mendieta

I am moving to Abu Dhabi in the summer and have been doing as much research as I can. I have a couple of more obscure questions I cant find answers to...

I understand that certain things are blocked on the internet? Is a VPN a way around this? Do people download torrent files etc safely in this region?

Is internet readily available at a similar speed cost to the UK?

Am I better purchasing a laptop prior to my move or over in Abu Dhabi?

Thanks in advance

Bob

yes, yes.

Laptop things to consider, warranty, Apple and some Dell's have international warranty, most don't, so if that's a concern, buy it where you'll use it.

There's been threads on this as well as ISP's in the past, could probably search them with the advanced search option.

Kix

It's bloody expensive, reckon on £90-100/month for a 10Mb connection (that will run at 2), unfortunately Virgin aren't in AD yet....

Eva

Etisilat,,Govt owned has the monopoly.
Get a VPN sorted
Load Skype before you arrive.

mendieta

Thanks for the replies.

£100 a month!? Bloody Nora! Do you have to pay for a VPN?

Kix

Of course, but you need a non UAE address to do it though.

d0ughboy

Should you set the VPN up whilst you are in London, or can you still do that in UAE?

What do they need the non UAE address for?

Bob

Do it before you leave, because you'll not be able to set it up easily on the other side and Skype certainly.

And the non UAE address, simply because it'll be blocked.

gottheTshirt

I have had no problem setting up VeePN - (takes 10 minutes) from anywhere. suppose it depends on the supplier. But you may as well set up while in UK. Try a few for reliability and speed before committing to an annual subscription.

csdf

My 16 mbps Etisalat fibre line costs me 359 dhs per month, or £65. But it's very quick and there's no usage cap (or none that I've ever come up against).

busybee2

what no virgin??? oh you dont mean the shop

busybee2

yes its very very very expensive, and yes you have to pay extra for a vpn but dont tell anyone.

Blue Cat

I don't have a VPN and download on a daily basis from torrent sites.

ukfb

For media try a DNS redirect service which enables media services without the low bandwidth of VPNs. They 'do' work on one of the ISPs...although you might need a VPN to set it up.

Du's internet (with phone) starts at 199 AED (35 GBP) for 8mb to 999 AED (180 GBP!!) for 100mb - never had any issues with speed though.

Monitored one of the ISP gateways here a few years back and high % of the traffic was P2P/torrent.

AntTyson87

i feel special now...what the hell is a VPN!?!?! is one deffo needed for skype ect? if so how do i get one

Cheers