(Near) Constant Internet While RV'ing?

Neilio writes "What systems would Slashdotters recommend for staying connected while RV'ing across the US and Canada? While a 3G data plan seems obvious, the intrepid RV'er wants to get remote and into those parts of the coverage map that are usually gray (no coverage). But satellite can be expensive, includes high latency for VoIP and gaming, and requires a clear view of the southern sky. I've come across some intriguing products that use an amplified 2G/3G signal and bridge to WiFi, like WiFi In Motion, and CradlePoint's MBR1000 (I have no affiliation with either). Do folks have any experience with these, or can you recommend another approach (even homebrew)? While I am an electrical engineer by degree, you have to go back a few decades since I last expertly sported a soldering iron, so the less DIY the better. My wife and I now run a web-based business, so nearly daily connectivity is a must, no matter where we are."

Comments

Iridium?

[jonbryce]

Very slow and very expensive, but as they have lots of satellites in polar orbit, you just need a clear view of the sky. Maybe use it only where you can't get a cellphone connection.

Re:Iridium?

[ArcadeX]

There's now something called Iridium Openport, which is a satalite ISDN that's always on, but you have satalite expense. Works well enough the TS Kennedy.

Re:Iridium?

[drinkypoo]

32kbps, 150MB for a thousand a month, per-minute thereafter. Basic hardware package seems to be around five grand. 3G+Hughesnet would be vastly faster and cheaper for what he wants to do.

Re:Iridium?

[Anonymous Coward]

Ok, since you (and a couple other posters) have no clue of how comsats work, here it is:

TV sats, Inmarsat, Terrestar, etc.: one or a few birds in equatorial GEO (although polar/inclined GEO is theoretically possible, it makes no sense for comms). These can have a high-gain antenna with a tailored beam pattern to cover only the desired portions of earth';s surface (e.g. TV broadcasts may be aimed only at North America, with no power wasted on South America and the oceans), and you can point a high-gain antenna (almost always a dish) from any spot in that coverage area directly at the satellite, which makes wonderful sense for fixed installations. In mobile operation, however, the greater distance to GEO, compounded with the difficulty of keeping a high-gain antenna pointed at the satellite, makes them less desirable, especially for uplinks.

GPS, Iridium, Globalstar, etc: multiple (~50) birds in polar and/or inclined LEO orbits. A polar orbit does _not_ leave the bird "parked" over the pole -- it orbits over the whole world, including the poles (where it's practically useless). Putting your entire constellation in polar orbit seems pretty pointless, since the polar region winds up getting covered by every single satellite, but more satellites are required to provide adequate coverage over the rest of the world; however, Iridium adopted this (all orbits are 86deg inclination), probably to ease inter-satellite communications. IIRC most satellites wind up being around 50deg inclination for best coverage. You don't need to know where any particular birds are, but there's always at least one overhead (for all covered areas).

AFAIK, Iridium, Globalstar, and Orbcomm are the _only_ data/voice networks of this type, not "many" as you suggest. It turns out that, under current launch costs, orbiting one big satellite to GEO to cover most of a hemisphere with really solid bandwidth is much more commercially viable than launching 50 smaller LEO birds, with less bandwidth and loads of relatively wasted coverage. All three companies that have tried it wound up filing for bankruptcy after launch, when they couldn't find enough subscribers at high enough prices to cover the costs incurred.

Inmarsat

[Virtucon]

Inmarsat BGAN performs well however it is pricey for the setup and monthly fee. The advantage is that you can get coverage basically everywhere. There's also setups that allow tie-in for a phone, fax etc.

Sprint Mobile Broadband

[Anonymous Coward]

I have been using them for almost a year and the speed is OK (~1 M), the latency a bit high (~100ms). It is a 3G wireless card, plugs into a PCMCIA slot. I created a home router, but you can buy one that fits the card. If they ever get their act together, they might bump it up to 4G. All you need is one of their cell towers. And they have a map.

Re:What?

[natehoy]

RV = Recreational Vehicle. It's a small (or sometimes large) home on wheels.

