With today’s smartphones like the Apple iPhone, Palm Treo or Blackberry, many of the Web tasks can be easily and quickly done directly from the phone. Email, SMS, IM and even Web browsing are possible with some of the latest mobile browsers. One of the best features on today’s smartphones has to be mapping tools such as Google Maps.

When used in tandem with a turn-by-turn GPS unit in the vehicle, Google Maps for your smartphone operated by a co-pilot can be an extremely helpful tool in finding addresses, points-of-interest, traffic updates and getting satellite views of the terrain as the driver concentrates on the road ahead.

For some phones, you can even route the data connection from your phone via a cable to be used in a traditional notebook computer. This process is called tethering.

Mobile Phone Tethering

If your phone is compatible with tethering, make sure you have a data plan that can handle the large amounts of data you will be consuming. Otherwise, you will be looking at a big deal of hurt when you get your next bill. Also, most phone companies prohibit tethering in their terms of services with a data plan meant for the phone. So, as far as tethering for unauthorized phones and data plans, it is really a black art that should be left for the experienced.

Wireless Data Cards

To use a mobile phone network’s 3G capabilities legitimately, you should subscribe to a separate data plan that is meant to be used with a computer. AT&T, Sprint and Verizon all offer an unlimited data plan for $59.99 but since earlier this year (2008), all have decided, around the same time, that a maximum of 5 GB was going to be the limit with no pricing change. Collusion? You decide.

Verizon’s Hardware Offerings from Left to Right:
KPC 680 ExpressCard, PC5750 PC Card, USB727 USB Adapter

The hardware required to setup a cellular wireless broadband connection is relatively inexpensive and portable. All of the providers offer instant and mail-in rebates for the hardware that brings the price well below $100. That’s if you are willing to sign your life away on a 2-year contract. Collusion? OK, I’ll stop.

Monthly Limits

With only a 5 GB a month limit, you won’t be able to use your Internet connection as liberally as you would an unlimited connection like the DSL at your house. The usage breaks down to roughly 170 megabytes a day. That is plenty for sending/receiving email messages and casual Web browsing a few hours a day. If you are a YouTube addict or subscribe to podcasts via iTunes, you are out of luck. An average 10 minute video clip on YouTube will be about 7 to 10 megabytes in size. If you did nothing but watch 20 YouTube videos a day, and you know how easy it is to click from clip to clip before you realize hours have gone by, you will run out of your data limit for the day. For someone who requires even more data intensive services like Skype or iChat video chat, 5 GB a month will not get you very far either.

The monthly usage report uses both the downstream as well as the upstream to calculate the limit. That’s why a 2-way video conference that doubles the rate transfer rate will bring a considerable amount of hurt to your monthly bill.

Coverage Areas

Assuming that you are willing to deal with the data limits, the next thing you will want to consider is the coverage areas. The 3 largest mobile network operators in the U.S. are AT&T, Sprint and Verizon. Sprint and Verizon both utilize the EVDO network and both have recently updated to what they call a ‘Rev. A’ network. It nearly doubles the data rate and has great coverage across most major cities in the U.S. AT&T is relatively new to the 3G game having relied on the 2G ‘EDGE’ network for many years. Their recent launch of the 3G network is only limited to the largest markets and runs on the newer and theoretically faster HSDPA network. With all three of these network operators, you will automatically fall back to their older infrastructure with slower speeds if you are in an area where the newer 3G speeds are not available.

Digital Antenna’s 4KMR-10A 40 dB gain auto booster kit with internal and external antennas

Although the coverage area is much better than open WiFi connections, it is not perfect. For a road tripper who likely will be traversing through miles of roads less traveled, an external antenna will help extend the reach of the cellular network. Even better, you can install a cellular booster kit to increase the range by as much as 50 miles.

There are companies that specialize in building these booster kits for the RV market such as WiFi In Motion out of Oregon. Wilson Electronics also sell wattage booster and antennas of all types to extend not only your wireless broadband connection but also your mobile phone so you can make calls and receive better data signals. Digital Antenna offers a repeater product that you can install into your vehicle that will pick up all of the cellular traffic inside the car with an internal patch antenna and boost the signal to 3 watts and sends it away to the nearest cell site.

