WiFi Savvy

We teach in our seminars that line-of-sight is very important to making a good WiFi connection.  That’s one of the main reason that we don’t recommend built-in WiFi adapters or even the PC card type of adapter.  There is no way with those to move them around for the best signal and connection.  We recommend USB type adapters because they’re on a wire and you can move them around.

Here’s the little USB adapter/antenna that I use.  Notice that it is taped to the window.  This photo was taken at an RV park in Pennsylvania.  I remember that when I had the adapter sitting on my desk, I couldn’t make a connection.  It’s only a difference of about 8 inches, but when I taped it to the window I had a solid connection for the whole 3 days we were there.

In this next picture, they took a simple little USB adapter/antenna and added a USB extension cable of about 15 feet so they could get it outside and up high.  They taped it to a pole and attached the pole to their RV.  To keep it from getting wet, they cut the top off a plastic soda bottle and placed it over the adapter!  This way it had line-of-sight over their neighboring coaches to the WiFi access point.  Worked pretty good!

Here’s an especially ingenious one.  If you think, ‘that looks like a kitchen wok’, you’d be right!  That’s exactly what it is.  And, attached to the center of the wok, is a standard little USB adapter in a plastic bag.  I believe he learned how to set up the ‘wok antenna’ at this website.  I especially like how he mounted it on top of his TV antenna.  Gets it up nice and high, and allows him to change the direction from inside by turning the TV antenna.

Then there’s the ever-popular ‘pringles can’ antenna.  Or, if you don’t fancy building it yourself, after eating a whole can of chips, you can buy the ‘Cantenna’.  Like the one below.  Notice that you need a card or other device (a bridge) to plug it into however.  The cantenna does not stand on it’s own as adapter/antenna.  It is just the antenna, you still need an adapter that will accept and external antenna.

My very favorite is the ‘antenna-head’.  That true geek who doesn’t go anywhere without his laptop and has an antenna growing out of his head.  Recognize this guy?

Yoh!  Fellow RVers!  It’s your responsibility to know how to use your computer. 

I just cringe when I talk to a busy RV park manager who tells stories of spending hours with guests helping them get their computers to work with the WiFi system.  “They didn’t even know if their computer had WiFi capability or not”, says the park manager. 

It’s not the park’s job to show you how to use your computer. 

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Wi-Fi is the same frequency as microwave ovens - 2.4 GHz.  I’ve seen our microwave oven interfere with our WiFi signal.  I’m not about to put my head in the microwave and turn it on … but, I have had my head in a WiFi ‘oven’ for over two years now.  WiFi is low-power where microwave is high-power. 

We use WiFi to create a network which includes our Satellite Internet connection, my computer, Jim’s computer, and our printer.  This is all inside our 8/5′ X 30′ motorhome.  If anyone would be feeling the health risks of WiFi, it would be us.  I don’t think there’s any problem - but, if you’re curious, you may want to read this article. 

News » Wi-Fi Killed My Baby! - Make it wear Faraday cage diapers?

An interesting note for RVers … the article suggests that a Faraday cage will protect you.  What’s a Faraday cage?  Well, it’s kinda like an RV - a metal box that shields everything inside from electrical and radio frequencies.  And people wonder why their tiny built-in WiFi adapter doesn’t work so good inside their RV. Signal will drop 30 - 70% just by moving from outside to inside your coach.  Make that 90% for a Prevost!

As RVers, the road is a big part of our life.  Depending on the size of your rig, there are some roads you should not drive.  Wouldn’t it be nice to know which ones they are before you plan your route?  Maps aren’t always good enough.  And, even if you can find someone who has driven that road - their opinion of it’s driveability may not be the same as yours. 

Most RVers have stories of ‘the road that gotcha’.  The road they’ll ‘never do again.’  It was so steep that you slowed to a crawl going up, or burned your brakes going down.  So narrow that you sucked in your breath passing another vehicle afraid you’d lose your mirror.  Or on the side of a canyon such that the person on the outside edge feels they’re hanging over the abyss and had to close their eyes to keep from screaming.

