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Is this feasible or am I dreaming.

R

Rickten

Golden Member
Okay so for as long as I can remember at least once a year my family has driven to see my grandparents who live in Iowa. We live in California. This is a non-stop drive 32 hour straight hell on earth trip. A piece of crap 1990 minivan with 6 people and a dog all trying to not go insane from boredom. We only stop for gas. My mom even forces us to pack a cooler of food so that we don't have to stop for food. Like I said hell on earth. Now to the point. This trip is boring. You can only listen to music so long. So a goal of mine for the trip next summer will be to have a laptop and possibly some kind of internet access. This goal or dream should I say hopefully is possible.

Now to the hardware issue. Is there any kind of wireless connection that could provide me constant connection to the internet on my laptop over I believe five states if I recall correctly while sitting in the back of a mini van that is moving at 70 miles an hour. This of course can't cost some crazy amount of money for a service. I'll understand if the equipment is expensive but I can't justify paying some 100 fee for roaming along with 100 bucks for a service that isn't even guaranteed to work.

I recall some bluetooth thing or blue something but can't remember. Does anybody know of a wireless solution that may fit my needs. Go ahead and recommend no matter how expensive. I'll decide if its worth it or not.
 
You can get a special cell phone (sprint PCS maybe?) and use that for net access. Will be about 33.6 kb a sec, and cost a few cents a minute I would imagine. Depending on your plan, there may/may not be roaming fees.

However, it IS just a 36 hour trip. Read a good book and enjoy the time away from the computer 😉
 
i just recently got a notebook and i'm not so familiar with them, so forgive me if this is a stupid comment...but...

the battery of a notebook lasts ~4-4.5 hours if you get a notebook that is meant to have a long battery life. out of 32 hours that isn't very long...
 
well I can plug the laptop into the cig lighter.

anyone else. I was thinking that plugging into a cell phone would be the only way.

32 hours both ways. I get sick reading books in the car.
 
I need to surf the anandtech forums. 32 hours is a long time I might miss out on an insane hot deal. Imagine trying to pricematch with staples and using coupons while driving through utah at 70 miles an hour.
 
If anybody cares I've found this.

Text

well my pipe dream is over. I can't afford 400 bucks. for something I'll use once a year. Hopefully someday though.
 
Sprint PCS has really bad coverage. You can only find a signal (Without a dual-mode phone incurring roaming charges in analog mode, wich is incompatible w/ PSC Internet anyway) in the cities. 🙁 I live REALY close to Atlanta, & I can only use mine when I go to work. It's very clear, and coverage is expanding (Good job Sprint) though 🙂 They were going to put up a tower in my very neighborhood a year ago but the damn neighbors threw a fit & got the project canceled! *GrRrR*
 
I beliebe that there's a service called Ricochet that allows for DSL speeds with no wires. I think that the modem costs about 200 bucks and the service costs another 70 bucks a month. Its expensive, but its better than a cell phone if you're paying by the minute.
 
Just visited the website for Metricom, the maker of Ricochet. They filed for chapter 11 one month ago and shut down their network. So much for that idea.
 
Ricochet is what I'm looking for but is limited to major cities. No coverage in the middle of nebraska. Damn


edit: doh chapter 11
 
Even in the major cities coverage is EXTREMELY spotty. Don't expect to use it while moving! But of course, no one can use it at all now 🙁
 
Ricochet went bankrupt a few weeks ago, guys.

"...Is there any kind of wireless connection that could provide me constant connection to the internet on my laptop over I believe five states..."

Other than a direct-to-satellite connection, or browsing the web by cellphone - there isn't really an "affordable" option at the moment.

I would get yourself a Gameboy advance and a few good games to keep you company 🙂

 
Hopefully in a few more years. For now I'll just have to be content playing games and watching movies.

honestly though that would be awesome surfing the web like that.
 


<< 32 hours both ways. I get sick reading books in the car. >>



You'd just get sick surfing the internet anyway.
 
On the bright side, soon we will be able to surf the internet while travelling just not right now.. 🙁
 
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