Slashdot Mirror
Net Access on an American Road Trip?
slim asks: "I'm planning a month-long road holiday in August, driving from Chicago to Los Angeles, where possible following old Route 66, rather than the Interstate. I'm not quite dependent on Net access, but it certainly would be nice to be able to use mail, check Slashdot, maintain an Everything daylog, upload pictures from a digital camera to my Web site, etc., along the way. I'm British, and I've already found out that my GSM phone won't work in most of the USA, so fancy-schmancy GSM modem access will do no good unless I buy a phone locally. So what's a Brit to do? What ISPs have a local number in every state? Will they accept a month-long subscription from someone with no U.S. address? Do most hotels have a standard phone socket I can use? Are cybercafes common enough to make do with?"
It won't do everything but maybe a Palm VII would work out or a Motorola pager.
Could you use some sort of satellite connection ?
Most of the larger ISPs provide access in every state. Even netzero (free ISP) has a zillion dialup numbers! I'm sure that the ISPs would be happy to sign you up-- just don't mention the whole 1-month thing until your trip is over. No problem.
As to wireless connections, a cheap analog cell phone and a compatible modem will give you approx. 9600bps. There are some digital phones that allow connections as well, but I'm not sure about nationwide coverage and have never used one myself.
Finally, I don't know about the rest of the country, but I don't think there's a cybercafe anywhere in the lovely state of Indiana. I wouldn't rely on them, especially if you're staying off the highway and away from big cities.
My best experiences have been with a Motorola Montana PCMCIA modem hooked up to an analog cellular phone. I know digital is faster, but the availability just isn't there yet, especially when you're talking about a road trip. Analog seems to have better coverage, especially on rural highways.
And of course, as a plus, the analog minutes are cheap these days.
What's your damage, Heather?
Then after your trip is over, cancel AOL and you haven't paid any money.
Pick up one of the AOL free offers here in the states. You'll get 500 free hours, which should be more than enough for your road trip. Plus they have access numbers just about everywhere on the planet.
Hey, I hate AOL as much as the next guy, but if a foreigner is going to come visit, he should experience America the way the rest of the folks do. (And for free, ha ha ho ho.)
What's your damage, Heather?
They're about as close to an "everywhere" ISP as anyone I can think of. If you're heading down route 66, there will be plenty of podunk (little) towns along the way, and hardly any of them with more than a bank of local AOL modems. How you change where you're calling from each time, I don't know.
If using AOL makes you kinda queasy, you might just opt for a cell modem at least while you're here in the States.
And yes, I would bet that most hotels have a regular phone jack somewhere that you could plug into. You might want to double check with the hotel staff before plugging in though. Some hotels have digital lines throughout.
-Diggem
As a Brit who faced a similar problem over the summer while visiting friends in the US, I knocked up a PHP page that let me submit files and text from anywhere whenever I could. Then I just hijacked my friend's PCs or found a cybercafe. Worked out quite well :)
If you're looking for a company with the most local dial-up's, I would have to (regretably) say AOL. You might be able to get away with that 500 free hours crap and actually not have to pay anything, but you might need to provide an address. Most (all) hotels have telephone's, and if you can't unplug it from the wall, unplug it from the receiver and go from there. As for mobile solutions, you said you're going to be traveling US66, well chances are that there isnt even cell phone coverage on parts of that highway, let alone wireless internet. Only big cities have that technology available, and on US66 those can be few and far in between.
No man is an island, But if you take a bunch of dead guys and tie them together, they make a pretty good raft.
On the subject of GSM, you can rent (as opposed to buy) US capable handsets... I wouldn't recommend it though as 9600 is really two slow for generalised use. Or you could change your UK handset to a Triple band like the Ericsson I888 or the Motorola Timeport, so it's not a case of buying an handset, using it for the trip, then throwing it out. Another idea would be to find a huge ISP who would have loads of access numbers everywhere or sharing agreements with others. This is actually a common requirement in business, if you have people moving about a lot then it can be cheaper to provide remote access to your corporate network via VPNs and lots of local ISPs. Usually though these services are not aimed at "home" users. First on-topic post, does that count? ;-)
~~~~~ BigLig2? You mean there's another one of me?
I'll be in the UK for a month later this year, and was pondering this exact question in reverse. What ISPs should I look at? Odds are I won't be buying a UK phone. Do hotels have phone jacks? What is the electrical power standard in the UK? Do I need a wacky adapter for my laptop? Are phone jacks the same? (Forgive my ignorance-- Canada's about as far as I've managed to get) Do modems use the same dialtone, ringing, etc... as they do in the states? What size area do ISPs cover in the country? Can I get one that will work in France as well? Is any of the above different in France?
We had a similiar problem. (some users traveling both here in Europe and in the US and not being able to use their cell phones over there) To solve it we got them the Ericsson I888 World which is dual-band and uses both the 900 (Europe) and 1900 (US) frequency bands. (It also has an IR interface and a built in modem which both come in handy for making data calls) I think Motorola released a Tri-Band cell phone that works all over the world (depending on the roaming agreements your GSM provider has, of course) but I don't know about its data capabilities. Greetings
C'mon, it's just a month, and you're travelling through half the world or whatever. Use your time in the meatspace for a change.
Then again, who am I to blame; a month in Istanbul with maybe three computerless days all in all. I happened to stay above a nice cybercafe
Seriously, I'd count on the cafe's for web access and leave everything else. Maybe meet some geeks along the way, now that your question made it to slashdot
I think, therefore thoughts exist. Ego is just an impression.
I had a gap year last year, when I travelled the USA, New Zealand and Australia. Before leaving the UK, I bought a Psion 5 computer and its associated 14K4 travel modem. This did sterling service: I was only doing emails, and for this it was quite fast enough.
I used a Compuserve account - set it up in the UK for something like 10ukp a month, and then kill it on your return. They work worldwide, and it was jolly handy for me.
A Psion could upload digital camera pictures (via CompactFlash), but I would not like to do it myself! A simple laptop with 56K modem would be much faster; although you can get faster modems for the Psion, I have no experience of them. I just plugged the modem into any phone socket I could find, in cybercafes and hotels.
On the subject of GSM phones, I believe many companies offer a phone-hire service, probably in association with your UK mobile.
foxtrot
http://blog.grcm.net/
Oklahoma City will be a big stop on your Route 66 trip. I don't recall seeing any Internet Cafes around town, but I checked the Yellow Pages (i.e. business telephone listings) just in case. Unfortunately, I came up empty-handed. however, I'll dig a bit deeper and will E-Mail you if I find anything.
A problem you may have here in OKC: the metro area is very large, and finding a hotel near the cafe, if one can be found, might be difficult. Hopefully we can find something for you near the Bricktown area, a part of old Oklahoma City that's been refurbished and facelifted: there's a riverwalk, fountains, restaraunts, a baseball stadium, etc.
I'll let you know what I come up with.
You can get triband phones from the UK that are usable in the US through a partner of the phone company back home. It should be noted that they are not cheap, and I've no idea what data transfer rates over them is like.
Calls tend to get charged as if you are on the partners network, so don't accessing your voicemail a lot, it is an international call!
All you would then need is a UK ISP with a US access number. Oh and the cash to pay for all of this.
Keep your programs tidy.
Exitzero.
I got a Hughes Internet account when I went away on vacation... 19.00 a month/unlimited, POP's everywhere I was going.. (a little sparse in upstate NY, but that's where my "HOME" isp is at...)
Technology -- No Place For Wimps! Grateful Dead and Jerry Garcia Chatroom -- http://www.wemissjerry.org
In the big west, i wouldn't count on even AOL to have local access numbers. Some isps (eg Earthlink) offer pretty reasonable 800 (toll free) dialup numbers. May be cheaper than long distance, esp from hotels. Certainly more convenitent than looking up a new access number every time you connect.
However this won't really help if the area you are in doesn't yet have GSM. I was stung by this when I went to Chicago on business - I wrongly assumed a country as technologically advanced as the USA would have pretty much total GSM coverages, or at least in the Cities!
:)
Fortunately I was working with Aerial (an operator in the states) and they had a GSM microcell in the building I was in
You anti-social-stay-at-home suburbanites never go to the library. Even Podunk libraries have net access. Every town has a public library.
In Fort Wayne (a cite of 160,000) has one "cybercafe" in the corner of a local bar.
Joe
Joe Batt Solid Design
or you could wait for some benevolent billionaire to finance guerilla.net, the planned wireless networking thing-a-majig from the l0pht
When I spent a year travelling around the US for work, a buddy and I signed up for Sprint access. Wasn't bad... local numbers in almost every city I came to. Check it out at their site. They bill to a credit card, and you don't have to be a US citizen or use their long distance for the $19.95 rate. And when you tell them you'd like to cancel, they do it quickly and politely.
Public libraries.
*** "It's only trivia until you need it." JMR ***
I used these guys on a "try 30 days free" offer during a trip to the states.
They promptly put a $150.00 charge on my credit card. I contacted them both by email and by phone (from Europe) to get the charge removed to no avail.
To add insult to injury, their lines are limited to the west coast and were often busy and/or toll calls from many areas.
Caveat emptor.
Life is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
William Shakespeare
I had a very similar situation a couple of months ago. I found the free altavista access worked
really well for my needs. It does stick up banner ads, but they are easily enough ignored.
Its free access, and they had local numbers for pretty much everywhere I needed them.
Get it here
You'll find a good portion of that road doesn't even exist anymore. /. article of you falling in the grand canyon because you were looking at your email instead of the road
As for net access, you might check the Ameritech and SBC (southwestern bell) web sites. I'm not sure how far along their merger is, but if they've got some roaming that's reasonably priced, they'll have the coverage for the entire trip excepting places where US West serves. (where it's available. Though 66 probably follows a good portion of the interstate system, you might find some dead spots.) There might be a rental program. Also, if you're renting a car, see if they can provide rental cell service, which is available through some. (Just don't spend a lot of time, it's not cheap.) AOL, also previously mentioned, probably has the largest list of dial-up pops, but you'll find a lot of places along the way that probably do NOT have service. (Again, check ameritech and sbc to see if they provide ISP service. They own the switches and more likely to have access at some of the smaller CO's, I'd guess.)
Lastely, enjoy the trip, forget the net for good part of the time. There's some good scenery along the way... and we don't want to see the
As for phones in hotels, that probably depends. Some along THAT route probably don't even have in-room phones. If it's a chain, check in advance. A lot of the digital systems, unless they got replaced for Y2K, aren't too new, and won't have analog rj11 jacks for plugging in a modem.
I live in the UK, and I get mobile internet by letting my Palm III talk to my Motorola Timeport (L7089) over IR. When I got the Palm I even got a cheap carrying case with an elastic strap that conveniently (and coincidentally, I think) holds the phone facing the Palm, so I can read Slashdot on the bus.
Now the neat thing is, the Timeport is triple-band, so it should work in the US or anywhere in Europe. I haven't tried that bit yet though. I use Orange as my mobile network provider and Free-Net as my ISP; I think I can make Orange calls from the USA but I'm not sure.
I got mine really cheap from AVR Mobiles, but shop around, prices change all the time.
You can get SSH and a Web browser for the Palm.
--
Xenu loves you!
