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Laptops And Internet Access

humanloofa

By humanloofa
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humanloofa

+humanloofa

Posted
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I will be moving in a few months from AZ to Iowa. I don't realy have a time frame for getting there so I figured I could do some cacheing and maybee meet some people or do a few events along the way. I have no idea wich route I will ultamatly be taking to PQs and tracking along a route do me no good. I will be getting a newwer GPS, Garmin 6ocsx and a laptop. I want to know if most hotels and coffee shops have internet access. that way I could regualy check for caches, events and people wich ever way I go. Any experiance and knowledge about this would be appreciated. Also any info on what to look for in a laptop for this trip would be helpfull.

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The Leprechauns

+The Leprechauns

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Posted

I've just gotten into caching by laptop. I track my position in real time using the Garmin NRoute software, making it much easier to see how to navigate to the next geocache on the big screen. When I spot a cache, it's a quick Alt-tab to open up my cache database to read all the cache details and decide whether I want to stop and look for it. And, on long roadtrips, the laptop is great for keeping up with e-mail, logging cache finds, researching the next day's route, etc.

 

Locating free Wi-Fi hotspots will become easier and easier as the Waymarking Category for Hotspots gets populated. Until then, some general observations:

 

-- Most hotels and motels now offer internet access, and it's usually free. I check for this whenever I make a reservation.

 

-- My daughter loves to eat lunch at Panera Bread. I used to think it was overpriced, but now we go there often as a break during a day of geocaching. Why? Panera Bread offers free wi-fi.

 

-- More and more public libraries are offering free wi-fi.

 

-- You mentioned coffee shops. In my experience, Starbucks wi-fi is a pay as you go thing. Independent shops, it is hard to generalize, some have it and some don't.

 

As far as buying a laptop, look for something with good ratings for durability, as you'll be tossing it around your vehicle a lot. Get a power inverter (plugs into the cigarette lighter) so that you don't drain down the laptop battery. If you are getting a new Garmin 60CSx, that is what I have. I plug the Garmin into the laptop and a single USB cable works for both data transfer and for power, so no drain on the GPS battery either. For an older GPS with a serial connection, you'd either need to find a laptop with a serial port, or buy a USB to Serial converter cable.

 

Good luck with your move and roadtrip. Sounds fun!

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Team Cotati

+Team Cotati

Posted
Posted (edited)

I don't know about "most" but for sure, a large percentage of name brand hotels these days do in fact have free and often wireless internet access. Some offer this only in the lobby area but lots have it in the rooms as well. I have stayed in properties that have both wired and wireless in the rooms. You should have no problem locating lodging establishments that offer free high speed internet access. Then of course you have public libraries and Kinkos. The stuff is quite literally every where these days. :):):)

Edited by Team Cotati
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BigHank

+BigHank

Posted
Posted

I will be moving in a few months from AZ to Iowa. I don't realy have a time frame for getting there so I figured I could do some cacheing and maybee meet some people or do a few events along the way. I have no idea wich route I will ultamatly be taking to PQs and tracking along a route do me no good. I will be getting a newwer GPS, Garmin 6ocsx and a laptop. I want to know if most hotels and coffee shops have internet access. that way I could regualy check for caches, events and people wich ever way I go. Any experiance and knowledge about this would be appreciated. Also any info on what to look for in a laptop for this trip would be helpfull.

 

I travel a lot for my job, and in my experience, the mid priced hotels such as Best Western, Comfort Suites, La Quinta, etc., generally all have free internet access. The more expensive places, such as Westin, Hilton, Radisson, etc., all charge an arm and a leg for internet access. Also, the mid priced ones have free parking and the higher priced ones charge for parking, too.

 

As far as a laptop...I am fortunate in that my job provides me with one, and also with a wi-fi card and an "air card" which allows me to access the internet anywhere I can be in range of a tower. This is real handy for 'caching too, obviously. As far as type or brand of computer, just check consumer reports and stuff like that for repair histories, and make sure it is rugged. If a cigarette lighter power cord doesn't come with it, it is a real good investment for traveling.

