INTERNET ON THE ROAD
by Valhouse

I've been living on the road, dry camping in my '76 motorhome for almost 8 years now. Having had a career in broadcast television, I didn't want to stray away from my high tech world when I made the change to the simple life in my RV. I'm an avid Apple user, and have two laptops, an iBook from 2002, and a newer, more professional one (G4) for editing video. I subscribe to T-Mobile's HOTSPOT service, which costs me only $20 per month, since I have a T-Mobile cell phone account, as well. I can pull up to any Starbucks, Borders, or other participating location and get online without leaving my RV. If I don't need to do any extensive internet surfing, then I just check my email via my T-Mobile Sidekick II, where I have all of my email forwarded to. I can read all emails, and view JPEG attachments, but the 'Kick is not Palm powered, and does not yet support the viewing of MS Word, Excel, or Powerpoint documents. I can, however, receive said documents, so I know they're attached, and if necessary, jump online at a Hotspot to open them on the laptop. The sidekick also has AOL and Yahoo Instant Messenger capabilities, and I can use any of the apps as long as I have the GPRS signal. For you PC fans, Verizon wireless offers internet anytime, anywhere, but it cost $80/month if you don't have a Verizon cell phone, and their signal is line of sight only, which means if there are any hills or mountains in the way, you won't get the signal. T-Mobil also offers an anytime service for the internet (PC only as well) and they don't use line of sight; the signal works on the same service as their phones, so there are more opportunities to get better service. I hear that internet via satellite services is pretty slow. Haven't gone that route yet. I can conduct most of my business via my Sidekick from the beach for now, and am just waiting for the other options to drop in price. GOOD LUCK!

How do you access the internet while traveling?

Roaming Times' WiFi and Internet section