WiFi Savvy

If you see an RV nearby with a Datastorm satellite dish, odds are they have an active Internet connection and a wireless network. The dishes I’m talking about are bigger than the TV dishes, and they’re oval in shape. Here is a picture of ours:

If you see one of these dishes nearby, you should look on your computer and see if there is a corresponding wireless network showing up under ‘View Available Wireless Networks.’ If you find it, you may be able to connect and get online.

Using a neighbor’s Internet connection is like borrowing anything else that belongs to them. You need to ask. You’ll find that most RVers are happy to share. But they certainly don’t have to! They paid a lot of money to get High-Speed Internet access – they may want (or need) all the bandwidth for themselves.

Most RVers will secure their wireless network with a password (key). If you ever see GeeksOnTour.com show up as a wireless network on your list – it means we’re nearby. Come say hi! We’ll be glad to give you our key to use the Internet from our Satellite dish.

If you do ‘borrow’ your neighbor’s Internet connection, don’t abuse it. Use it only for checking your email and simple web-browsing. Don’t watch streaming videos or download large files. There is a limit to the amount of bandwidth that most satellite dishes are allowed per day. If you push your neighbor over that limit, they can lose their high speed Internet for a period of time - usually 24 hours. That would make the dish-owner pretty grouchy! You don’t want to be the cause.

It is a great way to get Internet when there is normally no access. I know people with Internet satellite dishes who are very popular with caravans to Mexico! Because of their dish, the caravan is a traveling Wi-Fi hotspot. We just used a friendly RVers dish to provide Internet access to a meeting room at a rally … read the story on our blog.

Chris Guld
www.geeksontour.com

Greetings from sunny and cold Arizona! I’m Chris Guld, and I blog about computer use while traveling. My husband, Jim, and I live full time in our 30 foot class C motorhome and we travel around the country giving computer seminars at rallies and RV parks. We’ve both been computer geeks for quite some time. Now we tour around the country, so we call ourselves Geeks on Tour!

My background is in computer training, database development, and website development. Jim is a hardware and network guy. Between the two of us, we can figure out just about anything when it comes to computers. And I love to write about it all.

When we first started our RV lifestyle in 2003, an informal survey of RVers showed that about half of them traveled with a computer in their RV. Today, I estimate that number at closer to 90%! And, half of those have TWO computers inside! For some of these folks, it is their first computer. They managed to retire from the workplace before computer use was required, and they only have one now because the grandkids want to send them email!

Not all RVers are computer beginners. There are a growing number, like us, who are not retired and who keep working on the road by using their computers. The people who most need this blog topic, however, are the beginners, so I plan to keep the posts at a basic level.

In our line of work, it is essential to have Internet access wherever we go. Before we ever hit the road, we equipped our motorhome with a rooftop, automatic, Internet satellite dish called the Datastorm. It set us back about $6,000 which sounds like a lot, but when you consider it a business startup investment it’s not so much! Here’s a picture of our rig.

There are now several ways to connect to the Internet on the road, and that will be a primary topic for my blog entries. For casual Internet users, you’ll find Wi-Fi hotspots all over the place. There is no contract or other commitment - you pay by the day, week or month. The fees are very reasonable and many hotspots even provide it for free.

If you’re like us, and need Internet *everywhere* then the satellite dish is the way to go.

The third option is cellular. Buying a ‘data card’ from a provider like Verizon and connecting to the Internet whenever you’re in range of a cell tower - which is most everywhere these days. This option is growing in popularity, we talk to people all the time who *love* their data cards.

I’ll be writing more on all of these options in subsequent posts. Make sure to check in here often! I also am active on the RV.net Technology Corner forum - as are lots of other ‘geeks’! Anything you want to know about using computers on the road - you can ask there.

Chris Guld
http://www.geeksontour.com/

One of my soapboxes for RVers is that, if you really need the Internet, you better have multiple ways to connect.  You can’t rely on any one way because it may not be available. 

We proved that while parked in my Dad’s driveway.  Our normal way of connecting to the Internet is with our Datastorm Satellite Dish.  His driveway looks wide open, we don’t even consider that trees will be blocking our connection to the satellite.

But, no.  If you follow the line of sight where the dish is aiming, there are these trees in the neighbors yard.  Wimpy as they look to me, they are enough to block our connection.

Ok, on to plan B.  My Dad has a nice, fast cable connection to the Internet for his computer in the house.  Jim just hooks up a router and, voila, we have Wi-Fi out in the driveway.  Nice.

One night there was a nasty thunderstorm.  I’ve never seen such a dramatic lightning display.  The power never actually went out, but it dimmed enough to cause problems with electronics and the cable connection to the Internet was down.  At 7am I got a call from a client that had an emergency password problem with a website I made for them.  I *needed* to log in and change that password *now*.  Oh no, I have no Internet connection.  It probably was just a problem with the cable modem that needed to be reset after that storm, but that was in the house, and I didn’t want to disturb them this early.

Plan C: plug in my Verizon cell phone using the USB cable that came with the Mobile Office Kit.  Open the software and click ‘Connect’.  Aaahhhhhhh, I’m online again.  I’m so glad I have this backup option - but - I can just hear the dollars clicking away because the plan we have uses our minutes when we’re connected to the Internet.  It would be so easy to go over.  It’s better than paying a specific monthly amount just for Internet connection since we go for months without using it at all. 

There are more ways to connect, but those are my 3.  What are yours?

Yes!  All you have to do is ask.  I think you’ll find that RVers with 2-way Internet Satellite dishes are a pretty friendly bunch.  Like most RVers in general!  We have the Satellite Dish, ours is a Datastorm, because we *must* have Internet at all times!  We love the Internet and we love to talk about it and share it with our neighbors.  We find that most dish-owners are the same.  So, you might want to look for RVs that look like the photos below and park close by!

This next photo was taken at a Datastorm Rally.  There were about 60 2-way Internet satellite dishes deployed here!  No problem getting online here!

We don’t leave it wide open however.  The WiFi network that we have set up with our satellite Internet connection has WEP encryption on and you need to know the key in order to use it.  As I said, we’re a friendly sort and we want to talk to you about using the Internet.  We’re happy to share, but we want to know who is using it.

We have a little sign in our window that says, “Want Internet, Ask Us”.  And the name or ‘SSID’ of our Wireless Network is “Want Internet - Ask Us”.  We are probably a little more accessible than some others because we also sell the Datastorms.  But, an informal survey of other dish-owners confirm that they’re happy to share - all ya gotta do is ask.

Please be prepared for a ‘No’ answer though.  There are some people who are very dependent on their Internet connection and need every *bit* of bandwidth they can get.  The systems are expensive, and the monthly service ain’t cheap either ($60 - 200.)  Dish-owners are certainly under no obligation to share, but you’ll find that most of them *want* to. 

Jim and Don presented a session yesterday, here at the Datastorm Rally, on networking issues … Wireless Networking … WiFi.

One of the topics of discussion was what channel should you be on…

Read more …

There is so much to learn.
I am so lucky to be able to attend training as I did last week in Salt Lake City.
The MotoSat facility is impressive…

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