Internet Access - Montana Owners Club

Montana_3980 · 06-28-2005, 05:16 AM

Once again as the greenhorns, we are wondering what the best internet accesss is while on the road? Our Wi-Fi works great in hotels and airports, but we hopefully will be leaving that all behind. As always, any advice will be gratefully appreciated.

Happy trails,

barb and bob

P.S. I am sitting in a hotel room in Great Falls, Montana composing this. Come on the 1st of November for the open road.....

Montana_3980 · 06-28-2005, 05:21 AM

Sorry ya'll, just noticed the typos...got's to make a coffee run to get the grey matter working this AM.....

bob h

VanMan · 06-28-2005, 06:42 AM

It's getting so much easier !!! We just got back from a trip w/o the TT. We accessed the Internet (and our e-mail) from 3 different libraries, 3 motels, 1 hotel, 2 Rest Areas in Iowa, 1 Rest Area in Texas, 1 courthouse square with the entire downtown area (14 sq. blocks)a hotspot (Marshalltown, IA). All this was done at no additional cost except a few pages I printed off at a library. All this was done also w/o having to use our cellphone or calling card (which are still a couple of other options).

padredw · 06-28-2005, 06:51 AM

Bob, the answer to your question is "All over the ball park." I'll give a few examples. On a recent trip to Florida, on the first night (near Robertsdale, AL) we found not one, but two OPEN wireless access points. Had excellent connection totally free. Have no idea whose network we were using. The next couple of nights in St. Andrews State Park, Panama City, FL, found a commercial access point. I think it was in the $9.95 per day range. Very poor connection as we were evidently a good distance from the router. A few days later in Stone Mountain Park near Atlanta, GA. Again a commercial access, this time related to the park. No connection possible at all at the site we had, but could go up near the camp headquarters and get a good connection. Some nights we found no available access at all. A few days later near Commerce, GA we needed to get on the internet to look up an address and phone number. We stopped in a parking lot and found a "Flying J" access point. Cost about $5.00 to get on. I keep an Earthlink account to use for dialup when no wireless is available and I can find a modem. I could go on, but I hope this gives some indication of the variability of the wireless situation.

Oh yes, on our most recent trip we found a park near Hot Springs, AR where the wireless was excellent and was entirely free--provided by the park (Cloud Nine RV Park). I think more and more RV parks will have to provide free or very inexpensive wireless access as travelers begin to seek out parks with this service.

Montana_3980 · 06-28-2005, 07:06 AM

Thanks for the advice, sounds sort of what I expected.
For David and Shirley, we were just in Robertsdale last week. Used the Wi-Fi connecton through Holiday Inn. We are going to settle in Lake Belton, Tx., as a home base for our 5th Wheeling adventures. So guess we'll be neighbors, give or take a few hundred miles.

Aloha,

barb and bob

Countryfolks · 06-28-2005, 08:00 AM

For the information of those who are not familiar with Wireless [Wifi]. Use open services only when you know who owns them and have their permission to use it. Using a a wireless connection [Access Point, AP] without the owners permission is illegal and is called theft of service and could result in prosecution.
Unfortunately, Windows XP has a service, Windows Zero Configuration, WZC, that is turned on automatically. It automatically connects your computer to the strongest wifi signal. It can be started/stopped in auto mode or turned to manual.

Start-- Programs-- Administrative Tools-- Services-- WZC-- highlight and look for start/stop at the upper left under "Services [Local].

To turn it to Manual; highlight WZC, right click, select properties, select manual in the "startup type" box, select apply. The Manual selection requires going back to the services screen to turn WZC on/off when desired.

You may need to return it to auto start to connect with your selected AP.

I hope I haven't upset anyone, I didn't want to see any body get into trouble.

Skip

Lstierw · 06-28-2005, 04:44 PM

Just signed up with T-Mobile. We get on the net anywhere we have T-Mobile service. Needed a little help to get it set up but it works great. The plan gives you 1000 minutes with unlimited nights and weekends and unlimited internet for 59.99 a month. Works well for us...........Les

jrgwdenner · 06-28-2005, 05:14 PM

I am sitting in a campground south of Yankton, SD and have an excellent connection with our Verizon cell phone, free after 9 PM and on the weekends. We have found that our Verizon connection is much more reliable than our other connection with Cingular. I'm sure that will change in other parts of the country. The cell phone is slower than WiFi but it's not a bad connection. Besides, I have lots of time to play now that we're retired.

sreigle · 06-29-2005, 04:17 PM

Carol, there's another way. In XP service pack 2, Rightclick on the wifi icon in the tray, select View Available Wireless Networks. Then Change Advanced Settings (link on the left side). Then the Wireless Networks Tab, then the Advanced button. Uncheck 'Automatically connect to non-preferred networks'. You only need to do this once. Now it will still show all available networks in the View Available Wireless Networks but you'll have to tell it to connect. No need to go start a service.

Me, I'm afraid I leave mine on automatic and if someone has an unsecured network, well....

Just noticed right now besides the commercial wifi I paid for there's another network available tonight. The name on this one makes me think it's one of my neighbors.

Countryfolks · 06-29-2005, 05:15 PM

Thanks Steve, I don't use windows very much and I had the service on manual. Your method is not available on manual start, only when the service is on [started].

Skip

sreigle · 06-30-2005, 02:42 PM

Sorry, Skip. I read it too quickly and on reply was thinking Countryguy rather than Countryfolks! My mistake. The service on mine is set to automatic. On the truck's laptop (used for gps) I generally leave the service set to automatic but have the auto connect turned off. Otherwise it connects to every Flying J, TA, and hotels as we're driving down the road.

Your method will work, also, but I thought the other method might be a little less daunting for those mystified by services and who don't want to have to change a setting to connect and change it back when done.

SP service pack 1 has a similar setting but getting to it is just a bit different and I don't have that info at hand.

Countryfolks · 06-30-2005, 03:17 PM

"Otherwise it connects to every Flying J, TA, and hotels as we're driving down the road."

No problem Steve. The connecting to anything in range automatically is not good and is why I made that post.

I have it on manual so my cards software runs the program, also its a service I can leave off to cut down programs running in the background all of the time. I did it when playing around "tuning" Windows; service not needed, turn it off or to manual until needed [out of a tuning Windows article].

Skip

sreigle · 07-04-2005, 07:07 AM

Skip, like you I have changed several services to manual if not needed to get Windows up and running. If anyone is contemplating this, just be sure not to do this to anything Windows needs to get started...or it won't. If in doubt, leave it be.

Skip, when it connects going down the road it also puts that site in the preferred list and that list gets to be rather large and I then have to clean it out. So it's nice to not have that happen, too.

Countryfolks · 07-04-2005, 08:09 AM

Steve; are the AP's added to the preferred list with the service in auto start and the "connect to" is unchecked [off]?

Skip

sreigle · 07-04-2005, 10:02 AM

I've only noticed them being added to the list when the autoconnect is turned on (checked), not with it turned off. That's with the service running. It's been awhile so when we're on the road later this week I'll try to remember to doublecheck that. I'm pretty sure they are not added but am not quite ready to say that for sure without doublechecking first.

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