Hypothetical ..... if money were no object...

[cdlaine]

...and you wanted RV high speed internet connectivity, all the bells and whistles, 3 users simultaneously, and not have to do a lot of diddlin' every time you wanted to set-up / take down / re-start... so mobility is key.

What set-up/service would you use ? What is considered the creme de la crème, state of the art ? Think like you wanted to run an internet based business on the road ... so reliability is key.

Charles

p.s. I know how the search feature works.... I also know I'll never be
able to afford said set-up... but a fella can dream can't he ?

[docj]

RicknDi wrote:
On this same theme, I am looking for a campground in the Ft Meyers Florida area that has high speed internet as an option on site. I work at home in Upstate NY and in order to be able to work in FL in our RV, I would need a hard lined internet service to our site as I connect remotely via VPN. I am having a hard time finding even a way to search for a site with this amenity. Does anyone have any suggestions??

Although you would have to call and ask, many older parks that had the capability of providing phone line service at their sites can have DSL internet installed by the local phone company. I did that at a park in TX for several years; no one used the phone lines at the sites for much else, but DSL could be installed. Similarly, a lot of cable TV systems can support cable modems and internet, you just need to ask.

I'm not an expert, but I think you could also run your VPN over a cellular connection such as you would get from your phone's hotspot or a MiFi device. This might use a lot of bandwidth if you did it a lot but it is another option.

[paulcardoza]

Call and ask.

RicknDi wrote:
On this same theme, I am looking for a campground in the Ft Meyers Florida area that has high speed internet as an option on site. I work at home in Upstate NY and in order to be able to work in FL in our RV, I would need a hard lined internet service to our site as I connect remotely via VPN. I am having a hard time finding even a way to search for a site with this amenity. Does anyone have any suggestions??

[RicknDi]

On this same theme, I am looking for a campground in the Ft Meyers Florida area that has high speed internet as an option on site. I work at home in Upstate NY and in order to be able to work in FL in our RV, I would need a hard lined internet service to our site as I connect remotely via VPN. I am having a hard time finding even a way to search for a site with this amenity. Does anyone have any suggestions??

[cdlaine]

Thanks Sandie and Joel, and Paul and Sandra....

Good stuff ! I'm gonna keep you guys on speed dial as we are
getting close to making a commitment ! ... but, I think more coffee
will be consumed first. I am not gadget literate... would prefer a
"package" set-up. Too bad the ATT vs. Verizon coverage area maps are
mostly marketing as I would like to get the best coverage for the western U.S.

Thanks again.

Charles

[paulcardoza]

Keeping the options somewhat reasonable......

I would have 3 Hotspots - one each from Millenicom, Verizon & AT&T. These would be tethered to a Cradlepoint MB1400 Router (~$350). This unit lets you load balance and use all three hotspots simultaneously. It also offers wifi-as-wan connectivity, so if you happen to be at a CG with good wifi service, you can connect to that.

Obviously, if you find yourself in a location with zero cell service and no wifi, the setup won't do you any good. BUT, it sounds like internet access is very important to your clan, so you'll need to be selective when selecting locations to camp.

cdlaine wrote:
...and you wanted RV high speed internet connectivity, all the bells and whistles, 3 users simultaneously, and not have to do a lot of diddlin' every time you wanted to set-up / take down / re-start... so mobility is key.

What set-up/service would you use ? What is considered the creme de la crème, state of the art ? Think like you wanted to run an internet based business on the road ... so reliability is key.

Charles

p.s. I know how the search feature works.... I also know I'll never be
able to afford said set-up... but a fella can dream can't he ?

[docj]

cdlaine wrote:
Wow Joel... I somehow thought it was a lot more complicated
(and expensive) then that.... so that is all those million
dollar Prevosts that I see the Country music stars trick out
utilize ? Guess I was faked out by all the bling. Your set up
definateley sounds doable for our clan.

I offered up the option to the family of satellite dish or high speed
internet... hands down the internet trumped. We are all currently
with ATT so I will have to see what kind of deal Verizon can cut.
Is security an issue ??? I see all these parabolic gizmos/signal
amplifiers that campers use to "borrow" internet connectivity. My
bride is very (?rightly so) paranoid about that issue...me not so much.
I thought a firewall would be in place ?


