Wireless internet..... - Montana Owners Club

Delaine and Lindy · 01-18-2009, 12:58 PM

We now have excellent Computer service. We had no WiFi service here and haven't been able to talk to the Corp office as usual, want return or phone calls. Needless to say we want use the park again. Don't care for Corporate owned RV parks, or so called RV park, mostly park models here. So we went and purchased a AT&T USB 885 wireless system, and I must say its about DSL speed, very fast. We also purchased a Cradle point 1000 router from the 3gStore and both laptops are working great. We had the old type air card in 2005 and it wasn't near as fast as the new USB 885, however it work very well any place we had cell service. We also had a Wilson Antenna with the repeater which helps to pick up cell service. Will mount the Wilson tomorrow. Really wish this would work at our Home Base would disconnect the Hughes net for sure, and save a little money. But our cell service is very poor at the home base. GBY....

sailer · 01-18-2009, 02:36 PM

i don't know where home base is of yours but we are in wisconsin in the north woods on july and augest and we put a antenna on the roof that is 50' above the 1st floor and i get goood service on virozon 65%of the time as we are in a hole and virizon says we have no service there , its at crivitz, wi but i have 80' of very heavy cable , size of your thump and a fiberglass antenna 36" long on top of a tv antenna by 20' above and it works,, its how hard you try , sailer

ols1932 · 01-18-2009, 02:59 PM

One of the reasons we purchased our own High Speed Internet Satellite System was because campground Wi-Fi service where we travel was so spotty. Since Marge maintains seven websites, five of which are church related, she needs the ability to upload information at will when the ones she is servicing desire it. This usually happens a couple times each month for each website.

She had been doing it via cell phone (though slow) but that proved out to be bad also because of the areas where we traveled. We purchased a Starband Internet System which has proved to be beneficial to us. We have internet service no matter where we go. Might be trouble if we ever go to Alaska. (Better go soon before the body gets tooooo old.)

Orv

richfaa · 01-19-2009, 02:14 AM

We recently upgraded to the Verizon USB 727 air card and use the Cradle point 1000 router. We get good Verizon service 95% 0f the time with this set up and our previous Verizon setup.We travel all over the country.. Our speed here near Disney,Fl is 1.08Mb download and 672 Upload. We do on occasion need to run up a external antenna off the ladder and on occasion need the 3 watt amp for max speed. The Satellite system is the way to go if you need steady, reliable internet service.

Cyrus · 02-21-2009, 07:44 AM

I use the Verizon Air Card in my notebook and it has worked good for me at home and while camping. I am having a question about once we are on the internet. For years I had used dialup and a service provider paying a monthly fee. I may have gotten a little slow in my old age since I just realized in the last few days that the air card puts me on the internet and maybe I no longer need to pay MSN to be my web provider? I think I was at this point a year ago but didn’t want to drop MSN.

The way I see it the air card links me to the internet and then I can use any free email service like hotmail, Gmail etc. and serf the internet all I want free, other then the air card charge.

Am I correct on this and as I said, just been a little slow with the brain power?

Mrs. CountryGuy · 02-21-2009, 08:48 AM

Cyrus, If I understand your question, yes, you are right.

We only have air card, we surf all day long, have web based email accounts, and pay ONLY our air card fee to Sprint.

IF you go over the 5 gig limit that some cards have you will pay extra. Believe you will need to be downstreaming movies all day long (something like that anyway) to hit that 5 gig limit. We have two computers going for HOURS and HOURS each day, I download digital images all the time from all kinds of sites, and we have never been told we have exceeded the 5 gigs.

On edit: If you have web pages based at your internet provider that you pay for, you will have to move those, or keep paying.

We also dumped the house phone, and are tether free.

bsmeaton · 02-21-2009, 09:35 AM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by Mrs. CountryGuy

IF you go over the 5 gig limit that some cards have you will pay extra. Believe you will need to be downstreaming movies all day long (something like that anyway) to hit that 5 gig limit. We have two computers going for HOURS and HOURS each day, I download digital images all the time from all kinds of sites, and we have never been told we have exceeded the 5 gigs.n.

Please-please folks, get a grip on the concept. Being online for HOURS and HOURS or DAYS and DAYS or even WEEKS and WEEKS browsing the web contributes very little to passage of high memory data between you and the world.

HTML is very low memory, MOC is very low memory, pics of your grandkids are moderate memory - however things like Microsoft Office Service Pack 2 update at 159mb is exactly 159mb of data that is going to stream to your laptop through your aircard. Passing a word document that is 18mb in size is exactly 18mb that is going to upload to the web through your aircard. You don't have to stream HBO to your laptop to be concerned about the limit, there are many ways to get there. If you host a music server like Napster use to do to your desktop, you will be streaming a high memory volume and most likely would hit the limit within a few days.

