got my first notebook PC

[harleyrider]

This is for all you full timers that get on the internet while on the road.Just bought a Dell Inspiron 6000 notebook.This is my first notebook and am really exited.haven`t received it yet.It will ship oyt July 6th.Got a great deal on it at QVC.So how do I go about getting on the internet while traveling??Looking for the cheapest way but the most reliable way also,if thats possible.Any info would be very helpful.

[jrgwdenner]

harleyrider, we've had good luck with verizon. They have a Mobile Office Kit that connects you to the internet, free and unlimited after nine o'clock and on the weekends. You will most likely have built in wireless and we have spent some time parked in hotel parking lots to get on the 'net, if we don't have a connection with the cell phone. You will love your laptop. I think it's the same one we just purchased.

By the way, we purchased a 400 watts (?) inverter to run it off the truck battery. That's probably overkill. I did find that the graphics are hard to see outdoors if you aren't connected through an inverter. They're considerably brighter when you use the battery.

[sreigle]

Harleyrider, in addition to Judy's method, there are a couple of other ways to connect.

More and more rv parks have wi-fi. In fact, that's now one of the things we look for in the directories and when we call a park. Some have free wi-fi, others have a cost. Some of the costs are very reasonable, a few are ridiculous. I would be very surprised if your new laptop doesn't have wifi capability builtin. Mine does. We added a card for Vicki's to handle wifi. You probably will have windows xp, service pack 2, on it from the factory. If you have trouble connecting to wifi, post back and one of us will help you with it best we can.

Some parks have "instant phone" where you have a phone jack at your site. Instant phone is turned on immediately when you arrive. Some parks charge for this, some don't.

Some parks will have phone jacks but you have to call the phone company to get it turned on. Just like with a stick home. Because of the "installation" charges, this is probably not worthwhile unless you'll be there at least a month.

Most parks have a "central modem hookup" somewhere in their buildings. Some of these are outside on a porch, some are in a laundry room, some are inside the office. Therefore some are available 24x7, some only during office hours. Some restrict how long you can use the phone line, some just say be courteous to those waiting to use the line. A few ask for a donation, but we've found that to be rare.

If you use a landline phone connection you'll need an ISP with numbers most everywhere. I know AOL and Earthlink have good coverage but we've been very happy with Highstream (www.highstream.net). They have numbers everywhere AOL and Earthlink do. I pay 8.99/month for unlimited service. They do not provide webspace, however.

We are finding more and more parks with wifi. Some states are also putting free wifi in their rest areas. Texas comes to mind. I think Iowa may be doing this also. And some in Missouri. Anyhow, wifi seems to be catching on big time.

[harleyrider]

Thanks Steve and Judy for the information.It was very helpful.

[sreigle]

I should have noted that when you use wifi you still need to have an isp for your email. If you have trouble sending email through your isp's servers when connected via wifi, go into the account settings in your email application and tell it the server requires authentication. That was the problem when we first used wifi and could receive email but not send it.

[Montana_2753]

harleyrider:

If you want to use a cellphone as a "modem" and have Verizon Wireless (or Sprint) and the correct phone (they can point you in the right direction to recommended phones) and purchase the correct Mobile Office Kit (MOK) you can hook up your laptop to the phone and you're set to go. Check out the following website:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/InternetByCellPhone/

It pretty much answers EVERY question about using a cellphone for internet access. There are a couple of moderators that are true experts on this topic. There is a tutorial on how to set up your Verizon or Sprint phone (and maybe Cingular, by now). There are a few "tricks" mentioned to access "highspeed" internet service through Verizon.

I haven't kept up on all the posts because I've been busy, but will go here when I make the move to using my Motorola V710 as a modem. Still have to purchase the laptop, although a desktop would work, also. Hope this helps.

Bruce

[Montana_2753]

Steve:

Not all that familiar with Wifi yet, but have heard that there may be some security concerns. Know anything about this? Seems that some one driving by with some kind of device can record your information while you are on the net and then use it to access your accounts, etc.?

[sreigle]

Any time information is flowing through the air it is subject to someone capturing it. It's a good idea to have a firewall running to keep hackers from getting into your system, even when you're not on wifi. I am using just the XP firewall. I know it's not as secure as some but it should keep out the 99% of people who don't know how to get into a system anyhow. Regardless of firewall, sending info through the air still leaves it susceptible during that time. Some folks avoid sending credit card or personal information out when on wifi. To tell the truth, we're probably a bit too complacent about this and don't worry about it. We don't often send that info anyhow and when buying online I use a single credit card number where I know the provider keeps a close eye on the traffic. They once canceled my card number and reissued a new number because of a $5 charge from Russia. That was when we had a stick home and had never used wifi. Another time they called us after we had been fulltiming for awhile and said they had noticed a pattern of charges all over the country and asked if there might be a problem. We explained our lifestyle and they have noted that. I use that card to purchase fuel, too, so that is where those charges came from.

