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Net Access on an American Road Trip? 325

Posted by Cliff from the now-this-is-mobile-computing dept.
slim asks: "I'm planning a month-long road holiday in August, driving from Chicago to Los Angeles, where possible following old Route 66, rather than the Interstate. I'm not quite dependent on Net access, but it certainly would be nice to be able to use mail, check Slashdot, maintain an Everything daylog, upload pictures from a digital camera to my Web site, etc., along the way. I'm British, and I've already found out that my GSM phone won't work in most of the USA, so fancy-schmancy GSM modem access will do no good unless I buy a phone locally. So what's a Brit to do? What ISPs have a local number in every state? Will they accept a month-long subscription from someone with no U.S. address? Do most hotels have a standard phone socket I can use? Are cybercafes common enough to make do with?"
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Net Access on an American Road Trip? More

Net Access on an American Road Trip?

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  • It won't do everything but maybe a Palm VII would work out or a Motorola pager.
  • Could you use some sort of satellite connection ?
  • Most of the larger ISPs provide access in every state. Even netzero (free ISP) has a zillion dialup numbers! I'm sure that the ISPs would be happy to sign you up-- just don't mention the whole 1-month thing until your trip is over. No problem.

    As to wireless connections, a cheap analog cell phone and a compatible modem will give you approx. 9600bps. There are some digital phones that allow connections as well, but I'm not sure about nationwide coverage and have never used one myself.

    Finally, I don't know about the rest of the country, but I don't think there's a cybercafe anywhere in the lovely state of Indiana. I wouldn't rely on them, especially if you're staying off the highway and away from big cities.
  • My best experiences have been with a Motorola Montana PCMCIA modem hooked up to an analog cellular phone. I know digital is faster, but the availability just isn't there yet, especially when you're talking about a road trip. Analog seems to have better coverage, especially on rural highways.

    And of course, as a plus, the analog minutes are cheap these days.
  • If you are on the road only one month and have a computer which can suffer through the install, then use one of those free AOL cds for a free billion(or whatever number they are up to) hours use for the first month of use. They probably have the best coverage in the US to make all your calls local.

    Then after your trip is over, cancel AOL and you haven't paid any money.

  • Pick up one of the AOL free offers here in the states. You'll get 500 free hours, which should be more than enough for your road trip. Plus they have access numbers just about everywhere on the planet.

    Hey, I hate AOL as much as the next guy, but if a foreigner is going to come visit, he should experience America the way the rest of the folks do. (And for free, ha ha ho ho.)

  • AOL? (Score:1)

    by diggem ( 74763 )
    They're about as close to an "everywhere" ISP as anyone I can think of. If you're heading down route 66, there will be plenty of podunk (little) towns along the way, and hardly any of them with more than a bank of local AOL modems. How you change where you're calling from each time, I don't know.

    If using AOL makes you kinda queasy, you might just opt for a cell modem at least while you're here in the States.

    And yes, I would bet that most hotels have a regular phone jack somewhere that you could plug into. You might want to double check with the hotel staff before plugging in though. Some hotels have digital lines throughout.

    -Diggem
  • As a Brit who faced a similar problem over the summer while visiting friends in the US, I knocked up a PHP page that let me submit files and text from anywhere whenever I could. Then I just hijacked my friend's PCs or found a cybercafe. Worked out quite well :)
  • If you're looking for a company with the most local dial-up's, I would have to (regretably) say AOL. You might be able to get away with that 500 free hours crap and actually not have to pay anything, but you might need to provide an address. Most (all) hotels have telephone's, and if you can't unplug it from the wall, unplug it from the receiver and go from there. As for mobile solutions, you said you're going to be traveling US66, well chances are that there isnt even cell phone coverage on parts of that highway, let alone wireless internet. Only big cities have that technology available, and on US66 those can be few and far in between.

  • On the subject of GSM, you can rent (as opposed to buy) US capable handsets... I wouldn't recommend it though as 9600 is really two slow for generalised use. Or you could change your UK handset to a Triple band like the Ericsson I888 or the Motorola Timeport, so it's not a case of buying an handset, using it for the trip, then throwing it out. Another idea would be to find a huge ISP who would have loads of access numbers everywhere or sharing agreements with others. This is actually a common requirement in business, if you have people moving about a lot then it can be cheaper to provide remote access to your corporate network via VPNs and lots of local ISPs. Usually though these services are not aimed at "home" users. First on-topic post, does that count? ;-)
  • I'll be in the UK for a month later this year, and was pondering this exact question in reverse. What ISPs should I look at? Odds are I won't be buying a UK phone. Do hotels have phone jacks? What is the electrical power standard in the UK? Do I need a wacky adapter for my laptop? Are phone jacks the same? (Forgive my ignorance-- Canada's about as far as I've managed to get) Do modems use the same dialtone, ringing, etc... as they do in the states? What size area do ISPs cover in the country? Can I get one that will work in France as well? Is any of the above different in France?
  • We had a similiar problem. (some users traveling both here in Europe and in the US and not being able to use their cell phones over there) To solve it we got them the Ericsson I888 World which is dual-band and uses both the 900 (Europe) and 1900 (US) frequency bands. (It also has an IR interface and a built in modem which both come in handy for making data calls) I think Motorola released a Tri-Band cell phone that works all over the world (depending on the roaming agreements your GSM provider has, of course) but I don't know about its data capabilities. Greetings

  • C'mon, it's just a month, and you're travelling through half the world or whatever. Use your time in the meatspace for a change.

    Then again, who am I to blame; a month in Istanbul with maybe three computerless days all in all. I happened to stay above a nice cybercafe :)

    Seriously, I'd count on the cafe's for web access and leave everything else. Maybe meet some geeks along the way, now that your question made it to slashdot :)

  • I had a gap year last year, when I travelled the USA, New Zealand and Australia. Before leaving the UK, I bought a Psion 5 computer and its associated 14K4 travel modem. This did sterling service: I was only doing emails, and for this it was quite fast enough.

    I used a Compuserve account - set it up in the UK for something like 10ukp a month, and then kill it on your return. They work worldwide, and it was jolly handy for me.

    A Psion could upload digital camera pictures (via CompactFlash), but I would not like to do it myself! A simple laptop with 56K modem would be much faster; although you can get faster modems for the Psion, I have no experience of them. I just plugged the modem into any phone socket I could find, in cybercafes and hotels.

    On the subject of GSM phones, I believe many companies offer a phone-hire service, probably in association with your UK mobile.

    foxtrot

  • Oklahoma City will be a big stop on your Route 66 trip. I don't recall seeing any Internet Cafes around town, but I checked the Yellow Pages (i.e. business telephone listings) just in case. Unfortunately, I came up empty-handed. however, I'll dig a bit deeper and will E-Mail you if I find anything.

    A problem you may have here in OKC: the metro area is very large, and finding a hotel near the cafe, if one can be found, might be difficult. Hopefully we can find something for you near the Bricktown area, a part of old Oklahoma City that's been refurbished and facelifted: there's a riverwalk, fountains, restaraunts, a baseball stadium, etc.

    I'll let you know what I come up with.
  • You can get triband phones from the UK that are usable in the US through a partner of the phone company back home. It should be noted that they are not cheap, and I've no idea what data transfer rates over them is like.

    Calls tend to get charged as if you are on the partners network, so don't accessing your voicemail a lot, it is an international call!

    All you would then need is a UK ISP with a US access number. Oh and the cash to pay for all of this.
  • I got a Hughes Internet account when I went away on vacation... 19.00 a month/unlimited, POP's everywhere I was going.. (a little sparse in upstate NY, but that's where my "HOME" isp is at...)

  • In the big west, i wouldn't count on even AOL to have local access numbers. Some isps (eg Earthlink) offer pretty reasonable 800 (toll free) dialup numbers. May be cheaper than long distance, esp from hotels. Certainly more convenitent than looking up a new access number every time you connect.
  • However this won't really help if the area you are in doesn't yet have GSM. I was stung by this when I went to Chicago on business - I wrongly assumed a country as technologically advanced as the USA would have pretty much total GSM coverages, or at least in the Cities!

    Fortunately I was working with Aerial (an operator in the states) and they had a GSM microcell in the building I was in :)
  • You anti-social-stay-at-home suburbanites never go to the library. Even Podunk libraries have net access. Every town has a public library.

    In Fort Wayne (a cite of 160,000) has one "cybercafe" in the corner of a local bar.

    Joe
  • afaik the phone jacks are the same, and the modems will work. Alot of hotels will have phone jacks, but they can charge quite high prices for phone calls. ISPs cover the whole country, and alot of ISPs are free here (but the call charges are per minute) Dunno about france though.

  • Because our phone system is still controlled by a single megalomainiac company, we still have to pay for phone calls. The upside of this is that because local rate telephone service providers recieve a portion of the call charge, the ISP is free apart from the cost of a call. This means that you can pick up a free CD from just about anywhere and not even have to bother to phone up to cancel.

    All ISP's cover the whole of the UK. Phone jacks are totally different, but it might just be a plug shape problem. you can buy converters, but these are prohibited for connection to the telephone network. (This doesn't mean you can't use them. Not quite sure what the legalities are). Not sure about ones that work in France. I don't think there are any trans-European ISP's.
  • or you could wait for some benevolent billionaire to finance guerilla.net, the planned wireless networking thing-a-majig from the l0pht
  • > What ISPs should I look at?

    There are plenty of ISP's that will give you normal access for nothing, and you don't need windows software if you don't want - a good starting point is www.freeserve.co.uk

    > Do hotels have phone jacks?

    It depends on the sort of hotels you are going for; the dodgy ones may not. The better ones probably will. =)

    > What is the electrical power standard in the UK?

    230 volts, AC, ~50Hz.

    > Do I need a wacky adapter for my laptop?

    Probably. The chances are your laptop has a transformer that automatically copes with the power supply of any country you plug it into (but check this). Then all you need to do is change your US plug into a UK one. You can do this with a kit from Radio Shack that doesn't even cost $20, if I remember rightly from when I was last in there. You're looking for a setup with lots of strange 'grey' bits. You may need a grounding adaptor, depending on what you buy.

    > Are phone jacks the same?

    Sadly not, I can't remember the name of the standard of our phone plugs, but one can easily obtain adaptors that mean you can plug an RJ11 into our phone socket without messing around. A standard UK shop like PC World would get you one of these adaptors.

    > Do modems use the same dialtone, ringing, etc... as they do in the states?

    I bought a laptop in the states, brought it back to the UK, and once I'd got the adaptors so that it was connected to power and phone, it was just like being in the US. Worked fine.

    > What size area do ISPs cover in the country?

    Most ISPs in the UK have one number throughout the entire country, but still charge you local rates instead of national rates. These numbers typically begin with '0345'.

    > Can I get one that will work in France as well?
    > Is any of the above different in France?

    If I'm right, plugs are different too (but your Radio Shack adaptor will sort that out right?). I have no experience with the French phone or internet setup, so I can't tell you about ISP's or phone plugs. One thing you *can* do, is buy a 'travellers' kit for your laptop's modem that gives you every adaptor and tool you need to connect to the phone system of every country in the place.

    thenerd.
    The camels are coming. I'm in love.

  • When I spent a year travelling around the US for work, a buddy and I signed up for Sprint access. Wasn't bad... local numbers in almost every city I came to. Check it out at their site [sprint.com]. They bill to a credit card, and you don't have to be a US citizen or use their long distance for the $19.95 rate. And when you tell them you'd like to cancel, they do it quickly and politely.
  • first off... to get it out the way... you're gonna have a big headache... there said it...

    There are a few ISP's in britain that you could use, but for you other questions... UK power is 240V AC so you'd need a power converter for US stuff, and england has 3 point plugs. The phone jacks are different than the USA, most hotels will have phones in the rooms, but operated through a switchboard so you will probably have problems there.... France is completely different again... they have difference phone jacks, different plugs, and I think different power ratings, but I'm not sure ont he power ratings...
  • Virtualy all the ISPs in the UK are now free (you just pay for a local call), most allow sign-up on the internet.

    The most popular ISP at the moment is probably FreeServe [freeserve.co.uk], whilst it's probably not the best you can sign up online before you leave. Although you need to specify a name and adress etc.., you can always lie!

    One problem with using a free ISP is they require your phone connection to support CLI (Caller Line Identification), most hotels don't forward this information. Howerver Freeserve allows you to use most of the services without CLI except e-mail, newsgroups etc.. (for which you presumably have access to with your current ISP anyway).

    All ISPs (the decent ones anyway) cover the entire country with Local Call Acesss, in the UK we have 0845 (amongst others) numbers which equate to a local call regardless to where you are calling from.

    BTW phone calls cost about 4p (daytime) 1.7p (evenings) and 1p (weekends) a minute, but this will be more for hotels (obviously).

    Electrical power supply is 230V or there abouts (it was 240V until the EU stuck its nose in), you will probably find that the power supply for your laptop has a switch or something that will let you change to this voltage.

    More and more hotels have phone jacks, some use crappy internal systems that won't support a decent modem connection, I suggest you check with the hotel before you book.

    Phone jacks are different in the UK, you can buy an adapter from most electrical stores in the UK (so you probably can in the states as well).

    AFAIK Modems that work in the states will work here, whilst modems are supposed to be BAPT [babt.co.uk] approved to connect them to British phone networks you shouldn't find any problems.

    I have no idea about France, sorry.
  • Public libraries.
  • I used these guys on a "try 30 days free" offer during a trip to the states.

    They promptly put a $150.00 charge on my credit card. I contacted them both by email and by phone (from Europe) to get the charge removed to no avail.

    To add insult to injury, their lines are limited to the west coast and were often busy and/or toll calls from many areas.

    Caveat emptor.
  • I just woke up and was reading this stuff, and I need to give you a big - of course!!! The vast majority of libraries in the U.S. have net access; however, you may have some difficulty using their "fortified" machines for digital picture uploads. Then again it might add to the fun (how many Windows 95/98 PC's did you break into on your vacation?)

    My name is not spam, it's patrick
  • I had a very similar situation a couple of months ago. I found the free altavista access worked
    really well for my needs. It does stick up banner ads, but they are easily enough ignored.

