Cell Tower Overload

by Chris Guld, www.geeksontour.com
RV Rallies present major issues for Internet Access.  Rarely is Wi-Fi provided throughout the rally grounds, and, when you try to use your Cellular provider for data, you may find it doesn’t work so well. That was our experience at the FMCA SE Area rally last week in Brooksville, FL.  At times like these I wish we had our Satellite Dish back.

If you doubt that cell tower overload is a factor, check out this article on AT&Ts troubles due to all the iPhone users out there. Actually, this article has me a little worried about Verizon as well, once the Droid (Verizon’s answer to the iPhone) catches on.  You see, once you have Internet browsing capabilities on your cell phone, you use it a lot more.  When I use my phone to make a voice call, I’m on for 5 – 20 minutes.  When Jim uses his new Droid to browse the web, he’s on for hours.  Both usages connect to the Cellular Tower, but the data usage represents a quantum leap in loading the Tower’s connections.

RV Weekly Round-Up (Jan. 30 to Feb. 5, 2010)

Check out these highlights of RV-related news, events and video from this past week.

1. RV Rentals Up As Saints Fans Eye Miami: New Orleans news station WDSU.com reports from Kenner, LA, that several RV rental companies have almost sold out all their units in preparation for Super Bowl XLIV this Sunday. However, RVs and tailgating are not allowed at Miami’s Sun Life Stadium, leading some people in Miami to offer parking spaces up for grabs on Craigslist….

2. Celebrate Century of RVing with the Good Sam Club: Sue Bray, executive director of the Good Sam Club, discusses the RV centennial, which will be celebrated this year. Motorized travel has changed dramatically since 1910, but the lure of the outdoors remains constant for RV enthusiasts. Centennial celebrations will be held at the RV/MH Hall of Fame Museum in Elkhard, Ind., RV shows around the country, and at the Louisville Rally this summer, which runs July 22 through 25.

3. Wi-Fi – A Better Antenna will Get You a Better Connection: If you’re using a Wi-Fi hotspot and it’s not working so great, get an external Wi-Fi adapter. Chris Guld of Geeks on Tour explains the how’s and why’s of boosting your computer’s Wi-Fi connection with an external adapter antenna.

4. Cost Effective Weekend RV Fun: Sometimes spending your weekend at home is just plain boring. There really isn’t much to do, but on the other hand you don’t have much of time before the weekend is over and it’s back to work again. How about a weekend RV getaway close to home? Mark Polk shares how a quick RV trip can not only help alleviate the boredom, but it is cost effective too. A 200 mile, or less, round trip from home won’t cost much in fuel, food or campground fees and it might be just what the doctor ordered for some well deserved relaxation and time to recharge.

Wi-Fi – A Better Antenna will Get You a Better Connection

We’ve said this time and time again, but it’s been a while and we have a lot of new readers. If you’re using a Wi-Fi hotspot and it’s not working so great, get an external Wi-Fi adapter. We have quite a collection of them over the years, but we recently bought a new one to go with our Windows 7 64 bit computer.  Here’s the one we purchased, a Hawking HWDN2:

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Make a Wi-Fi Hotspot with your Cell Phone

by Chris Guld, www.GeeksOnTour.com

If you’ve been reading my posts here – you probably know that you can tether your cellphone (if it’s the right model with the right service) to your computer.  Tethering your cellphone to your computer will give you Internet Access on that computer.  What you may not know is that you can tether it to a router as well.

The Cradlepoint cellular router is very popular among RVers.  Most people use it for their Data Cards.  Plug the data card into the router and configure the router for your hotspot.  Now several computers can use that same Internet connection.  The router that we have will accept a Data Card, an Ethernet cable from DSL or Cable Internet, or a cell phone USB connection.

While we are parked for the season at Paradise Island RV Park in Fort Lauderdale, Florida – we decided to spoil ourselves and get a month-to-month DSL Internet connection.  The telephone cable comes in from the post outside (the yellow cable) and plugs into the modem and then to our Cradlepoint router.  The Cradlepoint creates a wireless network called ‘GeeksOnTour.’  We can both connect to that network and we have Internet supplied by the DSL cable.

We’re on the road right now, headed toward Holiday Travel Resort in Leesburg, Florida where we are presenting some computer classes.  Then, on to the FMCA Southeast Area Rally in Brooksville, Florida.  As we pulled into our overnight site at Thousand Trails, Orlando – I felt a bit of panic.  I don’t have my DSL Internet here!  I called Verizon before we left Fort Lauderdale and asked that they turn on the Mobile Broadband Connect feature for the two weeks we’ll be gone ($49/mo) but I was wondering if I would remember how to get it set up.  I knew I had to plug the special cable into the phone, and then into the USB port on the Cradlepoint – but there must be something more?

Amazing!  As soon as I plugged the phone into the router – the phone started sending and receiving data.  I turned on my computer – it automatically connected to the GeeksOnTour network – and I was browsing away.  Every once in a while, technology just works, and it is good!  Of course, I’m sure I owe this simplicity to the real geek of the house, my husband Jim, who decided which router to buy and set it up in the first place.

