Staying Connected
I'm Buster Brown, I live in a shoe. This is my dog Tige, he lives there too.

Internet - Staying Connected

Red Rover, Red Rover, Come Over
Last changes 3/9/2008

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.

Verizon CoverageYou 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.


Disclaimer: The information in this site is a collection of data we derived from the vendors and from our personal experiences.  This information is meant as a learning guide for you to  make your own decisions  Best practices and code should always be followed.  The recommendations we make are from our personal experiences and we do not receive any compensation for those recommendations.