    Its free access, and they had local numbers for pretty much everywhere I needed them.
    Get it here [zdnet.com]

  • You'll find a good portion of that road doesn't even exist anymore.
    As for net access, you might check the Ameritech and SBC (southwestern bell) web sites. I'm not sure how far along their merger is, but if they've got some roaming that's reasonably priced, they'll have the coverage for the entire trip excepting places where US West serves. (where it's available. Though 66 probably follows a good portion of the interstate system, you might find some dead spots.) There might be a rental program. Also, if you're renting a car, see if they can provide rental cell service, which is available through some. (Just don't spend a lot of time, it's not cheap.) AOL, also previously mentioned, probably has the largest list of dial-up pops, but you'll find a lot of places along the way that probably do NOT have service. (Again, check ameritech and sbc to see if they provide ISP service. They own the switches and more likely to have access at some of the smaller CO's, I'd guess.)
    Lastely, enjoy the trip, forget the net for good part of the time. There's some good scenery along the way... and we don't want to see the /. article of you falling in the grand canyon because you were looking at your email instead of the road
    As for phones in hotels, that probably depends. Some along THAT route probably don't even have in-room phones. If it's a chain, check in advance. A lot of the digital systems, unless they got replaced for Y2K, aren't too new, and won't have analog rj11 jacks for plugging in a modem.

  • >Do hotels have phone jacks?
    Most big hotels do, but I wouldn't be so sure about Bed&Breakfast places and such

    >What is the electrical power standard in the UK?
    240 volts, 50Hz.

    >Do I need a wacky adapter for my laptop?
    Yeap, one of those with the UK-standard three-pronged plugs. The AC-DC transformer should be able to take the UK juice no problem, though.

    >Are phone jacks the same?
    Nope. And the cables have the exact opposite meaning to European and US cables, you need to get a cross-over adapter cable (about £2-5 in any decent computer/electronics shop).

    >Do modems use the same dialtone, ringing, etc... as they do in the states?
    Yeah, except pulse dialling in Sweden is a bit wacky (starts from 0 (one pulse) and ends on 9 (ten pulses), whilst everywhere else it's 1 (one pulse) to 0(ten pulses)).

    >What size area do ISPs cover in the country?
    Most are nationwide. Demon [demon.co.uk] even has access points in Holland.

    > Can I get one that will work in France as well?
    Not to my knowledge. Note that the french have their own phone plugs, but the cables are the =same= as the rest of the world. You need another adapter to use the power there, which is 220/50Hz.

    Welcome to the European Union!

  • I live in the UK, and I get mobile internet by letting my Palm III talk to my Motorola Timeport (L7089) over IR. When I got the Palm I even got a cheap carrying case with an elastic strap that conveniently (and coincidentally, I think) holds the phone facing the Palm, so I can read Slashdot on the bus.

    Now the neat thing is, the Timeport is triple-band, so it should work in the US or anywhere in Europe. I haven't tried that bit yet though. I use Orange as my mobile network provider and Free-Net as my ISP; I think I can make Orange calls from the USA but I'm not sure.

    I got mine really cheap from AVR Mobiles [avrmobiles.co.uk], but shop around, prices change all the time.

    You can get SSH and a Web browser for the Palm.
    --
  • In 1997 I rode my motorcyle from Daytona Beach to Las Vegas and back. I had a laptop with a cellphone at the time. I found it difficult to find places where the phone worked, especially once you get west of the mississippi. My connection speeds were TERRIBLE at best. Needless to say, I was able to find a spot where I got enough signal each day to post a story and send a picture.

    The road trip was for the annual DBFest (alt.drunken.bastards annual bout of drunken debauchery). It was great, I met folks I had met online all along the way out there and back. The nights I spent with net friends were easy, cause they obviously had net access but those nights in the tent out in the desert were rough... 2400 baud was common and PPP over a 2400 baud connection just sucked.

    I imagine things are better these days with CDMA technology but I think you'll find that cellphones are not the way to go. Most hotels have phones which will let you access the internet from your laptop and ISPs like Earthlink, Mindspring and (ack) AOL all have local access numbers about everywhere in the country. Plan your days well and you can be in a city which has net access each day you stop to sleep.

    If you decide to suffer through the cell phone thing... Sprint has been bragging about their network and long distance calls are free with many of their plans. I cannot personally vouch for the quality of their service though.

    I will say I'm jealous of the trip. I would love to take my bike cross country again for the Drunken Bastards.


    They are a threat to free speech and must be silenced! - Andrea Chen
  • You have several options:

    1. Does your GSM phone support CDMA (PCS)? I think that some CDMA phones can support GSM and vice versa (mostly the really expensive ones from Nokia and Ericssen).

    2. Most nationwide ISPs have a zillion local dialup numbers. However, if you're not sure if they're available everywhere, you could go with one of the many ISPs that have 800 dialup service (toll free call in the U.S.). Most of the big US ones (Earthlink, Netcom, AT&T WorldNet, etc.) support 800 dialup service, but it is kind of expensive, as they usually charge some sort of per-minute fee. Most would be happy to give dialup service to anyone with a credit card. :) OTOH, you can be guaranteed of not having to make a long distance phone call, and the service will travel with you wherever you go.

    3. You might be able to rent a phone. PCS phones, in particular,are 14400 bps. I don't know what analog phones are in reality, but I've generally seen connection rates of 9600.

    4. Grab one of the many bazillion free AOL disks. Just pop into any store in the U.S. that sells computers to consumers (Best Buy, Circuit City, CompUSA etc.) and you'll be able to pick up a free AOL disk. They typically come with like 500 minutes. Their service is bad, you'll probably get lots of busy signals and random disconnections, but it won't cost you anything if you drop the service before they start billing you. Note that when it says 500 free minutes, thats 500 free minutes or like 30 days, whichever comes first before they start billing you.

    5. If you'll be near a library, many libraries in major metropolitan areas offer free use of their computers for Internet access. These are typically connected over a T1 line, so they're fast. You'll at least be able to check your e-mail if you use a Web-based e-mail account, and again it won't cost you anything. Cybercafes may also be another idea.

    6. Netzero and ALtaVista have free internet access. I don't know about local access numbers for AltaVista, but a friend tells me that Netzero has a lot of them, at least in major metropolitan areas. But you'll have to deal with popup ads, although one source tells me that there is a way to defeat Netzero's popup ads (other than moving them off the screen, that is :)

  • AOL and Earthlink and I'm sure many other services have an astoundingly large number of locations to dial in. As mentioned AOL has 500 free hours, I'm not at all sure whether they'll block you from this due to your nationality.

    If you can't get it for free remember that you're only talking 200 bucks for a full years service, maybe less. It's pretty easy to make this back just by having access to local numbers to dial in from or 1-800 numbers.

