Re: Brand Spankin' New to RV'ing with a Great Used Pace Arrow
TV can be done by computer, but it really isn't a very effective way to do so. I would suggest that you first try watching TV with the on-board antenna. Most RVs come with a crank-up antenna from Winegard that works quite well. It is called a "batwing" antenna. It should have a signal amplifier located somewhere near the TV set. Most of those are mounted behind a wall plate similar to one for an outlet, usually with a jack for a 12V plug in it and also a small red light and an on/off switch. If you flip the switch and the red light turns on, the amplifier is on. If the RV has a TV in it, most likely that antenna is already connected to the set. If that isn't good enough then you may want to consider a dish system.
If you don't have the antenna and the TV, then the question becomes quite different so let us know if that should be.
As to internet, there are many different ways to do that. A great deal of the best answer comes from how you intend to use the RV. If you usually stay in commercial campgrounds, many of them now have Wifi hot spots in them which can be used, sometimes for free, and other times for a small fee. There are also places such as McDonalds, Starbucks and most book stores that have hot spots.
Another way is to get your internet though a cellular phone service. They can supply a small device that plugs into the computer and which then receives internet service direct from the cellular carrier and into your laptop. This service will cost about $60/month and comes with a two year contract, but you could use it at home as well as when traveling. There are also two satellite internet services, Starband and Hughes. There is also an automatic satellite dish from Motorsat which costs about $5000 to install and then $100/month.
We are fulltimers and we used Starband dish internet for more than four years and had very good service from them. Currently the equipment to carry a portable dish from them will cost you around $1000 and the service is $50/month with a contract which I think is for three years. Hughes has somewhat similar programs. Either of those could be used at home as well as on the road.
We recently changed over to service from Verison because the cost is similar to the dish and while coverage is slightly less than the satellite, it is far easier to set up and get on line. I pay $60/month for 5 gigabytes of service. Verison, Sprint and AT&T all now supply this service and coverage is slightly different for each one.
