Who's interested in/has used wireless internet in campgrounds?

[RockyMtnRay]

As a very early adopter (way back in '00) of wireless networking ("WiFi")...and as someone who works from home...I love the ability to use my laptop to work, browse the web, handle email, etc. from anywhere around my home (office, living room, out on the patio, etc.) without having to drag a network cable around.

Internet connectivity while traveling is for me not a nicety but a have-to-have because it's imperative that I check my servers, check email, and provide customer support at least every other day, preferrably every day, even when I'm camped somewhere in my TrailManor. To date I've been depending on using my cellphone as a wireless modem but connection speeds are pretty slow and a graphics rich web page can take literally minutes to load.

I recently had the opportunity to stay at a motel that had wireless internet connectivity in all rooms and was that ever sweet. Very high speed (about the same as my broadband at home), I was able to do all my daily morning internet business chores in a matter of minutes instead of the half hour or so that it would have taken on a dial up connection. All I had to do was bring along my WiFi card and I was up and running on the motel's network in a matter of seconds...and even better, it was totally free!!! :)

I've been noting that an increasing number of commercial RV parks are now offering some form of wireless internet, allegedly throughout the entire park. This is one "hookup" that might just get me to start staying in commercial parks more often...I can do without electrical/water/sewer hookups for a few days but internet I gotta have every day.

Sooooo, how many of you folks are equally desirous of this amenity? And if any of you have stayed in RV parks with wirelsss internet, how well did it work, what kind of daily fees did you incur, etc?

[PopBeavers]

Have you considered satellite broadband?

My cousin is a programmer and works from home. Home is a sailboat somewhere in the Caribbean.

Admittedly, she has to be anchored to use her satellite broadband connection. Cost is somewhere around 80 bucks per month. Works everywhere that satellite TV works.

I wish I could join you, but my productivity drops off rapidly for any screen size smaller than 19 inches. Let me know when the price of 19 or 21 inch laptops drop below a grand and we can meet in the park.

[fcatwo]

We are still postponing adding WIFI capability to our laptop because we've only seen it available in two RV park in the last couple of years (one free and the other $3.00 per day). Most don't provide convenient dial-up even when they list it in the Campground Guides. More often than not "internet-availabilty" means a pay phone (often with no place to sit) with a phone cable port. Our Verizon cell phone is still our primary internet access device while traveling.

I should add that we stay in mid-priced parks, when available, along the I-5 and I-10 corridors. Some of the more prosperous TMO contributers or those who frequent other areas may have had better luck.

[Windbreaker]

We use WiFi at home and find it meets our needs, we live in Texas, which is in the process of installing WiFi in all it's roadside parks. We stay in campgrounds that offer wireless when there is more than one in the area we wish to visit.

Having said all of that, we don't live buy the web and can live very well for two or more weeks without it. If we need it, we can find it otherwise it is just one more of those just nice to have.

There are internet cafes almost everywhere now a days, use them when needed or you might try parking close to a school or government office building (if your using a B card you could just kind of fall in).

[RockyMtnRay]

There are internet cafes almost everywhere now a days, use them when needed
Most of what I do on the internet requires use of my own computer to either get into my office network via a Virtual Private Network (encrypted, non browser access) or the transfer of files (either as email attachments or via FTP). There's very little that I do on the internet that a public computer in a library or an internet cafe will suffice for. And, at least in Colorado, internet cafes are exclusively found in towns/cities...and I avoid urban areas to the greatest possible degree when traveling with my trailer.

or you might try parking close to a school or government office building (if your using a B card you could just kind of fall in).
As for "wardriving" and "borrowing" bandwidth from networks (like schools) that I'm not authorized to join, I consider that unethical at the least and really a form of thievery so I would never do that. I use my laptop almost exclusively for business, am not at all strapped for cash, and feel the right thing to do is pay for services (including wireless network time) that I consume. Besides which, the time I'd waste trying to find such open networks is a heckuva lot more valuable to me than saving a few bucks.

[Bill]

Like Frank, I have stayed in a number of campgrounds where "Internet Access" means a phone jack in the laundry room. It may or may not be free, but that's not the point. It's a pain. I haven't yet encountered a campground with true broadband access for free.

