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!

Comments

Depends on the area and your method of transport

[guruevi]

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)

The best I can come up with.

[sirwired]

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.

Depends on what you mean by "camping", and where

[mpoulton]

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.