Satellite

If you look around any RV park where long-timers stay, you'll see a number of satellite dishes -- either mounted on the top of a rig itself, or sitting on a stand in the yard. Some of these are for TV, but others provide an actual internet signal. A lot of dealers will tell you that satellite internet is the wave of the future for RVers (and they will be happy to throw in a complete package -- for an extra fee).

The one obvious pro with a dish is that, regardless of the number of computers in your home, you only have to pay for one dish (then you set up a network router to send the signal to each system). And according to dealers, their biggest selling point is the fact that you "always" have internet, even in the middle of nowhere -- but I'm not entirely convinced. We saw way more drawbacks than benefits, and didn't even consider a dish for several reasons.

First, satellite dishes are ugly, and I didn't want some stupid piece of equipment sticking out of the roof of our Airstream. We had already removed the antenna we never used because it made us look like a TV broadcast truck -- why would I want to replace it with a dish? Second, you must have clear "line of sight" to get a good signal, and that's not always guaranteed. If you need to be pointing east, and there is a tree or structure due east of you, it's going to interfere with your internet access. I don't want my choice of RV spot to be dependent on whether I'm getting a signal from space or not! Third, you aren't guaranteed use of your satellite until you stop moving. Most inexpensive dishes have to be set up and then "tuned into" the satellite signal (which can only happen once you've parked for the night). If you want a "self-tracking" dish that can stay connected and locked on to a signal even while you are driving down the road, you're looking at an investment of several thousands of dollars. And finally, even though a satellite dish would allow us to network both computers to the same internet connection, we could only get a signal when we were within sight of the trailer. But Matt and I needed to be able to get online from anywhere -- at home, in the car, while out on a day-trip, even when we traveled overseas. A satellite dish just wouldn't meet our needs.

Free Wi-Fi Spots

Of course, we could simply rely on free Wi-Fi -- nearly every private RV park offers internet service these days, and you can always find a coffee house with Wi-Fi, even in the smallest town. Unfortunately, these communal connections usually aren't secure. Hackers have been known to lurk around popular Wi-Fi spots, monitoring computer activity and waiting to steal people's passwords and account information when they log into a sensitive site. It wouldn't be very smart for me to access my bank account or PayPal or even my web administration area via a free Wi-Fi spot -- unless it's one where I was asked to enter a password in order to access the system. More and more RV parks are using secure routers, they only provide the login information to registered guests, and they change the passwords monthly. However, this still wouldn't help us with the issue of needing internet access while away from the park.

Mobile Broadband And Beyond

Matt and I realized early on that we needed to be able to take our internet access with us wherever we went. Our first step toward a wireless existence was via mobile broadband cards, which plug into a port on your computer and use any available cell phone signal to connect you to the web. The connection speed is equivalent to DSL -- except in remote roaming areas, where you might find yourself creeping along at the pace of dial-up. For Matt and me to both be online at the same time, we needed two cards (which meant paying for two "unlimited" accounts) -- but when you consider how necessary the web is to our business, it was worth the cost.

Just recently, companies like Verizon have come out with a device called a "mi-fi" -- this little credit-card sized bit of technology serves as your own personal Wi-Fi router. It sits on the table and pulls in a cell signal which can be used by up to 5 computers at a time to it. Matt and I have traded in the separate broadband cards and now function off of one mi-fi card -- at a huge cost savings. I can check email while we negotiate rush-hour traffic in Chicago, look up directions online before we get lost on some rural dirt road, and even hunt up a last-minute RV park from the car if we decide to call it quits earlier on a travel day than originally planned. It works swimmingly for us now, but who knows what new technology will be available when our 2-year contract runs out -- but I'll be sure to report back when things change!