Most of the park wifi systems we've used are not using any encryption, so, yes, that risk does exist. There are some folks here with far more knowledge about this than me so maybe they'll chime in with better info.

[jrgwdenner]

You're right about the credit card keeping track of your usage. Now that we're so close to leaving on our trip to Alaska, Glen called the company to let them know our general itinerary so they wouldn't interpret our movement as a stolen credit card.

[rames14]

If you use wifi, there are a few simple things you can do to help yourself. First, change the password. Each brand ships their units with a generic password. Also change the SSID. If you are broadcasting a Linksys SSID and haven't changed the password, anyone can hijack your system. Also, another thing (I haven't done it yet), is to not broadcast the SSID. Also, turn on 128 bit WEP encryption. Your owners manual will walk you through all of this if you have a wireless router. Unfortunately, when you are going through someone elses router, you are at risk.

We just purchased the Mobile Office so that I can connect on the road. Found it for $19.95. Probably cheaper out there somewhere.

[sreigle]

Ron, what you are talking about is if we have a wireless network within our rig or home, right? And those of us in an rv park using the park's unencrypted and non-passworded wifi, we are "going through someone elses router" as mentioned in the last sentence of that paragraph, right? None of the rv parks where we've used wifi has used WEP. They've all been wide open. The park at Tybee Island was experimenting with WEP (he used me as the guinea pig) but had too many problems getting it working. Neither he nor I are experts on this was part of the problem.

[Montana_2753]

Ron: Was that Office Kit for use with Verizon and did it include a USB cable that allows you to charge your phone through it? The Verizon MOK has a USB charging cable and software (I think it's called Venturi) that accelerates the downloads to/from the internet, if I remember correctly. All of that information is on the Yahoo Groups site in my previous post. The MOK through Verizon is $39.95. Thanks for the Wifi info.

Bruce

[jrgwdenner]

My MOK cable can be used to charge my phone. I found it out by accident, always noticed my phone was nicely charged after being on the internet. So now I plug the phone in with that cable even if it isn't my modem at the time. I lost the cable one time and replaced it with one from Ebay but it didn't come with the Venturi software. By the way, for you users, there is an update for Venturi on the Verizon site.

[Kathi]

Harley; I have the Dell Inspiron 6000 and after you get all you connections set up and are ready for the internet you might want to know a little secret that Dell doesn't tell you. Before you can get connected to wi-fi you need to push 2 buttons. The first one is the Fn (function) button, which is located right next to the ctrl (control) button on the bottom left hand corner of the keyboard. The second button is the F2 button which is right above the #2 button.If I didn't explain this good enough just let me know. Don't ask me why they did this, but they did. I had to take mine to my computer shop to find this out. I had been on the phone with the computer techs 7 times for about 2 hrs each, 1 requiring a conference call and they never mentioned this. In any case I thought you should know this before you to spent you valuable time. Kathi

[harleyrider]

Kathi

Thanks for that secret tip that Dell doen`t tell.Would have never found that in a million years.

[Countryfolks]

I have a Dell 8200. It works fine with an external wifi pcmcia card, no Fn key combo's. The Function keys may be to use an internal card or start the wifi service in windows [wzc?]? On mine the Fn key [purple letters] is like the shift key and enables the functions in purple letters on the other keys. There is no function on my F2 key. The f1 function is setup and the function of the f3 key is search, etc. The 6000 is probably different.

Skip

[jrgwdenner]

I used my wi-fi on my 6000 without pushing any buttons. I just needed to use the provided software for Intel Proset Wireless instead of the other software.

[rames14]

BigSkyGuy -
Sorry, I have been traveling out of the country for a while and haven't replied. You get software and the USB cable for your phone. The Mobile Office kit is phone specific just because of the cable. Another advantage is you get a program to modify, add, delete and transfer all of the numbers from your phone to your computer. When upgrading phones, all you need to do is download the numbers off of your existing phone and then upload to the new one. That's a nice feature. Cost was $19.95. This option works well if your ISP is someone like Comcast, that lacks dial up. I have no way of dialing into Comcast on the road, because they don't have a dial up service.

Steve Riegel - yes, I was referring to the home wireless. For those just setting up a wireless network, it is advisable to change the password, change the SSID and enable WEP encryption. Many places that have wifi also give you a code for the encryption as a basic protection. Once on the road, though, running a firewall and good virus protection is the best protection.

[sreigle]

Skip, I would guess the Fn key toggle Kathi described is similar to the 'wireless' button just above the fn keys on my HP laptop. That one totally disable/enables wireless from even connecting to anything. So I would guess it starts and stops the wireless service as you surmised. Still just a guess but judging from how it acts.

Ron, thanks.

[Iowafan]

I just found out that the F2 button disables the WiFi on my Dell 6000. Nice feature unless you don't know about it and wonder why you're software isn't working.