If you want to get an idea of the typical data you transfer when cruising the web, just empty your temporary internet files then recheck the size of how much re-accumulated back in there after an hour, a day, a week. It's nothing.

The data that would cause you concern are those that come in as attachments or those that dowload as software or updates to your system.

I'm sure the resident vendor can explain it better.

bsmeaton · 02-21-2009, 09:45 AM

Cyrus,

MSN used to be free hotmail - you might be able to keep using your existing email name and log on through hotmail even after you drop your account.

simonsrf · 02-21-2009, 10:34 AM

We can't even imagine how our fulltiming lifestyle would be impacted without the use of the internet. We just simply wouldn't do it.

Our original goal when we started out was to be able to get internet service anywhere...we boondock a lot. We had the big satellite receiver that cost an arm and a leg. One day we had a huge stroke of luck....the wind blew it over, crumpled the reflector dish, yep, $1700 up in smoke....and we went to the store and bought an aircard!

We no longer have to be setup to get high-speed service. We can do our planning with high-speed broadband service as we drive down the road (thanks EVDOalex). We also got rid of the bulk in our storage bin. Isn't technology amazing, next year we'll be looking for the new system......

Alex Sian · 02-21-2009, 10:46 AM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by Cyrus
...maybe I no longer need to pay MSN to be my web provider? I think I was at this point a year ago but didn’t want to drop MSN.

i think its safe to say that if in the past year, you've never had to resort to accessing the web via MSN because verizon has worked that well for you...

then yeah, its time to drop MSN

bsmeaton · 02-21-2009, 10:53 AM

I remember when a modem was a black box next to your computer. An internal modem card and dialer came later and it was a techical breakthrough! It even answered the phone through your PC if you wanted.

Then WiFi - total freedom we thought. I had a little card I plugged in. I was amazed when my colleages laptops started coming in with wifi and entenna already built-into the screen. I was suddenly very antiquated in Starbucks with my antenna!

Now the aircard - just like you say. I handed the laptop to my wife last summer while traveling through Nebraska and said - "do me a favor and get our parks reservation number from our online account, would you!" Once she figured out she could - she now rides with her feet up on the dash, an inverter in the lighter, and googles everything from the price of gas to where we are headed for lunch. She can even ping our security cameras to see if the tomatoes in the garden are ripe yet or if the UPS package showed up at the door! Who would have thought!

Next - I assume aircards will be built into most all laptops? or is something else heading our way?

simonsrf · 02-21-2009, 11:06 AM

Amazing what you can learn here.

I just figured out that I can mount a security camera on the rear cap of TONTOW, then monitor that camera through a wireless connection on the PC in LNRNGR and never have to run a wire!

Then when we are out and about, can also monitor the rig from afar!

bsmeaton · 02-21-2009, 11:08 AM

What's LNRNGR?

Is that like the wireless network?

simonsrf · 02-21-2009, 11:46 AM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by bsmeaton

What's LNRNGR?

Is that like the wireless network?

License plates. (see signature block)

LNRNGR is the truck.

TONTOW is the Monty.

SLVR is the scooter.

bsmeaton · 02-21-2009, 12:43 PM

Ahhhh- I should have put the piecesw together when you said TonTow

So you are thinking of monitoring the camera through your router as an Intranet function or in home network function - is that correct? You actually wouldn't need an internet connection if driving with TonTow in tow?

simonsrf · 02-21-2009, 12:51 PM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by bsmeaton

Ahhhh- I should have put the piecesw together when you said TonTow

So you are thinking of monitoring the camera through your router as an Intranet function or in home network function - is that correct? You actually wouldn't need an internet connection if driving with TonTow in tow?

We "wifi" to TONTOW (router) from LNRNGR...we've got a 3-watt booster in TONTOW, and with the inverter on fulltime (solar power) keeping the freezer cold and making ice cubes while traveling, it is a very small price to be able monitor the scooter with the laptop while traveling.....just thinking somewhere within a box.

Isn't technology wonderful?

bsmeaton · 02-21-2009, 12:57 PM

Yeppers, and you just spurred off a bunch of new ideas - let me know how it works!

Waynem · 02-21-2009, 01:23 PM

Darn@#$! I left the USB WIFI Connection at home. I'm usint TengoNet (Tango - let's dance)

Cyrus, get rid of the dial-up. Tell them you want to keep your email account. You should be able to do that. Check first and if you can't go for another month with the dial-up, but on the MSN dial-up email account look into the option of automatically forwarding your email to a new Gmail or other free account. I have six or seven sbcglobal.net email accounts and they are all forwarded to the primary account I use. If any of them get unwieldy, I turn the forwarding off, terminat the account and set up another "phoney" for people to send to. Example: One account I have is rvtrash@sbcglobal.net. I give it out frequently (to trashy peope) and can disable and delete the account anytime I want and set up another one. If you send to the rvtrash account, and if I know you, I'll answer from my real account.

You may also like: