Internet on the trail

[jayshapiro]

While most of us go camping to GET AWAY from our daily connections, the fact is on an extended expedition a connection home can be a lifeline.

In our designing of the EcoRoamer we've been looking at various network connection solutions, including:
- aircards with external antennae / boosters
- BGAN satelite
- Hughes Satelite
- Internet cafe hopping

In the end we decided on the "Internet in Motion" device which I bought from Camping World - Link Here.

We ordered the quad band 3G (HSDPA) version, so it will work just about anywhere in the world that there is a GSM cellular signal, and added the long-range external magnetic antennae.

I've had it up and running for about two weeks now (I'm on it as we speak) and I have to say I LOVE IT.

The device provides about a 2MB/sec downstream connection on a 3G network - and it has been rock solid.

We are currently travelling in Canada. I went to a "Fido" store in a local mall paid $39 for a local SIM card, and got a data only plan that is $50 - $100 per month depending on usage (500MB - 6GB) with no contract, so I will cancel it at the end of our month here.

Tom King from the manufacturer told me that with these antennae he has customers (such as the coast guard) who still get strong signals up to 30 miles offshore.

Unfortunately, when we received ours the special antennae were both dead, but the standard stick antennae have been working fine and Tom offered to immediately replace the dead ones with shipping at their cost.

The units are pretty steep $1,200+ but that includes a WiFi base and the additional antennae - so I guess not bad overall.

Now we have a roaming wifi zone as we roll down the road. The device itself will eventually live in a cabinet (as soon as I build one) and then we can just connect our laptops to the WiFi base. Should be a great way to meet new 'friends' at campgrounds too!

Not often that I recommend a product thoroughly, but if you're going on a long expedition this strikes me as a great solution.

Cheers,
Jay.

 

[rambrush]

Glad thats working for you..looks like a decent set up.

I run a Sprint Mogul/Titan HTC6800 Phone, I receive data/internet on it.
I then purchased a amplifier https://www.maximumsignal.net/store/product.php?productid=16135&cat=1&page=1
Then a high gain antenna
https://www.maximumsignal.net/store/product.php?productid=16201&cat=5&page=2
Then it was time for software
http://www.wmwifirouter.com/

Mounted my laptop on a ram mount set up a secure wi-fi network in the vehicle. We have traveled from Arizona to Washington the state and back and up to Montana using this setup. Has worked very good for my purposes.

 

[cshontz]

This excites me. Can you give us more detailed info? A breakdown of pricing on various options? Best network? How remote is too remote? More pics?

Thanks for sharing this!

 

[chrismc]

This looks like a pricey variant of the CradlePoint routers offered by 3gStore.com. The MBR-1000 ($239.99) allows you to connect several different types of wireless broadband devices (at once, even) and set up fail-over or load-balancing between them. It also provides an Ethernet WAN port to connect an existing IP uplink (such as a satellite connection).

The flexibility of supporting different types of broadband data cards means you can use whatever mobile provider you'd like, and can use devices that you or your travel companions may already have.

3gstore also offers a wide array of external antennas to boost the signal strength in fringe areas.

You will not find a faster way to use 3G data in North America than using these offerings.

Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with 3Gstore, just a fan that has been researching this subject for many years. I use a home-built Linux wi-fi router with my Sprint USB data card to accomplish the same thing in a much more complicated fashion.

 

[jayshapiro]

More details

Hi Guys,

Sorry for the delayed response on this one...

I like that cradle point device, very cool find - thanks for the link.

I have historically used my HTC 3G phone (model-S730) tethered to my laptop via USB to accomplish the same thing to. It works great also, and we use it a lot when just driving around town, to allow us to use the laptop in the car to make use of traffic time. (co-pilot, not me!)

However, I felt that the tethering method had certain drawbacks:
1 - Limited range due to poor antennae - though I guess the cradle point helps to solve that.

2 - Tied only to one PC, I wanted to have WiFi - though I guess the WMWifirouter solves that too, though I'm guessing with pretty limited range... (have never seen that one before)

3 - The tethering ties up my phone when connected, so not a 'permanent' solution unless I went out and bought a second 3G+Wifi phone dedicated to the system.

...and so I decided on the Internet in Motion system. Yes, it is fairly expensive at first site, but when you consider that price includes:
- dedicated 3G device
- two ultra-long range omnidirectional, magnetic mount Laird antennae
- NetGear G WiFi base w/Firewall
it starts to seem like not such a bad deal.

Here's what the whole package looks like:

Our WiFi SSID is: "EcoRoamer - will trade WiFi for Beer" - if you ever see it, let me know and I'll happily trade you the WEP key! ;-)

Personally, I think the AT&T/Cinguar HSDPA version is the way to go.
1 - You get very good speeds on their network. (I typically get at least 2MBps downstream and 600k upstream)

2 - It is SIM card based, allowing you to take it almost anywhere in the world and just swap SIM cards for a local telco. (I did this with FIDO while we were in Canada and paid just $50/month with no contract)

3 - I think they have 'pretty good' coverage throughout the states - though their "Fewest dropped calls" advertising makes me laugh. Who promotes their company as "We suck the least!"??

Overall I've been very happy with our choice so far.

I'd be very interested to hear from anyone using a similar set-up that has used it in South America. We were planning on having a BGAN system as well, but if this can work, then we might just forget that and save the cash...

Cheers,
Jay.

Disclaimer - I have no connection with Internet in Motion, and received no discount or promotion from them for this posting. I just think it's a great product that solves a problem I've had for a couple of years.

 

[mrstang01]

Any other solutions for traveling Wi-Fi with ATT?

Michael