Re: Need Advice on Wireless internet bill paying while boondocking


"RBrumfield" <robin.brumfield@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:402d0885-4d6a-401d-9fe5-ee32fcb228c7@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
On Feb 12, 2:47 pm, "Tom A" <inamella...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Greetings All, We are going to do some camping in semi-boondocking
type
places. We would like to be able to pay bills and such by wireless
internet.
Not having a laptop yet will do some shopping for what is needed for the
project. SOoo.. I am shure someone out there is doing just what we want
to
do, Would you be so kind as to give us a hint as to what equiptment is
needed? Guess we need a wireless ready laptop? Type? Can this be done
with
a blackberry? Have a cell phone but never have used it for internet
connections, I mention this because I read that a celluar phone can be
used
for a wireless internet connection to a laptop. I haven't a clue how that
works yet. In short can anyone give us a short list of what to buy for
our
camping wireless internet?
Thanks, Tom A

You actually have a few options in your desire to connect wirelessly.
First you can use a cellphone as a wireless modem. I have an Alltel
account with a UTStarcom phone. Software came with the phone that
allows me to connect a USB cable from the computer to the phone and it
acts as a wireless modem. I have also had a Verizon Aircard that
inserted into the PCMCIA slot of the computer and connects through the
Verizon service. Now both of these connections would require that you
have cellphone service in the area in which you will be located. As
others mentioned, you can also locate "hotspots" and connect to the
Internet using WIFI as provided by communities/businesses/individuals.

Connecting via WIFI necessitates that the laptop that you are
considering have an "802.11" card and antenna in it to be able to
converse with a wireless access point or "WAP". This can either be
internal or external but internal is becoming pretty much the standard
today. There are currently three 802.11 standards and one proposed
standard. They are "802.11a; 802.11b; 802.11g" standards and then
there is "802.11n" that is a proposed standard. What you will find in
most situations at this time will be WIFI providers using 802.11b but
if I was recommending anything, I would recommend that you get an
802.11 card that does at least 802.11b/g. There are cards out there
that do all four, a/b/g/draft n, but they are more expensive. 802.11g
cards will step down to 802.11b WAPs generally so if cost is any
consideration, get at a bare minimum an 802.11g card. As I said you
can do this external as well including the antenna but that can be
rather cumbersome unless you have a stable area in your area in which
you will be using the computer/equipment.

Now there are several methods in locating "hotspots", commonly
referred to as "war driving". In other words cruising around until
you detect a signal that is strong enough to be usable and that is not
protected by a plethora of methods, i.e. encryption, MAC address
filtering, SSID hiding, etc. As others have mentioned, there are pay
for use hotspots, like a lot of Flying Js have but most people are
looking for a "free" connection when they think of communal WIFI.

Windows does a pretty good job of guiding you to an "open" hotspot by
popping up a balloon window advising you that you are within range of
a hotspot. If it is not protected, you will get a warning that it is
unsecured and ask again if you want to connect to the unsecured
network. You can also use a program called "Net stumbler" that does a
good job of detecting hotspots with a whole lot more detail. Just be
advised that Netstumbler does not work with every 802.11 card that is
made so if you want to use it, you need to do a little research before
you buy your laptop. There are also some hardware devices that do the
same thing but I have never used them so I cannot comment on their
effectiveness.

As someone else mentioned, there is satellite service but that may be
cost prohibitive. It has been a while since I looked into it but the
equipment was in the thousands range with a monthly service fee of
$100/mo. I am sure it has probably come down in price since that was
a few years ago. I have never had it so I will leave that to others
to speak as to the use of it.

As others have mentioned, just because you can get to the Internet,
you may have issues sending email unless your provider has a web based
email system or allows authenticated authorization to send emails over
foreign Internet Service Providers or ISPs. I know the Alltel account
I have doesn't provide any email service other than through a
browser. I have Verizon DSL at home that has authentication
authorization but I have never tried to use it over foreign ISPs. I
used to have Charter/Suddenlink that would not allow sending mail over
foreign ISPs with an email client such as Outlook, Thunderbird, etc.
but they did have a web based system as well.

So to be able to use an email client instead of any web based email
systems, which by the way are horrendously slow over a slow
connection, I have a Netscape dial-up account that costs me $6 or $7 a
month. It allows me to use their simple mail transport protocol or
SMTP server as my outgoing service for all of my email accounts that
I monitor. I currently have 7 active email accounts that I use. So I
can receive all of the email accounts using the providers sending
services and then all of my outgoing mail is channeled through the
Netscape account. And as a side benefit, if all wireless fails, I
generally can find a local Netscape dial-up account and use the modem
that is in the laptop as an ISP of last resort.

I know that you are probably tired of reading by now so I will stop.
Good luck in whatever you decide.


Thanks for the information, That pretty much covers any question I might
have. One more thing- It seems to me that using the phone as a modem would
be a little more secure than using wifi hot spots Yes? Verizon seems to be
the best deal for useage without using a hot spot? I have done some reading
and Verizon says you can use it [laptop with built in card] anywhere that
that a phone has coverage. That eliminates the need for using the phone as a
modem [as I understand it] also the need for finding a hot spot I assume.
So now it's time for me to do my homework on laptops, 802 cards n cards and
the like, services, speeds, and related costs, ect. Well thanks again and
bye, Tom A


.

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