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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?"
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?
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?
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
> What ISPs should I look at?
There are plenty of ISP's that will give you normal access for nothing, and you don't need windows software if you don't want - a good starting point is www.freeserve.co.uk
> Do hotels have phone jacks?
It depends on the sort of hotels you are going for; the dodgy ones may not. The better ones probably will. =)
> What is the electrical power standard in the UK?
230 volts, AC, ~50Hz.
> Do I need a wacky adapter for my laptop?
Probably. The chances are your laptop has a transformer that automatically copes with the power supply of any country you plug it into (but check this). Then all you need to do is change your US plug into a UK one. You can do this with a kit from Radio Shack that doesn't even cost $20, if I remember rightly from when I was last in there. You're looking for a setup with lots of strange 'grey' bits. You may need a grounding adaptor, depending on what you buy.
> Are phone jacks the same?
Sadly not, I can't remember the name of the standard of our phone plugs, but one can easily obtain adaptors that mean you can plug an RJ11 into our phone socket without messing around. A standard UK shop like PC World would get you one of these adaptors.
> Do modems use the same dialtone, ringing, etc... as they do in the states?
I bought a laptop in the states, brought it back to the UK, and once I'd got the adaptors so that it was connected to power and phone, it was just like being in the US. Worked fine.
> What size area do ISPs cover in the country?
Most ISPs in the UK have one number throughout the entire country, but still charge you local rates instead of national rates. These numbers typically begin with '0345'.
> Can I get one that will work in France as well?
> Is any of the above different in France?
If I'm right, plugs are different too (but your Radio Shack adaptor will sort that out right?). I have no experience with the French phone or internet setup, so I can't tell you about ISP's or phone plugs. One thing you *can* do, is buy a 'travellers' kit for your laptop's modem that gives you every adaptor and tool you need to connect to the phone system of every country in the place.
thenerd.
The camels are coming. I'm in love.
The camels are coming. I'm in love.
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 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
converters, but these are prohibited for connection to the telephone network.
Prohibited unless authorized. Same stands for all EU countries.
Buy a convertor from Blackbox or someone else who sells authorized ones (grin). Or do it yourself (it is just a different plug).
Baker's Law: Misery no longer loves company. Nowadays it insists on it
http://www.sigsegv.cx/
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.
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/
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.
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.
In the words of the (corny) poet: "What is this world if, full of care, we have no time to stop and stare"
We only plan to drive a couple of hours a day. Lots of sightseeing to be done. Bumper stickers to be bought at Meramec caverns, detours to the Grand Canyon and Vegas. Etc.
--
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?
Ummm... you stop and visit places on the way?
Just a theory, based on the way some people behave when they're on vacation. Or were you assuming the guy above is trying to save on the difference of a plane ticket from Europe to Chicago instead of to California?
Chris
San Francisco values: compassion, tolerance, respect, intelligence
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.
The UK is full of free national ISPs. They typically offer free web space, web or IMAP/POP3 based email and a national dialup number charged at local rates. I'd recommend one to which you can subscribe before you leave, such as Freedom 2 Surf, who I've been using for many years now. They run a lot on Linux and are generally Unix friendly.
Do hotels have phone jacks?
Some do. You may find a lot of digital exchanges, though, where you'll probably be out of luck. Also, bear in mnd that local calls in the UK are not free, and the hotel will add their own extortionate overhead on top of that. Be sure to check the prices in advance.
Can I get one that will work in France as well?
Compuserve. My sister spends half the year in France and half in the UK, and Compuserve is the only one we could find that gives local call access in both countries. Many ISPs are part of the iPass global roaming scheme which allows local call access from most places around the world. However, the cost of access from outside of the ISPs native country makes it prohibitively expensive for any serious work.
"The invisible and the non-existent look very much alike." -- Delos B. McKown
NB local rate is 1.5p/minute 6pm-8am and 1p/minute weekends from a domestic phone.
11.0010010000111111011010101000100010000101101000
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
One tip about cybercafes: there are five enormous cybercafes in London (and more to come around the UK and Europe, apparently) which are not only open 24 hours but which, last time I checked, were free between (I think) midnight and 10am, and only £1/hour all day.
http://www.easyeverything.com/
11.0010010000111111011010101000100010000101101000
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!!!
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.
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
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.
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.
[
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
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
>I recommend
>staying in as many dinky little 50's circa Motel's rather than the horrible chain motels. YOu can get a room in most of these places for 20 to 30
>bucks a night and some of them are real architectural gems.
Good advice. I did the cross-country thing six years ago (in my relatively new & still reliable convertible, gloat, gloat), & would call ahead each morning to make reservations for that night. One of my best discoveries was the last cottage-style motels in SE Iowa (Iowa City, to be precise).
But I offer this advice with one serious warning: expect the phone service to suck big time, especially in the USWest territory. Not to start a ``my $RBOC sucks worse than yours" thread, but from everything I have seen, the further you get away from the major metropolitan regions, the older the phone technology. All of those circa-1975 analog phone switches being replaced by the neat SS-7 compliant, state-of-the-art switches are being refurbished & installed in smaller towns whose only sins are that they aren't in a major metro region.
In short, you can have Americana or high tech, but don't expect both.
Geoff
I think I see a trend here. Maybe for them it really would be easier to muzzle the entire internet than to produce p
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
Until I get a data cable for my new cell phone, I have considered an analog modem connection. I'm trying to avoid an acoustic coupler...anyone already figured out a matching circuit for a modem telephone-to-headset jack (speaker/microphone) connection?
Go look that book title up on BarnesAndNoble.Com and you'll see there also is a March 2000 issue expected...
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
- 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 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
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!
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
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