    One other option is if you've already got friends in the US, see about arranging accounts at Universities in advance. I've done this for trips to Alaska but only for the final destination, not stops along the way.
  • The last time that I took route 66 (granted just from mid-Oklahoma to mid-panhandle-of-Texas) there were very few gas stations - so fill up every chance you get while on the old 66.
  • How can you possibly take a month to drive from Chicago to LA? Even along a secondary road like route 66 it shouldn't take more than 3 days. Can you hold off using email for that long?
  • Power in france is wacky... Their plugs are two-pronged, straight cylendrical deals that are strange looking compared to the standard US "flat" plugs. Think ground on a 3-prong, but then put on a second one, then space them farther apart than a US 2 prong, and you basically have a french plug. :-P

    I *BELIEVE* that french power is 220V AC, not 240. In fact, I'm NEXT to positive.... Again the warnings about UK do apply though - your laptop MAY have a "switching" PS and would handle the line change fine provided you give it a plug adaptor.

    Phones - I honestly have no idea. During the 3 weeks I spent in france I think I actually LOOKED at one phone. the handset -> base connection is the same as ours, however, so you at least have that... The one phone i stared at was in a hotel and it was nice enough to provide a modem jack (std. RJ11) - this wasn't even a very classy hotel either, nor was it in a HUGE tourist area, comparitively. (in the south of france, near Avignon)

    ISPs - France DOES have AOL. God only knows WHY, it's fricking "AMERICA" online, not FRANCE... but i know there is AOL access there... wannadoo.fr is another big isp over there... i don't know if they offer any free stuff or whatever, but there is ALWAYS AOhell.

  • Phone jacks are totally different, but it might just be a plug shape problem. you can buy
    converters, but these are prohibited for connection to the telephone network.

    Prohibited unless authorized. Same stands for all EU countries.

    Buy a convertor from Blackbox or someone else who sells authorized ones (grin). Or do it yourself (it is just a different plug).

  • Buying a Palm7 just for a vacation is a bit extreme, especially since he won't be able to use it in Europe - or in fact most of the US.
  • If you just can't stomach the idea of contributing any $$ to AOL, the thought makes me nauseous - no maybe that's from too many pints last night - you might consider IBM since they have access points for suits pretty well everywhere in the world. I did the trip from Montreal to LA a couple of years ago and believe me, there are not too many cyber-cafe's in bumfuck kansas (don't forget your bible.) Fun trip all around though. I recommend staying in as many dinky little 50's circa Motel's rather than the horrible chain motels. YOu can get a room in most of these places for 20 to 30 bucks a night and some of them are real architectural gems.
  • How about iPass? That does allow Global roaming (providing your isp is part of the iPass network).
    Netcom UK used to provide roaming in the US and Canada but due to the takeover of Netcom US by Mindspring, those f$^^££ng bastards didn't honour the roaming agreement. Anyway I am slightly biased because I work for Netcom :).

    --
    Full Time Idiot and Miserable Sod
  • French power is 220V/50Hz and the plugs are different. Your Laptop will most probably deal with the power difference but if i were you I'd buy an adaptor. You do not want to burn your laptop.

    Our sockets are weird, but all you need is a plug adaptor and I do think many hotels will have RJ45 plugs.

    France has free ISPs (free.fr).

    Paris has cybercafes, and there is free net access in the public library of the pompidou center.

    If all you want is send a few quick mails, there are computer shops who do provide net access and scanners/printers. They are usually located close to university campus. French universities are free and poor. They have very few computer labs, so students use commercial services.

    Bon voyage

    Laurent

    ---
  • Here [cybercafes.com] you can search for cybercafes all over the world. A friend of mine made a trip from S.F to N.Y and managed it to find at least every second day a cybercafe.
  • While your in the uk you could use www.uklinux.net [uklinux.net] - it's a 'free' isp which donates money to free (as in FSF / Open Source) software development in the UK.

    The phone calls cost the same as the other free ISP such as Freeserve, Virgin, plus the webserver has mod_perl and php (and there are going to have postgres and mysql too!). With the more popular free isps the demand is so high that it can sometimes be difficult to get a connection and sometimes you even get dropped out in the middle of something - this has never happened to me with uklinux, presumably because they're still small (it's only been up a month or so).

    You can sign up using their webform, and presumably they'd accept your US address.

    grek
  • AOL may not be fashionable but they have access numbers in places where nobody else does. I work for a -very- small company and we maintain AOL accounts for several execs who travel to out of the way places on business. AOL gets the job done and, with like 500 free hours he could do the whole thing for free.
  • As a librarian I think I need to respond here. If you use a library you'll be able to read your slashdot for certain. All else is a guess. As a general rule, what you won't be allowed to do is upload. Seems we have this trouble in our libraries of being used as testbeds for the local script kiddies, and most libraries can't afford a technician to fix them. Instead you've a librarian with (hopefully) an interest in computers trying to protect the investment.

    I see a lot of mention on here saying 'just use AOL' or use a cybercafe. Unfortunately it won't be that easy. See, once you get into the great plains and Rocky Mountains you have a problem. Low population density means that many of the 'big' suppliers who provide nationwide access don't bother to put a local access point in that area. Which means that to connect to AOL (for example) means you'll be paying about US$0.10 per minute at nominal 56K connect speeds. This won't matter if you stop in towns with populations of 6,000 or more, but if you're in smaller towns you do run the risk.

    On the plus side, most hotels and motels serving business travelers have standard sockets, so the physical connection becomes much simpler.
  • I just got back from a two week journey to the los angeles area. I started from southeast Nebraska/northeast Kansas area. I brought along with me a palm 3e with a palm modem. when we stopped to eat i sat in the professional driver section. (As long as you are not wearing a suit or look like a schmuck no one will question you) I used a calling card and plugged into the standard telephones at the booths and connected to my ISP in Nebraska Pre-paid calling cards are cheap, you can usually find very nice rates (3.1 cents a minute) if you buy a $20 card that = lotsa time and no they dont even question you if you unhook the phones from the line. and you are stopping to eat anyway you might as well use the time wisely and check your email at the same time hope this helps
  • Use AOL for ISP, free for a month...

    Some laptops have a voltage switch for AC
    power. Make sure you're using the right one
    or you can screw up your power unit.

    Get yourself a fuzz buster (radar detector) unless 55mph is acceptable to you, some small towns finance their sherrif departments by fining speeding motorists who are passing by.

    Do you REALLY want to go to LA ? San Francisco is much nicer and the moron density is *far* lower.

    Why not leave the computer at home !!! Try it for a month, it'll seem weird at first, but you'll see the world in more detail.
  • Hi, I did something similar about 5 months ago. Going to LA, to SF, to LV, stopping for a week in each location. I'm British too, so I should be able to help :)
    I was told phones wouldn't work in america, but if you ask your travel agent, or your phone company, they should be able to rent you a phone while you are away for a fairly modest fee. Also friends and family can then get in touch with you whenever they want.
    I know this really sucks, but seeing as you will be changing location, you might want to try AOL for free access why you are over there. I think you get something like 300-500 free hours right now. There are quite a lot of cyber-cafes in LA, and they tend to be ok. I also saw loads of pay phones with a modem connection socket for you to connect through, and most decent hotels if you ask, will tell you if you can connect from your room, and one I stayed in in SF actually had designated rooms with modem sockets on them.