In 1997 I rode my motorcyle from Daytona Beach to Las Vegas and back. I had a laptop with a cellphone at the time. I found it difficult to find places where the phone worked, especially once you get west of the mississippi. My connection speeds were TERRIBLE at best. Needless to say, I was able to find a spot where I got enough signal each day to post a story and send a picture.
The road trip was for the annual DBFest (alt.drunken.bastards annual bout of drunken debauchery). It was great, I met folks I had met online all along the way out there and back. The nights I spent with net friends were easy, cause they obviously had net access but those nights in the tent out in the desert were rough... 2400 baud was common and PPP over a 2400 baud connection just sucked.
I imagine things are better these days with CDMA technology but I think you'll find that cellphones are not the way to go. Most hotels have phones which will let you access the internet from your laptop and ISPs like Earthlink, Mindspring and (ack) AOL all have local access numbers about everywhere in the country. Plan your days well and you can be in a city which has net access each day you stop to sleep.
If you decide to suffer through the cell phone thing... Sprint has been bragging about their network and long distance calls are free with many of their plans. I cannot personally vouch for the quality of their service though.
I will say I'm jealous of the trip. I would love to take my bike cross country again for the Drunken Bastards.
They are a threat to free speech and must be silenced! - Andrea Chen
Fish! LipHo
You have several options:
:) OTOH, you can be guaranteed of not having to make a long distance phone call, and the service will travel with you wherever you go.
:)
1. Does your GSM phone support CDMA (PCS)? I think that some CDMA phones can support GSM and vice versa (mostly the really expensive ones from Nokia and Ericssen).
2. Most nationwide ISPs have a zillion local dialup numbers. However, if you're not sure if they're available everywhere, you could go with one of the many ISPs that have 800 dialup service (toll free call in the U.S.). Most of the big US ones (Earthlink, Netcom, AT&T WorldNet, etc.) support 800 dialup service, but it is kind of expensive, as they usually charge some sort of per-minute fee. Most would be happy to give dialup service to anyone with a credit card.
3. You might be able to rent a phone. PCS phones, in particular,are 14400 bps. I don't know what analog phones are in reality, but I've generally seen connection rates of 9600.
4. Grab one of the many bazillion free AOL disks. Just pop into any store in the U.S. that sells computers to consumers (Best Buy, Circuit City, CompUSA etc.) and you'll be able to pick up a free AOL disk. They typically come with like 500 minutes. Their service is bad, you'll probably get lots of busy signals and random disconnections, but it won't cost you anything if you drop the service before they start billing you. Note that when it says 500 free minutes, thats 500 free minutes or like 30 days, whichever comes first before they start billing you.
5. If you'll be near a library, many libraries in major metropolitan areas offer free use of their computers for Internet access. These are typically connected over a T1 line, so they're fast. You'll at least be able to check your e-mail if you use a Web-based e-mail account, and again it won't cost you anything. Cybercafes may also be another idea.
6. Netzero and ALtaVista have free internet access. I don't know about local access numbers for AltaVista, but a friend tells me that Netzero has a lot of them, at least in major metropolitan areas. But you'll have to deal with popup ads, although one source tells me that there is a way to defeat Netzero's popup ads (other than moving them off the screen, that is
My journal has hot
AOL and Earthlink and I'm sure many other services have an astoundingly large number of locations to dial in. As mentioned AOL has 500 free hours, I'm not at all sure whether they'll block you from this due to your nationality.
If you can't get it for free remember that you're only talking 200 bucks for a full years service, maybe less. It's pretty easy to make this back just by having access to local numbers to dial in from or 1-800 numbers.
One other option is if you've already got friends in the US, see about arranging accounts at Universities in advance. I've done this for trips to Alaska but only for the final destination, not stops along the way.
The last time that I took route 66 (granted just from mid-Oklahoma to mid-panhandle-of-Texas) there were very few gas stations - so fill up every chance you get while on the old 66.
How can you possibly take a month to drive from Chicago to LA? Even along a secondary road like route 66 it shouldn't take more than 3 days. Can you hold off using email for that long?
I *BELIEVE* that french power is 220V AC, not 240. In fact, I'm NEXT to positive.... Again the warnings about UK do apply though - your laptop MAY have a "switching" PS and would handle the line change fine provided you give it a plug adaptor.
Phones - I honestly have no idea. During the 3 weeks I spent in france I think I actually LOOKED at one phone. the handset -> base connection is the same as ours, however, so you at least have that... The one phone i stared at was in a hotel and it was nice enough to provide a modem jack (std. RJ11) - this wasn't even a very classy hotel either, nor was it in a HUGE tourist area, comparitively. (in the south of france, near Avignon)
ISPs - France DOES have AOL. God only knows WHY, it's fricking "AMERICA" online, not FRANCE... but i know there is AOL access there... wannadoo.fr is another big isp over there... i don't know if they offer any free stuff or whatever, but there is ALWAYS AOhell.
From a motherboard manual, error beep codes: S-L-L-L-SS: Speaker Error
How about iPass? That does allow Global roaming (providing your isp is part of the iPass network). :).
Netcom UK used to provide roaming in the US and Canada but due to the takeover of Netcom US by Mindspring, those f$^^££ng bastards didn't honour the roaming agreement. Anyway I am slightly biased because I work for Netcom
--
Full Time Idiot and Miserable Sod
Full Time Idiot and Miserable Sod
Nothing is real but the pain
French power is 220V/50Hz and the plugs are different. Your Laptop will most probably deal with the power difference but if i were you I'd buy an adaptor. You do not want to burn your laptop.
Our sockets are weird, but all you need is a plug adaptor and I do think many hotels will have RJ45 plugs.
France has free ISPs (free.fr).
Paris has cybercafes, and there is free net access in the public library of the pompidou center.
If all you want is send a few quick mails, there are computer shops who do provide net access and scanners/printers. They are usually located close to university campus. French universities are free and poor. They have very few computer labs, so students use commercial services.
Bon voyage
Laurent
---
Dev elpizw tipota, dev phoboumai tipota eimai lephteros http://euclidian.org
Here you can search for cybercafes all over the world. A friend of mine made a trip from S.F to N.Y and managed it to find at least every second day a cybercafe.
While your in the uk you could use www.uklinux.net - it's a 'free' isp which donates money to free (as in FSF / Open Source) software development in the UK.
The phone calls cost the same as the other free ISP such as Freeserve, Virgin, plus the webserver has mod_perl and php (and there are going to have postgres and mysql too!). With the more popular free isps the demand is so high that it can sometimes be difficult to get a connection and sometimes you even get dropped out in the middle of something - this has never happened to me with uklinux, presumably because they're still small (it's only been up a month or so).
You can sign up using their webform, and presumably they'd accept your US address.
grek
I just got back from a two week journey to the los angeles area. I started from southeast Nebraska/northeast Kansas area. I brought along with me a palm 3e with a palm modem. when we stopped to eat i sat in the professional driver section. (As long as you are not wearing a suit or look like a schmuck no one will question you) I used a calling card and plugged into the standard telephones at the booths and connected to my ISP in Nebraska Pre-paid calling cards are cheap, you can usually find very nice rates (3.1 cents a minute) if you buy a $20 card that = lotsa time and no they dont even question you if you unhook the phones from the line. and you are stopping to eat anyway you might as well use the time wisely and check your email at the same time hope this helps
Computers save man alot of guesswork, but so does the bikini
Use AOL for ISP, free for a month...
Some laptops have a voltage switch for AC
power. Make sure you're using the right one
or you can screw up your power unit.
Get yourself a fuzz buster (radar detector) unless 55mph is acceptable to you, some small towns finance their sherrif departments by fining speeding motorists who are passing by.
Do you REALLY want to go to LA ? San Francisco is much nicer and the moron density is *far* lower.
Why not leave the computer at home !!! Try it for a month, it'll seem weird at first, but you'll see the world in more detail.
http://rareformnewmedia.com/
Hi, I did something similar about 5 months ago. Going to LA, to SF, to LV, stopping for a week in each location. I'm British too, so I should be able to help :)
:)
I was told phones wouldn't work in america, but if you ask your travel agent, or your phone company, they should be able to rent you a phone while you are away for a fairly modest fee. Also friends and family can then get in touch with you whenever they want.
I know this really sucks, but seeing as you will be changing location, you might want to try AOL for free access why you are over there. I think you get something like 300-500 free hours right now. There are quite a lot of cyber-cafes in LA, and they tend to be ok. I also saw loads of pay phones with a modem connection socket for you to connect through, and most decent hotels if you ask, will tell you if you can connect from your room, and one I stayed in in SF actually had designated rooms with modem sockets on them.
Enjoy your holiday!
Wireless coverage away from the BIG cities isn't good enough to expect reliable portable coverage. I wouldn't waste my time with wireless digital access via terrestrial networks. Orbital networks would be fun but expensive. ISP coverage IS good enough to work in most towns where there are more than a couple of national-chain motels. att.worldnet, sprint, earthlink, etc. etc. etc.. will do. You'll pay out $20 to get hooked up, and then $20 for the first month. That's probably better than trying to argue with AOL to get disconnected and get your credit card back. I'd ask a friendly USA slashdotter to set you up with an ISP account (your name, your $40, his/her address) instead of trying to do something from the UK. There will not be any cyber cafes except in the big cities. Hotel stays in the big cities is way more expensive than in the smaller towns. Coordinating WHERE the hotels are with WHERE the cyber cafes are will be difficult. It's not worth it unless you are planning to visit each big city on purpose and unless you are staying more than a night in each. Libraries may have net access but it will be a pain to have to stop in the middle of the day to find one in the little towns OR the big cities. Also you probably won't be able to do IRC or other chat methods with a library computer. I'd go with a laptop, telephone modem, and national ISP. You will have to make sure you have USA compatable modem and power but that is pretty easy compared with USA compatable cellphone.
.. Blub falls right in the middle of the abstractness continuum. -- Paul Graham
My parents used IBM while on the road from Florida to New Hampshire in May-August 1999. They generally stopped in small towns, but only rarely had to use the 800 number access. They also found IBM to be more reliable than their regular local ISP, and would have kept IBM if there was a local node in the very small town they permanently live in.
I *BELIEVE* that french power is 220V AC, not 240. In fact, I'm NEXT to positive....
Yes, you're totally right. this link gives a selection of power supply types, and plug designs.
It also gives a distinct impression that the entire field of human endeavour has been to find as many ways as possible to transfer power from a wall to an electrical device.
Previously when visiting out of state family, i used to lug around a laptop and a external modem and a credit card to dial my isp. well, after getting sick of doing this, i was convinced there was SOME better way of doing this.
I invested in a Palm IIIx about 6-8 months ago. i am unable to live with out its skills. About 3 months ago i invested in an "Open-box" Minstrel Modem for the PalmIII. It ended up running me only $100 plus shipping from the Manuf. My CDPD service is thru GoAmerica for $10/month, no roaming charges, and "15kb worth of data."
The road trip took 23 hours and someone was on that silly thing for MOST of the trip. I ran thru 3 sets of batteries on the modem alone and who knows how many on the pilot. It sent countless emails and ICQs and recieved stock quotes, slashdot, cnn, etc. all from the middle of nowhere. Even though the service was spotty at times, I was still impressed at the level and coverage and service for somthing with such a small market.
