with schoolwork. I have a wireless card in laptop, ethernet and phone jacks.

Need help figuring out best way to connect. I assume wireless card will allow access to free wireless hotspots.

Should I get a NZ dial up ISP for the times we are in rural areas? Please make a suggestion as to what ISP.

I really appreciate any help - feel free to email me.

Depends on what sort of phone line access you'll have. If you're saying in hotels/motels then they'll most likely charge you per minute for using the phone even if it's a local call to an ISP.

You can find wireless most places, but rural areas you might be hard pushed to find any access. Not to mention you might be paying $10 an hour or something for some commerical hotspots.

All dialup ISPs are pretty much the same these days in NZ, personally I'd go with ihug - welcome to ihug!, I've used them before for dialup (abiet 5 years ago before broadband, but still). Looking at $24.95 a month for unlimited dialup with ihug (unless you switch your tolls over to them, which you may not be able to do).

Hopefully this has helped you out a bit.

Noodles, thanks for the reply.

Based upon the probability of being charged for phone calls and high fees for commercial wireless, I wonder if getting a vodafone mobile connect card and data plan would be better?

Any knowledge of how well that connection works? I tried a Cingular data card here in rural US - connection was easy - speed was worse than dial up.

I have tried to book motels with wireless when available, but many times we will be on farms.
Thanks again!

The vodafone cards are ok, not super fast, but ok for light surfing and email checking.

You may want to check coverage areas though. I think Telecom NZ offer a 3G card which has better coverage, but I'm not too sure.

Having a Telecom wireless card would give you an Xtra login which also gives you free access to Wifi hot spots at the moment. There is a 1gb data plan for $49+ gst but deal is only till end of the month I believe. card cost about $400.