Internet on the road....

[ctf20]

Can someone tell me about getting wireless internet for your laptop on the road (in the car)? through cell phone companies i guess it is. i've heard something about it, but would like to find out more...can someone point me to a website, which companies have it? verizon?

thanks

 

[Commodus]

You're thinking of technologies like EVDO or EDGE, provided by companies like Verizon and Sprint in the US. You can look those up on Wikipedia for greater detail, but the long and short of it is that they use cellular-style networking to let you connect at broadband speeds (albeit lower-end broadband) from anywhere within the range of those networks.

There are two big catches. First, it's a lot more expensive than cable or DSL on average, and there's often a data transfer limit (don't think you can grab BitTorrents on the road). The second problem is that you'll need a specific PC Card or ExpressCard adapter, unless you've picked up a relatively recent laptop with EVDO or EDGE built-in. As a general rule, you don't get EVDO or EDGE service just because you can't bear the thought of leaving your MySpace page alone for more than a day; you get it because you need to know you'll have Internet access away from the office.

 

[WackyDan]

I use a Verizon PCMCIA card. I get a special deal through my employer for the unlimited data plan. It's normally like $80 per month, I pay like $30.... But there are hundreds of us in this company using their cards/service, hence the steep discount.

It's pretty slick, works most places, though if you don't have signal, you are not on the internet. It's more secure than WiFi, but only really practical if you can justify the expense vs regained productivity. I'm lost without mine to be honest, and I travel every week.

I can very easily log over 100meg of bandwidth a month- depending on how much I use WiFI, or if I'm not travelling as much.
It allows me tio be very responsive to peers and customers, and allows me to get work done during the day that I'd normally be stuck with in my hotel room.