(ps, we need an avantgo channel for this site, it's difficult to read and next to impossible to post... ahh well.)
_K
I've never used it myself, but I know some of the hotels I've stayed at offer some kind of Net access via Ethernet jacks in the rooms. A friend who tried it once said you call the front desk and they'll give you the info you need for it or something along those lines. Might be an option. I mainly saw it in hotels on the East coast, but that's also the only place where I usually travel :)
Using one of the national ISPs may be a good solution but don't get sucked into AOL. Why? ::cringe::, the pop up ads, the unnecesarry interface, etc.
1. AOL is evil and we shouldn't support it.
2. As someone mentioned you have to give them an address and you'll start recieving CDs from them every week or so. It used to very useful diskettes that you could erase and put a label over.
3. They might still harass people with calls and stuff. I guess you'll be safe there since you're in the UK though.
4. AOL itself sucks. The annoying "you've got mail"
Anyone else have more reasons?
your friend,
bryan
sfc
standing on the shoulders of giants,leaves me cold
sfc
standing on the shoulders of giants,leaves me cold
Go to
I just don't get it why the yanks stick to analog phones. what the heck, that's the most advanced country in the world (communication wise speaking) and they don't even have a digital cell phone network. The GSM 900 & DCS 1800 digital standards are cheap and virtually the entire European territory is covered, including eastern Europe. There is no global provider but there are 3 - 4 in every country and they have agreements. When you travel abroad you get roaming access. You just have to tell your provider which counties you'll visit and your phone will find the new network and use it. You're still reachable at your regular phone number. Depending on the provider, you can read your mail & browse the web directly on the phone, with no extra device attached to it.
Think you could use 500 hours of free AOL access? There are also places in the states that rent mobile phones on a short term (month at a time) basis for outgoing calling. it isn't the cheapest option
troll, ...They lived in mountains, sometimes stole human maidens, and could transform themselves and prophesy...
Your reasons are valid...The big thing is though the original poster said....IT'S FREE! You don't support them.
I'll second the AOL advice. Yes, of course they suck for any self-respecting semi-computer-literate person, but they do have more local dial-up numbers than anybody else.
Besides, what better way to hurt them than to use them for free? If more people actually started using them for just the free hours, just watch how quickly they'd stop that deal. That's the best way to get at them, baby!
Uwe Wolfgang Radu
C, I've had to travel a lot on business trips and ended up using UUNET POPs. My ISP has a deal with UUNET to allow their users to access those POPs for a surcharge. I doubt this ISP has negotiated a sui generis deal. Here's the blurb from my ISP about the service and the search routine for local POPs. Welcome to The World's MSN/UUNET Database The World is available from 898 MSN/UUNET local dial-ups A $2/hour surcharge applies when calling via MSN/UUNET To access World via MSN, dial the number with your modem and login to the prompt with UU/world, use the password world Enter the city, state or area code you are interested in: AT&T would be a good option but they might ask you for a credit card to bill you. And that might be a pain to suspend and cancel once you finish your trip. Another option is NetZero - actually the outfit I use for Web access. They lease POPs from everybody. It's a totally free ISP like FreeServe. You can sign up at www.netzero.net. When you get the software, you can check out lists of states and local POPs. PFC
Most of the larger chain hotels have all gone digital, especially in the big cities. Ask the receptionist when you check in. Examine the phone. Some of the hotels I've stayed at that had digital phone systems also had special data ports in the side of the phone, labelled as an analog port for you to use. Some didn't. If you're not sure, don't plug the modem in.
Edward Burr
Edward Burr
Having a smoking section in a restaurant is like having a peeing section in a swimming pool.
Since you're only doing this once, screw signing up with a pay service. Just use netzero and upload your stuff that way. They have access numbers all over the place, and its easy to download onto a laptop from their website. After the trip, just delete, and you're done.
to purchase a used laptop, generally a low end pentium machine. Yeah, I'm not gonna frag on it, but for sending/recieving email, and transmitting alot of the reports I need to, it works well.
As I travel across the midwest and East coast, I found ATT worldnet service works quite well. Case in point, one of my stays was in Ft. Lauderdale, Fl, and I had worked at a dance club in Philly, well this club is a chain, and they had one, as luck would have it, next to my hotel room. After a quick trip to radio shack, I broke out the laptop, dialed into the internet, and hit tucows.com. At the time, I was running a Thinkpad 770ed. So I grabbed some audio recording software, and proceeded to record about 45 hours of live dance mix from the dj. The wav file was about 2 gigs, but it was awesome stuff.
I've also found that most of the bigger hotels, holiday inns, sheratons, marriots etc have phone ports in their phones, bring your own phone line tho.
ATT can set you up for about 10 usd per month. Just give them a credit card and a po box, should do the trick. Sneaky yes, but hey, sometimes you just need to get the job done.
GIHM -The light at the end of the tunnel is only the oncoming train.
I can't offer much insight on the local dial-up/cell question, but I can warn you that cyber cafe on this side of the pond are years behind their counterparts in the UK and Europe. You should be able to find some decent fare on the west coast, but heaven help the man stranded without his laptop in the MidWest...in short: Plan to be as self sufficient as possible on your trip, and treat the few good cafes you'll find as an unexpected bonus...
Not exactly on topic, but anyway...
My expirence is that those of you across the pond have no idea how big the US is. When we travel there most people ask "Whats New York like?" And I respoond "Whats Moscow like?". It is farther from my house to New York (city) then from most europiean houses to Moscow! I live in Minneapolis, so I'm not in the middle.
Lets put your trip this way: If you drive the speed limits (I recomend it, as some towns finance their police with speeding tickets) without stoping, don't get lost, you will arrive on the third day. This means that you only stop for gas, and grab a meal on teh run. You don't see the scenery this way, nor do you get any sleep. The last is the worse I suppose, but I don't recomend that style anyway. Slow down, there are a lot of wierd things along the way. (I'm not sure how to put it, some people think it is beatiful, others think it looks like a faceless coproration raped the land, though in fact that is how God made it [whatever you want to substitute for God])
So plan your time, figgureing 100 km/h as your speed when driving, (55 mph is 98 km/h, and better get used to american speeds) and have fun. Maybe you should take a shorter trip, but see more along the way. Of course if you have a month that is different.
Other general recomendataions: Most things are cheaper in the US. I know a couple (From Swizterland) who came here a couple years back, bought a gas grill to use on their trip, and then shiped the gas grill home. They figgure they are money ahead on the grill, since the trip was partially buisness. Likewise have the clothes on your back, and not much more. You probably don't have cowboy clothes, which are the normal attire in some areas, for practical reasons. If you decide to take in some areas you would do well to dress like the locals. (Not like the movies which is how most tourists dress, the locals idea of cowboy dress is different from what you would think) Clothes are dirt cheap, consider donating them to goodwill when you leave. Have you considered going backwords? Sometimes people rent a car to drive to a city when they move, leaving extra cars in one area, and not as many in anouther. (This is very common with moving vans, less so with cars)
Blieve the signs that say last gas, and remember the next station may not be open when you get there. I don't know if you will go through that areas where lack of stations is a problem, but if you do.
Have fun. That is most important. If you can't get a net connection one day, don't curse, just do something else.
I have been a long UK -> US road traveller,
and bizarrely the best thing to do is track
down a kinko's - kinko's offer reasonable
(still pretty steep) cybercafe type access
but they are everywhere (even in knoxville
tenesse for example)
I never tried to get dhcp into an ethernet
port. I don't think they offered it then (this
summer). But you never know - if enough of us
ask
ewanb
I Can tell you that lots of Hotels use PBX's with digital phone lines. For instance - Courtyard Marriott, catering to business travellers, has a digital jack for the phone, and a second analog for the obligatory laptop. SO - this raises an odd issue - if you stay in the inexpensive ma/pop places, they may only have analog access (being an old building, non-techy owner/etc.) so you'd be fine (ask!!), but if you stay in a mid-level chain, they may only have digital lines to the rooms (again, ask!!), but if you can afford to stay in a Courtyard or other business traveller oriented chain, you will be TOTALLY connected. I've been in some hotels that had a whole mini-office you could use complete with PC/printer/internet access/the works. hth
mas cerveza, por favor politically incorrect stu
Set up an AOL account before you go (the first month is free). It can be accessed from every state along your route (but you'll need to look up the access numbers for each area code before you go). Using libraries and Cyber Cafes isn't going to work, since you'll be crossing stretches of sparsely populated areas. I suggest you also rent a digital phone (not a cellular) for your connection. The car rental company can arrange this. Crossing the desert in August? How fun! Avoid Labor day weekend (September 1-4). It took me 10 hours to go from Palm Springs to L.A. which normally is a 2 hour trip! Never let your gas tank go below half-full and take lots of water.
Try getting rid of em! I used em over xmas break once, and trying to cancel is like trying to avoid the mob. I eventually was saying, "Look, I am *leaving* the country, and when I return, my employer will pay for my internet access!" The female CSR still didn't take that, and wanted to know if I had tried AOL 4.0, which offers new instability, a cure for impotence, etc.
Good god.
When I finally got her to cancel me, she then abruptly trasnferred me to someone else, who commenced hawking AOL long distance. Which, as an aside, amkes me think of those lucent (? is it) ads where they talk about making a data network as reliable as a phone network, and when was the last time your phone didn't work. Well, I'd give AOL the early edge as to whom would be likely to make a phone network less reliable than a data network.
matt
Get one of the Motorola tri-band phones (approx. £150/200 - Without a contract) from Carphone Warehouse or Vodaphone Retail.
Vodaphone/BTCellnet have roaming agreements that cover pretty much most of the major US/Canada cities
.
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
I work at an ISP. iPass is a service that's offered at a lot of local ISPs for people that travel. Basically, you install the software and then you're able to choose cities that you want to dial into and it's considered a local call. The other option (which the people at my work will slice my throat for) is to sign up with Worldnet. It's ATT's ISP which offers local access in just about every city in the USA. All of the phone numbers are listed on their website. Hope you have a great trip!
European AC mains is always 50Hz afaik. It may vary between 220 and 240 volts, but that doesn't matter as all power supplies are designed to accommodate for small variations (10% or so).
I had to do similar, traveling for a few monts on business.
;)
I used Compu$erve, simply because they support a normal PPP interface, and I didn't feel -quite- such a dork handing out csi.com addresses
EZ
-'Press Ctrl-Alt-Del to log in..'
"Oops, I always forget the purpose of competition is to divide people into winners and losers." - Hobbes
Check out Free, they are operating on Linux, offer 50 Mb hosting with PHP+MySQL, you can connect to their news server from any other ISP with your username/password.
Sign up online, but they send you the login info in the snail mail (thank the spammers for having to do that ...).
I believe you can sign up completely online with Fnac.net, at least I did a while ago.
Hook up with the hardware giant, not only will they have point of presence in every US state but you can all hook-up from almost every major city on the planet. It costs a little more then a normal dialup account but well worth it if you travel. I'm sure you can sign up in you home country, setup your laptop and get local dialup numbers all before leaving home.
sort of like visa... everywhere you want to be!
