Computer Use on the Road Suggestions

[rfifer]

Because of the nature of my work, when I am away, I am not completely away. For that reason, I have a cell phone modem that I plug into a USB port on my laptop. I also have a cell signal booster outside the TT that helps in areas where signal is weak. The modem has its own phone number and is not terribly expensive (~$27 per month) and has served me well. In the evenings, I convert the laptop from business to pleasure and stream a lot of the shows on subscription networks that we enjoy.

[Gumpster808]

Just got back from working in Florida for three months. DW and I both working during the week.

We have the hotspot offered through FMCA tech connect. T-Mobile and 5g when available.

It is unlimited and we never saw any throttling no matter what the hotspot said we used for the month. Need to be an FMCA member but it was $49.99 a month when we picked it up.

Works great for us.

[pmsherman]

Originally Posted by Bramic71

That is also a good option as we take between 1000-1500 pics a day. Thank you for that advice. They are uploaded to the computer and then uploaded to the customer's website where there system can prioritize them and hopefully put them in the right locations.

You need to check with your customer and find out exactly what these pictures are being used for. JPEG images from any of today's cameras are very large and will make uploading while mobile a difficult task. One option that has little effect on the images is to edit all of them to just change the JPEG quality. Cameras generally store the images at 100% quality. Changing the quality to 80% provides significantly more compression but, for most uses, the difference in the image is unnoticeable.

Another option, if only some of the images are going to be used, is to change the resolution to have the longer dimension of the image be 1280 pixels. Save these at 80% quality and keep the originals. If a higher resolution/quality image is needed, you can send the requested image at full resolution.


There are photo editing programs available that can be scripted to automatically process all of the images you've taken.


I strongly doubt that your customer is actually using most of your pictures. If you submit 1200 images in a single day, an employee working eight hours will need to examine and process an image around every 25 seconds! This is barely enough time to closely examine an image but when you add the time to decide where it should go and issue the command(s) to do this, something isn't making sense.



Phil

[pmsherman]

Originally Posted by Theb2b

You have a couple of options.
.....
3. Satellite, leading this pack is Starlink. When it works it works great. Cost is roughly $100 a month and startup is roughly $500. The catch is availability, when you move to a new location you may find the cell area is full and you're not able to connect. Usually this happens around metro areas but then you can get a solid cell signal.
As you can see no one method will work all the time, need several methods depending on where you are at and how remote the location is.

Starlink mobile operation requires installation by an authorized technician, adding to the initial cost. (I believe this is an FCC requirement.) This service is, as of a week ago, not being offered by Starlink. Mobile operation assumes that you'll want the satellite connection while you're moving, something you've indicated you don't need. Starlink has a map available on their web site showing the current coverage across the US. Your Starlink connection is valid only for the cell associated with your current location. I assume that you can call Starlink and have them change your cell with the assumption that the new cell has space available.

Your internet use is backwards from what most service providers will give you. Almost all internet service is predicated on your downloading 10-20 or more times as much data as you upload. Web browsing, watching videos and processing email are all examples of this. You will be uploading much more data than you download so you need to carefully investigate the upload speed provided by the solution(s) you select.

Phil

[rb_wingman]

I've been working remote on the road for about 2yrs. I have mobile hotspot and additional hotspot from Verizon and a hotspot from ATT. Cost is a little high (about $170/mo for both for 200GB/mo) but worth it since I can always connect. Have always been able to connect from one or both and I camp mostly in State, National Parks and COEs in East from Virginia to Florida.

[jlynn721]

Originally Posted by Bramic71

I am not sure if this is the right forum to post this. My wife and I work on the road. At the end of everyday we have to upload from cameras to our laptop and then to the company we work for. This hasn't been an issue in the past because we have been staying in hotels. Now we will be traveling in our camper for work as we are tired of hotels. For those of you that work on the road, how do you go about having internet? We are planning to stay at campgrounds, but in those times when you can't, what do you do? What equipment do you use with positive results? Any info you can give is greatly appreciated. Mike

Starlink is out, but I haven’t been hearing good things about it yet.

If you are travelling, find local libraries, restaurants with WiFi, etc. or, you your phone for a hotspot. Having internet security would be helpful in your case.

[gw1800]

Originally Posted by Reverse_snowbird

You don't want to upload your work using campground internet. Most of them have no security on their internet for campers. In addition, their speed is terrible. Most are only suitable for email. Of course, there are campgrounds that have high speed access, but most don't.

You're probably going to need to use the hotspots on your phone or a separate wifi hotspot. Of course, you'll need a cell phone connection for either. We travel with phones from 2 separate cell phone providers to get maximum coverage.

Using the campground wifi is no different than using using it in a hotel. Neither one has any real protection. Most campgrounds have a secure connection that they use for business. It's possible that they may upload the pictures for you.

The biggest reason campground wifi is slow is to discourage the use of streaming video.

[emm-dee]

Originally Posted by GPs37FLH

Although we don't work remotely from our RV, there have been many times when we had to while vacationing. To do this, we try not to use the hotspot tethering features on our smartphones. We ONLY use our smartphones when we're at our data download limits on our Verizon MiFi 1000 mobile hotspot and are throttled back.