Connection Sharing

We went to the Pomona RV Show earlier this year and were able to see the WiFi In Motion in action at their booth. Part of their kit includes a WiFi router that lets you turn your mobile broadband card to a WiFi signal you can share with multiple computers just like a hot spot. You can purchase a standalone router without the booster kit from various companies including Linksys and Netgear if that is all you need. One of my favorites is actually a company who specializes in wireless broadband routers named Cradlepoint.

Cradlepoint’s CTR-250 Wireless Router that accepts a USB Cellular Data Adapter

They use a proprietary technology they developed called “WiPipe” that claims to squeeze out every last bit of speed from your broadband card. It is compatible with most if not all of the adapters offered by the wireless network providers. Many of their routers are designed also to be used by a land line DSL connection that will automatically fail over to your wireless broadband card in an event of land line failure when you are at home. Keep in mind that when you split your connection up amongst many users, you will have to be even more mindful of your monthly data limit.

Summary

The benefits of wireless broadband is obviously its pervasive coverage. The recent upgrades network operators made have increased its data rate on par with land line DSL or cable connections. Here are a short list of the benefits cellular wireless broadband have as compared against other options. Specifically WiFi Hotspots and Satellite Internet (Will discuss in a future post).

Pros

1. Better coverage than WiFi Hotspots
2. Lower start up costs than satellite Internet
3. Fast connections that rival land line DSL or Cable
4. Relatively inexpensive monthly fees
5. Portable and compact with nearly no set up required
6. Works while in motion as well as indoors or under heavy foliage

Cons

1. Poor or no coverage in extremely remote locations
2. 2 year contract required for the lowest setup and hardware prices
3. Limited competition in the cellular market that allegedly colludes to create similar features, restrictions and prices
4. Expensive roaming fees when traveling outside of U.S. Costs can be up in the hundreds of dollars when used briefly in Mexico or Canada
5. 5 GB combined up and down data monthly limit
6. Outrageous overage fees. At $0.25 per megabyte, 1 GB of overage each month will cost you and additional $250 at Verizon

Although the services offered by these cellular providers are extremely convenient and fast when you are in a 3G network, the data transfer limitations are a deal breaker for me. As my work requires me to be online almost constantly, the 5 GB limit falls well short of my needs. The irony is that as speed and data capacity increases, the cost has not fallen. The 3G network is now at a point to be able to replace land line broadband with its comparable speed but all three of the phone companies who offer the service are concerned with it cannibalizing its core land line market. They do not want people to cancel their home DSL accounts just because they are a subscriber to their wireless broadband. That is a shame as many of us would love to do just that.

If you are looking to give wireless broadband a try yourself, nearly all of the providers have a risk-free, 30-day trial period where if you are not satisfied with their offering, you are not obligated to the term of the contract when canceled in time. That’s exactly what I did. I am holding out for an unlimited plan if it ever becomes available again.

over and out,
dan

Related posts:
The RV Web: Chapter 1 – Extending Your WiFi Range
My Secret WiFi Hot Spot Weapon

The Shady Dell in Bisbee is known for its collection of antique trailers that are for rent to visitors nightly. They also have a number of pull-through and back-in spaces for people like us who brought their homes with them. Unfortunately, we are not within close-enough range to get a solid wireless Internet signal. Lucky for us, I came prepared with my own ‘space needle’ wireless antenna.

The antenna I brought along is an outdoor omni-directional antenna similar to this one on Amazon.com. I had to make a mast that I can easily carry with me in the van but also extend to a reasonably high altitude to maximize my reception. I ended up getting a 12-ft, professional-grade painter’s pole that can be adjusted to anywhere between 6 to 12 ft. Using three pieces of rope and three tent stakes, I can pretty much secure this antenna anywhere I can drive 3 tent stakes into the ground.

Here I actually just have the mast tied to an existing post in the ground next to the Airstream.

Using my external USB wireless adapter I wrote about in a previous post, I connected the antenna to the computer and got a solid 3 bars of connection and was able to get online from our Shady Dell exile.

One of the keys to getting your computer to connect to an external antenna set-up like this is to use one or two active USB repeater cables. The picture below shows my wireless adapter connected to the antenna on one side. And on the other side, a short regular cable bridges the adapter to the active USB cable that runs into the Airstream and attaches to my laptop..

The wireless adapter draws power from the USB port of the laptop so if you extend the USB cable too far, the adapter will simply not work. The antenna cable is also best to be kept to a minimum length as to not induce too much signal loss as it comes into the adapter.