In my current job I do a lot of travel. I use it on business trips when I have a hankering for sushi (which tends to go with being on an expense account). It puts up a map with a red dot showing your current position and the kinds of things you are interested in (restuarants by cusisine, copy centers, stores by merchandise type, parking, and of course public libraries) <duh>Of course, be careful using it while you are driving</duh>. You can also download maps onto the palm pilot, but I haven't found it as useful.
Combine this with an 12VDC inverter and a co-pilot in the passenger seat, and it's really convenient when you are in a strange city. In any case, I bought it on a lark and have easily got a hundred bucks of yuks out of it.
By the way, you can't use the GPS stand alone without a computer. It saves cost by omitting the display screen and control buttons -- it just sends NMEA strings over a serial port. The accuracy is pretty good for such a cheap receiver -- usually they have jittery clocks that throw them off. The GPS/GIS expert in my company thought at first the software was snapping the red dot to the street until I showed him the highest zoom view.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Netzero.net and 1stup.com both are totally free, (make you watch ads) have lots of local numbers, and are what I have used throughout the country. 1stup.com is the actual host for several free internet services, including AltaVista, 7abc, and the Simpsons. Check out their sites to check out the phone numbers available - I don't know which would have better coverage in your planned travel area.
Netzero is about 5 meg to download, requires 800x600 resolution minimum, and gives you an email address (yourname@netzero.net). I hever get a connection better than 28.8 to NetZero, but it is a fairly stable one.
1stup will fit on a floppy (uninstalled), can tolerate 640x480, but does not give you an email account (use a free web-based one), and seems a little less stable overall - if the ad server has connection problems, you can't stay on line.
Both run only on Windows 9.x
Travel Warrior Tips: Take along a cheap analog phone to try the hotel room lines - some are digital lines and would fry a modem, though even in rural areas things are getting better. I'd also recommend a copy of Street Atlas (or its brethren) [~$30] and if you have the money, a GPS [~$200] - it's very nice to know where you are. Buy a cheap power inverter [~$40] to plug into the cigarette lighter to provide 110volt power for the laptop.
A long time ago, a friend and I were planning on doing a big old trip across Canada and the states. Our hope was to buy a VW Shaggin' Wagon, wire up a server or two in the 'Bus to take pics, and then figure out some way to hook up to our email.
These were the issues we thought would be cogent:
Constant connection vs. intermittent connection.
This turned out not to be an issue. Find a real map of cellular phone coverage in the states. I've found a whole slew of coverage maps, but it's just marketing material - according to them, you can go in the middle of the ocean, and there'll be one of their cell towers nearby. In truth, it's spottier than Keanu Reave's acting abilities. You'll only be able to get digitally useful connection in urban centres. Small towns need not apply, likewise interurban highways. This is reflected on the marketing cell maps by their fine-printed disclaimer: coverage may vary depending on terrain, weather, AOL stock price, other unexplainable phenomena, etc.
Cost
This is a MAJOR issue. We were attempting to budget this trip on an absolute minimum of money. (University students... what do you expect?) Roaming on cellular phones is heinously expensive. Water and oil don't mix.
Our solution ended up being pretty simple:
We'd get an ISP with a toll-free dial-up number, and a coupler to use with payphones.
The coupler was easy enough to do, as we'd already built one for another friend's birthday. (Old-school technology. Remember when your modem consisted of putting your phone on a cradle, speaker-to-mike, mike-to-speaker? Same idea, only think duct-tape and velcro! Kinda crappy on batteries though.)
I was actually on an ISP with toll-free dial-up at the time. It's a big canadian ISP you've probably seen spoofed in UF - it's called ICan.
It would've been a great trip, but we just didn't have enough money to buy a vehicle, not to mention personal maintenance along the way. (read: food and BEvERages).
-blarg
-- familiarity is only skin deep
It's becoming more and more common for public libraries to offer free net access. Most of the libraries around Washington, DC to. When I rode my bike from Alexandria, VA to Richmond, VA last year, I found that the Fredericksburg public library had it, too.
If you had a Hotmail account, you'd be all set.
Remember that you are probably taking this trip to see the scenery and enjoy a land that you don't call home. Although your question didn't imply this, it seems like the majority of responses want you to be SuperGeek and maintain a 'Net connection constantly while driving cross country. Forget a cellular modem, a Palm VII, and any other type of wireless, roaming connection. Get an account with a national ISP (Mindspring, AT&T Worldnet, AOHell, etc.), stick a modem in your laptop, and connect from your hotel at the beginning and end of your days. Your trip will be much more enjoyable if you aren't worrying about email and websites while you're traveling. Most of the chain hotels thesedays have data jacks on their digital phones in the room, so dialing via modem shouldn't be a problem. Take care of your email and web surfing at night before bed and in the morning before leaving, and your trip will be much more enjoyable.
Well, the European power was 220V, it is raised slowly to 240V, 50Hz AC. But i dont know how its in UK.
wumpie
I find that the free AOL cds now make great coasters. Turn them upside down and you have a very modern look. :P
Why you gotta go bring the damn geek box? In this jackass's mind, a road trip should be about getting the hell out of Dodge and leaving your daily existence behind. If you can't stomach not having email, not reading Slutdot , and not uploading to your web site for a month, maybe you shouldn't be on the road.
I'm not trying to be a dick here, I just think that some experiences should remain unwired.
I recently made a cross-country drive, with roughly the same concerns. I set up the cell phone for modem access, and never used it. I ended up uploading and checking mail each evening from a motel.
I used a Compuserve 800 number for access, for which they charged me an extra $6 an hour. But over the length of the trip, it wasn't one of the bigger expenses. I could have found a local number in each state, but after a day on the road, I didn't feel like modifying dial-up properties and figuring out which numbers were a local call, etc. The 800 number just let me use the same settings the whole time, and all the billing was through Compuserve, no local phone charges to worry about (most US hotels give free local calls, but you'll spend 15 minutes each day figuring out what's local and how to dial it).
BTW, a lot of Route 66 is pretty lame and overrated. I'd say head straight to Denver, then find routes through Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah. All of the 2-lane state highways out there are fast, and a lot more interesting than the Interstate highways. Route 66 is best once you get into New Mexico/Arizona.
And if you have a Windows laptop, by all means, get a GPS/mapping program. DeLorme's product is under $200 and pretty good; there are others. A GPS and a map adds substantially to the fun of navigating the wide open spaces. That's how I ran across this.
not very common, you need a large chain like Flying J or TA (truckstops of america) and even then you are not garunteed to have a booth.
and it has disadvantages.
$1 = 5 minutes
he wont be able to upload his pictures
it has a chicklet type keyboard, the key repeat speed sucks and the pointing device is less than satisfactory.
i travel alot, i prefer truck stops to hang out in and my mother and father are OTR (over the road) drivers.
Computers save man alot of guesswork, but so does the bikini
5. If you'll be near a library, many libraries in major metropolitan areas offer free use of their computers for Internet access. These are typically connected over a T1 line, so they're fast. You'll at least be able to check your e-mail if you use a Web-based e-mail account, and again it won't cost you anything. Cybercafes may also be another idea.
I couldn't agree with this more. While sitting out in the middle of the desert on a laptop connected to a cell modem is pretty hard to beat in coolness factor, it may be preferable to use something like a public library, or even better, a University Campus.
Two summers ago I was cross-country travelling from Philly to San Francisco and back again, and made it a point to visit a university or two along the way, just to get a feel for the place. UC Berkeley was the big one for me. I got a real kick out of walking into their library, sitting down at one of their terminals, finding out all of their internet settings, and configuring my laptop likewise. I was able to just sit back and use my own computer there after about 5 minutes of tooling around.
Pulled the same thing off in France last summer. Nothing quite like a distraught French professor trying to explain to you that it's impossible to use your computer on their network while you're in the middle of an ssh-tunneled pop3 download... (c:
--Cycon
Your Brain + EEG + LEGO Robots = Brainstorms
4 words: AOL CD in microwave. The cool sparks that shoot everywhere make me almost want to get a whole bunch of AOL cds. Notice I said almost.
Check out http://www.avr.org/teams/unitboy/ for further information on how these guys pulled it off.
Returned Peace Corps IT Volunteer
Head over to http://www.boardwatch.com/isp/ac/index. html
Right at the top of the page are links for toll free access numbers (800, 877, 888).
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
This was my thought too (I work for IBM and I travel a lot, so I know their coverage is good). However, I believe IBM sold that part of their business to AT&T. Check out www.ibm.net. -S
Couldn't you just ask the bank to stop payment?
Or just keep repeating "No, I want to cancel my account." This just requires perseverence.
Or say that you disapprove of AOL's recent merger. not sure what the responce would be, anyone wat to find out?
I did this just last summer. The motorola Timeport is a tri-band GSM, and will work in the US with world roaming. I never could get the phone to work for data. IR transmission was OK, AT commands were OK, but the phone never answered the carrier. Strange. Motorola is no help whatsoever, so you're on your own. The phone works OK for voice though.
In my opinion, Scientology is a cult you should avoid.
we had this same problem a year or two ago and ended up taking the smallest laptop-with-modem we could lay hands on and borrowing phone jacks wherever we went. supermarkets, filling stations, bars. you'd be surprised. it's not quite as easy as plugging in a nokia but you certainly get into conversations.
local calls will be free, remember, and being from england automatically makes you well-spoken and novel. or the bad guy in die hard 7, i guess. you don't look like charles manson, do you?
it was cheaper for us to get a local isp than to roam on pipex or anyone else, but if you're crossing state lines all the time then you might have to aol or something horrible like that.
Sounds like a chance for a great trip.
But if it were me taking the trip, I'd leave the tech behind. Route 66 is best travelled without it. Do take a camera, though. Turn off the AC in the car and open the windows. If the car isn't already taken care of, buy one for the trip. Pay no more than $500 for it. You aren't being cheap - the rest of the cash will go to mechanics on the way. A huge '70s machine, one that used to be green and has a suspension system in critical need of new parts, is best for this trip.
Stay in evil-looking motels as much as possible. If there isn't dead neon on the sign, keep going. Eat at places where the sign says EAT GAS NOW.
Go to attractions involving reptiles live and extinct.
Buy ugly souvenirs.
Drink bad beer in dangerous looking bars.
Stop at public libraries and post your experiences to some free web server-Geocities or Tripod or Spaceports or whatever. Actualy, a Spaceports account where you get a tiny amount of money for each banner click-through would be very much in the spirit of Route 66. The road is a tau of desperate small-scale commercialism.
I don't know if there is anything equivalent in the UK (I didn't find it when I was there) but we have public libraries in every town where anyone can just walk in and use the facilities free. These days, the facilities usualy include computers with web access.
Let me know the URL so I can follow your progress.
Our secret is gamma-irradiated cow manure
Mitsubishi ad
We apologize for the inconvenience.
I don't remember where I found this link, it may have been posted on /. awhile back. I personally have struggled with this since I got my laptop. Whenever I go on extended out of town stayover I need internet access. The solution?
:-)
The Simpsons ISP!
It's one of those freebie ISPs where you need to click a banner ever 15 minutes or something but they have a HUGE supply of access numbers in every state. It's COMPLETELY free. No calls to AOL to attempt to cancel, no AOL adapters to remove when you get home so you can use your normal ISP, none of that. Just an honest to goodness free ISP. God bless America
There is no reasonable defense against an idiot with an agenda
:wq
I don't know if this will help, but...