The best advice I can give you is to purchase a mobile hotspot in lieu of using a smartphone for Internet. Mobile hotspots are dedicated only for Internet access and aren't weighted down by other running apps that use data, like a smartphone. What also makes them a better choice are the 4 x 4 MIMO antennas they have which outperform the 2 x 2 antennas on smartphones. The 4 x 4 antennas have the ability to connect to multiple towers at a time and provide channel aggregation. This all sums up to stronger cell signals and higher Internet performance while at your RV.

To enhance our Internet performance while camping, I recently purchased an external 4 x 4 omni-directional MIMO antenna setup to mount outside and above our RV for instances when cellular signals on our hotspots are weak.

IDK about droid phones but all iPhones from the 11Pro and later have 4x4 mimo antennas.

[FirstFiver]

My wife is working remotely and there is no cable where we are at and on a good day our phones would show 1 bar.

For the phones we got a WeBoost signal booster and now constant 4-5 bars on the phone.

For internet, that was a trial and error thing.
First Verizon MiFi with a 100Gig plan. That was aggravating when both of us were trying to be on line at the same time. Plus Verizon would throttle it down because we would come close to hitting the limit all the time.

Second try was the new Dish TravlFi. The plans were cheap. Supposed to handle 5 devices. Double the Gigs for same as the MiFi. Turned into a nightmare. It was worse than the MiFi. Without warning it would disconnect itself. Poor signal range. Couldn't download a lot of data at once. Customer support was wait on hold for 45 mins to an hour, and then leave a message for tech dept to call you back in a day or two. Customer support then says it can have 5 devices, you just can't have more than one at a time using the signal. Sent the back for a refund.

Third, Verizon now has a new one called Orbic. More advanced than the MiFi and supposed to handle more devices. Got that.

Now we kept the original MiFi and also have the Orbic. So, two devices and two plans and we are up and running pretty reliably now.

[Mike Currie]

I'm a videographer and full time RVer. Video upload speed is essential to me.

I spent a bundle on devices to boost mobile hot spot data to "residential" fiber optic wi-fi speeds but uploads were still very slow.

I got the starlink system and it worked ok. Upload speeds were better than hot spots - almost 30 MbS. Downloads were over 125MbS. There is dropout though so connection pauses are inevitable.

Recently, I got the new T-Mobile 5G Wi-Fi system. I was amazed at the speed and consistency of performance. When I was in close enough range to get a 5G signal, I was getting over 250MbS download and around 120MbS upload! Vastly faster than Starlink and just $50/month, flat.

I recently relocated to a spot where I only get 4G. It did slow down to about 130 MbS download and 30MbS upload, but it's stable.

I have a cellular booster, but it's tuned to a different channel than the current nearest T-Mobile towers. I'm only here another couple weeks so I won't bother getting another booster antenna right now.

Anyway, I suggest you try the new T-Mobile 5G wi-fi. It's the least expensive option out there and ran circles around my Starlink.

[GPs37FLH]

Originally Posted by emm-dee

IDK about droid phones but all iPhones from the 11Pro and later have 4x4 mimo antennas.

Most, but not all newer 5G phones on the market have at least four antennas on them.

[emm-dee]

Originally Posted by GPs37FLH

Most, but not all newer 5G phones on the market have at least four antennas on them.

I was just responding to your statement that smartphones have 2x2 antennas.

I’m still not going to upgrade my Nighthawk hotspot (and 4x4 mimo) for a while. I can use AT&T, Verizon, T-mobile and Visible sims. Get enough speed to watch HD video without buffering at least 95% of the time.

[GPs37FLH]

Originally Posted by emm-dee

I was just responding to your statement that smartphones have 2x2 antennas.

I’m still not going to upgrade my Nighthawk hotspot (and 4x4 mimo) for a while. I can use AT&T, Verizon, T-mobile and Visible sims. Get enough speed to watch HD video without buffering at least 95% of the time.

Mine has a 2 x 2 internal antenna and is not the newest generation Samsung Galaxy. Not sure what the statistics are of how often cellular subscribers are upgrading their phones, but I'd guess it's not happening but every two to three years, so there are still many in use that only have a 2 x 2 configuration.

And, although I'd love to have the Nighthawk MR5200, it's way too expensive at $700 for some places where you may, or may not get a 5G signal. I'll wait for them to come down in price once we see more like this start to show up in the marketplace. In fact, it'd be cheaper to opt for a cellular router that has more features and capabilities than one of these. But, I much prefer the take-it-with-you portability of the Nighthawk.

[emm-dee]

You’re right about that $700 cost being a waste of money now, and probably in the future. I remember AT&T and Verizon both claiming they would have their 4G / LTE networks fully operational everywhere in less than a year (they had started the project at least two years earlier). Turns out it was another couple of years before the system was operating at its best. Even today there are many gaps in coverage. I don’t believe them now when they claim how quick we’re all going to be blessed with 5G by the end of this year.

If one is only using the Nighthawk in large urban areas maybe it’s a great device, but for an RV which logs on in 10, 20, 30 different locations every year it’s not a good investment.

Apple, Samsung, etc., update their phones every year. I don’t see the $700 Nighthawk being much more than a paperweight in two years.