Good stuff.... after following the forum conversations on related
topics I misunderstood and thought the costs were prohibitive.

Charles

Charles:

We have both DirecTV and the internet connection I described. We love to stream video from Netflix and Amazon, but not everything we want to watch can be streamed. Furthermore, if I want to stream Homeland or Boardwalk Empire on I have to have a subscription to Showtime or HBO anyway.

If you are doing any serious RVing I think you will find that Verizon's data coverage is significantly broader than AT&T's. But, as some have already noted, there are places that ATT is present and VZW is not. Be careful, however, not to consider the voice coverage for a network; that is not always the same as the data coverage map.

As for someone stealing your service, those discussions are almost exclusively related to stealing wifi service from neighboring hotsposts, not stealing someone's cellular signal. The cellular system has a sophisticated encrypted transmission system and I'm not worrying about someone intercepting it. Inside your RV you will have a wifi network but almost all routers use WPA2 encryption and that's pretty robust.

Just be careful to avoid any devices that advertise that they use "easy to setup" WiFi Protected Setup (WPS) since that is a vulnerable system that was exposed as such several years ago but which continues to be used because it is advertised as being easy to use.

If you have other questions, feel free to post them or to PM me.

Joel

[Golden_HVAC]

My sister bought a Wi-Fi hot spot, it works by taking in cell signals, and she can set it anyplace with 110 volt power and access to a cell site. Great if you are near a town.

Another couple I know has a 18" diameter dish on top of their RV. You can not pick up signals while driving, but they can get really fast downloads while dry camping, even 100 miles from nowhere in the lower 48. Alaska coverage is pretty poor, mostly due to the satellites being near the horizon.

So it depends on where you want to go or how far from a city you might want to camp.

Fred.

[YC_1]

Money no object. Then you would need time and money to educate yourself on how to make a lot of things work. As a geek, techie, Certified ET, own a telecommunications business,,,,, It can be a pain.

What Joel recommends is absolutely dead on and is as simple as you can get without driving yourself crazy.

Yes there are places you will not want to park if Wi-Fi is the most important concern.

Money does not replace signal strength. Yes I can outperform everyone in the RV park. And I can do it with little money.

[Bill_Satellite]

Before the advent of high speed cellular internet, satellite internet would have been the "bee knees". For business owners who require and internet connection no matter where they stop, it still is. However, they now have both satellite internet and cellular. The "ultimate" satellite internet setup would cost over $20,000 for the hardware and in excess of $200/month for the service. While it's still not as fast as cellular it is extraordinarily dependable and allows you do to anything you like including VPN and VoIP with very high (or unlimited) data limits.

[2oldman]

If money really was no object, have a dedicated fiber line installed to your site.

[SCR]

If money were no object I'd have service from all wireless companies with Satellite Internet as a fall back.

[Bill_Satellite]

Just try getting a cellular connection while inside Yellowstone park! No phone, much less internet!

[Bill_Satellite]

Boxer Lovers wrote:

We're considering purchasing the Hughes Net system for the house with the free installation, then buying another tripod and dish to take on the road. The Hughes net equipement; router etc, is portable so we can load that in the trailer and take it with us like we can do with the Direct TV recievers.

Be very careful! The current HughesNet (Gen 4) system is NOT portable. Period!
To use a Hughesnet service in a mobile configuration you will have to ensure they set you up with an HN7000S modem which likely means they will not do a free installation if you can get them to agree to it at all.
Assuming you work all of that out, I am pretty sure I remember that the Ooma system will not work with the slow speeds and high latency of satellite internet.

[mileshuff]

Entire country is not covered by Verizon nor anyone else!! Out in the open wilderness I find poor to no signal at least in the Western States. We're often 100-200 miles from the nearest city. Land is rugged and mountainous so any towers nearby are quickly blocked by terrain. This issue is mainly when boondocking as most RV parks have WiFi albiet often slow.