My husband and I recently bought a Class C motorhome and have many questions. The one that seems to really be a stickler for anyone to answer is, is it possible to be online when you're traveling, without paying an astronomical dial-up fee? Pardon my ignorance, appreciate your information!
Rving Online?
- Thread starter strgazer
- Start date
Rving Online?
There is a ton of info on this site and others.
learn to use the search feature on forums...it's a real time saver (top right on this site). You will find that may of your questions are already answered and then you can post a more specific question and likely get a more useful answer.
Try keywords or combinations of keywords like mobile, INTERNET, tripod, direcway, Starband, portable, motosat, C-com, Galileo.
Limit the search to the past 6 months or less when researching technical items so you don't have to wade through old out of date information
There is a ton of info on this site and others.
learn to use the search feature on forums...it's a real time saver (top right on this site). You will find that may of your questions are already answered and then you can post a more specific question and likely get a more useful answer.
Try keywords or combinations of keywords like mobile, INTERNET, tripod, direcway, Starband, portable, motosat, C-com, Galileo.
Limit the search to the past 6 months or less when researching technical items so you don't have to wade through old out of date information
Kirk
Senior Member
Rving Online?
quote: is it possible to be online when you're traveling, without paying an astronomical dial-up fee?
The first issue is to define what an astronomical fee is? Opinions of such prices vary widely. The other part of the question is, just what do you wish to do? If it is mostly for email, then the most economical and reliable way is with the "Pocketmail." That is a device that will send and receive email from any phone and it is done via a toll free number supplied by the service. The equipment costs $120 and the service with a mail box and the ability to collect mail from other ISPs costs $150 per year. But this will not work for surfing.
There are a bunch of different ways to go if you wish the full internet access. You can use any ISP as long as they either have a local number, or if you pay for the extra services of a toll free number. And more and more locations are providint wireless connections if you have that ability in your computer. Some RV parks provide it free, others charge from $3 to $10 per day for the connection. Another way with wireless is to "piggy-back" on the dish of another RVer who is nearby with his own dish and with no security applied to his wireless router. About 60% of the routers in use do not have any security and are available to anyone who has wireless. There are also truck stops, Kinkos, and many other places that have such services.
And you could also get your own dish for internet use. That cost can vary widely from about $4500 for the automatic dish on the roof to about $1500 or so for one of the portable dishes mounted on a tripod. Either of those services will cost about $60 per month.
Then there is the public libraries that you can use, usually for free or a small fee to pick up your email. But that isn't too handy.
Yet another way is to use a cell phone. That costs a bit more than a home phone service but it can be done, albeit slowly. Probably the best cell service for internet access is from Verison.
Most RV parks have a phone line in the office for the use of the customers for email access, but they don't allow surfing. A few of them have phone lines to each site where you can get instant phone seriveces. And the long term RV parks often have phone lines that you can connect to by calling the phone company and having it connected, but you then pay the phone bill.
So there are many different ways to access the internet, and the costs differ. It just depends upon how important it is and what you are willng to spend.
quote: is it possible to be online when you're traveling, without paying an astronomical dial-up fee?
The first issue is to define what an astronomical fee is? Opinions of such prices vary widely. The other part of the question is, just what do you wish to do? If it is mostly for email, then the most economical and reliable way is with the "Pocketmail." That is a device that will send and receive email from any phone and it is done via a toll free number supplied by the service. The equipment costs $120 and the service with a mail box and the ability to collect mail from other ISPs costs $150 per year. But this will not work for surfing.
There are a bunch of different ways to go if you wish the full internet access. You can use any ISP as long as they either have a local number, or if you pay for the extra services of a toll free number. And more and more locations are providint wireless connections if you have that ability in your computer. Some RV parks provide it free, others charge from $3 to $10 per day for the connection. Another way with wireless is to "piggy-back" on the dish of another RVer who is nearby with his own dish and with no security applied to his wireless router. About 60% of the routers in use do not have any security and are available to anyone who has wireless. There are also truck stops, Kinkos, and many other places that have such services.
And you could also get your own dish for internet use. That cost can vary widely from about $4500 for the automatic dish on the roof to about $1500 or so for one of the portable dishes mounted on a tripod. Either of those services will cost about $60 per month.
Then there is the public libraries that you can use, usually for free or a small fee to pick up your email. But that isn't too handy.
Yet another way is to use a cell phone. That costs a bit more than a home phone service but it can be done, albeit slowly. Probably the best cell service for internet access is from Verison.
Most RV parks have a phone line in the office for the use of the customers for email access, but they don't allow surfing. A few of them have phone lines to each site where you can get instant phone seriveces. And the long term RV parks often have phone lines that you can connect to by calling the phone company and having it connected, but you then pay the phone bill.
So there are many different ways to access the internet, and the costs differ. It just depends upon how important it is and what you are willng to spend.