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A nice article, and I can pretty much agree with all you say.
I have a Palm Treo smartphone, and I use it a lot both for browsing the web (especially this forum!) and for sending/reading email. It is very handy, and for many users may be all they need while on the road. I wouldn't be without it.
But, I guess I'm one of those people you describe as a hard-core Internet junkie. There are times when it isn't enough, and I have to be able to get online with my laptop. Most of the time while I'm travelling in the MH, it's not a vacation, and I have to be able to get work done on the road. So I have to take my laptop, and I have to be able to get online from time to time to keep in touch with clients and transfer large files.
For the first few months, I tethered my smartphone to my laptop. Bluetooth is handy, but slow, so I usually used a USB cable. Besides speed, the second advantage to USB is that it helps keep the phone charged. But the problem was that tethering was not only slow, but also unreliable for me: most of the time I could only connect once, and I would have to reset the phone and/or reboot the computer before I could connect a second time. That grew old real fast.
Finally, I gave up on that, got an AirCard (and paid for an additional data plan! ) It's much faster and more reliable than tethering, and is working out well for me. It's not nearly as fast as the cable modem at home, but it is still quite useable, and I can put up with the speed (or lack thereof.) I am roughing it, after all!
When I got the data card, I went with a different carrier than my other phones. It would've cost me more for the AirCard plan to go with the same carrier, and I like the versatility of having two carriers: so often I'm in the boonies, and having two carriers to choose from means I'm that much more likely to be able to get through. If one carrier has no coverage at a particular location, often times the other one does.
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How do you tether your phone to your laptop, do you just plug in a usb cable, does it have to be a special cable? Do you need a special program. I have a blacjack II with AT&T service.
LORNADUCK wrote: How do you tether your phone to your laptop, do you just plug in a usb cable, does it have to be a special cable? Do you need a special program. I have a blacjack II with AT&T service.
I don't have a blackjack to test with, but i did find this article that should help you:
What kind of coverage do you guys get while travelling?
I'm a home based computer programmer and the last two summers I've travelled with my family on extended 5 adn 7 week trips through the South and out West. We're considering taking a 15mo trip starting from here up to Alasaka, back down, and all over the country.
On previous trips, half of the time I was able to get a decent connection at a campground, either wifi or a hard line in a office or lounge. Sometimes I find a nearby bookstore or Starbucks and work there for the day. And finally I have a portable Satellite set-up but i've never quite gotten it hooked up correctly, although I know I could given some effort. It's always been easier to take a ride and find a nearby connection then to get it all worked out and start paying the $70 a month when i'm able to get a free connection so frequently.
For this upcoming trip we're planning on spending more time in remote places, Alaska particularly, but also a lot more state and national park campsites instead of the private sites we've been staying in so much. So I have to cut the cord and start proving my own wifi.
So I'm trying to decide whether to try dealing with the satellite, having to setup and breakdown at every stop, or go with an aircard, Sprint or Verizon. The monthly outlay is comparable. I would much rather get an aircard but I just don't know if i'll get the kind of coverage I need. I'd love a datastorm system but i can't afford it.
So how bad, or good, are the sprint or verizon networks when you start getting away from the big urban centers? Yellowstone, Yosemite, Banff, Alaska... Will I get nothing in those places or a slow dial-up type connection?
Another hard-core internet junkie here, even to the point of instaling a cellular antenna on the motor home. The Wilson antenna really helps a lot. I tether an at&t phone for my connection. Not all phones or cards have a connection port for an external antenna.
Last year I ran a wireless router to share the connection for the DW laptop. This year I am going to use this Wireless Network Connection in Windows XP Without a Router It works using a tethered phone as the connection and sharing the connection through the PCMCIA WiFi card.
To have the wireless network I don't have to have the inverter on just to power up the router.
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on monday the 14th, Verizon is announcing a new $29.99 smartPhone/PDA/PPC data plan, for devices like the Q9 treo xv6800 ( xv6900 verizons new HTC TOUCH it goes on WEB sale wed 16th, in store on the 30th ) ( waiting on mine to arrive )
the CrackBerries already have a $30 plan that came out last fall
Options, always have options, and the journey goes much smoother ....
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love4god wrote: So how bad, or good, are the sprint or verizon networks when you start getting away from the big urban centers? Yellowstone, Yosemite, Banff, Alaska... Will I get nothing in those places or a slow dial-up type connection?
I've not been to any of those areas, I've stayed closer to home on the east coast. My reception has been spotty at times.
When I had just my Verizon Palm Treo 700p, I had been to several remote campgrounds where there just wasn't much service, if any. When I got my Sprint AirCard, I started to have better luck. Now, was that because the Sprint coverage was better? Or was I just at places that had better signals?
With just the PDA, I rarely had EVDO speeds ate remote locations, and the odds were 50/50 if I would get a signal at all. The wife's phone (also Verizon) generally worked better than mine, so the signal strength issues could partly be due to the PDA's cellular performance. But generally, if I could get a voice signal on the PDA, I could get at least a slow data signal.
With the Novatel Merlin S720 AirCard from Sprint, I usually could get a signal, and the odds were 50/50 if it would be EVDO high speed or at a slower speed. When I got an EVDO connection, the speed was quite satisfactory, although not up to cable modem standards. With the slower speeds, it was definitely slow, but still usable when needed (but not nearly as much fun.)
So, the best I can say is that it varies. One thing I noticed is that the coverage maps from Verizon and Sprint are not necessarily accurate predictors of performance. The first time I had the AirCard, I looked at the maps: it said that where I was going to be would have good Verizon coverage, and no Sprint coverage. When I got there, the Sprint AirCard had good signal strength and data speeds, and the Verizon voice phones were practically unusable (I could walk around and sometimes find a signal, which would let me talk for a minute or two before I got dropped.)
I got the AirCard late in the season, and over the winter I only used it in urban areas, which always have good speed and signal strength. When the camping season starts up again, and I get a little more experience with it, I will decide if it's worth getting an external antenna and possibly a booster amplifier. So far, I've gotten away without it.
Now, the remote locations you're talking about are far more remote than the remote locations I've so far experienced. My only experience at any of those places was an Alaska cruise through the inside passage. Most of the time, there was no signal at all. When we got near port, the PDA would start working again. When we took a side excursion away from the port cities, sometimes it would drop out again.
If your data needs are light, and you don't mind being out of touch for a day or two, you might get by with a cellular approach in those remote locations. That's assuming that you will be mobile, and will occasionally hit a town with service, and can catch up on your data needs at that time. But if your data needs are critical, and you cannot afford to be out of touch, your better bet might be to get that satellite setup working. That's just my gut feeling based on my limited experience.
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There are times when it isn't enough, and I have to be able to get online with my laptop. Most of the time while I'm travelling in the MH, it's not a vacation, and I have to be able to get work done on the road. So I have to take my laptop, and I have to be able to get online from time to time to keep in touch with clients and transfer large files.
) It's much faster and more reliable than tethering, and is working out well for me. It's not nearly as fast as the cable modem at home, but it is still quite useable, and I can put up with the speed (or lack thereof.) I am roughing it, after all! 
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