I think the Brits call them "Caravans", in case you're from that side of the pond. ;)

Re:The easiest solution

[Hijacked Public]

You forgot inexpensive, as the submitter dismisses satellite for that reason.

I use a Thuraya handset when I am in the bush and it has worked the few times I've needed it, as long as it wasn't under a heavy jungle canopy.

Re:You ask the impossible

[mcgrew]

He could become a ham radio operator and use his home base as an internet proxy server. I don't know what the latency would be, but I would guess it would be better than satellite.

Re:RFC 1149

[shakezula]

Very well said...too bad the folks who mod'd this informative didn't read what RFC 1149 actually is.

Re:What?

[c6gunner]

Starfish aren't fish, either, and you park on driveways and drive on parkways. It's called language. Get used to it...

Well, no ... starfish may not be fish, but RV's certainly are recreational vehicles. That's a pretty horrible analogy.

Also driveways and parkways are both properly named, it's just your base assumption which is wrong. A driveway is a private path on which you drive in order to reach the house, and a parkway is a road which passes through a "landscaped thoroughfare" or a park. Both words make perfect sense if you understand their origin.

I just got done living two years on the road.

[dhickman]

There will be several modes that you will have use. As with anything else a fulltimer faces, no single solution will work all of the time.

Stick with 12volt hardware. This should be obvious. You will not need to run your genny to have internet access.

Pending where you are going to be this is what I have found to be the most flexible.

Buy a cradlepoint or something similar that can take multiple brands of 3g cards/dongles, with a secondary ethernet wan port. Make sure the 3g cards/dongles have external antenna connectors.

Buy an outdoor directional wifi CPE that has power over ethernet. Try to make sure it is 12v.

Buy a wilson outdoor antenna, extension cable ( if needed) and connector dongle for each 3g card. I prefer makeing a custom mount that attached to the ladder, than penetrating the roof, but that is your choice.

Buy a wilson amplifier, this is critical.

Buy a motorola cable modem, and a at&t wired dsl modem.

Locate a spot in the cabin that can wall mount the router, amp, and router the cables. I installed a separate lighted power switch for each of the 12v supplies, to make sure that the system had power and that I could cut it off and make it wife proof.

Install the wifi CPE on a pole and make a mount that will mount to the ladder or other strong point. I would not bother will any fancy ethernet jacks on the outside, just have the cable go through the basement into the cabin.

The problem with 3g is their 5gig limit. I would have a sprint and AT&T card. This should give you 3g over most of the US.

The reason for the WIFI, is that almost all decent parks have some form of either pay wifi or free wifi. Turn it on, turn off the 3g and you win.

All major truck stops have wifi, traditionally I always spent the night at flying J. I think their yearly price is not that bad.

If you plan on spending more the two weeks at a single spot. Look for parks that advertise cable television. So far all but one of them, I found that I could get my cable modem working. None of the parks will be aware of this. All you do is plug the modem up and if it gets sync, try to surf. Usually there will be a redirect to the cable companies customer disservice line. If not call the customer service line. Usually you give them the mac and you will be online in minutes. Make sure that there is no contract since they are not supplying a modem. Cancel service when you leave.

You can do this also with DSL on site supplied phone lines, but it takes days to weeks for the line to get turned up. I usually use dsl as a last hope.

While on the road use 3g, for the parks, plan ahead and call the parks office. They usually will know if they have wifi and sometimes will know if their cable supports cable modems. Always have 2-3 parks ready, and pay the daily rate until you have verified which park is the best for a fulltimer.

Good luck.
dhh

Not for business use

[dereference]

That's an excellent idea for general "stay in touch" communications, and even blogging about their travels, but he also mentioned a business, and commercial use of ham radio is prohibited.

Re:You ask the impossible

[Bill_the_Engineer]

He could become a ham radio operator and use his home base as an internet proxy server.

Too bad he wanted this for work, because it is against FCC regulation to use the amateur band for commercial uses. Besides, the latency would most likely be worse than satellite and the downlink speeds would be much slower.

Not to mention, being out in the middle of nowhere usually means being out of UHF+ range of the nearest packet station.