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Accessing the Internet is not an option for us. In fact,
as we went on the road, the Internet has become extremely important,
if for nothing else, email. But we rely on the Internet for
news, campground planning, and numerous other things. We also
use the Internet to do some of the consulting work we perform.
So what were our options?
Phone Line Dialup
This is the old standby, but not very practical in today’s Internet.
Web surfing in today’s Internet requires a lot of data to be moved
and is painful at dialup speeds.
More importantly, dialup is not something a full-timer
can rely on. Some campgrounds make a phone line available
for the tenants at the park. But that is a shared line and
is not convenient to use. About the only time you can get
a phone line to your vehicle is at the higher end resorts.
Cell Phone Dialup
Many cell phones have the capability to act as
a modem and allow a PC to dialup the Internet. Just like Phone
Line Dialup, doing dialup through your cell phone is not very quick.
Using your cell phone as a modem is more convenient because you
can do it from your vehicle. Some people have actually accessed
the Internet while driving down the road. This is all depends
on being within cell phone service range. Despite all the
advertising, cell phone coverage is not everywhere (see below).
There are some cell phones that offer broadband equivalent speeds
in modem mode. But these speeds are achieved thru data plans,
not normal cell phone minutes. Like an air card, your need
an unlimited data plan for these high speed phones. Also,
this high speed service is limited to major metropolitan areas.
That service is $60-$80 a month.
Air Card
The air card is a PCMCIA card you put into a laptop
and basically makes a connection like using your cell phone as a
modem.
Like using your cell phone, the air card is convenient, even
more so because the air card fits into the laptop. The air
card relies on cell phone coverage and that is not everywhere.
 You
can see that there a lot of white areas with no coverage that
are popular RV destinations.
Some of the red areas will only have data speeds similar to
old dial-up.
An air card can cost $50-$150 a month, depending on the subscription
you sign up for. Unlimited data plans are from $60-$80 a month.
You really need unlimited data plans for an air card. The
allowed minutes for other plans will quickly be consumed and you
can run up some really high bills.
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi is a limited range connection. When
it is present, it is very good. Many campgrounds are putting
in Wi-Fi.
Some campgrounds offer free Wi-Fi as one of perks for the park.
Some offer it for a fee. The fee is charged usually because
the equipment doesn’t belong to the campground but to a service
provider.
Many Truck/RV friendly businesses are offering Wi-Fi on their
premises like Flying-J Fuel Plazas.
Even when campgrounds offer Wi-Fi, you might now be able to connect
to it. By nature campgrounds cover a wide area of real estate
and Wi-Fi was basically designed for buildings.
Many full-timers rely on the availability of Wi-Fi. They
have days when they have no access.
The equipment is standard in most late model laptops. A
PCMCIA card can be added to older laptops for $30-$100. If
you have to pay for the service, about $5 a day is the norm.
Satellite Internet
Satellite Internet uses a dish that is aimed at
a satellite in space and receives data from and sends data to that
satellite.
From a use standpoint, satellite Internet is convenient because
you have it for yourself at your RV. The speeds are relatively
good. The download speed is comparable to most DSL service
but the upload speed is lower. Also, there is an inherent
delay as the messages have to travel up to the satellite and back
to the earth on the way to and from the website that your don’t
see with DSL and cable connections. But then getting a DSL
or cable connection is the middle of Utah can be rather difficult.
The equipment used determines the amount of effort needed to
setup the satellite connection. There are automatic units
that mount to the top of your RV. These automatic units make
the job of setting up the connection as simple as flipping a switch.
These rooftop units are subject to the problem of not seeing the
satellite when trees are in the way. This does happen.
A very desirable feature of a campsite can be a real negative to
a rooftop automatic unit.
The other equipment for a satellite connection is a tripod with
a manually focused dish. The setup time for a tripod dish
can be a short as 20 minutes or up to an hour. After all,
you are trying to find a satellite that is so small you can’t see
it. An advantage of the tripod setup is that is can be away
from the RV up to the distance of the connecting cables (150’).
This usually allows you to avoid obstacles like trees. Usually
but not always.
The equipment costs are about $5,000 for an automatic roof unit.
A tripod setup runs around $1,500. The monthly subscription
fees start around $60 a month for base service with higher fees
for faster connections.
The main providers for satellite Internet are HughesNet (formerly
DirecWay) and Sky Blue. A list of equipment providers is at
Dustyfoot Sat Internet.
Our Choice
Our primary interface to the Internet is via a
satellite dish, because we wanted Internet every day and we knew
we would be in places where dialup and cell phone coverage would
not exist. We chose the Dustyfoot
system for the satellite internet.
We have had situations where we could not aim the HughesNet dish
towards the satellite because of trees or other obstructions.
As a backup to using the satellite Internet, we also added a
WISP (Wireless Internet Service Provider)
setup.
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