Today we’re going to journey down the magical path of learning, to discover knew horizons, reveal old secrets, and maybe even dust a few cobwebs off our brain cells. First, let’s begin by defining the idea of travel. According to Google, travel can mean:

• undertake a journey or trip for pleasure
• the act of going from one place to another
• travel from place to place, as for the purpose of finding work, preaching, or acting as a judge

How interesting. Now, barring the likelihood that you’ll be traveling to find work as a preacher or judge (can you just show up in a town and announce yourself Judge?), and hoping that if you plan to travel, you’ll get some amount of pleasure out of it, we’re left with the most obvious of definitions: the act of going from one place to another. That’s an easy idea to wrap your head around, but do it without some aid and you’ll find yourself learning the definition of another word: lost. (Which of course, can be as much fun as anything!)

For most of us, though, we’ll want to get to particular places with names like “Grand Whatever” and “Mt. Somewhere” or “This and That National Park.” To do so, we’ll need either a keen knowledge of navigation via celestial bodies (sure, the sun sets in the West but which one of those lights is the North star…you kind of already need to know which way North is before you can find it) or a man made tool. In my experience, there are three such tools stuffed in varied quantities inside most travelers’ rigs: some type of new fangled GPS thing meant to suck the manhood right out of you, the Atlas, which makes men out of meatballs, and Google Maps, which is somewhere in between and no where near either at the same time.

GPS

Let me just say it: GPS is not cheating. Many people who use GPS are fine upstanding citizens, who’s nametags read one of the following: wuss, wimp, wonk, cheater, big cheater, what’s the point, and which one is my left hand? Now of course, this is just my own opinion, but let’s try and look at it from the point of view of the writer. There are many reasons to travel: business, to acquire new land, to convert the native people to some form of Christianity, to visit every Walgreens in the tri-state area, and so on. For myself, however, travel is about seeing what I haven’t seen, being where I haven’t been, and the adventure that comes along with all of that. Now picture yourself at an amusement park. The Great Grandaddy is the fastest, most awesome rollercoaster in the world: it takes you from 0 to 600mph in 13 nanoseconds, into the upper atmosphere before plunging you to the bottom of the ocean and then safely back to the line so you can hop on again and really get your money’s worth. Riding that rollercoaster has always been your dream, but when you get there, you decide that buying a shirt that says “I road the Great Grandaddy” is just as much fun.

My point? Sure, you can tell your grand kids one day that you once lived on the road, roughing it in the woods, making your way through the vast American landscape and carving a niche for yourself in history alongside the Kerouacs and Swartzs, but when they see that little video you made and hear the British woman’s voice in the background saying “Turn…left at Route 66″ how will you tell them that no, you didn’t have a robotic English girl on board who was missing half of her frontal cortex, you were simply letting a satellite hovering over the planet tell you where to go?

The Trucker’s Atlas

Or any decent atlas, really. I have been fond of the Rand McNally boys in the past but have recently picked up the American Map 2010 Road Atlas (I know, it’s only 2009 but I’m already seeing the future of this great nation – thank you Obama!). And actually, unless you know how to read a Trucker’s Atlas, you may want to start with the Rand McNally. Though the Trucker’s version will show you the ins and outs of life on the road with a giant killing machine that can’t fit into most places you want to fit it into, McNally and co. will make it much easier to figure out how you’ve gotten lost and how to get back, all while sipping your morning coffee over a cigarette and yelling at the kids to quit blinking so loudly.

I love a good atlas for so many reasons: the paper feels great, it’s big and you can make long term road decisions without trying to move around a screen or wait for some British bird to recalculate. The joy of a good yellow highlighter running over everywhere you’ve been or might want to go is nearly as good as ice cream and sex, and if you’re riding shotgun, you can learn countless excellent facts about state birds, how the West has 10 National Parks for every 1 back East, and ponder why Ohio takes so damned long to get through when it’s actually a pretty small state compared to Montana or Kansas.

An atlas can also teach you one very serious, very useful thing: how the US Highway System works. Did you know, for example, that when traveling west on the Interstate and many US Highways, that the little green mile marker signs on the side of the road count down to either the end of that highway, or the state line, whichever comes first? And that US Highways (typically 2 laners — that is, 1 lane each way — that often pass through towns and the most scenic routes) are numbered from lowest (Highway 1 runs from Maine to Key West, Florida) to highest (Highway 101 which follows most of the Pacific Coast) as you travel East to West, and from North to South? So US 20 will be further north than US 50. Good to know. The opposite holds true for the Interstate system. Did you even know there was a difference between US highways and the Interstate system? Get an atlas and you will in no time!

Google Maps

You could also lump those printed maps AAA gives you into this group. I’m referring to both Google Maps on your computer, where you print out the directions, as well as what you might have on your Blackberry or iPhone. Let me be clear: using Google Maps on your iPhone is almost as bad as using a Tom Tom. If we were to judge it on a scale of 1 to Adultery, it would easily be like kissing your wife’s neighbor’s cat.

However, there is a time for Google Maps, and that’s when you’re practicing the delicate art of navigating a city or town. Atlas’ provide maps for some cities, but they’re not usually detailed enough to find smaller side streets and unless you’re somewhere between a Chicago-sized town and a Johnstown, PA, best of luck to you buddy. Of course, not having Google Maps or an iPhone or a GPS chip implanted in your eyeball doesn’t mean that you can’t find what you’re looking for, after all, most towns, cities and even rural farming areas come with a little thing called “the Locals”. Let’s take a few scenarios:

Trying to Find the Youth Hostel in Chicago, Illinois

Looking for a Good Pizza / Beer Place in Omaha, Nebraska

Need Directions to the Local Movie Theater (Harry Potter 19 Just Came Out!)

So as you can see, there are times when Google Maps just can’t be beat, but then again, when else will you get to approach a guy who very well may be an original member of Def Leppard?

I hope this trip through technology has served you well, and if any of you had the fortitude to read this far, please do feel free to let me know of any alternate methods (such as building your own compass out of a pickle and two spent nuclear rods).

What exactly does this mean? Basically, what Sprint is doing is compressing images before allowing you to download them. For those unfamiliar, “compressing” basically means making the images smaller in file size by lowering their quality, which means a faster download but an uglier image. And of course, any image you see on the Internet, you’ve essentially downloaded, including website graphics, Facebook pictures, etc.

The good news is that if you keep using their older software, you won’t experience this issue. This is a Windows-based problem, as far as I know. Recently Sprint changed something on their network and I’m no longer able to even access it with my data card on my Mac.

Looking forward to other alternatives, the new iPhone 3.0 update promises to bring tethering (using your iPhone’s Internet connection to fuel your computer’s downloading). However, AT&T still hasn’t signed on, even though they offer tethering to their Blackberry users. If that does go through, it’ll be nice to get 3G speeds on AT&T’s vastly expanding network (as opposed to Sprint’s very limited “nationwide” network) right from the iPhone.

Personally, I find that a bit of a smack in the face considering AT&T is now boasting about how 2 out of 3 smartphone users are on their network, a fact made true only by iPhone users. If iPhone were instead on Verizon or Sprint, AT&T wouldn’t be seeing such results, for sure.

Verizon’s MiFi is basically the same idea, but with two distinct differences: you don’t plug it into your computer, rather it’s a nearly credit card-sized device you can slip into your wallet, pocket, purse or, presumably, cleavage; and you can use the device as a WiFi hotspot, whereas currently air cards only really work for one computer at a time, unless you get an expensive router or use your computer as the router.

Carrying around a portable WiFi network in a device the size of a credit card is super cool in my book. Of course, there are a few drawbacks.

1. It’s still expensive. Whereas you can get unlimited Internet for around $25 / month via cable or DSL, you’ll pay $40/month for a measly 250MB of downloads, or $60/month for 5GB. 250MB translates to checking your email and not much else. If you want to watch Hulu or download bit torrents, even the 5GB plan isn’t going to work for you. So if this is your sole means of Internet access and you’re, say, a web designer or other web worker, it’s probably not for you. Plus the cards themselves are $100 with a two year contract, or $270 for pay as you go.
2. It’s no cable. Just as with air cards, you can expect 1mbps download speeds on average, tops. Leave the city and you can expect that to drop significantly. Verizon is supposed to have one of the best networks, and they’re supposedly coming out with a faster, 4G network in the next couple of years, but it’s still not going to match what you’re getting with Comcast over a solid cable line.