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could get a preview of the road before you start driving?  Now you can.  With Google Earth. 

When Jim and I were getting ready to drive to Sedona, we noticed some pretty sharp-looking switchbacks on the map.  So Jim opened up Google Earth on his computer and zoomed in on highway 89.  He set a beginning point and and end point and asked Google Earth to ‘fly’ him over the route.  Here’s a screenshot of the beginning:

When Google Earth finished the ‘flight’, Jim said, “That looks like fun!”.  See our personal Blog for actual photos of the drive.  Here’s what Google says about the product:

“For anyone who has ever dreamed of flying…” - NY Times

The idea is simple. It’s a globe that sits inside your PC. You point and zoom to anyplace on the planet that you want to explore. Satellite images and local facts zoom into view. Tap into Google search to show local points of interest and facts. Zoom to a specific address to check out an apartment or hotel. View driving directions and even fly along your route.

The personal version is free, or you can pay $20 for a few extra features. 

Every RVer should check it out!

This is the 4th year in a row that I’ve used TurboTax for the web to prepare my personal tax return.  You gotta understand, me and paperwork don’t get along.  I can ignore it for months, even years.  Add to that the fact that we live in a motorhome and there’s no place to spread papers out, and you got the picture.  I avoid filling out forms until I have no other choice.  Web-based systems are *made* for me.

The fact that I’ve used TurboTax for the web for 4 years now helps SO much, I almost want to kiss the screen.  All our personal info is already filled in, I just keep clicking ‘next…’ ‘next…’.  All our acct numbers are already filled in.  The 1099’s that I received last year are all there.  My only job is to fill in this year’s numbers.  And, this year I didn’t even have to do that because my bank is a participating institution.  I do all my banking online.  This year TurboTax has a button to click to retrieve all 1099DIV info directly from my bank/broker.  I’m in heaven.

I always choose to file electronically and to receive my refund electronically.  I just pressed ‘Transmit my Return’ this morning.  I expect to see money show up in our personal bank account in 10 days to 2 weeks.  All this convenience cost me $19.95. 

I also had to file a corporate return.  TurboTax doesn’t have any online system for that.  But, I can get the forms I need from www.irs.gov and they are now ‘fill-in forms’.  In years past I either needed to handwrite in the forms or find someone with an old typewriter.  Neither of those would be a feasible option living in a motorhome.  The fill-in forms are great.  I have to do the calculations manually, unlike with TurboTax, but at least I can make a change and just reprint the form.

I know lots of people who would not like the fact that their income tax return information is all ‘out there’ online, in TurboTax’s computers.  Well, they don’t have to use it.  Maybe I’m not paranoid enough.  I may sing a different tune if I ever get burned.  But, so far, so good.  There are risks of identity theft no matter what methods you use to transmit sensitive information.  From what I know, I truly believe that electronic transmission is just about the most secure method you can use.  It’s certainly the fastest and the most accurate.  I’ve already received confirmation that my return was received. 

I *almost* look forward to using TurboTax online for filing my taxes again next year!

Oh yeah - and I’m using the free WiFi provided in this park to get online.  It’s a good thing cuz there are too many trees to raise our dish.

I do feel sorry for the people at the front desk sometimes.  When they have WiFi in their RV park, they get a lot of questions.  AND a lot of complaints.  We ask about WiFi availability whenever we check into an RV park - kind of a research project on our part.

At one RV park, I could swear the woman seemed overly happy to tell us that there was NO Internet access available.  Come to find out they had WiFi there at one point, but it was so problematic that they took it out.  She was probably so relieved not to deal with the problems that she truly was happy to announce that Internet was completely unavailable.

The next RV park had free WiFi, and the person behind the desk still sounded apologetic, telling us that lots of people had problems with it.  We used their system quite successfully the whole time we were there, which leads me to believe that most, if not all, of their problems were the users’ problems.  They certainly had enough antenna/access points.  Mounted on light poles, there were 2 of them on every other row of RVs.  There was a total of 5 AP’s there for 250 sites.  That’s pretty good coverage.  We never were able to tell how the Internet connection was delivered to those AP’s.  It could be that they were just repeaters, which could explain low signal and user problems.

