Life on the Road

It’s not exactly news about travel around the U.S., except for the hundreds of people who, like me, live in their RVs and travel the U.S. Many have noticed recently that there’s been some “connectivity trouble.” We’ve been suffering with it for almost a month, but in our case, we thought the satellite was below the tree line.

As it turns out, the satellite we normally connect with (Galaxy 26) has moved out of is orbital position. One of the solar power panels failed, and the satellite has shifted. Our satellite Internet service provider, MobileSat, contacted us last week to let us know about the disruption in service.

This, as well as the connectivity problems we’d been having with the treeline, highlight the importance of having multiple plans for mobile Internet access if you work from the road. Here are just a few chains you can have in your connectivity plan:

• Satellite Internet service: Reliable unless you’re in a nice, tree-covered campground.
• Cell phones: usually less reliable than the satellite, especially in remote, tree-covered campgrounds (but it works well on the Interstate). I connect my phone via Bluetooth to my laptop for access, or many RVers have a cell phone computer card that plugs into their laptops.
• Local WiFi: terribly unreliable; usually only available at the camp store or office, and because it’s free, it tends to go up and down without warning or recourse. In our current site, the local wifi is all right, but it is very spotty for me from 9 AM until 6 PM, and it doesn’t work when the microwave is running.
• HotSpot WiFi: This requires you to put clothes on and drive to Starbucks for a cup of coffee and their T-Mobile service. We’ve only had to go this far once or twice.
• Dial-up backup: This is impractical for us. We don’t even have a land line phone service or dialup account. I’d love to hear if others are still using dial-up. Many campgrounds seem to think this is still a viable way to offer “Internet access,” but they’re incorrect. Viable Internet access means there’s a wireless router in your office.