Online On The Road
I'm standing in a bathroom at a campground in the Southwest, typing on my laptop precariously balanced on a sink, luckily reaching the wall socket and not having to use battery power. Actually the WIFI here is pretty good except when the Mrs is in the bathroom next door, streaming the latest Portland Trailblazer game, which slows reception so much I might as well go ahead and take a shower after I click on a link.
No exaggeration here, this is precisely what I'm doing. Well, no, not actually soaping up now because notepad doesn't need the internet. But why exactly does the Mrs like to watch muscular, sweaty men run up and down the court? A mystery, I swear.
It's one of the most important things to this son, being online while travelling. Right up there with food, having a warm place to sleep and more than three fingers of whiskey in the bottle. I don't watch TV. Well, we've got a little flat screen set but reception sucks here anyway and this place doesn't have cable. The internets is where I get most of my understanding of the world, because the way I figure it's better to be a discerning connoseour online rather than just a drooling consumer in front of the boob tube. I try hard not to let the exigencies of travel keep me from knowing what's going on outside my immediacies.
I guess being such a brand new technology and after eight nightmarish years of no oversight, the tremendous disparity of internet service on the road shouldn't be any shock. But if there's any reason to be penning this it's to warn potential travelers not to expect truth in advertising and to prepare backup if being on the internet is important.
For instance my cosmopolitan friends, there are some communities that are at least ten years behind the curve for internet connections. When we went to a medium sized town near Hell's Canyon on the Oregon - Idaho border there were maybe only two WIFI hotspots, only recently installed, and they didn't know how to work 'em. On the other hand a little blink-and-you-miss-it place outside of Capitol Reef NP has several places with good connections.A majority of trailer parks and motels advertise High Speed WIFI!, but most assuredly ask about it beforehand and if you have time give it a try before you buy. It varies widely from extremely good to unbelievably poor. For instance the reason I'm standing in the bathroom here is because the signal is probably being sent from a cheap router in the office with a range of less than 100 feet and won't reach where we're camped. Other campgrounds advertise WIFI but actually rely on long term residents living at the park and their unreliable systems. Motels are a slight bit better but the way you access again varies. Some rent you a modem, some make you hook up to cable or even dial up in the office, most have WIFI but don't take it for granted and request to be near the antenna. Security is also all over the board. A motel at the indian trading post in Cameron, AZ had both a log in and password, the usual state of affairs, we just needed to click on IE in a campground in CO and here you get a password good for a few weeks.
Because you never know what to expect we looked into other methods. I've got to say the possibility of satellite internet really turned out to be a huge bummer. You pay a lot and get very little. If you want to absolutely be assured of getting online no matter what, satellite is the way to go. BUT, the technology doesn't appear to be where it should for the consumer and mobile connectivity is for the well off, and casual, user. Unless you have one of those big rigs with an antenna on top, then you have to lug the entire system around and you really don't want to damage the dish. Unless you park someplace for a while you'll be constantly setting up and tearing it apart. Only one company, Hughes, sells mobile internet systems and bandwith is very expensive. Plus they seem to be all over your usage and will penalize you for not hooking into the satellite correctly or intense activity. Almost all dishes you see at campgrounds are TV receivers.
I don't know anything about getting online with hand held devices bcause I don't even consider that to be a viable way to roam the tubes except for networking, but there's another way for the nomad. Plug and play computer cards. I avoided them for the same way I haven't gotten into cell phones - long term commitment - until today. We found one company, Alltel, that apparently has good coverage for a decent price, two bucks a day, with the added bonus of merging with Verizon and their coverage very soon. They don't have a cap on bandwith so we're taking the plunge tomorrow. It remains to be seen if we'll be able to surf around in backcountry Death Valley, but at least I won't have to listen to guys taking loud wet dumps while I'm trying to surf around in this bathroom.
No exaggeration here, this is precisely what I'm doing. Well, no, not actually soaping up now because notepad doesn't need the internet. But why exactly does the Mrs like to watch muscular, sweaty men run up and down the court? A mystery, I swear.
It's one of the most important things to this son, being online while travelling. Right up there with food, having a warm place to sleep and more than three fingers of whiskey in the bottle. I don't watch TV. Well, we've got a little flat screen set but reception sucks here anyway and this place doesn't have cable. The internets is where I get most of my understanding of the world, because the way I figure it's better to be a discerning connoseour online rather than just a drooling consumer in front of the boob tube. I try hard not to let the exigencies of travel keep me from knowing what's going on outside my immediacies.
I guess being such a brand new technology and after eight nightmarish years of no oversight, the tremendous disparity of internet service on the road shouldn't be any shock. But if there's any reason to be penning this it's to warn potential travelers not to expect truth in advertising and to prepare backup if being on the internet is important.
For instance my cosmopolitan friends, there are some communities that are at least ten years behind the curve for internet connections. When we went to a medium sized town near Hell's Canyon on the Oregon - Idaho border there were maybe only two WIFI hotspots, only recently installed, and they didn't know how to work 'em. On the other hand a little blink-and-you-miss-it place outside of Capitol Reef NP has several places with good connections.A majority of trailer parks and motels advertise High Speed WIFI!, but most assuredly ask about it beforehand and if you have time give it a try before you buy. It varies widely from extremely good to unbelievably poor. For instance the reason I'm standing in the bathroom here is because the signal is probably being sent from a cheap router in the office with a range of less than 100 feet and won't reach where we're camped. Other campgrounds advertise WIFI but actually rely on long term residents living at the park and their unreliable systems. Motels are a slight bit better but the way you access again varies. Some rent you a modem, some make you hook up to cable or even dial up in the office, most have WIFI but don't take it for granted and request to be near the antenna. Security is also all over the board. A motel at the indian trading post in Cameron, AZ had both a log in and password, the usual state of affairs, we just needed to click on IE in a campground in CO and here you get a password good for a few weeks.
Because you never know what to expect we looked into other methods. I've got to say the possibility of satellite internet really turned out to be a huge bummer. You pay a lot and get very little. If you want to absolutely be assured of getting online no matter what, satellite is the way to go. BUT, the technology doesn't appear to be where it should for the consumer and mobile connectivity is for the well off, and casual, user. Unless you have one of those big rigs with an antenna on top, then you have to lug the entire system around and you really don't want to damage the dish. Unless you park someplace for a while you'll be constantly setting up and tearing it apart. Only one company, Hughes, sells mobile internet systems and bandwith is very expensive. Plus they seem to be all over your usage and will penalize you for not hooking into the satellite correctly or intense activity. Almost all dishes you see at campgrounds are TV receivers.
I don't know anything about getting online with hand held devices bcause I don't even consider that to be a viable way to roam the tubes except for networking, but there's another way for the nomad. Plug and play computer cards. I avoided them for the same way I haven't gotten into cell phones - long term commitment - until today. We found one company, Alltel, that apparently has good coverage for a decent price, two bucks a day, with the added bonus of merging with Verizon and their coverage very soon. They don't have a cap on bandwith so we're taking the plunge tomorrow. It remains to be seen if we'll be able to surf around in backcountry Death Valley, but at least I won't have to listen to guys taking loud wet dumps while I'm trying to surf around in this bathroom.
posted by nolocontendere at 8:55 PM
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