All in all, if the 5GB cap wasn’t there and it wasn’t being offered by anti-net neutrality, anti-customer service, evil Verizon, I’d definitely go for this over having to plugin and connect via the Sprint air cards we currently use. Plus, as it’s a WiFi network, we’d only need one air card, not one each.

Read more about it here.

…there is money allocated in this plan to develop the new battery technologies that will allow not just cars but potentially RVs as well to move into the next generation of plug-in hybrids…

Hybrid RVs, eh? I’ll believe it when I see it, but that would certainly make me a happier camper.

International text message rates of $0.0195 applies. Unlimited data rates do not apply while outside of the US.

I checked my phone and I was till on AT&T, though hers was now reading TELCEL. So in other words, though we were still in the US, she had somehow switched over, all of 2 feet north of me in the passenger seat, to a Mexican network. Just a word to the wise for traveling along the border, particularly if you’re the type of shotgun rider who likes to browse the Internets while your husband powers the RV down route.

Creating a Wireless Network in Your RV Using Time Machine

Our primary source of Internet access comes from our Sprint Wireless Air Cards. Handy devices indeed for the on-the-go web accesser, for sure, but using one of them to create a network in your home can be cumbersome or, at the least, expensive. Modems compatible with air cards, such as the Kyocera KR1 Broadband EVDO Router (beautiful name, isn’t it) previously ran at around $200 but have now generously jumped up to $230. And to be honest, splitting a single EVDO connection between two or more computers is going to be dangerously close to somewhere between 56k and slow DSL. So we just each use our own air cards and get decent connection rates.

That said, there is still a need for a wireless “home” network in our RV. We use the home network to connect to our backup drive, connect wirelessly to the RV’s speakers, allow our iPhones to control our music selection, and in future we might even use it to connect to a printer. All of these are nifty little things that just make life easier.

Creating the Wireless Network

We personally use Time Capsule. You might want to choose another base station depending on your own needs and brand affiliations. Apple also has the Airport Extreme and Airport Express which can both be used to create a wireless network, and there are likely countless other non-Apple affiliated products which can create a network as well. I choose Time Capsule for us because 1) it’s able to create a network and act as a router and 2) it doubles as a backup / extra storage drive. Anytime I can get two things in one, I’d prefer to do so, particularly while living in small spaces such as are found in an RV.

Setting this up is a breeze, just plug the Time Capsule in and run the software that came with it on your laptop (or desktop) and voila, you’ll be all set. The setup wizard will walk you through everything from knowing what the various colors of blinking lights mean to how to setup a password for your network. If you don’t have the CD because you bought your Time Capsule out of the back of some guy’s van, then open Airport Utility and it should try and find the Time Capsule for you.

Using the Network to Play Music via Your RV’s Speakers

I’m not referring to the speakers built into the cab of our RV, though an enterprising tinkerer may be able to guide his or herself along those lines, but to external speakers. For example, we brought our speakers from home and mounted them to the top of our couch in the lounge. This is a central location where they can easily be plugged directly into one of our laptops if we’d like to watch a movie as a family or something and really need that bleeding ear effect. We then plug the speakers into an Airport Express with AirTunes, another Apple product, which allows us to stream content from iTunes wirelessly via our home network to the speakers. Now we can turn on our Party Shuffle playlist, turn up the speaker volume and sit outside around the fire, music loud enough to hear it but without being forced to bring our laptops out (where they may be accidentally left in the rain or covered in S’mores) or lug around a separate radio (which wouldn’t likely have our entire mp3 library on it.)

Also, with a little piece of software called Airfoil (about $8), you can stream any audio being played on your computer to those speakers, not just iTunes content. It should also be noted that, like Time Capsule, Airport Express and Airfoil are both compatible with Windows and Mac OS X.