Jim recently got the Droid phone from Verizon and he has successfully tethered it to his computer via something called PDANet.  But, it doesn’t work to tether it to the Cradlepoint.  He’s still working on it.  I’m holding out for the Palm Pre Plus or Pixi Plus which will have the ability to be a Wi-Fi Hotspot without plugging into anything!

Turn your Computer into a TV

by Chris Guld, www.geeksontour.com

When we first bought our motorhome, it had 2 TVs.  One in the front, living/dining area, and one in the back – the bedroom.

 We got rid of both of them and set up a TV tuner with a projector and a window-shade screen.  It’s great!  We have a big screen with surround sound – a pretty good home theatre for any house, let alone a 30 foot class C motorhome!

 When I recently purchased a new Windows 7 laptop, we wondered what to do with my old laptop.  It was still working fine, ( see rule #1 for buying a new computer) so I wasn’t going to send it off to recycling.  How about a TV for the bedroom!  Jim found a stud in the wall and installed a TV shelf bracket that fits my old laptop just perfect. 

The antenna connection was already there, all we needed was the TV tuner.  The one Jim got is the ATI  TV Wonder (he got a great deal – $25 – by buying it on the daily special at Woot.com), but he’s also used the Hauppage.  Just google for USB TV Tuner to see lots of other choices.  Basically this tiny box is the guts of a television!  Just plug one end into the USB port of your computer, and the other end into an antenna. 

Of course, there is software as well, and you need to be sure whatever you get works with your computer’s operating system.  Once you have it all set up, you have TV!  Ours even came with a remote control.  And, since it is still a computer – it is even better than a TV – you can get the Guide from the Internet, you can record and playback shows using your computer as a Digital Video Recorder (DVR.)   And, if you can’t find anything on TV you can use the computer to play a DVD or watch Internet video on Hulu. 

Be aware that this system is a bit of a resource hog.  Don’t expect it to work on a computer that’s too old – read the system requirements on the tuner.  And, be ready to get a bit geeky in setting it up. 

I actually have no clue what’s involved in setting it up   That’s Jim’s job!  But, I do like having TV in the bedroom – when Jim’s watching football on the big screen, I now have other choices!

Cruising vs RVing, and Wi-Fi

by Chris Guld, www.geeksontour.com

I think there are a lot of RVers who also take cruising vacations.  Cruising is very much like RVing in that you don’t have to check in and out of a room for every destination.  You keep your stuff all in one room, yet you travel to multiple locations.  Then there’s the food.  Sure wish I could have that available when we’re RVing! 

The primary reason I love RVing is the complete freedom and independence of going wherever we want to go, whenever we want to go there. 

Although that does not describe cruising, I find cruising to be a nice change of pace where I don’t have any decisions to make.  We took a short, weekend cruise to the Bahamas this past weekend with the whole family.  Six of us.  It’s a great way to spend time together and be sure that everyone is comfortable. The only decision I had to make is what to eat!

I was also looking forward to staying connected while we were on the cruise ship.  I could have sworn I saw, “Free Wi-Fi on board” in the promotional literature.  As it turns out, I was only half right.  There was Wi-Fi in the public areas, but it was not free. 

$24/hour for Wi-Fi!

An I thought $10/day was high the last time I was in a hotel!  It is amazing that they have an Internet connection at all way out at sea, but for that price I decided to leave my computer in my bag!  I can survive 4 days being disconnected, but not much more.  We did find a free Wi-Fi hotspot at the Ferry terminal in Nassau so Jim used his new Droid phone to send a message to our blog letting people know that we were out of touch.

How about you?  Do you like cruising?  How do you stay connected when you go to sea?

RV Weekly Round-Up (Jan. 2-8, 2010)

The RV industry has hit the ground running at the start of this new decade. Here are some highlights of RV-related news, events and video from this past week.

1. FOX Business video about the Increasing Popularity of Camping: This 5 minute video features Airstream CEO Bob Wheeler and Kampgrounds of America CEO Jim Rogers discussing the outlook for camping and recreational vehicles.

2. Computer Backups are Worthless: Chris Guld of Geeks On Tour reminds us to save backup files in case of computer failure, and to periodically test the process of restoring those backup files to make sure everything works properly. There’s no point in saving a backup file if you can’t restore the backup file to your computer.

3. Motorized campers started out 100 years ago: The RV industry celebrates its centennial in 2010, but you can take in the sweep of RV history any time you choose with a visit to the RV/MH Hall of Fame Museum & Library at Exit 96 on the Indiana Toll Road. Larry Edsall with The Detroit News reports that the Recreation Vehicle/Motor Home Heritage Foundation moved into this new, 56,000-square-foot facility east of Elkhart, Indiana in 2007. Read more about the antique RVs on display at detnews.com.