    Enjoy your holiday! :)
  • Wireless coverage away from the BIG cities isn't good enough to expect reliable portable coverage. I wouldn't waste my time with wireless digital access via terrestrial networks. Orbital networks would be fun but expensive. ISP coverage IS good enough to work in most towns where there are more than a couple of national-chain motels. att.worldnet, sprint, earthlink, etc. etc. etc.. will do. You'll pay out $20 to get hooked up, and then $20 for the first month. That's probably better than trying to argue with AOL to get disconnected and get your credit card back. I'd ask a friendly USA slashdotter to set you up with an ISP account (your name, your $40, his/her address) instead of trying to do something from the UK. There will not be any cyber cafes except in the big cities. Hotel stays in the big cities is way more expensive than in the smaller towns. Coordinating WHERE the hotels are with WHERE the cyber cafes are will be difficult. It's not worth it unless you are planning to visit each big city on purpose and unless you are staying more than a night in each. Libraries may have net access but it will be a pain to have to stop in the middle of the day to find one in the little towns OR the big cities. Also you probably won't be able to do IRC or other chat methods with a library computer. I'd go with a laptop, telephone modem, and national ISP. You will have to make sure you have USA compatable modem and power but that is pretty easy compared with USA compatable cellphone.
  • My parents used IBM while on the road from Florida to New Hampshire in May-August 1999. They generally stopped in small towns, but only rarely had to use the 800 number access. They also found IBM to be more reliable than their regular local ISP, and would have kept IBM if there was a local node in the very small town they permanently live in.
  • I *BELIEVE* that french power is 220V AC, not 240. In fact, I'm NEXT to positive....

    Yes, you're totally right. this link [kropla.com] gives a selection of power supply types, and plug designs.

    It also gives a distinct impression that the entire field of human endeavour has been to find as many ways as possible to transfer power from a wall to an electrical device.
  • Previously when visiting out of state family, i used to lug around a laptop and a external modem and a credit card to dial my isp. well, after getting sick of doing this, i was convinced there was SOME better way of doing this.

    I invested in a Palm IIIx about 6-8 months ago. i am unable to live with out its skills. About 3 months ago i invested in an "Open-box" Minstrel Modem for the PalmIII. It ended up running me only $100 plus shipping from the Manuf. My CDPD service is thru GoAmerica for $10/month, no roaming charges, and "15kb worth of data."

    The road trip took 23 hours and someone was on that silly thing for MOST of the trip. I ran thru 3 sets of batteries on the modem alone and who knows how many on the pilot. It sent countless emails and ICQs and recieved stock quotes, slashdot, cnn, etc. all from the middle of nowhere. Even though the service was spotty at times, I was still impressed at the level and coverage and service for somthing with such a small market.

    (ps, we need an avantgo channel for this site, it's difficult to read and next to impossible to post... ahh well.)

    _K
  • I've never used it myself, but I know some of the hotels I've stayed at offer some kind of Net access via Ethernet jacks in the rooms. A friend who tried it once said you call the front desk and they'll give you the info you need for it or something along those lines. Might be an option. I mainly saw it in hotels on the East coast, but that's also the only place where I usually travel :)
  • Using one of the national ISPs may be a good solution but don't get sucked into AOL. Why?
    1. AOL is evil and we shouldn't support it.
    2. As someone mentioned you have to give them an address and you'll start recieving CDs from them every week or so. It used to very useful diskettes that you could erase and put a label over.
    3. They might still harass people with calls and stuff. I guess you'll be safe there since you're in the UK though.
    4. AOL itself sucks. The annoying "you've got mail" ::cringe::, the pop up ads, the unnecesarry interface, etc.

    Anyone else have more reasons?

    your friend,
    bryan
    sfc
    standing on the shoulders of giants,leaves me cold
  • I just don't get it why the yanks stick to analog phones. what the heck, that's the most advanced country in the world (communication wise speaking) and they don't even have a digital cell phone network. The GSM 900 & DCS 1800 digital standards are cheap and virtually the entire European territory is covered, including eastern Europe. There is no global provider but there are 3 - 4 in every country and they have agreements. When you travel abroad you get roaming access. You just have to tell your provider which counties you'll visit and your phone will find the new network and use it. You're still reachable at your regular phone number. Depending on the provider, you can read your mail & browse the web directly on the phone, with no extra device attached to it.
  • Think you could use 500 hours of free AOL access? There are also places in the states that rent mobile phones on a short term (month at a time) basis for outgoing calling. it isn't the cheapest option
  • Get a female RJ connector, some alligator clips, and a small screwdriver. You can get those at any RadioShack, there's thousands of them all over the US. This way, you'll be able to connect to older phones, which are wired directly into the wall. Don't try this if you have five thumbs in each hand. Also, if the phone rings while you are messing with the wires, you may get a nasty 100 volt shock.

    troll, ...They lived in mountains, sometimes stole human maidens, and could transform themselves and prophesy...

  • Your reasons are valid...The big thing is though the original poster said....IT'S FREE! You don't support them.
  • There's one in Broadripple (part of Indy). I think it's called netheads or something like that.

    Unless you're going through the sticks you can probably find one in the phonebook of most major cities. I woun't go that route though...if you don't know the town it's probably going to be hard to find especially sice you won't have access to Mapquest until you get to the cybercafe.
  • There's one in Broadripple (part of Indy). I think it's called netheads or something like that.

    Unless you're going through the sticks you can probably find one in the phonebook of most major cities. I woun't go that route though...if you don't know the town it's probably going to be hard to find especially sice you won't have access to Mapquest until you get to the cybercafe.
  • Do I need a wacky adapter for my laptop? No, we use the same wacky here in the UK, arf arf. orlando..
  • Since you're only doing this once, screw signing up with a pay service. Just use netzero and upload your stuff that way. They have access numbers all over the place, and its easy to download onto a laptop from their website. After the trip, just delete, and you're done.
  • In the words of the (corny) poet: "What is this world if, full of care, we have no time to stop and stare"

    We only plan to drive a couple of hours a day. Lots of sightseeing to be done. Bumper stickers to be bought at Meramec caverns, detours to the Grand Canyon and Vegas. Etc.
    --
  • How can you possibly take a month to drive from Chicago to LA? Even along a secondary road like route 66 it shouldn't take more than 3 days. Can you hold off using email for that long?

    Ummm... you stop and visit places on the way?

    Just a theory, based on the way some people behave when they're on vacation. Or were you assuming the guy above is trying to save on the difference of a plane ticket from Europe to Chicago instead of to California?

    Chris

  • Plug: Rand Macnally software (Score:3)

    by hey! ( 33014 ) on Friday February 11, 2000 @05:22AM (#1285785) Homepage Journal
    If you need to find a public library in every town, I'd recommend the Rand MacNalley Streetfinder Deluxe. For 100 bucks, you can get detailed street maps of the entire US and and a GPS receiver.

    In my current job I do a lot of travel. I use it on business trips when I have a hankering for sushi (which tends to go with being on an expense account). It puts up a map with a red dot showing your current position and the kinds of things you are interested in (restuarants by cusisine, copy centers, stores by merchandise type, parking, and of course public libraries) <duh>Of course, be careful using it while you are driving&lt/duh>. You can also download maps onto the palm pilot, but I haven't found it as useful.