Control Those Speakers with your iPhone

So now you’ve got your home network set up and you’re using it to stream that sweet all-80′s-metal soundtrack so that you and yours can truly rock out around the fire tonight. Suddenly you realize you’ve got it cranked up to 11 and it’s nearly 1am. What do you do? There’s no time to run inside and turn down the volume, but luckily you’ve got an iPhone, right?

Apple’s own Remote app, available via the App Store, was created specifically for this task. It lets you control iTunes via that wireless home network you’ve set up, including volume, skipping through tracks and even looking at playlists. Pretty nifty for those of us who can’t be bothered to walk all the way from outside of our RVs to the interior.

Creating a Wireless Network with Just Your Air Card and a Mac

You can also use Mac OS X Leopard to share your air card’s connection to the Internet with other devices in your RV. By going to System Preferences > Sharing and then ticking the Internet Sharing box, you can use your Mac as a wireless router. You will need to have a Mac with a wireless card installed, such as all Macbooks have built in, and I believe you also must have Leopard. I don’t think Tiger or previous versions support Internet Sharing (though I could be wrong.)

Once you tick the box, choose your air card from the Share your connection from dropdown and choose Airport from the checkbox list.

Unfortunately, this doesn’t allow you to connect your Airport Express or Time Machine to this network, which is totally lame, but it will allow other computers (such as your iPhone) to use the faster-than-EDGE connection speed you’re likely to get with your wireless carrier’s signal.

Wireless carriers like AT&T and Sprint provide two options for getting online: tethering and data cards.

Tethering refers to using your actual cell phone, plugging it into your computer, and access the Internet through your phone’s connection, and typically comes with an additional charge to your monthly cell use.

Using a data card, you’re actually paying for a different plan than the one you may already have with that carrier, and you’ll get a seperate device, typically utilizing your computers PCMCIA slot or USB port.

With either of these options, you’ll need a data plan, which is basically an exchange of your hard earned dollars for the ability to access the wireless providers network.

Throughout this post I’ll be focusing on AT&T and Sprint, as we don’t have Verizon programs.*

How Much Will this Cost?

The short answer is around $60 / month. That’s what AT&T charges for it’s data plans that include tethering, and that’s how much all three of the big carriers charge per month for their data plans with a data card.

You’ll also need to buy a data card or cell phone, if you don’t already own one. Our particular data cards cost around $230 each.

Note that iPhone users don’t currently have the ability to tether there phones to their computers, though AT&T has announced plans to allow them to begin to do so. An interesting note here is that AT&T charges $45/mo to Blackberry users for their data plans without tethering, while iPhone plans only cost $20-$25/mo. It’ll be interesting to see if tethering on the iPhone is cheaper than on Blackberry.

How Difficult will this Be?

Setting up our Sprint data cards took us less than half an hour each the first time. Olivia uses a PC, I use a Mac, and both are supported. We both had to install a small piece of software. Windows users will need to launch the software every time they want to connect and leave it open. Mac users only need to set their data cards up once in System Preferences > Networking, and then a menu icon will allow you to connect at will. After setup, connecting on either a PC or Mac is an extremely painless process.

Tethering, on the other hand, can be a bit more involved. For one thing, your computer will now have a cell phone dangling from it via a USB cord, which could be annoying for notebook users (and really, you should probably have a notebook if you’re living in an RV.) Third party software is also involved as well. We don’t currently tether, so I don’t have much more information on doing so at this time.

What Will the Experience be like Compared to a Cable or DSL Connection?

Sprint and AT&T both claim speeds of up to around 3Mbps. In reality, I’ve seen closer to 1.4Mbps in cities, closer to 150Kbps or less in smaller towns. There’s also the issue that, as easy as it is to reconnect your data card to the Web, it’s not like your home network where you just open up your computer and you’re connected.

On the other hand, data plans via your wireless carrier are superior to satellite and cable/dsl setups in that you can use them while you’re moving, so they’ll work while you’re driving down the highway (well, you shouldn’t actually be the one driving) or sitting in the middle of a city park. I’d like to see data cards being built directly into laptops in the future, unless another technology takes there place (WiMAX anyone?)

