Take a look around you. Where are you as you read this? Are you sitting at home lounging in the comfiest chair you own or are you at a computer club or your site’s computer trying to get the most out of your limited time on the internet? If you are in the latter group, this Tech Tip is for you.

I remember a year ago when I was telling friends and family that I didn’t know what kind of internet I’d have at my site, if any. In training, I feared the worst (having no internet at home) because my host family didn’t have internet at home and a 3G modem seemed too costly. Now, I’m writing this and sending it using my Kievstar 3G modem. I don’t live in a city without access to internet but I do live in an apartment where I cannot have internet hooked up.

Every PCV is going to have to get internet in a completely different way. I was in the office recently and I overheard another PCV telling how a man came up to her on the street and asked, “You need internet? Sergei give you internet.” Sergei was a neighbor who happened to have internet and offered to split it with this PCV. Now she has internet like Sergei.

I’ve also heard other stories about PCVs who have counterparts that are more than happy to help their volunteers get their internet setup. Good for those volunteers. It doesn’t hurt to ask.

So what do you do if your counterpart is too busy or doesn’t want to help you get your internet set up? Do you resolve to sit at the computer club or site computer soaking up every precious second of internet you can get? Or do you go out and find yourself home internet access so you can sit on your balcony with the windows open to enjoy the fresh air like I do?

If your counterpart is too busy or unwilling to help you, you have to take matters into your own hands. Unfortunately, I cannot give you a step by step set of instructions to set up your own internet. But I can give suggestions. Also, it’s important to ask around and see what options are available for internet in your town (my site offers cable, DSL, 3G, internet clubs and the occasional opportunity to mooch a neighbor’s unprotected wireless signal).

The first one is to find someone who has wired internet access, preferably a neighbor because it will confirm you are able to have internet in your flat or house, and then ask them to help you get internet. Odds are they’ll be quite willing to help you out (just make sure to thank them with a plate of cookies or something).

The second suggestion applies if you find out that your flat or your house cannot have internet access for some reason or another (mine doesn’t have a phone line required for DSL). In this case, I recommend getting a wireless modem. I use Kievstar because it gets the best reception in my apartment. But I don’t recommend it for everyone because Kievstar coverage varies from town to town. Your best bet would be to ask around and find out what is the most common cell phone carrier in your area and then to see if they offer a 3G modem (most sites don’t actually offer 3G because the networks still operate on the slower EDGE network, I’ve only experience 3G in Kiev). I recommend the most popular cell phone carrier because it will most likely have the best coverage in town.

Keep in mind, different internet connections will offer different internet access speeds. The slower the internet, the fewer things you can do with the internet. With my 3G I cannot Skype video or voice chat, I can’t watch movies on YouTube and downloading files is a pain because big files tend to timeout before the file is downloaded.

Here is an excerpt from the pcukraine.org website about internet speeds:
Volunteers with Internet access at home use cable/fiber-optic modems, DSL, mobile modems and dial-up, depending on the availability and prices of such connections at site. If everything works properly, what kind of speeds can I expect? Speed depends on the type of connection. A broadband connection (via cable or fiber-optic) can be between 24-100 Mbit/s; DSL between 256kbps-24Mbit/s, a mobile modem connected over 3G up to 3.6Mbit/s, mobile modem connected over EDGE/GRPS up to 256kpbs, and dial-up between 28kbps-56kbps. A 4 megabyte file will download in approximately 5-10 second over broadband, 5 seconds to 2 minutes over DSL, 20-30 seconds over 3G, 1-2 minutes over EDGE/GRPS, and 10-20 minutes over dial-up. The slower connections are more common and generally less expensive than faster connections.

All that being said, I wish you happy hunting for internet in your town. I mean, how else are you going to continue reading Tech Tips without it?