    Combine this with an 12VDC inverter and a co-pilot in the passenger seat, and it's really convenient when you are in a strange city. In any case, I bought it on a lark and have easily got a hundred bucks of yuks out of it.

    By the way, you can't use the GPS stand alone without a computer. It saves cost by omitting the display screen and control buttons -- it just sends NMEA strings over a serial port. The accuracy is pretty good for such a cheap receiver -- usually they have jittery clocks that throw them off. The GPS/GIS expert in my company thought at first the software was snapping the red dot to the street until I showed him the highest zoom view.

  • What ISPs should I look at? What size area do ISPs cover in the country?

    The UK is full of free national ISPs. They typically offer free web space, web or IMAP/POP3 based email and a national dialup number charged at local rates. I'd recommend one to which you can subscribe before you leave, such as Freedom 2 Surf [freedom2surf.net], who I've been using for many years now. They run a lot on Linux and are generally Unix friendly.

    Do hotels have phone jacks?

    Some do. You may find a lot of digital exchanges, though, where you'll probably be out of luck. Also, bear in mnd that local calls in the UK are not free, and the hotel will add their own extortionate overhead on top of that. Be sure to check the prices in advance.

    Can I get one that will work in France as well?

    Compuserve. My sister spends half the year in France and half in the UK, and Compuserve is the only one we could find that gives local call access in both countries. Many ISPs are part of the iPass global roaming scheme which allows local call access from most places around the world. However, the cost of access from outside of the ISPs native country makes it prohibitively expensive for any serious work.

  • I would second that recommendation, at least from a business perspective. The company I work for has a lot of people on the road, both North American and globally, and IGN (now AGNS) is the only ISP we have found that provides a reasonably complete set of POPs that service the remote industrial areas around the world that we tend to operate in (boy that's an ugly sentence). Also, their dialer software does a good job of presenting and updating the list of telephone numbers by country.

    They are fairly expensive for a single user, though. Also be careful where you open your account - if you open it in the UK, then travel to the US, you may get hit with "roaming" charges (I thought the "G" stood for Global, eh?).

    Don't miss Ted Drewes Frozen Custard when you are in St. Louis (on Chippewa St., which is part of the old Rte 66). Dixie Trucker Home in McLean, Illinois sits between I-55 and Old Route 66 and has a nice mini-museuem.

    sPh
  • > Do I need a wacky adapter for my laptop?

    Probably. The chances are your laptop has a transformer that automatically copes with the power supply of any country you plug it into (but check this). Then all you need to do is change your US plug into a UK one. You can do this with a kit from Radio Shack that doesn't even cost $20, if I remember rightly from when I was last in there. You're looking for a setup with lots of strange 'grey' bits. You may need a grounding adaptor, depending on what you buy.

    My laptop, which I bought in the US, just takes an ordinary cassette player lead. So no adapter necessary, just buy a new lead and plug it into the transformer.
    > What size area do ISPs cover in the country?

    Most ISPs in the UK have one number throughout the entire country, but still charge you local rates instead of national rates. These numbers typically begin with '0345'.

    0645 and 0845 are also possibilities.

    NB local rate is 1.5p/minute 6pm-8am and 1p/minute weekends from a domestic phone.

  • <i>5. If you'll be near a library, many libraries in major metropolitan areas offer free use of their computers for Internet access. These are typically connected over a T1 line, so they're fast. You'll at least be able to check your e-mail if you use a Web-based e-mail account, and again it won't cost you anything. Cybercafes may also be another idea.</i>

    I couldn't agree with this more. While sitting out in the middle of the desert on a laptop connected to a cell modem is pretty hard to beat in coolness factor, it may be preferable to use something like a public library, or even better, a University Campus.

    Two summers ago I was cross-country travelling from Philly to San Francisco and back again, and made it a point to visit a university or two along the way, just to get a feel for the place. UC Berkeley was the big one for me. I got a real kick out of walking into their library, sitting down at one of their terminals, finding out all of their internet settings, and configuring my laptop likewise. I was able to just sit back and use my own computer there after about 5 minutes of tooling around.

    Pulled the same thing off in France last summer. Nothing quite like a distraught French professor trying to explain to you that it's impossible to use your computer on their network while you're in the middle of an ssh-tunneled pop3 download... (c:

    --Cycon
  • I am currently travelling around the UK and there are plenty of internet cafes. Any decent sized town has them
    Right, we (Cambridge) have at least 5 in a town of ~120,000.

    One tip about cybercafes: there are five enormous cybercafes in London (and more to come around the UK and Europe, apparently) which are not only open 24 hours but which, last time I checked, were free between (I think) midnight and 10am, and only £1/hour all day.
    http://www.easyeverything.com/ [easyeverything.com]

  • Check out http://www.avr.org/teams/unitboy/ for further information on how these guys pulled it off.

  • Head over to http://www.boardwatch.com/isp/ac/index. html [boardwatch.com]

    Right at the top of the page are links for toll free access numbers (800, 877, 888).


    Chas - The one, the only.
    THANK GOD!!!

  • I don't know if this will help, but...

    My father is a truck driver who has been going down to the States a lot lately. He tells me that many truckstops have hookups for satellite TV and high bandwidth net access (yes, truckers use the net a *lot*). It's basically for drivers, like my father, who stays in the truck and has a TV and possibly a notebook computer. Many truckers use the net to find out where to go next, etc.

    I'm not sure if they'll let non-truckers purchase the use of those facilities, but it's certainly worth a look if cell coverage is awful over certain parts fo the US.
  • When I did my AT hike [waldo.net] in '96, I used a Motorola Montana and an array of laptops. (They kept breaking.) My best luck was using a Motorola Montana connected to a good-old-fashioned clunker of a Motorola flip-phone. I used a AA adaptor, but that shouldn't be necessary for you.

    My favourite system was an Apple Newton with a keyboard. I don't believe that the Palm Pilot existed at the time. At least, not in a form as useful as its current one. As weight shouldn't be a problem for you -- unless you're one *hard-core* road-tripper -- any ol' laptop should do.

    As for the national-dial-up, that didn't exist, save for shite like AOL and MSN, so I racked up some pretty serious long-distance. :)

    Just plan on having a couple of days of beta testing. I hit the AT without having even used the finalised version of the system...took me about 100 miles to get it worked out. When it comes to connecting in hotels, it's always a gamble. I fried a modem like that. If possible, use a seperate line. I would just go down to the front desk, introduce myself, chat 'em up, and then ask if they had a line that I could plug my modem into. I was only turned down once. Frickin' Fontana Lake fascists...

    Anyhow, have fun.

    -Waldo
  • NetZero only works in Windows, by the way.
    So if your laptop uses Linux or something other than full-brewed Windows, you can't use NetZero.

    (You might possibly be able to use it via VMWare but I'm not sure about this)
  • Last time I did a trip in the states (San Francisco), I rented a car from National [nationalcar.com] They had an option of renting a phone with the car. Perhaps this would suit your needs.

  • It seems unlikely that this person would be able to get decent cellular coverage out in the middle of nowhere. They seem contented with dialling up from the motels they encounter along the way.