* Why didn’t you choose to use Verizon Wireless? Verizon is evil and wants to kill your puppy. No, but seriously, they are an enormously unethical corporation who really doesn’t have their customers best interests in mind.

• AT&T is more ubiquitous than Sprint, but Sprint is a faster, more reliable network.
• WiFi has not caught on across the country: it doesn’t even exist in many places, and more and more in the places that it does exist, people are locking their WiFi down.

This post will be part of a four-part series. Today I’ll discuss some general thoughts on being a web worker and what you can expect if you set off on your own adventure.

There Isn’t a Whole Lot of Free Internet Out There

The city of Pittsburgh is stuffed with free WiFi access. Many individuals leave there wireless networks open: which, while exposing them to vulnerabilities from sneaky hackers out to steal their mp3 collections, also does a great service to the world. “Stealing” WiFi from your neighbor isn’t much worse than “stealing” the ambient glow his porch light sheds on your porch: it’s there already and you using it doesn’t affect him much at all. Particularly in cities, where broadband speeds are high enough that we don’t typically use them fully for anything, it’s not noticeable. Pittsburgh also has a great tendency for coffee shops and their ilk to provide absolutely free WiFi.

By “absolutely free” I mean you don’t have to pay anything (including buying something from the store first) and you don’t have to login to any provider’s site. Memphis wasn’t like this, in fact Memphis had relatively little free WiFi access at all, and Austin providers typically want you to log in and will often restrict how long you can use their free hotspots. Portland, OR is another city that has plenty of truly free WiFi.

Once you get outside of the big cities, though, you’ll be desperate to find a connection. While home’s will often have unprotected hotspots leaking out of their houses, just try and sit on someone’s porch and checking your Gmail. If you aren’t kicked off of their property in the first 15 minutes, you’ll be shot at in the first 10. The idea of a “cafe” in most small towns is also unheard of as well, so you’ll have to look around a bit to find a free spot.

What’s a Poor Boy to Do?

The best place to look, regardless of the size of the town you’re in, is the local public library. They very often have free WiFi, typically have no limits to the length of time you can use it, and not many people get bothered at the library.

I’m Not Worried, I’ve got a Data Card

Also known as aircards, data cards are basically devices that allow you to connect to wireless networks like AT&T’s 3G or EDGE networks, or Sprint’s EVDO. These are great, and work wonderfully in towns and cities, but just like your cell phone, they cut out once you get into cow country.

Out of maybe 24 different places we’ve stayed thus far, though, I’ve only not been able to get connection on my Sprint card once (very shakey connection with AT&T in that area as well) which was deep into Pennsylvania farm territory. Due to this, I suspect that the majority of the Northeast, the South, the Great Lakes and the West Coast will have connection. If you’re in a red state, though, God help you if you get more than a few miles outside of the town limits.

Planning for the Internet

You could easily travel indefinitely in your RV and never be forced to go without the Internet, but you will be restricted compared to those without the need to constantly be connected. If you want to delve deep into Yellowstone, for example, don’t count on getting a connection. If you don’t mind hanging around towns and truck stops, though, you’ll likely never go without. Personally, I have the mindset that I need to work, but I don’t need to work every day. So if we want to spend say, a week in the middle of the desert, I can plan my work schedule around that.

You can also research what type of connectivity you can expect to get from the different cell providers by using their maps:

• Sprint
• AT&T
• Verizon

Over the next couple of days I’ll be covering How to Connect to the Web via your Cell Phone, Creating a Wireless Network in your RV with Time Capsule, and How to Prepare for No WiFi.

So as you can see, all of the companies offer a very similar service in terms of price and speed, though the coverage area varies. Verizon and AT&T seem to have similar coverage areas, while Sprint is still catching up. Note that none of these speeds have been tested but are all based on what the companies report themselves.

What does this all mean? Unfortunately, both systems have serious drawbacks. The convenience of using an air card is a huge benefit, however not being able to set up a network is such a drawback as to almost eliminate AT&T as an option.