Simple GPS software needed for netbook to show my location on map

First off I just want to say this is a great website with a ton of useful stuff. Its great.

Anyway hopefully I can get a cheap and simple solution to my problem.

I plan on doing some travelling overseas and like many of us don't plan on getting lost. Anyway I have been looking at a few destinations such as France, UK, Germany, Italy, America and Canada and would like a simple GPS application to basically show me where I am on top of a street directory layout.

I don't need things like voice guidance, waypoints, or any other normal GPS features and I certainly dont need the business orientated tools of Microsoft MapPoint which is currently what I am looking at. As Italy is the current main destination I have planned, I am looking at MapPoint however seems far too complicated for what I need.

I have an Asus EeePC and GPS receiver and no Internet connection so the maps will need to be stored on the HDD. I want to be able to stop somewhere, open my netbook, open the GPS software and see where I am. Thats about it.

Thanks and I hope there is something out there that can help me out.

Hi GPSmad,

In your case, with all the places you want coverage, availability of maps will be more of an issue than nav features.

I would take a look at Garmin's web site. Look under "MAPS >> On The Road" and see if you can find maps that give you coverage for the parts of the world you need.

If Garmin has the maps, they also have a possible nav program solution. They make a program called Mobile PC. It has the usual nav freatures but it's not necessary to use them and it's way easy to use in the way you want.

In order to be able to add maps to it you will need to buy one of the bundles where it comes with a Garmin GPS receiver. One version comes with a GPS10x Bluetooth receiver; the other comes with a GPS20x USB receiver. Both are good receivers.

If this solution interests you, you can take a look at the Garmin Mobile PC section on here for tips on loading maps and other stuff.

I won't pretend that this is a perfect solution. It will have its challenges. But with the number of areas of the world you need coverage for it might be the only one that comes close to giving you all of the map coverage you need.

...ken...

I'm looking for something like this... but not just that I can see where I am, but someone else can see where I am.

Hi cinemasianx, and welcome to Laptop GPS World. You may look into GpsGate a bit deeper. There are variety of ways to use it for GPS tracking. Read up on it on their site.