Gotta Have Internet

We’ve said it before, … and I’ll say it again, If you really *need* the Internet, you need more than one way to connect. On the road, that means wireless, and there are 3 ways – Wi-Fi, Cellular, and Satellite. See our video on High Speed Internet on the Road: 3 Ways to Connect. We’re at a hotel in San Jose, California at the moment, and we’re using the in-room Wi-Fi … at $12.95/day! But, just now I tried to use the Wi-Fi and, even though I connected fine, there was no Internet. So, I used the Ethernet cable and plugged it into the wall connection for ‘Network.’ All is well. Wired is always better than wireless if you have that option. Read more  Read More →

The Best Wi-Fi in RV Parks

Wouldn’t it be nice for us travelers if we could find a list of parks with *really good* Wi-Fi?  There are lots of directories of RV parks which include information on whether Wi-Fi exists or not – but those of us who use these systems know that the quality varies *greatly.*  Some systems are blazing fast, and some are unusably slow. Then, the really bad news is that, even the blazing fast ones are subject to variation depending on the other users in the park. Because of all these factors, most of us who travel a lot take our own Internet connection with us, either with a satellite dish or a cellular data card.  The main problems with satellite and cellular is that there are usage limits.  We don’t want to go over our limits with Verizon – I’ve heard of people getting $500+ bills for overages!  So, we keep looking for those parks with the really good Wi-Fi. Read more  Read More →

Are you Online while Driving?

by Chris Guld, Geeks on Tour I remember when we had to schlep our laptop up to the RV park’s office and plug in to their phone line in order to use dial-up to get online.  Then came Wi-Fi.  You could browse the Internet from the comfort of your RV.  We even got a Datastorm Satellite dish that gave us high-speed Internet *wherever* we were parked – in the middle of the desert, or in the most remote national forest.  What luxury that was.  We live fulltime in our motorhome and we need to work to make our living.  Our work is primarily on our website so it’s important that we be able to connect wherever we are. Read more  Read More →

Kindle Book Reader is perfect for RVers

GeeksOnTour.com: I love to read, but I don’t get to do it anywhere near as much as I like. Books are heavy, so we don’t carry many in the RV. The hardest part of selling our house and getting rid of all our possessions was the bookshelves full of books. I have to *really* want a book to buy it, or I have to luck into a good find at a park’s lending/trading library. All that has changed with the Kindle. Read more  Read More →

Wi-Fi: The Best of Speeds, The Worst of Speeds

We spent the past week in Essex Junction Vermont at the FMCA Northeast Area Rally (NEAR.)  To our surprise and delight, there was Wi-Fi available right at our parking spot.  We could tell it came from the fairgrounds since it was named, “CVFairmn1.”  We were at the Champlain Valley Fairgrounds.  We like taking advantage of available Wi-Fi so as to avoid going over our bandwidth allotment on our Verizon contract. Read more  Read More →

We like RV Parks with Wi-Fi!

It seems like most of our ‘Internet on the Road’ articles lately have been about cellular technology.  Although cellular is getting to be more popular with travelers – we sure like RV parks with good Wi-Fi.  Absence makes the heart grow fonder … we did not find any parks with Wi-Fi during our travels in June. Read more  Read More →

Keep your online favorites … Online!

People tell me their computer problems … just call me Dear Abby of the computer world!  This week, I’ve had several people tell me that they’ve lost their favorites because they have a new computer, or have switched browsers.  There are several ways to backup your favorites for safekeeping and transferring, but I think the best solution is not to keep them on your computer in the first place. Keep your list of favorite websites, on a website!  I use iGoogle and Delicious.com, but there are many such systems. If you have a Google Mail (gmail) account, then you can make an iGoogle Home Page for yourself.  First, go to google.com.  In the upper right corner, you should see the ability to ‘Sign In’ as well as a link to iGoogle.  First, sign in with your Google account – usually your gmail username and password.  Then, click on iGoogle, and you’ll be prompted for the things you’d like to see on your personal ‘Home Page.’ Read more  Read More →

Internet by Tethered Cellphone – Reboot

We are currently at a rally in Albert Lea, Minnesota.  We’re using our Verizon Cell phone, tethered to our laptop , for our Internet access.  (To see what I mean by Tethered cell phone, watch the video on this page.)  Albert Lea is not a Verizon area.  Our cell phone reports that we are on an ‘Extended Network.’  It’s actually working quite well… Except when it doesn’t work at all! Read more  Read More →

Wireless Internet – 3 ways

Even though we’ve been covering this topic for 6 years now – it’s still the most popular question we get from people just starting to experience the joy of RVing. “How do I get Internet access on my laptop while we’re traveling? Read more  Read More →

How (and why) to disable Verizon/Sprint Roaming

In addition to providing service from the cellular towers they own, most cellular providers also have roaming agreements with other providers in order to allow their users to stay connected in areas where their provider does not have their own towers. For example, if you subscribe to Verizon for your cell phone service and travel to a rural area where Verizon doesn’t own any towers, your phone will automatically connect to the tower of a local provider if Verizon has a roaming agreement in the area and you’ll be able to stay connected. Sounds great, right? Yes and no. There are certainly a myriad of benefits to being able to roam seamlessly as you travel, but there are some situations in which staying on your own provider’s network becomes very important. Depending on your carrier, monthly plan, and location, roaming may not cost you anything – or it may cost you a lot. Typically, cellular providers do not charge any fees to allow you to “roam” within the USA, but crossing the border into Canada or Mexico (or even connecting to a Canadian or Mexican tower from the USA side of the border if you’re close enough!) could prove to be disastrous for your monthly bill as you unknowingly rack up massive international roaming fees. Read more  Read More →

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