Internet use on the road?

[roadranger]

What ISP provider is used when at a campground with laptop plugged into their modem?



My hometown ISP would be one heck of a long distance call from some campground!



Any Internet Service Providers out there with 800 number access?

 

[R-N-R]

I use Earthlink (Sprint) as they have a considerable amount of local dial up number to choose from on the fly, they also have 800 service but you pay a premium for it. My bet is that you would do better finding a service with nationwide local numbers. AT&T WorldNet and Worldcom (MCI) also have similier types of service.

 

[cscott]

The other option is to use your cell phone.



I have nation wide coverage (no roaming charges). I have a Motorola call phone and a cable that connects to the USB port. The cable came with soft ware that uses the cell phone as the modem. You need a good signal and I don't spend a lot of time surfing around just find what I want and get off.



Of course first you need to be in an area that has cell coverage.



Good luck



Craig

 

[R-N-R]

I have found cellular cable from PC to phone adequate for e-mail, but would recommend an Aircard (Notebook PC / PCMCIA) from either Verizon or T-Mobile for both e-mail and internet browseing. Much higher speed and greater stability.

 

[roadranger]

Thanks for the ideas, guys!

 

[cwsoules]

I use mindspring (earthlink). They have an expensive 800# which I do not use. I can call them on the phone and enter the first six didgets of the RV park phone #. They will then give me the local access number.

I have also used the local library to gain access to my account thru the mindspring web site.

 

[cscott]

With the aircard do you need a second cellular subscription?



Thanks

Craig

 

[NevadaBadBoy]

I just bought a Sprint PCS Vision plan and a Merlin PCMCIA PCS connection card. Basically, anywhere Sprint PCS is active, which is just about in every major metropolitan area, I can dial up anywhere on the road, with no strings and cables attached, literally speaking. It's costing me $100/mo, but I can VPN into our file server and check live inventory.

Data throughput is slightly faster than a dial up modem. Ping times are anywhere from 300ms up to 2 seconds, all depending on signal strenght. I live on the fringe of the PCS network, so I expect it to get better the closer I travel towards the center of town.

If you went with this or any other PCMCIA card, you are subscribing to new cellular service. The card has a phone number burned in, but it can't receive calls. I think Sprint makes some plans that allows the use of Voice traffic in addition to data traffic, but I'm not 100% sure which plans they have.

So far, I'm impressed with what I can do on the net. Bitmaps and large JPEGs do take some time to load, so do Java script and ActiveX components. But if all you are doing is capturing email, a smaller plan might do the trick. I've measured my data flow and with just 3 days of usage, I've exceeed my 80MB limit. Had to upgrade to unlimited plan before I had to pay an astronomical surcharge of so many dollar for every megabyte... .



Hope this helps... .



Martin

 

[R-N-R]

The aircard has a headphone jack, but I use it in addition to my "regular" cell phone and have not used the voice yet. Not being able to receive calls makes sense but I have not tried it yet. It would not be practical for me to use the aircard by itself due to the limited mobility. As already pointed out, the card has a number burned in to it. If you could get a carrier to program the same ESN number as what the aircard is using, programmed into a "regular" cell phone, it might work, but I would not expect the carrier to support this scenario.

 

[DBF]

Any Internet Service Providers out there with 800 number access?

AT&T has local numbers in all larger cities and an 800 number if you're not in reach of one of the local numbers.



It also has a Canadian 800 number we use when we're up there (a lot) and local Canadian numbers for the larger cities.



The 800 number charge is (I think) 6 cents a minute, which isn't much just to exchange e-mail.



DBF