High Technology: Web Working from the Road (Part 1)
Nathan posted this in Technology
Upon a request from a reader, I thought I’d divulge a bit about the tech that we use to power our mobile lifestyles. Thus far we’ve been everywhere from middle-of-nowhere to downtown-big-city, and plenty of small towns and truck stops in between. This country is vast, broad and often times sparse with cell towers, but thus far we’ve had pretty good luck staying connected to the Internet as often as we need to be. A few quick notes:
- AT&T is more ubiquitous than Sprint, but Sprint is a faster, more reliable network.
- WiFi has not caught on across the country: it doesn’t even exist in many places, and more and more in the places that it does exist, people are locking their WiFi down.
This post will be part of a four-part series. Today I’ll discuss some general thoughts on being a web worker and what you can expect if you set off on your own adventure.
There Isn’t a Whole Lot of Free Internet Out There
The city of Pittsburgh is stuffed with free WiFi access. Many individuals leave there wireless networks open: which, while exposing them to vulnerabilities from sneaky hackers out to steal their mp3 collections, also does a great service to the world. “Stealing” WiFi from your neighbor isn’t much worse than “stealing” the ambient glow his porch light sheds on your porch: it’s there already and you using it doesn’t affect him much at all. Particularly in cities, where broadband speeds are high enough that we don’t typically use them fully for anything, it’s not noticeable. Pittsburgh also has a great tendency for coffee shops and their ilk to provide absolutely free WiFi.
By “absolutely free” I mean you don’t have to pay anything (including buying something from the store first) and you don’t have to login to any provider’s site. Memphis wasn’t like this, in fact Memphis had relatively little free WiFi access at all, and Austin providers typically want you to log in and will often restrict how long you can use their free hotspots. Portland, OR is another city that has plenty of truly free WiFi.
Once you get outside of the big cities, though, you’ll be desperate to find a connection. While home’s will often have unprotected hotspots leaking out of their houses, just try and sit on someone’s porch and checking your Gmail. If you aren’t kicked off of their property in the first 15 minutes, you’ll be shot at in the first 10. The idea of a “cafe” in most small towns is also unheard of as well, so you’ll have to look around a bit to find a free spot.
What’s a Poor Boy to Do?
The best place to look, regardless of the size of the town you’re in, is the local public library. They very often have free WiFi, typically have no limits to the length of time you can use it, and not many people get bothered at the library.
I’m Not Worried, I’ve got a Data Card
Also known as aircards, data cards are basically devices that allow you to connect to wireless networks like AT&T’s 3G or EDGE networks, or Sprint’s EVDO. These are great, and work wonderfully in towns and cities, but just like your cell phone, they cut out once you get into cow country.
Out of maybe 24 different places we’ve stayed thus far, though, I’ve only not been able to get connection on my Sprint card once (very shakey connection with AT&T in that area as well) which was deep into Pennsylvania farm territory. Due to this, I suspect that the majority of the Northeast, the South, the Great Lakes and the West Coast will have connection. If you’re in a red state, though, God help you if you get more than a few miles outside of the town limits.
Planning for the Internet
You could easily travel indefinitely in your RV and never be forced to go without the Internet, but you will be restricted compared to those without the need to constantly be connected. If you want to delve deep into Yellowstone, for example, don’t count on getting a connection. If you don’t mind hanging around towns and truck stops, though, you’ll likely never go without. Personally, I have the mindset that I need to work, but I don’t need to work every day. So if we want to spend say, a week in the middle of the desert, I can plan my work schedule around that.
You can also research what type of connectivity you can expect to get from the different cell providers by using their maps:
Over the next couple of days I’ll be covering How to Connect to the Web via your Cell Phone, Creating a Wireless Network in your RV with Time Capsule, and How to Prepare for No WiFi.
Bob S.
11 Nov 2008 8:51 am
I was going to say that having a phone that you can tether your lappy to is pretty sweet. Don’t plan on downloading a whole album of mp3’s but tethering your phone works very well for work.
I use mine all the time while we travel to Philly or New York or any other place. Whenever we get on a main road such as a toll road you get internet the whole way to your destination.
As far as Sprint and AT&T they are not the most reliable. And I’m not just saying that because you use their service they are just shotty. When dad and I road down to Florida I had a good signal the whole way down there.
Verizon is Verizown I’ll be the first to admit but those dudes follow you around like it’s nobody’s business. Unless….. Those are the Feds who are following me which then I have a pretty big problem.
END OF TRANSMISSION,
Bob
Joe
11 Nov 2008 11:15 am
Hi Nathan,
I have enjoyed reading the blog!
