Recommended ISP/Service type for wireless on the road...?

Z

Zatos

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 1, 2005
Messages
158
Pretty soon I'll be going off to be a full time trucker... and I'll be getting a laptop so I can enjoy having a computer on the road (how can you live without one these days?). I know there are a few options out there for internet providers and types, but does anyone have a recommendation on what would be the best type to get? Preferrably, I'd like to get the fastest and most available service (I'll be all over the country)... as far as I know I'm not sure if there is a service that is available that provides both. I think using a wireless air card from a wireless phone company might not be too bad... I think at least I would get pretty good service in a lot of areas... but I'm not so sure about the speeds. Also, I'm not sure if you can get satellite internet or not in a truck... I'm not sure if other wireless providers provide nationwide coverage so they may not be an option. So... any help is greatly appreciated!
 
im a field service tech and my area of service ranges all over the backwoods of south texas...from kerrville all way south to mcallen close to mexico and my company gave us laptops with the verizon wireless cards in them and they work great!! now if im down in a valley somewhere i have a little trouble connecting but all in all for a wireless card it does the trick for me...dont know how much it runs becuse the company pays for it...make sure to check the coverge area in your neck of the woods tho
 
shaggyhobo said:
..dont know how much it runs becuse the company pays for it...
Click to expand...

They used to be something like at 200 dollar initial setup fee (often waved due to promotions)...with 2x planes. 60 something bucks for a set amount of minutes per month, and 80 something for an "all you can eat per month" plan.

That was back when they called them the "Sierra" cards....with 120-k like speeds.

The newer ones....which are faster, (it's closer to DSL like speeds now)...I believe the all you can eat plan is now in the 60-ish/month range.

They also used to offer a couple of different price range PCMCIA cards...which reflected in your initial setup fee. I don't know if they still offer several ones...but if they do, it'll probably be similar to the older ones...go for the more expensive one..with the antenna that flips up. Better reception....less time spent cursing that you can't connect.
 
I right now have around 35 of the Verizon Wireless cards, and we have the unlimited plan. We got the cards for free, and are paying $50 - 60 per month for unlimited data transfer. We have found a few places out in the middle of nowhere that the cards don't work. But so far it hasn't been that often.
 
I think verizon is going to be the winner. I don't have a pcmcia card, but I do use my VZW phone w/ bluetooth when I'm on the road. Transfer rate is 288k I believe, it might be a little higher. I've used it in the middle of TX and on Cape Cod without any problems, coverage seems to be very good.
 
You can either go for the aforementioned Verizon plans, or use your vanilla cellphone + data cable + AOL trial CD or dial-up provider during your "Free minutes" period for relatively cheap, albeit slow internet access.
 
movax said:
You can either go for the aforementioned Verizon plans, or use your vanilla cellphone + data cable + AOL trial CD or dial-up provider during your "Free minutes" period for relatively cheap, albeit slow internet access.
Click to expand...

Painful is more like it. My cell modem maxes out at 14.4, and I believe they don't get much faster.
 
Thanks guys... I didn't realize you could get decent speeds out of a wireless air card. On that note, has anyone used Sprint's service? That's our current PCS provider... I'm curious if there's any differences in speed/coverage.
 
My boss used to be CFO of a trucking company and we were talking about internet on trucks. Anymore a vast majority of truck stops provide wireless internet. I didn't believe him, we went on a trip to Kansas City. I ram NetStumbler all along the I-80 corridor and sure enough, almost every place truck stop we drove past had wi-fi access.
 
I use the Sprint EVDO card (5740) last month for a few weeks, but returned it because the service was simply too costly even though it worked great. I had consistent speeds in the 700Kbps-1Mbps range, averaging about 80KB/s on downloads. The card was $79.99 because of a special I purchased it under, but if you wait sooner or later Sprint either puts them on sale for $49.99 with a contract for unlimited service or they just give you the card outright.

It worked for me, as I said, and I was quite pleased with the service, just didn't think it was worth $86 a month ($79.99 plus some fees and obligatory taxes).

YMMV.

bb
 
This all sounds great. My sister did some research, some reviews said Cingular currently had the best service, I am not sure about their coverage, however. I had another question though, and forgive me for being ignorant... but - with this kind of connecting with an air card, do you need anything special to make sure your data is secure? I know for WiFi routers a lot of people don't change the default passwords and anyone with brains can connect to them. Just checking. The sad thing is, these services will probably be better than the DSL we have at the house here! I live in a small town, cable and DSL both suck here.
 
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