Hi All:

   Many of you know me as the Happy Camper logo man from the video, but I'm a regular RVer, too.  I have to stay in touch to keep up my blogs here, and right now I use Verizon AirCard.  I'm pretty happy with it, but curious what everyone else is using... and how you like it. 

Let me know!

Hike

(I'm not a doll.... I'm an action figure)

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Hiker Happy - He's not a doll... He's an ACTION FIGURE

I use Wifi whenever I can get it but other times I use my cell phone with a MOK cable and no data plan.  I can hook up during free times or if I need to use my minutes to check mail I have it done in usually under 3 minutes.  There is a yahoo group to learn about it called IBCP - internet by cell phone.  This is much slower obviously then wifi  but I can't justify to myself the 50 or more cost of a data plan.

 

Betty

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'This Sure Beats Working!!!!'

Sounds like a good alternative.  I'll check out Yahoo about it.  Thanks! 

I sure do prefer wi-fi when I can get it...

Hike

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Hiker Happy - He's not a doll... He's an ACTION FIGURE

I rely on WiFi.  We just made a trip to Texas, and I think I was able to connect at all but 2 campgrounds while we were gone in 10 days.

 

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Wandering Kentuckians

I stay in a lot of places that have no Cell or WIFI available so I chose to use HughesNet satellite internet service.
I started using the dish mounted on a tripod and now I have it up on the roof using a manual roof mount.


 Dish on Tripod Quartzsite

Roof Mount

Dish on roof Death Valley Sunset CG

I still carry the tripod so I can use it if I'm blocked by trees where I am parked.

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Mike, Wendy & Sam our Chocolate Lab
2004 Winnebago Sightseer 27C
Boondocking with Solar Panels, Inverter & Generator
Manual Roof Mount Hughes Internet Satellite System 89W 1150
http://we2rv.com/
http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/MikeCoke/

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"Hiker_Happy" wrote: Hi All:    Many of you know me as the Happy Camper logo man from the video, but I'm a regular RVer, too.  I have to stay in touch to keep up my blogs here, and right now I use Verizon AirCard.  I'm pretty happy with it, but curious what everyone else is using... and how you like it.  Let me know! Hike

Hey Mike,

We have a Hughs Net Raven dish on a tripod like yours and have been very succesful getting on the web in MI.  However, when we were in Big Bend National Park in Tx, we couldn't hit our sattelite (AM9).  Is there something about being so far south that affects dish aiming?

"nomad" wrote: Hey Mike, We have a Hughs Net Raven dish on a tripod like yours and have been very succesful getting on the web in MI.  However, when we were in Big Bend National Park in Tx, we couldn't hit our sattelite (AM9).  Is there something about being so far south that affects dish aiming?

If you are not a member of http://www.datastormusers.com/ I suggest you go there & sign up it is Free.

There are a lot of folks there that can help more then I can.

Someone there will know more about the footprint for Sat AM9

Normally the faqrther south you are the higher you need to point the dish
Here are the setting I got for the Campground near Park HQ

Azimuth 135.4
Elevation 49.2
Skew -31.6 

I hope this helps

Mike

 

 

We are heading to Alaska in 2008 anyone know how  the campsites and others for connecting to the internet is.I would love to get the satellite intenet but being in canada is not posible

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A HAPPY CAMPER

This is one subject I would have to know before I hit the road.  What is the FASTEST interent connection on the road.

I know WiFI can be very slow.  I thought of an air card,  and/or Satellite, but when I was on a crusie recently they had satellite connections.   They were SOOOO Slow, even worst than dial up.   I'm also thinking if you have to dial in with your cell phone tha twould be really slow.

Since I run an online business, I would need to have the fastest connection.  Do we have any power users here and if so what do you recommend?

Diane

 

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Looking for RV Info

 

 I prefer wifi also.  On a fixed income makes it hard to pay for those cell phone cards.  Wish I could go through my Onstar on my rig.

 

 

 

"mlmblonde" wrote: This is one subject I would have to know before I hit the road. What is the FASTEST interent connection on the road. I know WiFI can be very slow. I thought of an air card, and/or Satellite, but when I was on a crusie recently they had satellite connections. They were SOOOO Slow, even worst than dial up. I'm also thinking if you have to dial in with your cell phone tha twould be really slow. Since I run an online business, I would need to have the fastest connection. Do we have any power users here and if so what do you recommend? Diane

 

Slow/fast is all relative.

Satellite has "latency" issues because even at the speed of light, 44,000 mile round trip takes about a half second. This is most notable on real time applications like talking (you have to talk like a CB user and say over) BUT ALSO affects web downloads because they have so many SEPERATE things to download.

 

Say a web page has 20 things (some have hundreds) so 20 times a half second adds up. If you download a BIG file, satellite will seem just as fast as WiFi because after the half second delay you get full use of bandwidth.

 

Many satellite systems use a piece of software called an accelerator. All it does is "ask" for ALL the pieces of the web page before your computer does so they are "on the way". This will make it "seem" faster for web browsing but still only "seem" about twice as fast as a good dial-up connection. Again, if one part of the web page is a video, satellite will be MUCH faster than dial-up.

 

WiFi is as fast as any "land line" but the company providing the WiFi still has the bandwidth limit you just do not have the latency issue.

 

ALSO, satellite systems "usually" have decent download bandwidth but upload is terrible. WiFi then "usually" is best BUT satellite can go MANY MORE places.

 

Cell phones have multiple modes of internet connection. If you use it like a dial-up it will be very slow in bandwidth but fast in latency. If you use the new data plans with EVDO you will get a LOT more bandwidth and latency is OK because it is god enough to talk over.

 

An example of a cell fast data plan latency can be imagined because many times you call someone on a cell phone you notice you have to wait a fraction of a second so you do not talk over them. This latency is still better than satellite.

 

So think of speed as a combination of latency and bandwidth. 

 

So what to get? It depends on what you want to do and where you will be doing it.

 

Levi

www.TheITDoctor.com

 

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Nice to have your house with you.