Another data option is satellite. It is a few bucks to get the equipment, but then the recurring costs are reasonable ($59/month for data card like speeds).
http://www.motosat.com
http://www.datastormusers.com
(I do not sell this stuff, but I love the idea of having a connection anywhere in north america)
Joe
Richard
11 Nov 2008 12:15 pm
Fascinating. Perhaps you could give some high-tech advice. Like how to set up a webcam for instance.
Nathan
11 Nov 2008 4:13 pm
Transmissions recieved!
@Richard: I think that one should pretty much be plug-n-play, have you tried it out yet? I know they do make those boxes hard to open, they certainly make them hard to mail. :)
@Joe: The problem with satellite is that you have to set it up every time you stop, which involves a whole lot of messing around with trying to point it in the right direction, hoping there aren’t trees in your way, etc. I like my Internet to be ready when I am, and try to eliminate having a bunch of setup.
Lexie
11 Nov 2008 7:17 pm
I only wish this post had existed a few months ago! My fiancee and I are on a trek similar to yours, our livelihood relies on the internet. I was going crazy thinking we weren’t going to be able to have a steady net connection because we couldn’t afford satellite internet service. I am surprised the aircards don’t seem to be marketed to RVers very well or at all just yet. It took me a solid week of digging to even discover them.
Even though we’re all set with aircard service now, I’m looking forward to more posts in this category.
Nathan
12 Nov 2008 7:33 am
Glad you got it sorted out for yourselves, Lexie. I agree that the wireless carriers don’t make it very obvious that they supply this service, and even if you know about it, there’s often a good deal of digging around on their websites to get signed up.
Jennifer
12 Nov 2008 3:04 pm
Nathan, Great job, this stuff is so helpful!
What about the tmobile account that hooks you in anywhere there is a Tmobile store or a starbucks? Are those reliable, cost effective, dependable?
I look forward to reading the rest and know there will be more coming, maybe this is going to grow into something BIG, you are a natural teacher and put things so that they are easy to understand, the whole family benefits :-)
Thank YOU
Nathan
12 Nov 2008 5:21 pm
Hi Jennifer! I’ll try and answer your questions:
I didn’t do any research into T Mobile because their 3G network doesn’t support data, or at least it didn’t last summer. I also don’t believe that T Mobile and Starbucks are still in cahoots, as AT&T and Starbucks now have an agreement.
I wouldn’t recommend relying on anything that requires you to visit a hotspot (ie, a Starbucks or a shop with WiFi) because you won’t always be able to find a place like that. I know it’s hard to believe, but not every town has a Starbucks. :P
Naomi the Digitalfangirl
5 Jan 2009 6:14 am
I am finding your blog not only entertaining, but super useful. My family is going on a cross country trip from Northern Virginia to California next summer and you’ve provided some wonderful tips and resources that will help me plan better. Thanks for sharing your family road experience with us…
Nathan
5 Jan 2009 8:55 am
Glad to hear it, Naomi! Enjoy your trip and I highly recommend the Southwest or Pacific Northwest!
Karl
3 Feb 2009 3:54 pm
Hi Nathan,
Thanks so much for the information. Our family is about to hit the road in an rv this summer and we found you on “families on the road”. We have really enjoyed your blog.
I would appreciate if you can assist me in making a air card decision. I contacted sprint and they are offering a 5 gig per month service. After talking to the lady there, I became thoroughly convinced that the sales people do not have the technical knowledge I need. I am VERY computer oriented. I do websites, upload a 2 hour podcast of a live show I stream over the internet 3 times per week. In addition to that my kids watch movies online, we all download music frequently and browse lots. We intend to use skype for phone while we travel as well. So, it is lots of uploading and downloading to say the least. I have doubts, based off the overall size of the files I am downloading/uploading, that 5 gigs is enough. Based on your own experience, do you think this is a good option for me? I very much appreciate any info you can provide. Maybe we will cross paths one day. Thanks.
Nathan
3 Feb 2009 5:51 pm
Hi Karl, and no, if you’re going to be avidly using the Internet, 5GB will not be enough. We use between 10 and 25GB / month, depending on how extensively we download video and work on sites.
So I definitely don’t think the 5GB thing they fork out will work for you. And in most places, the bandwidth you get isn’t even close to enough to stream video. Cities, you’re good to go. Anywhere else and you’ll be lucky to get enough juice.
Sorry I couldn’t be the bearer of better news!
We lucked out and signed up before the 5GB limit was imposed, but even with unlimited downloads, we still are lucky if we get a really solid connection. I think AT&T might be a better solution all around. I typically see AT&T with better signal strength than Sprint (we have both). Even though Spring has the faster network more proliferated, even AT&T’s EDGE ends up being faster simply because it’s more reliable.