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Ask Slashdot: Suggestions For Taking a Business Out Into the Forest?
An anonymous reader writes: I'm a huge fan of primitive survival reality TV. I am also self-employed in web troubleshooting and hosting services. I have to be available 24/7, but a lot of my work is just being online for a few minutes at a time. I often think about taking my business 'outdoors', camping, 3-7 days or so at a time — but staying online. Has anyone had experience with this? How did you do it, in terms of internet connectivity and portable power? Satellite internet or long distance Wi-Fi antennaes and a very tall pole? I've looked at some portable power stations with solar attachments, but the idea of hand-cranking to recharge if it's overcast isn't fun, after all, the point is to relax. But I'm willing to manually recharge if it's realistic (would prefer pedaling though!) I happen to have a Toughbook CF-52 (I just thought it was cool) but I may need to replace that with a more eco-friendly laptop as well. Thanks!
If you go hiking for a few days at a time that is different than finding a campsite and putting an RV on it for a few days.
Say you have a vehicle (such as an RV, a van or even a 4-wheeler), then satellite internet is probably the cheapest and easiest route to go. You use an auxiliary battery and if it drains, you start the vehicle for a little bit. You could even outfit a van/RV to have a 'command center' with a good display, keyboard, mouse and everything else you need to work comfortably.
If you go hiking, then you're looking for a portable dish, receiver hardware, power, laptop etc. not to forget your own survival needs (several kg of water, food etc) things get heavy and I wouldn't recommend it unless you also take along an army platoon with a designated comms carrier.
High-power wifi from your camp site etc. is possible but may also be illegal unless you have the licenses to do so everywhere you go and even then reception won't be great if at all possible 30-60 min. into your hike (trees, hills etc absorb the signal greatly)
Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
Aren't you simply moving your stress outdoors, when working to stay connected and available 24/7 while "relaxing" in the woods? I sympathize with your desire to work and simultaneously to relax. I personally work in a separate building on the same property as our home, but with a different address and facing the main drag with a customer entrance. I can relax in my home and work in the shop as needed. There are no vacations for us, just breaks from work that need to be taken advantage of. If you can achieve a greater degree of relaxation outdoors, successfully and affordably, I salute you.
I can relate, as this is something that I have done in the past. I was a telecommuter and wanted the freedom to work from wherever I wanted to work from. Usually, my home base was my car. I had a fairly large tent, a tarp, a camp table and comfortable camp chair. The tent was big enough that I could bring the table and chair into when the weather got bad (without having to shuffle the bed around). The tarp kept the sun off of me and my laptop when it was nice out. Other things that made camp life doable for a week at a time was a Yeti cooler (keeps ice frozen for days) and a solar shower.
Technology-wise, I always scouted out areas I wanted to go to on the weekends to make sure sure there was at least a couple bars of 3G that I could connect to reliably. You would be amazed at how far out that can get you. For power, I relied on Goal Zero's Yeti 400 Kit and a spare Sherpa 100 power pack. This was not enough to keep me running all day if it was cloudy for days, but I could work for a few hours every day. Only one time did I have to go into town for the night and get a hotel (you can recharge the goal zero batteries from an outlet in addition to solar power). On sunny days, I could work all day, no problem.
If you're single, in technology, and love the outdoors, this really is the life. Don't listen to the "I leave the technology at home" haters. Bringing the technology with you allows you to stay out way longer than they'll ever know, and the longer you're out, the more exploring you can do. All we have on this earth is time, make the most of it.
Your question is bizarre. You talk about being really into the whole survivalist thing, but the infrastructure necessary to hold down a tech job while in the deep wilderness living off your wits is a complete non-starter. (Pedaling for power? Seriously?)
Simply put, your biggest problem is power. (You'll need a LOT less power if you can figure out how to work with a tablet and bluetooth keyboard instead of a full laptop.) That means you are going to need a "base camp". That base camp will need supplies of food and fuel, and a large sunny clearing to collect power whether you are there or not. You can periodically return to swap out batteries/machines and pick up fresh supplies of food and fuel.
You'll need to (obviously) work within an area with cell phone coverage. But there are plenty of fairly remote places that fit that bill, so it's not a big problem.
Discard any idea of hunting for food or cooking with a fire... if you are hungry and in the middle of hunting something or gathering much-needed wood, you are going to get even hungrier when, inevitably, your phone starts to ring with a new problem. You can certainly go several days without seeing another soul, but "living off the land" is just not going to work.
Also consider what you are going to do in bad weather. I'm guessing that once your phone rings, it means something is broken. You'll need to start working pretty quickly, and likely will not have time to make camp if you were in transit at the time. (Please don't say it's realistic to work outside in the middle of a rainstorm, no matter how tough your gear is.) Do you really want to be holed up in a tent (or lean-to, cave, whatever) for days on end when the weather is bad? No, you don't; that's boring as $hit.
Really, if I were in your place, I'd have a base camp (at a regular campground) with a pop-up camper and small and quiet generator (and secure locks!) and go on hikes of one or two days (those small lithium power packs and an iPad would work great!) when the weather looked good. It ain't "roughing it", but trying to get work done in lousy weather when you are hungry and tired is just silly; your work will inevitably suffer as a result.
I have an off-grid cabin on a mountaintop in the middle of nowhere. It's not a survival campsite, but it's quite remote. I can work from there if I need to, and I sometimes do. I have rainwater collection, solar power with plenty of storage, and line of sight to a cell tower on another peak several miles away. Full 4G data from all providers - but only once you're up on the peak, not on the way in. This is a reliable and comfortable way to work from a wilderness location. But this kind of system does not work for survival camping, especially moving between locations. Reliability requires a fixed location with line of sight data service, and a fixed solar installation. If your priority is primitive camping, I don't think this can be achieved effectively. But if your priority is to experience isolated wilderness while definitely staying connected, a small cabin (even a primitively constructed shelter) at a carefully chosen location can work just fine.
I am a geek attorney, but not your geek attorney unless you've already retained me. This is not legal advice.
I have multiple batteries for my laptop and cell phone. Typically, what I'll do is bring as many batteries as is feasible (usually three for my laptop and four for my phone) and fish while writing software. Fishing requires very little active concentration, and it's nice to be able to write code while outside. Most of my trips are not very far from my car though.
Occasionally I'll go on backpacking trips that aren't car-accessible. I have not yet tried to work from one of these trips. I've been looking into the Goal Zero Voltage Inverter and their lightweight solar panels. If I do go this route, I'll likely start out with the solar panel + phone recharger, see how that works, and then get the more expensive voltage inverter and battery. I think it really depends on if you'll have a car available or not. If you have your car, you already have a power generator and the ability to haul heavy stuff.
I own my own software company, so as long as I'm decently responsive I can work from wherever. I kind of agree that for most people going out into nature is a way to not have to focus on those types of concerns. For me, I like being able to work from wherever in the event that I have to pack up and get out quickly.
I think I will get a portable solar cell phone charger, so I can charge my phone from wherever. I live in New Mexico, and the sun in always shining here. There are times when I forget to charge my phone enough, and I'm sitting in my car with the car running so my phone would charge. It would be nice to throw up my solar dash mat, run a wire into my glove box, and put my phone in there while I go inside someplace to do errands.
The point of survival camping is to challenge yourself and be uncomfortable. If your trying to get around the challenges, you're missing the point. As far as bringing tech with you, you're going to use it as an excuse to quit the first chance you get. So don't do it. Find someone to cover for you when you're out, or else just accept that sitting on your couch watching those shows is a lot easier than going out and doing it, and it might just not be for you. Don't spend a lot of time and money trying to put together a solution for something you're only going to try once.