My father is a truck driver who has been going down to the States a lot lately. He tells me that many truckstops have hookups for satellite TV and high bandwidth net access (yes, truckers use the net a *lot*). It's basically for drivers, like my father, who stays in the truck and has a TV and possibly a notebook computer. Many truckers use the net to find out where to go next, etc.
I'm not sure if they'll let non-truckers purchase the use of those facilities, but it's certainly worth a look if cell coverage is awful over certain parts fo the US.
We tend to forget our lowly libraries these days, especially since most of us do any necessary research on the web from the comfort of our cubicles/homes/whatever. On the road however, you should be pleasantly surprised to find out that yes, there *are* still houses of books out there in America, and many, many of them are connected to the internet. You may have some tired-looking old woman who smells vaguely of kitty-litter breathing over your shoulder while you check your mail, surf the web, or whatever you need to do, but the facilities should be more than adequate for your connectivity needs. Also, as a slight useability bonus, libraries are almost always highlighted and pointed out with special symbols on road maps, making them easy to find on your journey.
This tagline is umop apisdn.
I know of a few gas stations on RTE 66 that have kiosks for net access. I haven't used one (it only takes me 4 hours to get from home to Vegas and I have cable at both so I don't start to jones too much), but it has browser access. I'm not sure how secure it is, like whether or not you want to forward your mail to someplace like linuxstart.com, but it is a choice.
-- toolie
Check out this URL to find a cybercafe in the areas you'll be traveling in: http://www.cybercaptive.com
I manage one of the better ones here in the US. You can check it out here.
http://www.cyberplayce.com
When I did my AT hike in '96, I used a Motorola Montana and an array of laptops. (They kept breaking.) My best luck was using a Motorola Montana connected to a good-old-fashioned clunker of a Motorola flip-phone. I used a AA adaptor, but that shouldn't be necessary for you.
:)
My favourite system was an Apple Newton with a keyboard. I don't believe that the Palm Pilot existed at the time. At least, not in a form as useful as its current one. As weight shouldn't be a problem for you -- unless you're one *hard-core* road-tripper -- any ol' laptop should do.
As for the national-dial-up, that didn't exist, save for shite like AOL and MSN, so I racked up some pretty serious long-distance.
Just plan on having a couple of days of beta testing. I hit the AT without having even used the finalised version of the system...took me about 100 miles to get it worked out. When it comes to connecting in hotels, it's always a gamble. I fried a modem like that. If possible, use a seperate line. I would just go down to the front desk, introduce myself, chat 'em up, and then ask if they had a line that I could plug my modem into. I was only turned down once. Frickin' Fontana Lake fascists...
Anyhow, have fun.
-Waldo
It's now quite popular to have ethernet jacks at many truck stops, especially along interstates. There is one chain that has installed ~15 10baseT outlets at each of its stations that have high commercial traffic, though I'm not sure of its name. An interesting news article on network connections at truck stops is found at http://www.internettelephony.com/archive/10.11.99/ nmnews.htm.
Expensive, but very good service world wide. You can register it in the UK and get local number access in a sizable chunk of the world. They used to be IBM net. See http://www.att.net
Also, don't forget about AOL! I know, I know, but the fact is that they are cheap, can be registered in the UK and have local numbers in the US. Don't expect to connect first time though.
Moo!
On a semi-related note, be sure to try the green chili at Joseph's in Santa Rosa, New Mexico. It's sure to light a pommie's socks on fire! :-)
Last time I did a trip in the states (San Francisco), I rented a car from National They had an option of renting a phone with the car. Perhaps this would suit your needs.
Summary: Ericsson I888 World cellphone (rented), IBMNet ISP account, 3Com
Palm IIIx with irenhance, web and email software.
Don't write off that GSM phone of yours yet. You can rent (or buy) an
Ericsson I888 from Omnipoint and stuff your SIM into it (their I888s are not
SP-locked). You can also get an IBMNet (now attglobal.net) account which has
dialup points all over the world.
I used that solution the last time I went on vacation. I loaded the
appropriate software into my Palm IIIx and was set to go. The I888 has a
builtin modem and an IR port, so I could use it with my Palm without a
cable. I noted the appropriate IBMNet access numbers. In short, I checked my
email in airports in Boston, New York, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and
Frankfurt with the same hardware and Internet account (it was a very long
trip). You would want to watch those roaming charges.
they do nation wide isp's ... possibly 800 # too.
Many smaller ISPs belong to a roaming club,
.70 .70 per hour,
i.e. ISPs let people who use a different
ISP use their service in exchange for the same
service for their customers. I have CNSP (only
NM) and their little blurb is:
*********************************************
Roaming Numbers
Please follow the link below for a list of dialin
number outside the state of New Mexico. Please
follow the instructions below on how to logon to
these national numbers.
We belong to a roaming club which allows us to
offer local dialup in most major cities at
cents per hour. You will be billed
or whatever is listed to the right of the dial-up
number on the link above.
*********************************************
Can you even use AOL with Linux? I don't think so.
Of course, the idea of using public libraries is a most excellent one too! Visiting America's public libraries along route 66 would be most fun. And librarians are always knowledgeable on local things to see and do!
When I travel, I don't have a dialup ISP. Instead, if I have any serious need to check email, I stop at a Kinko's photocopy center. They have rented Windows and Mac terminals with Internet access. Expensive to surf, but easy to telnet into my shell ISP and use PINE.
There's more rental spots out there, if you know where to look. I saw fax slots and sit-down web/email kiosks in Chicago Midway a couple weeks ago.
[
Personally I think the AOL idea is fabualous. They have access everywhere (first priority in this case) and you get to screw them. Think about it. They offer one month's free access with a trillion hours or something. You sign up and cancel after 29 day. It was free. AOL gets nothing, you get the access you want, and at only slightly slower speeds than a real ISP would have given you. You sign on , minimize the window, and use real net tools. Course if you use *nix that won't work (no client), try Earthnet/Mindspring. They are fairly huge.
I don't need a million points of light, just two points of multi-mode fiber and a 10 Gig-E router.
How about a free service, so you don't have to worry about an ISP subscription for a single month? I've used freei.net for a little while, and it's pretty good. They use sliprock for their dialin access, and they have tons of local access points.
My ISP is a member of a group of ISP's called U.S. Online, which allows any member to use their username/login with any other ISP in the group. (Nationwide roaming). So if you signed up with any U.S. Online ISP you could use any other U.S. Online ISP. The only down side is that you have to look up a local dial-up number in every different place you are, and the coverage is not completely "Nationwide", but they do have a member ISP in most major cities. U.S. Online
Outside of the largest cities there are few cybercafes in the U.S., but every little place has a Kinko's copy center. Most are open 24 hours a day, and most have internet connected PC's and Mac's that you can rent. I forget the exact fee, but it's not very much. They will usually have scanners and color printers as well.
Today, you could probably do the same using Earthlink, and for a bit more service cost you can even use a toll-free dialup number. What you don't pay in phone costs, you make up for it ISP billing, but it is a good way to keep connected, particularly in some of the more sparse regions of the American southwest.
------
WWhhaatt ddooeess dduupplleexx mmeeaann??
This sig intentionally left justified.
I think that you should use one of the free ISPs. Even though you may not be able to get access everywhere, thats OK. Save your photos on your laptop, and then every couple of days, when you can get access, upload the pictures and do your emailing. Also, try to use a convertible on your trip. It will be much more enjoyable - you will get a better view and will be much more comfortable. For me, air conditioning or windows rolled down just don't cut it when driving in the desert in August. I just took a trip from Chicago to Florida over Christmas, and went a week without net access. I thought that I wouldn't survive, since I normally am on the internet 2-4 hours a day. I didn't miss it. You probably wouldn't either - there will be so much beautiful scenery that you'll have a hard time keeping your eyes on the road. I also must reiterate that you should stop for fuel often and bring lots of water. I don't recommend taking extra fuel in your trunk - thats pretty dangerous. One thing that hasn't been mentioned yet: SUNSCREEN. Use it. You'll probably want a high SPF rating (like 30). And last of all, talk to people. The people in small towns are usually very happy to talk to visitors, and they can be very interesting. You may want an audio recorder (ask before you record anyone), as many of the stories I've heard were absolutely golden - they would make great companions to the pictures you put on your website. Older people usually have the best stories, and are usually the most willing to talk to you. Enjoy
I made a trip trough Europe last summer, and also wanted to check my email and stuff while travelling. I bought a "PowerPort Coupler" on ebay then. This is some kind of advanced acoustic coupler, you don't connect it to the serial port, but directly to a PCMCIA-modem. Like that, i got connections up to 26400 bps... No problem to check mail or the latest news on slashdot =). If you cant get one cheap (I paid about 20$ for mine), these couplers are still built by "Konexx", and cost 128$ new (www.walkabouttravelgear.com).
Many of them actually "feature" ;) big-time surcharges. Well, maybe not *so* big-time, but not fun if you don't realize that you're going to get a hefty bill (often $5-10 / hr.) after you've used it over the course of a month.
timothy
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
For short term visitors to another country, it is best to rely on the service of ISP where your established credit exist. For your case, GB.
...) traveling business persons. Valid credit card may be needed. Check yellow page for their locations. Any medium size US cities have these stores.
Since compatibility is always the issue, KISS is my approach. I.e., dial up access through your GB ISP using their access point in USA is the best bet. If you are in medium size city, you have good chance of having access point as local number. Save WEB page of accesss number on your computer for convienience!
International ISP, AOL, MSN, IBM,... all have plans for you to access outside of the country you originally made contract. Some times these requires optional fees and restriction, so check their WEB site for latest info. (I used to use MSN, currently AOL)
If you hate those big boys, even medium to smaller size ISP offers these international access points too through business arrangement they make with group of foreign ISPs. Again, check their WEB site.
As for physical phone access, if you are in USA/Canada/Japan, you have standard US phone jack at your Hotel room. Some cheap hotels and Hyatt charges per call fees to local calls, be warned. I use Marriott and its affiliates mostly for this reason.
In the USA/Canada, if you have ATT calling card or MCI calling card with 1-800 numbrer access, you can avoid these per call charges (It's a law). My experiences with these long distance call networks have been noisey and never gave me decent connection speed. So do not count on it for computer. But some pay phone have ridicurous per minutes local call fees in the US, it will be handy thing to use. Find some way to get them before leaving your country.
If you are thinking about sleeping in the car or so, think about getting coupler (one attaches to handset), since public phone in US does not have phone jack equiped. (Well mostly too bad condition to be used for any use.) (In Japan, there are many GRAY public phones with regular and ISDN phone jacks equiped.) Internet cafe is rare existance so do not count on it.
One place to look after for the last resort of computer support is "KINKO's" or similar copy shops. They do not only support XEROX COPY but have functions to support (PRINTER, PHONE with Jack,
Good luck traveling.
AOL is free for one month, and when you go to cancle it they will offer you another month for free!. He doesnt need to put a real address (hell i never do). All that has to be real is his CC # And the phone number he is making the account from. If he runs windows its the best way to go.