The next park was the most interesting.  We asked, as always, “Do you have Internet available?”.  Their answer was NO, although they did point to a phone jack on the wall and, say we could bring our laptop up, during business hours, and plug in.  But, in further conversation they offered that, “There is a third party provider of WiFi available in the park - here’s their information.”  They made it abundantly clear that, “if you have questions call these people (Wireless Web) don’t talk to us!”

The antennas were sure nice and high - and in clear view of our site.  We had good signal, but when we tried to connect we got the message “Limited or no connectivity.”  Now, we know that usually means the connection between the Access Point and the Internet Service Provider is down or blocked for some reason.  Usually, a simple reset of the equipment will solve the problem.  But a reset needs a person physically there to turn it off and back on again.  Given the attitude of the staff, that’s probably not a simple matter here.  We just raised our dish and went on.

The next park with WiFi was Morro Bay State Park.  I was really looking forward to this because it’s a California State park and there had been quite a lot of press about how SBC got the contract to install WiFi in all the state parks.  And, I knew the price was $7.95/day which is pretty high by RV park standards.  We expected the service to be good.  We were disappointed.  They only had one antenna on the gatehouse.  It was low and it was omni-directional.  Omni-directional means that it sends the signal out 360 degrees.  That would be fine if the antenna was in the middle of the park, but the gatehouse was in the far northwest corner.  At the very least, they should have had a directional ’sector’ antenna to power the signal to a few more sites.  As it is, you pretty much have to take your laptop up to the gatehouse to use it.

Oh yeah - the staff had nothing to say, they just handed us a little card from SBC FreedomLink that says, “How To Connect: 1. Click Start, then Connect To, then Wireless Network Connection.  2. Choose Freedomlink, then open broswer and select usage session.”  We were about a dozen sites down from the gatehouse and we couldn’t even see the signal.

I’ll end with the only RV park during this ’survey’ where the staff actually smiled and offered, “We have wireless Internet in the park, it’s a great thing!”  That was Bakersfield Palms and their provider is The Wireless Web.  We actually had some trouble with our satellite dish while we were there, so, at $2.50/day we used the WiFi and were thankful it was available.

Technology makes our life possible.  We have made our living as Computer professionals since the early 80s.  Now, we live in a motorhome and travel the country.  With WiFi and Satellite Internet, computers and cell phones, some clients barely know we left. 

For a full year of our travels we worked for a company who installed WiFi hotspots in RV parks.  We visited nearly 60 RV parks in a support role.  We presented seminars and visited users one-on-one.  We learned a LOT about what works and what doesn’t with WiFi. 

We’ve been keeping a personal Blog about our journey at www.jimandchris.com and we occasionally talk about  WiFi or other computer and technology issues. But, we’d like to talk about it more.  So we’re devoting this Blog to writing about technology for RV Travelers by RV Travelers.

Any posts you see in this Blog that are previous to February 26, 2006 are actually links to appropriate posts in our personal Blog (which we’ve been keeping since 2003), or articles we’ve written elsewhere.  I’m hoping to make WiFiSavvy.com a collection point for everything Jim and I want to say about using computers and related technology while living on the road.  It is also intended to be a commercial endeavor.  We hope to have some products to sell, we will be hosting ads, and we are open to sponsorships.

I’ve been using a variety of computer software, and teaching others how to use it, since 1983. I’ve taught everything from DOS, to WordStar, to WordPerfect, PageMaker, Microsoft Access, Visual Basic, and dozens of others in between. I have never seen anything as quick and easy - and powerful - as Google’s Picasa…

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We are back at Palm Creek again helping people with their WiFi connection. When Jim visits people, he takes his laptop computer with him. That way he can try to connect with his computer before spending too much time looking at their computer. If his computer can’t connect …

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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…

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