'zactly. And do I tether it to the rotary dial, or to the bells?
Ok, turns out the solution is to buy an NT$2000 dongle and insert a SIMM card with unlimited data access from a cell phone service provider, then plug this into a USB port. I’m now online wirelessly by this method. Thanks all, for your advice, and happy Chinese New Year! 
That’s a workable solution. If you don’t want to buy a separate dongle, already have an unlimited 3G plan with your phone, and if your phone supports tethering, you can simply connect the phone to the PC with a USB cable or create a WiFi hotspot with the phone that the computer can connect to. Then use the unlimited 3G connection from the phone to put the PC online.
Advantage: no separate USB dongle, no separate data plan. Disadvantage: if you don’t charge the phone off the PC or wall while using the phone as a WiFi access point, then it eats into the battery life of the phone.
Oh, that’s pretty good news! I’d be surprised if my bottom-end Nokia supports tethering, and doubt I could find a cable to connect it, but I’ll try tethering with Dragonbabe’s iPhone and see if it works. 
All right, help on this.
I have a small Acer PC, with Wi-fi.
I need to be able to get onto the internet in Europe, and that will oftentimes be nowhere near a hot spot.
What kinds of plans enabling this are available locally?
Dragonbones, is this kind of service also available soimewhere on a pre-pay basis and thus also for people who do not have an ARC?
Dragonbones, is this kind of service also available soimewhere on a pre-pay basis and thus also for people who do not have an ARC?[/quote]
Yuli, you can get a prepaid SIM with unlimited data for roughly 350NT for each 5days or 2100NT/month from 台灣大哥大 with two forms of ID and no ARC and put it in the dongle. That’s roughly 2.5x the price of a post-paid plan, but in the grand scheme of what data plans cost worldwide it’s actually pretty cheap.
If your phone supports tethering, I would recommend to just use the phone and not have to buy a dongle. If your phone does not support tethering and you are not in the market for a new phone, then I would suggest looking at a MiFI device instead of a dongle. It is a portable wireless hotspot that runs of cellular data. This makes the connection shareable, and if you need to charge the MiFi, you can hook it up to the USB port of your machine.
Thanks for the info! Since that is exactly how i got my phone last year, i went to the same shop today and got a USB modem (my notebook does not have wireless, so that is the obvious choice). The speed is quite decent, and i can take it anywhere i go, so i’m happy with that service. The monthly cost is just a tad higher than what i pay at home for the optic fiber connection, so i have to agree with your assessment. And eventually it will get even cheaper. 
[quote=“Mr He”]All right, help on this.
I have a small Acer PC, with Wi-fi.
I need to be able to get onto the internet in Europe, and that will oftentimes be nowhere near a hot spot.
What kinds of plans enabling this are available locally?[/quote]
Get an unlocked 3G dongle in Taiwan, buy a pre-paid SIM card in Europe, although just so you know, it’s not possible to buy pre-paid data SIMs in all countries which is something I just found out about…
thanks!!!
If you need to upload stuff get a dongle that supports HSUPA (U for upload) as this will greatly increase your upload speeds as most cheap non HUSPA dongles are limited to max 384kbit/s upload while the HUSPA ones are at least 2Mbit/s (depending on network support and signal quality).
Great, important info, as I tend to upload lots of PDF’s.