If you're going to buy stuff... Then i suggest you go to one of the UK GSM providers (it beas me which ones are 900, i know Orange isn't tough), get an ericsson i888 for something like 20 GBP with a new contract, find (borrow) a Psion Series 5 or 5mx (there's a large UK online retailer with excellent prices), align the IR ports, and you're off... This is _not_ the cheapest solution (you'll have to pay extra for the roaming costs), tough your calls will NOT cost you US-uk-US rates but only the local mobile provider rates! I've done this myself several times, and it works out fine if you can limit yourself to access in medium-sized cities+. Bowman
If you're looking for a listing of web cafes in the US and around the world, there's one at www.webcafeguide.com- it can be a bit slow. Have a great trip.
Fuck, I can't believe it, there are FLOODS of TROLLS cluttering Slashdot, and some anal moderators mod me down whereas my post IS informative AND related to the topic at hand. WHAT THE FUCK DOES THIS MEAN????
If you are running Win32 or MacOS I think AOL is the best way to go. You can get a month for free (sometimes they offer you another month when you go to cancle the acct) and they have POP almost in every calling area. The client software stores/looks up the phone numbers for any calling area so you don't even have to worry about that. And as for the address problem, Just put a fake one in. Hell all you need to give them is your CC# and the phone # of the place you are making the account from. It will save you alot of junk snailmail. And if you really feel bad about putting a fake addy in then put you UK one in.
Yep. Make sure you've got enough memory (or whatever it eats, besides batteries) for the camera, and leave a message with your friends (i.e. the ones you trust not to ransack your place while you're gone) saying, "gone fishin'."
/. until you get back. "Despite beliefs to the contrary, the world will continue to turn in your absence." It'll all be here, replete with its petty squabbling and linux evangelism.
:-) The computer/'net is becoming one of those 'daily things' that, much as we may love 'em, are exactly what we take holidays to get away from.
That's all the connectivity you need.
Kick back. Take it easy. Take lots of pictures. Do lots of weird things. Don't worry about email or (god forbid!) reading
I speak from experience here. Being a fairly hardwired geek, I absolutely LOVE taking holidays where the closest I get to a computer is the ATM. (or when I'm backpacking, my whisperlite
"People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
It's free - but you still have to provide a cc#. I don't want aol/TW to have my credit information.
-----------------
AOL IP Tunnel client for Unix (Console/Networking)
Access the Internet via AOL on your Unix box created: Sep 29th 1999, 14:59 last update: September 29th 1999, 18:04 stable: none - devel: 0.5 - license: OpenSource
------------
Its on Freshmeat. And who the hell said anything about Linux?!? Why PAY for net access when he could get it for FREE for a month? And ive never seen a ISP with more POP's then AOL. Whe cares of they are evil, he is just going to cancle the account before he has to pay them one dime anyways.
Believe it or not, Kinko's has 'net access from every one of their locations. Recently they set up their networks using DHCP and standard ethernet. Most of them have dual ISDN type speeds. I recently crisscrossed the country and needed high speed access to upload video from every city. Don't ask the Kinko's employees, they don't have any idea, but you just plug into their "laptop printing station" and start doing your trsansfers. If you don't print anything they won't charge you. Best of luck.
Truck stops, my man. They all have lots of phones and most of them have modem ports. They're 24 hour establishments, and as a bonus they usually have showers for rent. Also, many of them out west have net access terminals, but they're spendy.
I've been wrestling with this problem for a few years and here's some of the things i've learned:
Long distance calls from a hotel are extremely expensive. Avoid usung LD to connect from a hotel at all costs. Buy lots of prepaid phone cards if you have to use LD to connect.
Be very careful where you plug your PCMCIA modem!!! If you huck your little rj-11 into a digital phone outlet you will fry the teeny-weent relay. IBM makes a little rig that you plug into a phone jack to check what kind of line it is. Another poster said to get an external modem - that's always a good thing to have as they're a lot harder to kill.
If ya go with AOL it will leave a greasy stain on your soul. Just try to het them to leave you alone after you drop 'em. Ha!
Any tmie I can get to a www terminal I check my mail with one of those free accounts through yahoo or that microsoft one. They'll allow you to get your POP3 mail as well.
web mail is OK, but you don't want to connect to it using a cell phone/modem. I only use it to get send/recieve POP3 mail. I've got a Nokia 6190 with a data cable and it's great for connecting on the road. One major drawback - the Nokia uses a proprietary protocol (virtual modem) that will only function under windows. That is the only reason I keep a 300MB win98 partition on my notebook.
one better than mcleodeight
Things to watch for:
- There may be a remaining US-66 shield on an Interstate sign near Miami, OK. There were a couple of them in 1993 when I went through.
- One of the all-time legendary US roadside attractions: The Thing, in Cochise AZ. Cheap to get in, falls into the category of "We're here, we might as well do it."
- Cadillac Ranch, outside Amarillo, of course.
Check out http://www.roadsideamerica.com if you want more.HTH,
Mark
Save Maine's economy: write stuff down. All comments are exclusively my own, not my employer.
You might try out www.freewwweb.com. They're one of the free ISP's and they've got nation-wide coverage (it looks like they connect into UUNet's dialup system). For whatever reason (and I can't figure out how they make money unless they track usage), they don't force any ads on you, and they require no special software. Their web site has a list of all their phone numbers. You can sign up online and your account is instantly created. Just read the FAQ before you get started (for example, you should know that you log in with "username@freewwweb.com" instead of just "username").
Let's get a bunch of folxen together and meet in Springfield (about 4 hours south of Chicago), or maybe Bloomington (I know Springfield better), which is about 3 hours south of Chicago. I have friends in both cities, and I'm certain that we could find something interesting to do. Springfield has the Illinois State Museum, as well as the State Capital and a bunch of historic sites dealing with Abraham Lincoln. E-mail me if you are interested - kpeters@iname.com
Ye Pope
Pope Felix the Scurrilous.
Computer Geek by day, religious Icon by night.
I'd be tempted to try out some of the free solutions. Several of my family members use Juno.com for e-mail service and they have dialups in almost every city in the US larger than 20k. However, their free service only covers e-mail and they require you to use their goofy windows-only software that displays banner ads while you work offline. You dial up only to transfer mail.
Also, I believe that Altavista is offering some sort of free internet as well. My brother tried it and couldn't get it to work. However, they seemed to have dialups all across the country as well. Of course, it's Windows only, and it appeared to borgify your dialup networking. But hey, it's free.
I'm sure there are other free services out there, but those are the two I'm familiar with.
Most hotels I've stayed in had a regular phone jack, or had a convenient "data" jack for traveling business people to use. But most of these have been nicer places... not your average $25 a night roadtrip motels. But even those may have a jack available in the lobby, if nothing else. Frequently, larger truck stops will have booths or tables in their resturaunt area that have phones. I've never noticed if they have usable jacks, though. Frequently, airports have payphones that have data jacks available for laptops... but I doubt they'd be at a train or bus stations (generally Americans don't use buses or trains... and especially not business travelers).
But otherwise, I hope you have a great trip to America! Don't waste your time at Disney World like so many other foreign visitors I've known. Get out and see the diverse landscape, people and culture that exists all in one country! And remember to drive on the RIGHT side of the road.
Sing up for IBM Global Net - it's $30/month, however (and here's the cool part) you can try it out FREE for 1 month and then cancel without paying anything. They have local dial-up numbers in all the big cities throughout N. America. I used this on a business trip a while back and it was a dream...
- Internet cafes are less common in north america as most people surf from home/work.. Don't expect to depend on them..
- I wouldn't bother trying for wireless access. It'll cost you a bundle and if you just want to upload picutes and keep up, you can wait till you get to a hotel room I assume..
A laptop with a roadwarrior kit would be my method of choice. Pick an ISP with lots of access numbers.. AOL is probably the easiest, but there are lots of other choices.. When you checkin, tell them you need to use a modem in your room.. Common request these days at any half decent hotel..
This is a cool idea. If you hook up your laptop to the network directly, you should have no problems with those universities (those bastiches) that try to limit access to their labs to just students, by implementing some sort of password system. Along your route, I know that Illinois State University in Bloomington has some sort of wierd access policy, and you might have to show a card to get in or something.
Pope Felix the Scurrilous.
Computer Geek by day, religious Icon by night.
As for net access: Go with public libraries, or get an account with somebody like NetZero. Yes, they are Windows only, but they are free. The bad thing about getting an AOL account is they are next to impossible to get rid of: they are like a roach motel - once you check in, you cannot check out.
As for hotel phone lines: Almost all hotels now have a modem jack on the side of the phone so that you won't blow your modem out. However, lots of hotels also try to screw you when you call an 800 number, so be careful.
Lastly, I suggest you look into some good mapping software. I use Delorme's AAA Map N Go, which runs (sort of ) under Wine (and flawlessly under Windows). Add to it their cheap GPS receiver, and you will make your travels a lot nicer.
www.eFax.com are spammers
- Full-Featured Email from your existing accounts
- Real Web Content with access to virtually any Internet site
- Enhanced Palm Applications for easy record sharing
- High-Speed Modem for the Palm V for fast access on Cellular Digital Packet Data (CDPD) Networks
- Unlimited Nationwide CDPD Wireless Service with free roaming
There is no definite price listed on the site, but they do say "Monthly standard subcriber rates will not exceed $49.95" and that's no so bad for nationwide coverage.Also: It is only for Palm V users, but I am sure someone out there can figure out how to get a laptop to work with that Minstrel wireless modem.
I'd rather recommend you to ask your operator in UK about a favour. AFAIK they are quite helpful to persons, which going to be in US for short time. So, they could give you an AMPS/D-AMPS phone for time of travel (usually you should left them your current phone). But the price of roaming could be quit high. They can help you also to choose right ISP to make your amusement with Net more cheaper. So, ask your mobile operator...
this field has been intentionally left blank
What you just described is the standard European two-pin power plug. If you need a ground, there's some slight variation between countries, but if you don't need ground, the plug is basically the same everywhere on the Continent. Britain, OTOH, uses a wacky three-pin plug with huge rectangular pins (make it a little larger and it'd almost pass for one of our dryer plugs) and a fuse in every plug. Their outlets also have a switch at the outlet. And that's just the newer standard (13-amp plug)...there are three older plug designs that you might find in older buildings (though IIRC adapters are available to go between them...the existence of these multiple plug designs is why the power cord on an electrical device you buy there usually is terminated in two or three bare wires, to which you attach the appropriate type of plug yourself...at least this was how they were doing things '84-'86, when I lived there).
20 January 2017: the End of an Error.
If you need to communicate, just use payphones and the U.S. Mail. (If people need to reach you on the road, then you're not on vacation and shouldn't be taking one!)
If you need to keep a journal, take a stack of dead trees. Scrawlings and doodles will make for much better memories.
If you want to take photos, stick with a film camera. What happens if your digicam's memory card is full and you can't upload its contents or buy a new card? You can buy good old-fashioned film anywhere.
And for God's sake, don't waste your vacation reading Slashdot!
/joeyo
2^5
800 numbers only work in the US and Canada. But wherever you are you just dial the same number and get the same service. In hotels, of course, you frequently have the variation of having to dial "9" first to get an outside line.