 

Enjoy your trip.

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Renegade Knight

+Renegade Knight

Posted
Posted

For net access most hotels offer it for free. They vary a bit on if you will need a password, ethernet or wi fi.

 

For a laptop, stay away from the bleeding edge high end junk. If you don't do the bleeding edge games you can do fine under 1000.00 and very very well under 2000. Check the cnet.com laptop ratings. What you want is a high Cnet rating and a high user rating. Read the user ratings they can be very insightful for the kinds of problems (or lack of them) that you will have.

 

My laptop was high end bleeding edge and was prone to overheating per the user ratings (which I read AFTER I got it). Guess what, it overheats and I can't do some of the things I'd like to do with it and I can't afford another one. I would have been better of spending less money on a more stable laptop.

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Miragee

+Miragee

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Posted

I was trying to post this a couple of hours ago . . . and my phone line went out. :) But, it's working now. thumbsup.gif

 

- - - - - - - - - - -

 

I took my laptop on a trip last spring. Like you, I didn't know exactly which roads I was going to take, I just knew I wanted to stay away from the Interstates. I ran many PQs ahead of time to populate my RoadTrip database in GSAK with Difficulty '2'/Terrain '2' and below caches first, but along my way I also stopped at a couple of WiFi hotspots. This was a fun one.

 

The laptop I have is an older DELL I bought on eBay a few years ago. It has a Serial Port (newer ones don't), but it doesn't have built in WiFi. I bought one of those cards on eBay. I bought a larger hard drive and put that in so I had room to install my Mapsource maps on the laptop.

 

It sounds like a great trip. Have fun, be safe, and get the coordinates of those interesting WiFi spots you find so you can add them to Waymarking later . . . if you want to. :)

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kelly@9

+kelly@9

Posted
Posted

I have a Verizon EV-DO high speed cellular wireless data card for my laptop, gives me data access pretty much anywhere I can get a Verizon cellular signal, when in cities and suburban areas you get blazing EV-DO speeds, but it falls back to slower speeds elsewhere. It isn't cheap though at $80/mo. ($60/mo. if you have a Verizon voice cell phone + plan), but thankfully, work pays for it for me since I'm 2nd tier on-call 24x7.

 

Sprint has basically the same offering at the same pricing on their network (which obviously has a somewhat different coverage area).

 

I've been very pleased with the service, and if I had only a single laptop as my only computer, I'd consider it instead of DSL (or cable modem) for my primary Internet access.

 

When I attended the Richmond Rally III (GCVVRK) a couple weeks ago, I was amused to see they were providing WiFi access using an EV-DO card in a special wireless bridging router so that everyone at the event could use their laptop there in the picnic shelter! :)

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GIDEON-X

+GIDEON-X

Posted
Posted

:)Last month I did a round trip ....from Yuma to Dustin OK. went through Flagstaff. Winslow, Gallup.....etc. going on the way back, at Albuquerque I dropped south to El Paso ......then to Yuma. I had no trouble finding "Hot-Spots" coffee-shops, restaurants.........I use Days-Inn motels, they all have free hookup..........plus the give us old guys a good break (discount)

 

Travel Safe.............. GIDEON-X :)

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Team Cotati

+Team Cotati

Posted
Posted

I have a Verizon EV-DO high speed cellular wireless data card for my laptop, gives me data access pretty much anywhere I can get a Verizon cellular signal, when in cities and suburban areas you get blazing EV-DO speeds, but it falls back to slower speeds elsewhere. It isn't cheap though at $80/mo. ($60/mo. if you have a Verizon voice cell phone + plan), but thankfully, work pays for it for me since I'm 2nd tier on-call 24x7.

 

Sprint has basically the same offering at the same pricing on their network (which obviously has a somewhat different coverage area).

 

I've been very pleased with the service, and if I had only a single laptop as my only computer, I'd consider it instead of DSL (or cable modem) for my primary Internet access.