    With that said, be aware that some places do not use normal analog phone lines. The digital lines they use may fry your modem. I'm willing to bet that the cheapo places along the planned route will present no problems, but it might be wise to call ahead where possible.

    Also, it would be worthwhile to bring along an external modem as a fallback for the PCMCIA modem. I've found PCMCIA modems to be rather fragile when plugged into things they ought not to have been plugged into, whereas my USR Courier has taken all kinds of abuse without complaint.

  • When I travel, I don't have a dialup ISP. Instead, if I have any serious need to check email, I stop at a Kinko's photocopy center. They have rented Windows and Mac terminals with Internet access. Expensive to surf, but easy to telnet into my shell ISP and use PINE.

    There's more rental spots out there, if you know where to look. I saw fax slots and sit-down web/email kiosks in Chicago Midway a couple weeks ago.

  • Compuserve. One word of warning; You'll have to send an couple of extra ^M after the connect..

  • The AOL idea sounds like a pretty good deal-- my only concern would be how to change the dialup number. Is this something the user can control, or does the AOL software try to remove this "burden" by making it not user-selectable?

    Also, does AOL have a list of dialup numbers and locations posted so that the numbers could be copied down ahead of time?

  • Get yourself a fuzz buster (radar detector) unless 55mph is acceptable to you, some small towns finance their sherrif departments by fining speeding motorists who are passing by.
    It's not quite that bad anymore. The limit on Rt 66 proper in NM/AZ/CA is 60, IIRC, and if you really want to go fast, it parallels Interstate 40 for much of that route, on which the speed limit is 70mph+.... Keep in mind that Route 66 is still a bumpy little two-lane road, which means you have to pass against oncoming traffic when (not if) you get stuck behind some geriatric farmer in a pickup truck doing 35mph, AND risk your suspension while doing so... Interstate 40 is a modern, limited-access freeway with high speed limits, police call boxes in case you have problems... and plenty of exits off onto "Historic Route 66" where all the tourist-trap trinket shops are. What often happens is that Route 66 goes through a downtown area, while the Interstate goes around it. That way you can exit off, go into town, find the library and get your Net fix, find a hotel and sleep, get some food, then continue on your way, following the old highway until it re-joined the Interstate.

    That's my two bits on how to do the trip... and since I did something similar not too long ago (Knoxville, TN to Seattle via I-40 until it ran out, then via 101 and I-5), I can also tell you that your GSM phone isn't worth a tinker's damn over long stretches of NM and AZ; as they said, you'll want an American PCS/Analog phone.

    Good luck on the trip; it's quite an experience, not to be missed. I don't think I'd ever do it again, but I'm glad I did the once.

    Suggestion: If you can, extend your trip a bit, and take California 1 up the coast at least as far as San Francisco; if possible, continue on US 101 from there to Seattle. (CA 1 and US 101 meet at the Golden Gate bridge.) You will miss some of the more spectacular scenery in the country if you don't... and some of the better food, too. Things to look for: The Big Sur area (between Ventura and Santa Cruz) (get some clam chowder); Santa Cruz itself (good place for quaint shops); Chinatown in San Francisco; the Golden Gate itself; California wine country (anything north of LA, but concentrated in the Napa valley between San Francisco and west of Sacramento); and the volcanoes (Mt. Shasta, which I-5 goes RIGHT by, Mt. Hood, Mt. Adams, and Mt. Ranier). Of course, Seattle proper is its own story.... :)

    If you think you'll get that far, look me up. :)

    warp eight bot
    Dixie ex-patriate happy in Seattle

  • Many of them actually "feature" ;) big-time surcharges. Well, maybe not *so* big-time, but not fun if you don't realize that you're going to get a hefty bill (often $5-10 / hr.) after you've used it over the course of a month.

    timothy
  • Yep. Make sure you've got enough memory (or whatever it eats, besides batteries) for the camera, and leave a message with your friends (i.e. the ones you trust not to ransack your place while you're gone) saying, "gone fishin'."
    That's all the connectivity you need.

    Kick back. Take it easy. Take lots of pictures. Do lots of weird things. Don't worry about email or (god forbid!) reading /. until you get back. "Despite beliefs to the contrary, the world will continue to turn in your absence." It'll all be here, replete with its petty squabbling and linux evangelism.

    I speak from experience here. Being a fairly hardwired geek, I absolutely LOVE taking holidays where the closest I get to a computer is the ATM. (or when I'm backpacking, my whisperlite :-) The computer/'net is becoming one of those 'daily things' that, much as we may love 'em, are exactly what we take holidays to get away from.

  • >I recommend
    >staying in as many dinky little 50's circa Motel's rather than the horrible chain motels. YOu can get a room in most of these places for 20 to 30
    >bucks a night and some of them are real architectural gems.

    Good advice. I did the cross-country thing six years ago (in my relatively new & still reliable convertible, gloat, gloat), & would call ahead each morning to make reservations for that night. One of my best discoveries was the last cottage-style motels in SE Iowa (Iowa City, to be precise).

    But I offer this advice with one serious warning: expect the phone service to suck big time, especially in the USWest territory. Not to start a ``my $RBOC sucks worse than yours" thread, but from everything I have seen, the further you get away from the major metropolitan regions, the older the phone technology. All of those circa-1975 analog phone switches being replaced by the neat SS-7 compliant, state-of-the-art switches are being refurbished & installed in smaller towns whose only sins are that they aren't in a major metro region.

    In short, you can have Americana or high tech, but don't expect both.

    Geoff
  • Is there a Linux version of Streetfinder Deluxe, so I can buy it for my laptop?
  • I don't know what your itinerary looks like, but may I suggest some places near US66 you might wish to visit?
    1. Woolaroc, OK. [woolaroc.org]
    2. The home of Frank Phillips (of Phillips Petrolium), and a very cool place to visit.
    3. The Kansas Cosmosphere, Hutchinson, KS [cosmo.org]. If you are a /. reader you want to visit. One of the top space mueseums in the world, it has one of the largest collections of Russian space artifacts outside Russia.
    4. Big Brutis, West Mineral, KS [bigbrutus.org] The second largest earthmover in the US.

    As for net access: Go with public libraries, or get an account with somebody like NetZero [netzero.com]. Yes, they are Windows only, but they are free. The bad thing about getting an AOL account is they are next to impossible to get rid of: they are like a roach motel - once you check in, you cannot check out.


    As for hotel phone lines: Almost all hotels now have a modem jack on the side of the phone so that you won't blow your modem out. However, lots of hotels also try to screw you when you call an 800 number, so be careful.


    Lastly, I suggest you look into some good mapping software. I use Delorme's AAA Map N Go [delorme.com], which runs (sort of ) under Wine (and flawlessly under Windows). Add to it their cheap GPS receiver, and you will make your travels a lot nicer.

  • Re:Sounds like a job for AOL (Score:3)

    by Schrader ( 80501 ) on Friday February 11, 2000 @10:09AM (#1285915) Homepage
    I have to second this thought. I recently did almost this exact thing late last summer. My Fiance and I traveled cross country with a Laptop and Digital Camera. We used the (hated) AOL all across the USA. We never had trouble finding a local number. We were also able to plug our modem into the wall at almost every hotel we stopped at.

