Hi everyone:

We will be in Madrid at the end of October for 9 days and will have our laptop with us. We've already signed up at gonuts4free.com for free Internet access which someone posted about here a few months ago.

My question now is about the so-called "tax impulses" which can supposedly disrupt modem operation when dialling up in Spain. Many online places sell filters to prevent these signals from interfering and I'd just like to know whether we really need one or not. Lots of similar information turned out not to be true on a trip to Italy last year and I don't want to spend money on one if I don't need to.

Thanks in advance,

Susan

Uhm, I'm not sure what you mean by "tax impulse". In my hostel we have a "meter" so we can know how much customers spend on the telephone. It seems that ADSL lines are not compatible with such devices. However, I don't understand the technical reason as the impulse sent is at 12 KHz and neither the voice nor the data in ADSL is transmited at that frecuency.

It has taken me a lot of time to discover that that impulses also intefere with my standard dial up connection with a V90/V92 modem.

However, what I said above refers to that meter and this device is not usually found in a private home so I don't think you will need any filter at all.

Perhaps Fernando can tell you more on this. Fernando, where are you?

Thanks Antonio. I'm not sure what I mean by "tax impulse filter" either. Here's a description that I found on one of the Web sites selling them:

"Tax impulsing is connection-disrupting noise pulse found in Austria , Belgium , Czech Republic , Germany, Slovakia , Spain , and Switzerland . Tax impulsing is used in these European countries to monitor the length of telephone calls for billing purposes. Invented before modems, tax-impulsing (or metering pulses) can cause data errors or even disconnects."

These people sell a device that goes between the phone line and the modem to eliminate the problem.

We will be staying in an aparthotel (Apartamentos Goya 75) and using a dial-up connection so presumably the metering that youe mentioned WILL be a problem for us. So you have had trouble with this, right? Can you tell me if it is always a problem or just sometimes? These filters are quite expensive and I can't find anywhere in Canada to buy them so I'm afraid we might not get one in time for our trip. (Mind you if they are really a problem, we can probably buy one in Madrid.)

Any other information you have would be greatly appreciated!

Muchas gracias,

Susan

I'm here

I don't think that "tax pulses" are an issue by now, perhaps years ago yes.

There are signalling pulses both in audible and non audible frequencies which can interrupt your modem connection (when services as waiting call, and other net intelligent services are active). It is not probable they are activated where you are going to stay, and if they are, you can always turn them off, use a public telephone (everyone has a connection for the modem cable) or, in the worst case, accept a disconnection from time to time.

My recommendation is not to buy any device. You are only going to stay here 9 days and the chances to have any problem are minimal. Besides, you can find a cibercafé almost everywhere in Madrid, and even in some places Wi-Fi hot-spots...

Best regards.

Fernando

Great Fernando - thanks for the information. It was what I imagined might be true.

We do have a Wi-Fi card in our laptop. Do you happen to know of any online guide to Wi-Fi hotspots in Madrid? It's not critical, but it might be fun to try out.

Thanks again to both you and Antonion for your kind help.

Susan

Hi again

Try at madridwireless.net , the main page of Wi-Fi in Madrid (it is in spanish but you can translate it with Google or similar).

Best regards.

Fernando

Fernando, as far as I know, Madridwireless offers free connection to the Madriwireless network itself, not to the Internet. It is up to the owner of each node to let you connect to the Internet using his landline connection, but it's not the main purpose of the project.

Ups, I didn't know that... If I'm not wrong, Telefonica has a pay-per-use network in certain emblematic places, hasn't it? (It has nothing to do with Madrid Wireless though).

Fernando

Hi again Fernando and Antonio:

I just wanted to thank you both again for the advice you gave us last fall prior to our trip to Madrid. We had not difficulty whatsoever using our laptop to dial-up our ISP without any extra gadgetry. The only problem we had was the expense - the aparthotel we stayed at had a rather pricey surcharge on local calls so staying connected for any length of time was not an option.

But a while ago someone had posted here (Antonio maybe?) about CyberFutur@ which is an Internet café that allows you to connect your laptop. We went there a few times and it worked like a charm - convenient and inexpensive.

Our next trip is in May and this time we have purchased a cellphone with a Movistar SIM card to use for Internet access. It's posing new and interesting challenges that I'll be asking about very soon.

Thanks again!

Susan

Susan, I'm glad everything worked fine

It is always a pleasure to see you can help someone.

I'll keep an eye to see those future questions to help you.

Best regards.

Fernando