 

When I attended the Richmond Rally III (GCVVRK) a couple weeks ago, I was amused to see they were providing WiFi access using an EV-DO card in a special wireless bridging router so that everyone at the event could use their laptop there in the picnic shelter! :)

 

Was the EV-DO card the ONLY wireless access method available? :):D:)

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Team Cotati

+Team Cotati

Posted
Posted (edited)

I have a Verizon EV-DO high speed cellular wireless data card for my laptop, gives me data access pretty much anywhere I can get a Verizon cellular signal, when in cities and suburban areas you get blazing EV-DO speeds, but it falls back to slower speeds elsewhere. It isn't cheap though at $80/mo. ($60/mo. if you have a Verizon voice cell phone + plan), but thankfully, work pays for it for me since I'm 2nd tier on-call 24x7.

 

Sprint has basically the same offering at the same pricing on their network (which obviously has a somewhat different coverage area).

 

I've been very pleased with the service, and if I had only a single laptop as my only computer, I'd consider it instead of DSL (or cable modem) for my primary Internet access.

 

When I attended the Richmond Rally III (GCVVRK) a couple weeks ago, I was amused to see they were providing WiFi access using an EV-DO card in a special wireless bridging router so that everyone at the event could use their laptop there in the picnic shelter! :)

 

Duplicate. :):D:)

Edited by Team Cotati
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BlueDeuce

+BlueDeuce

Posted
Posted

What you need to know living in Iowa:

 

A brat is something you eat.

 

It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter. No, I mean it. REALLY.

 

Strangers on the street will say hello to you, it's OK to respond in kind.

 

DO NOT say something stupid like, 'Boy, think you have enough corn around here?'

That is about the same as kicking a man's dog, or his wife.

 

We don't consider Chicago a state.

 

Do not call every Bovine a cow. I'll pass along instructions later, but in the meantime just use the word 'cattle'.

 

The words are Pop not soda, Creek not 'Crick and nearly every farmer you meet will have a college education.

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humanloofa

+humanloofa

Posted
  • Author
Posted

What you need to know living in Iowa:

 

A brat is something you eat.

 

It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter. No, I mean it. REALLY.

 

Strangers on the street will say hello to you, it's OK to respond in kind.

 

DO NOT say something stupid like, 'Boy, think you have enough corn around here?'

That is about the same as kicking a man's dog, or his wife.

 

We don't consider Chicago a state.

 

Do not call every Bovine a cow. I'll pass along instructions later, but in the meantime just use the word 'cattle'.

 

The words are Pop not soda, Creek not 'Crick and nearly every farmer you meet will have a college education.

Use to live there, may take a little while but I remember alot about back there. Little fuzzy on the diffrent types of cow's out there but am sure it will come back to me. By the way I moving to Dubuque, what part you in BlueDuece? I'll send you an E-mail when I am close maybee I can stop by and go out for a few with you.

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BlueDeuce

+BlueDeuce

Posted
Posted
I can stop by and go out for a few with you.

 

Beer AND caches? You got it.

 

I'm about five miles south of Anamosa so just a hop for you, or me.

 

Dubuque, Clinton and the Quad Cities have some of the best cache locations around, in my opinion. (For the rest of you that's along the Mississippi.)

 

Closer to me is the 'Pot o' Gold' cache that we hold an event for once a year (roughly) so people can team up for tougher caches.

 

Then there's the ever popular 'Skywatcher Gorge' placed on 10/6/2001, no local cache has ever really surpassed it.

 

Then over in Waterloo you have the amazing Iowa Tom caches. Bring someone with a brain, that's what I do. http://www.geocaching.com/profile/Default....18-aa27e23ba260

 

Finally you are just a quick drive over to The Journal Something my 9 year old keeps nagging me to do with her.

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humanloofa

+humanloofa

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You are close. For the first few months I will be staying about one mile north of this cache GRRP1 Heritage Trail. I hope to spend the first few weeks there on vacation and doing some caching. I was also thinking of doing an event to get to know other cachers in the area. Are events well attended in that area? Also if you could think of any sugestions for a place that would be helpfull too. Out here we regulary do them in a restraunt, simple meat great and eat, need to do one here before I leave town.

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