    We found that most hotels are "Modem Savy" and if you ask about it they will know what you are talking about. Most had standard phone hookups, and those who did not had adapters. We also had a cellular modem/phone along, which we found did not work well at all. We had a hard time connecting/staying connected. Ultimatly we had to rely almost exclusivly on land lines.

    Check out our site here:
    Rex & Dodi's Road Trip '99 [schraders.org]

    We were able to update almost every day. All of our relatives back home were able to follow along as we went. We got a lot of positive comments. It really gave us something to do as we were going along. Having a reason to take pictures added a lot of fun and purpose to our trip. I think that without the web site to work on we would have been really board. It was also a great thing to do while the other person was driving!

    We brought along an inverter so we could keep the laptop running full time. This turned out to be great in conjunction with "Microsoft Streets & Trips 2000". We used S&T as our map THE ENTIRE TRIP! It was totally awesome to never have to open a paper map! It not only had all the streets, pathfinding, and time/distance calculations, it also had all the HOTELS and their telephone numbers. Heck, it even had resturants we ate at!

    Make sure that you bring the right software! We had to download some image editing/compression software while on the road, which sucked.

    "Always drive on roads, not on people."

  • Well, no Linux, unfortunately.

    Right now I'm swamped, but I'll give it a whirl on WINE one of these days and send the results to winehq. I don't see any reason it should not be fairly WINE compatible, it's pretty vanilla.
  • Until I get a data cable for my new cell phone, I have considered an analog modem connection. I'm trying to avoid an acoustic coupler...anyone already figured out a matching circuit for a modem telephone-to-headset jack (speaker/microphone) connection?
  • Go look that book title up on BarnesAndNoble.Com [barnesandnoble.com] and you'll see there also is a March 2000 issue expected...
  • I don't know if Kinko's Copy Centers are a national chain (although I've been able to find one in every city that I visit) but if not, I'm sure you can find one in the phone book by checking the yellow pages. Or try looking for some kind of coverage map on their web site?

    90% of the copy places I have visited have some kind of "rent-a-computer" program with Internet access. Prices range from $10 per hour (minimum of one hour) to $6 per hour (no minimum).

    Whenever I travel, I setup Outlook Express (no jeers please, it is a great e-mail client) with a "Vacation" rule that automatically forwards a copy of all my mail to a Hotmail account, then replies back to the sender to let them know that I might not be checking my e-mail every day.

    Then, I go by Kinko's and rent one of their computers so that login to Hotmail and catch up on Slashdot, etc. Cyber cafes are just as good, except I have found them to be much more pricey and much harder to find in the yellow pages (Computer Services - Miscellaneous?).

    - JoeShmoe

    -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

  • Omnisky.com (Score:3)

    by Krimsen ( 26685 ) on Friday February 11, 2000 @12:42PM (#1285939)
    My friend recently pointed me to Omnisky [omnisky.com] for wireless net access. They are in beta phase right now, but I think they are going to release it to the general public in April. Here is what you get (yes, it's ripped straight from their site):
    • Full-Featured Email from your existing accounts
    • Real Web Content with access to virtually any Internet site
    • Enhanced Palm Applications for easy record sharing
    • High-Speed Modem for the Palm V for fast access on Cellular Digital Packet Data (CDPD) Networks
    • Unlimited Nationwide CDPD Wireless Service with free roaming
    There is no definite price listed on the site, but they do say "Monthly standard subcriber rates will not exceed $49.95" and that's no so bad for nationwide coverage.

    Also: It is only for Palm V users, but I am sure someone out there can figure out how to get a laptop to work with that Minstrel wireless modem.
  • I believe a lot of Universities (USC included) check the MAC address of any device trying to use the network, and only allow MAC addresses that have already been registered to be allowed on the net. This gives them more protection and ensures that they will be able to track any malicious use of their network.
  • Welcome to America!

    A trip from Chicago to Los Angeles in the early spring will provide you with a breathtaking tour across our country. It is a wonderful journey to take, and you will be pleasantly surprised at how "connected" you can continue to be. Connecting to the Internet from practically any place along your journey will be a breeze.

    Let me make some assumptions: I'm assuming that you're renting a car, and that you're planning on staying in hotels or motels as you travel. (That is, you're not hitchhiking with a tent.) Practically any motel room you find will have a phone--you'll quickly discover which hotel chains offer free local calls, and which charge $1 per local call. If you want to stay a little off the beaten track you find lots of local independent motels--but those will almost always charge a hefty price ($0.75 to $1) per local call.

    However--you may not find paying $1 per local call to be that big a deal. Local calls in the United States (in most areas) do not have any time charges--you make the local connect and you can stay on the line as long as you like. Similarly, practically no ISP has a connect time charge for local access (ISPs typically do charge for connect time if you are connecting via a toll-free number--because they're paying for that toll-free call).

    You're wise to think of the problems of using a non-US cell phone, and to think of what kind of jack to use in a hotel room. However--you should also carefully consider what kind of modem you have. You may be surprised to discover that many modems (particularly inexpensive ones) may not be legal to use outside your country. This little surprise catches a lot of US travelers--the UK periodically makes a point of confiscating "illegal" modems from notebook users when they clear Customs. "Turnabout is fair play" is something of a truism with customs and immigration authorities--if the Brits are being jerks by confiscating modems, you can expect customs officials in other countries to look very closely at the modems of UK travellers. Make sure your modem is labelled as being registered with the U.S. Federal Communications Commission.

    I'm sure you're aware that the electrical sockets are different in the U.S., as is the electrical voltage. If you know of a shop in the UK that sells the electrical converters, they will sell you any necessary kits for connecting to phone lines as well. If you can't find such kits in your area, buy one in the gift shops at Heathrow before you board the plane. When you land in Chicago you will not find any shops in the International Terminal--you clear customs and immigration and proceed directly to the tram to the domestic side of the airport. To get to airport shops at the other terminals (the best shopping is in United's concourse, which is Terminal One) you will have to go back through the barrier.

    Check with your local ISP about whether they offer a roaming plan. Most ISPs in the US participate in POP-sharing plans that have connect points around the world. Failing that, AOL and CompuServe have the most local nodes (they're related--AOL owns CompuServe). You can sign up for either in the UK (even on a trial membership) and then drop it when you return home.

    Welcome!
  • Actually, I work for IBM, and I can't believe I didn't consider that my work dialin account would work in the States. D'Oh!. So that's the ISP problem solved. john
    --
  • Before this story gets archived, I'd just like to thanks everyone for their extremely helpful comments - and that includes the many people who mailed me personally, some of whom I've failed to reply to individually.

    I've decided not to bother with wireless access, for several reasons. The cost and the patchy coverage, yes, but also as several people pointed out, when I'm out travelling, there'll be far more interesting things to see than my laptop screen.

    So, it's a PCMCIA modem, and the phone sockets in the hotel in the evening. I work for IBM, and I'm a little embarassed that using my work's dialup didn't occur to me. D'Oh!

    Also, thanks to the people who offered to meet me along the way. I hope to see a few of you.

    Thanks again, and I hope to wow you with some stories and some pics of the desert and the neon come August.

    Slim
    --

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