I'm leaving in a week for about three weeks on the road. I'll be taking a wireless laptop with me with a broadband card as well as a LAN card (for use in hotels).

Anyone have any good tips on it's use? One thing for which I'll be using it is to locate fuel and hotels, and to keep up with e-mail. Of course, I'll also need my nightly fix of FTE, too!

I was originally going to write privately to kennedyford, but decided that it might also make a good thread of general interest, too.

In addition to good uses, got any real useful URL's I can bookmark?

What say?

Pop

 

This my favorite while on trips. You probably already have it.
http://www.nearbio.com/

 

This will be an interesting read for me as well. I just purchased a laptop with all that connectivity built in and I plan on taking it with me next outing.
So how about it ladies and gentlemen? What do you all do when on the road with these things?
I plan on getting a GPS and map program as well.

 

if you have at&t internet and have the tier 2 speed you get free wifi at every mcdonalds so you always have internet access and google maps very handy!

 

Dan stole my thunder -- I always go on the road with my Mapping SW and USB GPS. Nowadays you can get BlueTooth GPS modules which are also very cool. I got mine several years ago for ~$50 from eBay. It's totally self-contained and is magnetic, so all you have is a small module stuck on your roof and a USB cable coming in the door.

Regarding wireless cards and such, I just use my phone's connectivity and connect to it via BlueTooth. It acts just like having a module plugged into the PC, and you can receive & make calls with the data connection active. If it happens to be actually transmitting or receiving a packet at the exact moment you receive a call, it may go to VM, but I've received calls many times while connected. The data session pauses though. That applies to Cingular's (now AT&T) EDGE network -- if you happen to have 3G available and a phone that will connect to it, you can make & receive calls with an active data session all day long. The trick is that the 3G networks are still only in major cities right now.

Anyway, I probably went on long enough -- good luck on your trip!! BTW, where are you off to?

EDIT: I always check to see if a WLAN is available before I resort to my phone. I left that out, but you'd be surprised where there are open access points sometimes. Obviously, if you're moving, there's no choice...

Joe

 

If you want to be able to easily discover open wireless networks that you can use go to stumbler dot net

Download NetStumbler 0.4.0 and install on your laptop. When you need to get on the net, just fire up NetStumbler and it will start a search for available wi-fi networks. It will show you signal strength (which translates to throughput) and if it is unprotected. Then just open up your Network Connections and you will see the network that you want to jump on. If you have a GPS, NetStumbler will also direct you to the wi-fi point of your choosing. I wouldn't leave home without it!

 

Good point, Neal. I use that as well, but not regularly.

 

Not sure you would want the extra expense, but if you head over to the Google Map, you can get a download version for something like 20.00 a year you can use a GPS with. It allows for Map view, or Satalite view. You can play with the free version. The down side though, if you dont have internet connection, you will loose the map/view. WHere as if you load up something like Map source, the info is there on the computer, so it will follow along with the gps. Of course, depending on what GPS you get anymore, you dont really need the laptop... all and all, they are fun.....except when you get yourself stuck in the middle of nowhere, you pull out the gps, and realize you are truelly in the middle......

 

I have a Sprint PDA phone with a bluetooth GPS device and a map program I use on it. Works pretty damn good.

It also can be plugged into a laptop and will become a broadband connection to the internet.

 

I forgot to mention in my earlier post, that I regularly run TopoUSA on my laptop while travelling. You can plug an Earthmate antenna (about the size of a credit card) or a wireless Earthmate antenna and see where you are AND see the terrain 3-dimensionally.

A cheaper alternative which works well is USAPhotomaps (free) hooked to a GPS...you can see where you are on air photos and US Topo maps.

 

Wow, LOTS of options!
Pop you getting all this or have you left already?
I'll be checking it all out.

 

So where you headed pop?


After I have an itinerary planned, I use my laptop and wirless connection to go to the web sites of the cities I plan on staying at to get a current list of events and activites. Have fun!! If you come through Northern Utah I'll put you up in a room at the Lodges At Deer Valley, Park City, UT. Lots to do and see here. Have fun and be careful.

 

Pop, Dan

Being an outside salesman, I travel all over with my laptop. You will be able to find a WLAN just by opening your wifi utility and clicking on find WLAN(it may be done with windowsXP, or a seperate controller) click on internet options to find out what is controlling your wifi connectivity. you will be suprised how many open connections there are avial( in populated areas) the down side to this is you must be stationary or you will lose the signal. I also(like IZZY) have the cingular card for when I am underway, it's fast, but it's not as speedy as your broadband at home, and you will find dead spots on the road where Data stream is not avail.
Most hotels, motels, and a lot of fast food chains provide open networks. Alot of campgrounds allow you to buy access to their networks for a nominal fee for the duration of your stay.
My GPS is an old technology hand held first generation Lowrance, it does not connect with my laptop, so it just looks pretty in the truck, and tells me generally where I am.

 

I leave this coming Sunday morning, headed from Los Angeles to Lexington, KY. I-40 to Nashville (I lived there for a couple of years in the late 60's and want to try to re-haunt some old haunts), then I-65 to the BlueGrass Parkway to Lexington.

Pretty straight-forward, and I shouldn't need maps, but will need a way to locate fuel and hotels. Won't have any dogs with me, so won't have to find "dog-friendly" hotels, but will be making reservations, etc.

http://www.flyingj.com/fuel/diesel_CF.cfm?state=ALL and
http://www.tatravelcenters.com/taweb...px?page_id=568

I maintain the majority of the website www.springerrescue.org, so will want to continue doing that while on the road, lest I get waaaaay behind.

Most of the time I suspect I'll be using logmein.com to work through my home computer, as I want it current when I get back.

What I've gotten so far from you guys are tips on finding open networks. Netstumbler looks like it may get some use. I have someone training me on all this on Friday, so I'll know more about it afterward.

I can't use the GPS stuff, as I won't have that technology along at all.

And, of course, I'll want to keep up with FTE threads. You'll know it all worked out for me when I (hopefully) post from the road! ;-))

Thanks!

Pop

 

Sounds like a cool road trip, Pop. Have fun and be safe!