Disclaimer. This is simply the best deal that I've found. I don't have first-hand knowledge of the quality of their service, etc... Caveat emptor.
Some other people mentioned ibm.net, the IBM Global Network. That is now attbusiness.net. It's not cheap. My own experience with it is on the whole decent. But they do have a number of problems. In Camden County, New Jersey for instance, their Cherry Hill number has invariably led to bad connections for me. Additionally, their DNS servers go offline once in a while. So I would not recommend IBM/AT&T Business Network. (Note that attbusiness.net is not AT&T World Net. The latter is the consumer service.)
Expensive version: bring your laptop, purchase nationwide ISP service, and constantly manage a phone line connection. Bring lots of extra RJ-11 equipment with you.
Cheap version: get a webmail account that collects all your mail. I like netscape.net, for example. Access it from Kinko's stores (a common photocopier/office supply store), libraries, cybercafes, and wherever.
Good luck.
I am not a lawyer.
Based in Southern CA, my isp (tfb.com) has nationwide dialup #'s via a company called megapop, who resells nationwide (almost everywhere US) dialup #'s. I use my dialup on the road with my PCS phone (Motorola Timeport) it's only 14.4, but it works well for ssh and /.
=)
Have a good vacation.
I don't know if Kinko's Copy Centers are a national chain (although I've been able to find one in every city that I visit) but if not, I'm sure you can find one in the phone book by checking the yellow pages. Or try looking for some kind of coverage map on their web site?
= -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
90% of the copy places I have visited have some kind of "rent-a-computer" program with Internet access. Prices range from $10 per hour (minimum of one hour) to $6 per hour (no minimum).
Whenever I travel, I setup Outlook Express (no jeers please, it is a great e-mail client) with a "Vacation" rule that automatically forwards a copy of all my mail to a Hotmail account, then replies back to the sender to let them know that I might not be checking my e-mail every day.
Then, I go by Kinko's and rent one of their computers so that login to Hotmail and catch up on Slashdot, etc. Cyber cafes are just as good, except I have found them to be much more pricey and much harder to find in the yellow pages (Computer Services - Miscellaneous?).
- JoeShmoe
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
-- I wonder which will go down in history as the bigger failure: the War on Drugs or the War on Filesharing
Actually, Juno now offers free web access in addition to free email, so they might be worth checking out. You can go to www.juno.com to download their software. They have access numbers all over the country. Just keep in mind that they are Windows only, and there will constantly be an ad on the screen.
Then one day at work I wanted to connect (I work at a computer retailer with phonelines but no ISP). I tried AOL, using a borrowed account from a friend, but it was annoying getting spam just for existing, and it wouldn't have been worth it if I had been paying the bill for the account. So then I tried netzero. It takes a little while to download all the updates, etc., but once you've gotten through the mess it's actually adecent ISP. You have to put up with a small add window, which if you are running 1024x768 should not be a problem at all. The speeds I get are actually better tan the speeds I got with AOL, which is not to say blazing, but respectable nontheless. I believe that NetZero has decent PoP presence throughout the country.
The only problem with this stuff, AOL and NetZero, is that you need windows to connect, because they use proprietary software.
If you want to connect with linux, I might recommend AT&T worldnet, with whom I've had a pretty good experience as well, and who also has decent PoP coverage. I've also heard that Earthlink is decent, but I've had no real experience. They both cost some money, but that's what you have to put up with if you're a linux junky.
--------
"He's more machine now than man, twisted and evil."
Okay, this is a commercial post, but I have a few customers on the road, so I have done it before. I work for NetRevolution, an ISP in Canada. We offer unlimited access for $19.95 CDN ($13 US) in over 800 US cities. Your can move from city to city with this account. We also resell the IPASS service, it covers more than 5000 cities worldwide. This is an option to your account, you pay between $2 and $15 per hour, billed in one-second increments. That's not cheap, but *way* cheaper than long-distance using payphones. Speaking of payphones, you might want to check Konexx. They sell the Konexx Coupler, which is a gadget you strap on any phone and plug into your laptop. So you can use internet at up to 26400 bps on any public phone. Jean-Michel Dault jmdault@netrevolution.com
I've been traveling around the US for about a month in a VW camper van. It's been a great time, but I *AM* supposed to be working while on this trip, so I've had to have regular net access... Below is my list ways to get access and my experiences with them.
:-)
:-)
:-). This worked really well as the Kinkos there was laptop unfriendly as far as net access goes.
:-)
:-)
First a note on assumptions... I have a laptop, which is my primary machine for the trip. As I have a camper-van, I want to minimize stays at hotels just for net access. In most cases, I have things organized on my laptop so I can do things off-line, then connect up and dump my e-mail, pick up a new batch, etc...
I have a digital camera and DO want to upload the images from it. Spooling these is no real problem either.
TECHNOLOGY
I am, of course, using Linux. I have set up UUCP over an OpenSSH forwarded socket for doing e-mail. Further, I have prioritized my incoming e-mail and use UUCP grades so that "interesting" e-mail comes across before other. I ended up writing my own simple MTA to process the incoming and outgoing mail (my past attempts using sendmail/qmail left me wanting a SIMPLE leaf-node system).
UUCP can also be used for batching and transferring the pictures and other things. If you have control of the remote system (which I do), doing this is no problem. TaylorUUCP does things like sending and receiving at the same time (to minimize call duration), and continuation of partial transmissions (great for cell phones if you get dropped during a large message).
Your life may change some if you really want to do web browsing, in particular if your accessing a web-based e-mail system. I simply need a couple of minutes and can be on the road again ready to rock. I often *DO* spend more time than that, talking via IRC with folks back at the office, looking at web pages, etc...
For dial-up access I have been using Earthlink. So far, only one city in rural Illinois didn't have access. They have good coverage, and I've not had any problems with getting bumped off. Performance hasn't been stellar, it seems like I get at best around 3.5KB/sec. I'm a DSL slut.
CONNECTIVITY
FRIENDS: On most of my trip I've been visiting various folks I know. This has really made the trip -- visiting other geeks and folks I haven't seen in a long time has really made the trip. On top of that, they will usually have a POTS line, or some sort of ethernet you can jack into.
Not to mention that one of the friends I stopped by had 802.11 wireless networking. I arrived at 2am and they were asleep. I simply fired up my laptop from the van and was on the net through his DSL connection. That wins the award for "Most gratifying net access". As I'm also traveling with two laptops, I've done things like hook one laptop up to the phone line in a friends house and use it as a gateway to talk wireless from the van.
This has been hands down the most reliable way to get net access from dial-up to multi-T1 speed.
KINKOS: (A chain of copy stores, and more) In December when I was buying the van, I found out by accident that some Kinkos have ethernet connections to their "laptop stations", and that they don't charge you if you use your own computer. They will charge you computer time if you use their machines. Also, the ability to do faxes, printing, copying, etc is all really nice. Also, as a small business owner, we do tend to use Kinkos a lot, so I didn't feel overly bad about sucking down some net time from them.
I picked up a guide to their locations before starting the trip. I've since found that only a few locations actually have the ethernet setup (just run DHCP and you're in). For example, the mega Kinkos in Lincoln only had POTS access, and the ones in Uptown Minneapolis, Chicago, and others didn't even have POTS access.
Not very reliable, but when it was available it worked great.
CDPD: This seems to work great when you're in a coverage area. For $55/month I got unlimited access in primary coverage locations. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to use it since leaving Colorado. It was *SO* sweet to have net access while driving through Colorado though. The answer to the question "How do you type and drive at the same time" is "Do both badly".
It looks like the east coast had a TON of coverage, but my plans changed and I didn't make it out there. I ended up sending the modem back to Colorado so that other tummy.staff folks could make use of it.
CELLULAR: I've found this to be VERY picky. I don't even TRY to do it unless I have a full-strength signal. I wouldn't want to be uploading pictures (normal pictures on my camera are nearly 500KB), in fact I had a flood of e-mail when a file-system filled up and even that was more than I wanted to do. However, there wasn't much other choice for getting access at a rest-stop in Minnesota...
Slow, and often doesn't work, but when it does it's nice. I mostly get 4800bps connections.
HOTELS: I stayed in hotels for about a week while trying to get the fill valve on my propane system replaced. This was a slam-dunk. In the past I've had problems with some hotels, but not this trip. Problems include: Hotels that won't let you dial 800 numbers, operator intervention, hotels with the phone or jack hard-wired into the wall/phone. On a previous trip a client was having serious problems and I had to take the phone apart with my swiss army knife and hard-wire a cable in to get my RJ11.
No problems with this this trip. Works well, but at $40/day is a little pricy when I don't otherwise need to stay at a hotel.
CYBER CAFES: Found a nice one in Uptown Minneapolis -- CyberX on Lake a few blocks east of Hennepin. They had a single ethernet connection which I could use for my laptop (and I was JUST able to read the label with IP information, it had seen better days
TRUCK STOPS: Many truckstops have phones in their drivers lounge and/or restraints. Often you can jack in using these. Figuring out a local number for dial-in may be a challenge though. I haven't really been frequenting them though because I find the food questionable. Kind of the worst attributes of small local places and big chains. I prefer when I eat out to eat at a nice little local place (hint: Look for the place with all the cars parked at it
RV PARKS: A number of RV parks have telephone lines you can use for net access as well. Most don't however. Wal-Mart allows RVers to park overnight in their parking lots. As someone else mentioned, what we need is for Wal-Marts to set up 802.11 wireless access points and charge a service for IP access. That would give me a hard-on.
TWO-WAY PAGER: The Motorola Creat-a-link pagers have pretty good coverage -- far better than CDPD. They work for e-mail only, but with a 500-byte limit on message size it hasn't proven overly useful for anything but the most rudimentary contact. Messages also seem to get lost (pager card says the message was sent, but it's not received on the other end). SkyTel says they can raise the message size limit to multiple kilobytes, but they don't seem overly motivated to do so. Saying "Yeah, we CAN do that" is MUCH different than saying "Yes, we are GOING to do that on <date>".
MOBITEX: This is Ericson's wireless data protocol. I've got a pair of modems that I just haven't tried out yet, but it sounds like it has pretty good coverage. As I have a pair of them, I should be able to control both ends and do whatever I want over them. They aren't IP-based though, so you'll have to have an arrangement to get data routed to the Internet. Much better coverage than CDPD though from what I've heard (closer to the two-way pagers).
SATELLITE: The current two-way satellite systems require (as far as I know) a fairly large dish (3 foot). They also have pretty bad latency -- around half a second, and are not cheap. I would SERIOUSLY consider a 19" dish system if they were available.
CONCLUSION
For my trip, what I *REALLY* want is some sort of satellite system. I'd like to be able to camp out in the wilderness for several days and still be able to check my mail. All I really need is to be able to send and receive e-mail 1 to 12 times a day. Interactive access would be nice, but not strictly necessary.
So far, visiting friends has been the most reliable way to get net access, and has been the most rewarding. I feel silly carrying around all the crap I do just to stay connected (one small bag with 2 laptops, all sorts of wireless stuff, modem, ethernet, cables). However, sometimes you just have to trust your technolust.
http://www.isp800.com Is working wonderfuly for me. I travel a lot, and I'm based in a very rural area in California where the phone company charges for local calls! I did a ton a research, and although most ISP that offer 800 numbers charge pretty hefty surcharges, ISP800 is fifteen bucks a month, unlimited access, and no surcharges whatsoever. It works great for me. Some hotels will charge extra for 800 calls, but other than that, it's wonderful. Shadowsong (Geek chicks- WE DO EXIST!)