Computer Backups are Worthless

by Chris Guld, www.geeksontour.com

Has this ever happened to you?

Your computer crashes and you take it to a techie who gets it working again but needs to reformat (erase) the hard drive.  You get your computer back with nothing on it.  No problem you think, you have a backup of your important data on Disk, either CD/DVDs or a USB hard drive.  But when you try to restore you find:

1. there is something wrong with the backup disks, either the data is corrupted or there simply is no data on the disk(s)
   or:
2. the backup was made with software that you don’t remember or don’t have.  You need that software in order to restore.

If you can’t restore … your backups are worthless.

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Technology Top 5 for 2009

by Chris Guld, www.GeeksOnTour.com

Jim and I are always learning about new technology – it’s what we’ve done since the early 80s – and there is plenty to keep us occupied.  But, 2009 has been remarkable when it comes to the proliferation of useful technology tools.

There’s something qualitatively different this year about technology and gadgets.  People are actually *using* them.  You don’t have to be a geek to want this stuff. 

Not all my top 5 are brand new this year, but this is the year they’ve gone mainstream.  Everyone I know had at least one technology item on their holiday gift list this year. 

You should also know that this is my personal list – I use a laptop computer a *lot* and  I don’t listen to very much music, otherwise I’m sure some of the fantastic new music players would be on my list.  Every item shown below we have purchased and are currently using.  If you are interested in buying one yourself, the links provided will take you to Amazon.  They have good prices and good service, and, these links will tell them that you heard about it from Geeks on Tour – maybe we’ll get enough credit to buy our next toy (a USB Video Camera)!

Ok, here they are – in reverse order:

#5: USB External Hard Drives

I put this in last place only because they aren’t sexy.  But, OMG are they useful.  They’ve gone mainstream this year because the capacity has grown and the price has dropped.  500 Gigabytes for $99.  This can back up your entire laptop computer!  If, like us, you remember your first hard drive at 20 Megabytes and $3,000, you’ll probably buy two of these.  All you have to do is plug it in to a USB port, no installation required.

 

#4.  Kindle Book Reader

e-Book readers are proliferating now.  I haven’t tried any of the newer ones.  We bought one of the first Kindles last year and still love it.  And, what a boon to RVers.  You can have hundreds of books and only take up the space (and weight) of one small paperback.  According to Amazon, they sold more Kindles than books this holiday season!

 

#3: Wii Fit

This device is in the Gee Whiz! category.  It looks and feels like something the Jetsons would use.  “Jane, stop this crazy thing!”  With the Wii Fit, I have my own personal trainer with dozens of exercise routines to choose from and a tracking system to know how I’m doing.  It actually fits in the RV.  I’ve logged over 12 hours of exercise in December and I”m enjoying it more every day. 

 

#2: Droid Smart Phone

We have been so envious of people with their  iPhones!  But, since iPhone requires AT&T service and we like our Verizon – we couldn’t get one.  We’ve been waiting for something similar that uses Verizon’s network.  That’s the Droid – powered by Google and Verizon.  It came out a couple months ago, but we wanted to wait for some reviews.  They’ve been pretty good, and Jim couldn’t stand it any longer, so he used is ‘new every two years’ credit with Verizon and brought home his new Droid just yesterday.  As soon as he gives the thumbs up – I’ll get one too.

This phone will be the biggest change in our digital life so far.  It is always online with easy browsing to websites and email, and that’s just the beginning.  It’s a computer with plenty of applications all it’s own.  GPS Navigation is included with the Droid for free.  With a screen almost as large as our Garmin Nuvi, it might actually replace the Nuvi.

#1: NetBook

$350 for a full-blown Windows computer!  It’s so small, I can fit it in my purse (yes, I do have a big purse!.)  And, with plenty of battery life, I don’t have to carry around the power supply. They claim 10.5 hours – we haven’t specifically tested that, but it has been used for at least a couple days of normal use without needing a charge.

Called Netbooks because their primary purpose is to connect you to the ‘Net, these devices will handle all your basic computing.  They don’t have a DVD drive, and they don’t come with enough memory or processing power to run Vista, so for quite a while they were sold with Windows XP.  As soon as they started using Windows 7, we got one.  They’re a wonderful choice for RVers who need a second computer for when they’re on the road.

The keyboard and screen are small, I wouldn’t want to work on them exclusively.  But, you can always plug it into an external monitor and a USB keyboard. This low price point is making them a ‘Why Not?’ purchase for many people who couldn’t justify having a computer for personal use.

 

How about you?  What did you get, or give, or buy for yourself this holiday season?

Computing in the Clouds is Good for RVers

by Chris Guld, www.GeeksonTour.com
Have you heard of ‘Cloud Computing’?’  It means using applications on the web rather than on your computer.  Blogging is one example, it’s all web-based, any computer will do.  As long as you can connect to the Internet (the ‘cloud’) you can use the blogging applications.  And, there are more web-based applications every day.  Now, you can even create spreadsheets and letters in the Clouds with Google Docs.

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