The active USB cables are designed to be extremely efficient and low-loss when it comes to power and digital-signal loss. They are often used for Webcams that need to be located in places far away from the computer. I bought 2 of them at 16 feet each but you can daisy chain as many of 5 of them to stretch to an astounding 80 feet of USB goodness.

This setup worked out great for us in some places but it is probably overkill for most. It is a good way to draw attention to yourself from fellow campers or the campground staff if that’s the kinda thing you are looking for. For us, this antenna stays disassembled in the van most of the time and is my Deringer in the boot and only gets pulled out for those hard to get wireless access points.

over and out,
dan

1. Satellite Internet Service Provider (Direcway, HughesNet)
2. Wireless Broadband from Cell Phone Providers (Verizon, Sprint)
3. Public WiFi Access Points

Although there may be newer and arguably better options in the works such as WiMax, these 3 are what’s widely available today. I will spend some time talking about them in a few separate posts as I am currently doing research on what is best for our upcoming trips. In this post, I will focus my attention on the third and potentially the most interesting option: getting connected via public WiFi.

As people get smarter about locking down their home wireless networks, it has become harder and harder to find free WiFi connections as you travel. The legality of leeching off of an unsuspecting neighbor has also been hotly contested. For the purpose of this discussion, I am going to assume that you are a respectful traveling netizen who just needs a quick eBay fix while you check your Yahoo mail.

WiFi connections is the only Internet option of the three that are available to RVers that does not usually come with a bandwidth cap. Satellite Internet usually has a daily cap of around 200 MB and both Verizon and Sprint have implemented a 5GB monthly limit on their wireless plans. Neither options are suitable for the kinds of broadband hungry Websites and services available online today. So the benefits of Public WiFi connections seem to be pretty obvious. Usually free, no bandwidth caps and fast. Sounds awesome. Sign me up!

Not so fast there sonny. Obviously there is a huge downside of this and it is the availability of open access points. You are not going to be able to magically make more open networks available just by wishing. So the only thing you can do is to make what is available come in stronger and crisper. First thing you need to do is to get an external antenna on that computer’s WiFi card. The problem with today’s notebooks is that most of them have an integrated antenna. It assumes you are using a wireless acsess point of your own that sits just across the desk which is exactly the range of that integrated antenna. By using an external WiFi network adapter with an antenna port, you can instantly gain a lot more range with very little cost.

This little guy I picked up at geeks.com for only 20 bucks shipped. It got me probably double the range compared to using the built-in wireless card.

Even better yet, by swapping out the antenna to a high gain version, I got even more range. There are all kinds of external antennas you can use depending on your needs. Omni-directional, uni-directional, panel, yagi (I know, it sounds like a healthy breakfast), you name it, they’ve got it. Spend some time researching what you want to get but anything is better than what comes in your laptop.

Now remember, Internet connection is a 2-way street. Just because you can receive better now with an external antenna, doesn’t mean you are transmitting stronger signals necessarily. The access point you are connecting to may not be hearing you as loudly as you hear them. If they can’t hear you, they don’t know that you want to snipe someone on eBay for that glass menagerie collection in the last minute. You will be heart broken. We just can’t have that. This means you want to get a higher output out of your wireless adapter as well. This is gonna start to sting a little bit because 20 bucks probably will not cut it. The higher the output, the more noise you are introducing to your transmission. It’s like when you are screaming at the top of your lungs, it is a little harder to understand you clearly. You need to hook yourself up with a Ty Pennington megaphone like this:

This little device goes for about 75 bucks on Amazon. But it will give you as much as 500 mW of output which is as much as 10 times the normal wattage.

What? You have 2 computers? You don’t want to buy 2 of these setups? Shoot. Now you tell me. Well, you are in luck. I know just the right thing for you. What you need is a high-powered WiFi bridge. One like the ZyXel G-470:

Couple this bad boy with your external antenna and you will have created an equivalent of a long wire coming from the access point to your RV. Plug that into any old wired hub/switch you will be able to split that connection with whoever you want. This WiFi bridge goes for about 100 bucks on Amazon but the good news is that it is already a high-output device. You will not need to get a power booster to get a similar range as the previous setup.

Now you are really in business. With an external, high-gain antenna and a high-output WiFi adapter, you might just be able to connect yourself to that local coffee shop down the street offering free WiFi to their cappuccino consuming customers. Just don’t forget to walk down there the next morning to thank them by getting yourself a bagel with cream cheese for breakfast.

I’ll take an onion. Toasted. Thanks.

over and out,
dan