- Full-Featured Email from your existing accounts
- Real Web Content with access to virtually any Internet site
- Enhanced Palm Applications for easy record sharing
- High-Speed Modem for the Palm V for fast access on Cellular Digital Packet Data (CDPD) Networks
- Unlimited Nationwide CDPD Wireless Service with free roaming
There is no definite price listed on the site, but they do say "Monthly standard subcriber rates will not exceed $49.95" and that's no so bad for nationwide coverage.Also: It is only for Palm V users, but I am sure someone out there can figure out how to get a laptop to work with that Minstrel wireless modem.
OK... this is coming straight from an American living in the UK.
Yes the phone jacks are completely different in both size/shape and electrically. US phone lines use 2 of the four wires in the cable while the British phone system uses all four. To make this worse the 2 extra wires are for the ringer from what I can determine as well and the 2 wires it does use (the center ones I believe) for the actaully signal are reversed.
This is really easy to fix, find a Military Base (in the UK) that has the US Military on it and buy a cross-over cable (British to US). This could be difficult however because only US military and dependents are allowed to buy things from the BX (Base Exchange), but go to a Tandy store near one of these bases and you should be able to find one.
Also consider the equipment you are bringing, can you switch it to run on 110/115 VAC at 60 HZ and do you have a US style power plug or an adapter (much smaller than the native British power plug)?
Most hotels in the US have standard RJ11 (modular) jacks, although some charge $.25-1.00 for placing a local call.
Ok, so I didn't read the posts prior to this...
I didn't know you caould get adapters at PC World, but then again paying for it pounds isn't actaully what I like to do, so...
My repy was mainly for the person goin to the states... oopps.
I believe a lot of Universities (USC included) check the MAC address of any device trying to use the network, and only allow MAC addresses that have already been registered to be allowed on the net. This gives them more protection and ensures that they will be able to track any malicious use of their network.
Sig goes here
I work at a Petro and have heard a lot of praise about this service. It believe it is called Park'n'View or somethign like that but dont' quote me. I have heard from several truckers who have used it that it is excellent. I believe it is a station that you park next to and then you get phone lines and lines for satelite too. I am not sure on the specifics but i believe that if you wanted to park a car there and were going to pay the same rate as the truckers that they would let you do it.
If you want my respect, give it first...
If you don't want my respect, expect mine before you give it.
Wow this seems dangerous for Berkeley. You could easily get a bunch of friends together, and launch any sort of attack using Berkeley's network using your own laptops. Your attack would be untracable since it would look like it is coming from a computer at Berkeley. Also, since you are using your own computer, your attack could do anything it wants since you could control the network stack. Isn't this a huge security risk?
Sig goes here
- Atlas Internet Limited
- CommUnity
- Compulink Information Exchange Ltd.
- Easynet Group Plc.
- FDD Ltd
- Hiway Communications Ltd.
- Internet For Business
- Internet Network Services
- Japan Globe
- Nildram Ltd
- PSINet UK Ltd
- Pavilion Internet Plc
- Technocom Plc
- U-Net Ltd
They also have an impressive set of national and local US ISPs to dial in. I've used Gric to dial into other ISPs across Europe using my Easynet France account. Worked very well, though you naturally have to use dynamic IP.Take a look at www.gric.net.
David
Berkeley doesn't do that anymore. You have to register now (LIPS and then they let you use it, using a DHCP configuration. To go into the library that has the connections, you have to be a student, or have a drivers' license and be over 18.
sometimes, though, it is nice to disconnect. if your trip is a vacation of sorts, you may wish to consider that alternative.
--thi
Welcome to America!
A trip from Chicago to Los Angeles in the early spring will provide you with a breathtaking tour across our country. It is a wonderful journey to take, and you will be pleasantly surprised at how "connected" you can continue to be. Connecting to the Internet from practically any place along your journey will be a breeze.
Let me make some assumptions: I'm assuming that you're renting a car, and that you're planning on staying in hotels or motels as you travel. (That is, you're not hitchhiking with a tent.) Practically any motel room you find will have a phone--you'll quickly discover which hotel chains offer free local calls, and which charge $1 per local call. If you want to stay a little off the beaten track you find lots of local independent motels--but those will almost always charge a hefty price ($0.75 to $1) per local call.
However--you may not find paying $1 per local call to be that big a deal. Local calls in the United States (in most areas) do not have any time charges--you make the local connect and you can stay on the line as long as you like. Similarly, practically no ISP has a connect time charge for local access (ISPs typically do charge for connect time if you are connecting via a toll-free number--because they're paying for that toll-free call).
You're wise to think of the problems of using a non-US cell phone, and to think of what kind of jack to use in a hotel room. However--you should also carefully consider what kind of modem you have. You may be surprised to discover that many modems (particularly inexpensive ones) may not be legal to use outside your country. This little surprise catches a lot of US travelers--the UK periodically makes a point of confiscating "illegal" modems from notebook users when they clear Customs. "Turnabout is fair play" is something of a truism with customs and immigration authorities--if the Brits are being jerks by confiscating modems, you can expect customs officials in other countries to look very closely at the modems of UK travellers. Make sure your modem is labelled as being registered with the U.S. Federal Communications Commission.
I'm sure you're aware that the electrical sockets are different in the U.S., as is the electrical voltage. If you know of a shop in the UK that sells the electrical converters, they will sell you any necessary kits for connecting to phone lines as well. If you can't find such kits in your area, buy one in the gift shops at Heathrow before you board the plane. When you land in Chicago you will not find any shops in the International Terminal--you clear customs and immigration and proceed directly to the tram to the domestic side of the airport. To get to airport shops at the other terminals (the best shopping is in United's concourse, which is Terminal One) you will have to go back through the barrier.
Check with your local ISP about whether they offer a roaming plan. Most ISPs in the US participate in POP-sharing plans that have connect points around the world. Failing that, AOL and CompuServe have the most local nodes (they're related--AOL owns CompuServe). You can sign up for either in the UK (even on a trial membership) and then drop it when you return home.
Welcome!
There are plenty of ISP's that have phone numbers everywhere that HateOL shouldn't even have to be mentioned here.
Hey, you think your house is cool?
I always used my Compuserve account to dial in via an 800 number which is free in most hotels.
Next time you're shopping for a GSM phone you might want to consider the Ericsson SH888i phone which contains a built in 'modem' (yeah I know it's not really a modem) accessible via infrared. It also supports the US 1900 MHz GSM standard as well as the 900 & 1800 Mhz used in the rest of the world. You could be connected world-wide with a Palm Pilot and just the phone. Small package...
Regards,
Xenna
I have an acount with a free ISP here in the states called netzero. Pretty handy when you're out of town and don't feel like paying serious long distance charges. Check out their local access numbers at access numbers. Sure they throw up a banner ad on your screen, but for what you get it's not a bad trade off.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity -RAH
A couple of years ago.. I think it was 94 or 95 my neighbour traveled with her friends along route 66 writing a book about it..
And during that time they had net connection and uploaded their pictures and writings to a webpage so that you could follow their way.
Unfortunately I don't have either links or the finished book they made.. I just remember that it wasn't very much noticed by the public becasue of the poor internet knowledge back then.
/* We dance to the sounds of sirens and we watch genocide to relax*/
It wasn't clear to me from your note as to whether you didn't think there was GSM service at all in the U.S. or just that you thought coverage was inadequate.
GSM exists in the U.S. on 1900 MHz, and your existing European/UK/anywhere else SIM card should work with most of the U.S. GSM 1900 providers.
They will all rent you a phone for a month, and the services you've come to love should work identically. (except that some providers don't gateway SMS messages well, like Pacific Bell)
I'd suggest you look up Omnipoint in New York - they seem savvy with travellers.
Hope this helps
Flying J offers this service, works very nicely. About 200$ a month though. You park your rig by a little yellow box on the ground and plug in. Most flying J's have these now.
Only problems with this. 1) 200$ a month is expensive 2) Don't park your car by the rigs, (the only place the ports are) You will get bad reactions from the drivers.
Other than that it works well. Thouh I ususaly just use my palmpilot+modem in the resturants to check e-mail and so on. Using a calling card to pay for the call to my home ISP. Works very well but the surcharges on the phones will eat a phone card realy fast if you only use it for like 2 min at a time.
http://www.xpurple.com
Okay, this is not an attempt to a flame but...
For a site that prides itself on being the more 'technical', avoiding the general prattfalls and such that most 'News' sites fall into, the headline has an issue.
The headline, <i>'American Road Trip',</i> is generally ignorant. Go to anywhere in the Americas, yet outside of the US and claim you are 'American'. You will almost be smacked and informed that they are also. From Chile's Tierra del Fuego to the Nortern-most province of Canada all the citizens are 'Americans'. The phrase 'American' implies that they are not.
Granted, I live in USA, yadda yadda, but can this geocentricism be productive in this time of 'Global Thought'?
-Steve
P.S. (sorry for the rushed format, I am at work)
My intelligence insults itself.
Before this story gets archived, I'd just like to thanks everyone for their extremely helpful comments - and that includes the many people who mailed me personally, some of whom I've failed to reply to individually.
I've decided not to bother with wireless access, for several reasons. The cost and the patchy coverage, yes, but also as several people pointed out, when I'm out travelling, there'll be far more interesting things to see than my laptop screen.
So, it's a PCMCIA modem, and the phone sockets in the hotel in the evening. I work for IBM, and I'm a little embarassed that using my work's dialup didn't occur to me. D'Oh!
Also, thanks to the people who offered to meet me along the way. I hope to see a few of you.
Thanks again, and I hope to wow you with some stories and some pics of the desert and the neon come August.
Slim
--
Sounds like a great trip. We actually traveled part of this route last year (Route 66) as part of our travels (southpoint.com). We make updates often on the road. See our journal notes there. Be sure to allow plenty of time to see stuff along the route. You have to turn off the main Interstate often to go along the original Route 66. Plenty of 50's Americana to see. In Peach Springs is a Shell service station dating back to the 1920s. In Seligman, grab a burger at the famous Snow Cap Drive-In. The owner has a sense of humor as dry as the landscape. A good place is Kinkos. You can hook up your notebook and check email for free. Other than the AOL or NetZero route, try bluelight.com, freei.net, or altavista.com. Also, try the local library, many now have Internet access where you can check your email through a web browser. Cybercafes are convenient, but not likely on Route 66. Cheers
I just travelled Europe for three weeks using IPass, and with the exception of Venice, Italy and all POPs near it, I was able to successfully connect to the Internet from almost anywhere via a local or nearby POP.
Very cool. Recommended. I used it with the IPass MCM dialer for NT on my laptop, they also have 95 and Mac dialers. Not sure how it works with linux, but it seems to be plain old PPP, and you login with username@yourisp.net and your regular password, so I imagine if you have the list of local POP numbers, you can use almost any platform.
-- There is no truth. There is only Perception. To Percieve is to Exist.