We'll be using Truphone in Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam

[DRNewcomb]

Originally Posted by snidely

I'm not very tech savy. How would I have done that?

Well, you need to start getting a VPN server. If you don't mind exposing a pinhole and leaving your PC running Windows implements a PPTP server. I think a better way is to use a DD-WRT home router, which implements a PPTP server in the router. Another way is to subscribe to a 3rd-party VPN service. (I don't have experience with that.) It's good if the server has either a static IP address or uses Dynamic DNS.

Once the server is available it's pretty east to set up the VPN client in Android. You just plug in the address, user ID & password in the correct spots. When you connect to the server the link between your phone/laptop will be an encrypted tunnel to the server, then all your traffic out appears to come from the server's IP address.

[snidely]

DRN -
I can actually follow your clear explanation. You should go into tech support for dummies.
As Stu pointed out, above, all 3 of those countries had free wifi all over the place. Had I known about that cheap pre-paid, would have probably bought it anyway.

Side note - My BB SIM card suddenly became "invalid" half way thru the trip. When we called T-Mobiles CS from Vietnam they said we needed a new SIM and there was nothing they could do. The explanation I got upon return was that there was a 99,999 limit on connections to a network. I figured, if thats true, it must have counted each time it jumped from 2G to 3G in the 3 or so years I had it.
When I got new SIM (it was mailed to me so was in mail box on return), CS said, when I called to activate - the new SIM had no such limit.

[DRNewcomb]

Originally Posted by snidely

DRN - Side note - My BB SIM card suddenly became "invalid" half way thru the trip. When we called T-Mobiles CS from Vietnam they said we needed a new SIM and there was nothing they could do. The explanation I got upon return was that there was a 99,999 limit on connections to a network. I figured, if thats true, it must have counted each time it jumped from 2G to 3G in the 3 or so years I had it.

Note to self: Carry spare unactivated SIM when traveling abroad.

[rfranzq]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Stu
[TRU] just raised their US rates by changing the way they round minutes.
15 cents a minute by the second is often cheaper than 10 cents a minute rounded to the nearest minute.
Here is the announcement. US to US calls are 17 cents a minute. Half a minute or less was 9 cents.

Quote from Tru email:
I am writing to inform you of a change in the way calls on the Tru network are billed.
As of March 28 2012, all calls made from or received in the USA will be billed in increments of one minute.
There are no changes to your rates or service agreement with Tru, and no action is required of you.
Unfortunately, I valued the half minute pricing also.

This never seemed to come about. Incoming call minimum times are one minute. Outgoing calls are 30 seconds. Without tax the calls would be 15 cents incoming, 7.5 cents outgoing and SMS 10 cents. With the tax 17 cents, 9 cents and 12 cents for SMS.

In order to keep the SIM alive every 90[?] days it is cheaper to place a short call than send an SMS.