On the other hand, I have found (and used) free broadband access in cities a fair number of times. You can get a connection almost anywhere you go in a city, simply by parking outside a coffee shop, a good hotel, a bookstore, or any number of other places. They work great, but ... they are in the city. Or at least a big mall.

The other thing that concerns me is that these networks are unsecured. No encryption, no WEP, no nuthin'. You know better than I, Ray, but I think this means that once you have joined the network, anyone else in the network can peer into your computer - at least into the files that are marked as Shared. I don't know about you, but many of my files and drives are marked as Shared, because we have 3 computers in the house, linked by a wireless access point. So unless I change every file on my laptop to Not Shared when I go on the road, I think the bad guys could read these files, and under some circumstances could write files onto my computer. This makes me REALLY nervous. That scruffy guy in the van over there - or Mr. 3-piece suit in the BMW - could be doing me a world of hurt.

I'd look forward to more comments on this topic.

Bill

[Windbreaker]

Ray First. Transfer of files - from your machine is what I was talking about the internet cafe's we've visited are WiFi, bring your own laptop. I don't and could not use public use machines for the very reasons you listed.

I was not suggesting that you are anyone else was strapped for cash! You pay for those networks and they are up 24/7, just don't use them when the students or employees are. Where it a concern they would be blocked, I don't care if a passer by drives off of my WiFi. (as long as it is not a regular thing)

Maybe Texas is just a lot more open than other areas.

Bill, your concern over intrusion becomes mute as soon as you turn on your firewall after joining the web. You do do that as standard practice don't you? Also I think that perhaps your limiting yourself to using these outlets only in large cities. Most of us small town hicks can be (read forced to be) as modern as you big city guys.

I set my shared files to only to the machines under my control. That is with fixed addresses. Therefore only those machines can enter or interface with my portable units but I can access those fixed addresses from anyplace at anytime.

The bottom line being security was drilled into me by a group I once worked with and even to this day I try to be aware (and that can be a two edged sword). That is not to say that there are not a few warez around that I don't have to look for in person. For most of us the standard safe guards will be fine if you do work of a sensitive nature you know how to work it or you are in trouble before you start.

[PopBeavers]

I'd look forward to more comments on this topic.
Bill

Some things to do to secure your computer when using WiFi. You should do some of these anyway.

1. Run firewall software on every computer. There are some good ones that are free. If you don't know what else to do, set the definitions so that all outgoing requests are permitted, but all incoming are blocked. This way you can surf the web and read email because those are situations where you send an outgoing message and then get a response. This is safe, unless you have some viruses (or is it virii?) or Trojan horses, etc. Any attempt by a hacker to send a request in would get rejected. At home, on your private network you are probably behind a hardware firewall that is built into the DSL/cable router/hub. As long as you are behind this hardware firewall, sharing files between home computers is safe. It is when you hit the road and you are connected to the Starbucks WiFi network that will get you exposed because you do not have any control over the hardware firewall definitions (web etc.)

2. If you use VPN to connect to the office then no one else on the public network can see what you are doing, as long as the VPN connection is encrypted. One of the purposes of VPN is to create a virtual encrypted connection over a real unencrypted public network. When connecting into office you should always use some soft of VPN protocol, even over a dial-up connection. The packets of data between you and the office go through many other computers. Any of these computers could be running packet-sniffing software to capture all data to and from your computer. If it is not encrypted then anyone can see what you are doing. If all you want to do is surf the web to check out the local chamber of commerce web site to see what might be going on then there is no reason to encrypt that type of traffic. If at any time I connect to the office from any location offsite I am required by my employer to run VPN.

3. Run backups. I no longer make any attempt to backup to floppies or even to CD/DVD. Hard drives are so cheap, except in a laptop, that I just run multiple hard drives. I no longer run anything smaller than 120 gigabytes. I partition each physical drive into multiple logical drives to organize the data. Then any logical drive (aka partition) that is critical is cloned (copied) to another logical drive on the other physical drive. I can't and don't clone it all, but all of the critical stuff is cloned.

I could ramble for hours on these topics, but this is sorta the wrong forum for computer geek stuff.


hth

[RockyMtnRay]

The original question was about wireless intenet within the confines of a campground/RV Park...interest therein and experiences with that specific form of access. I want to know who's interested in/actually has used wireless internet from within their Trailmanor trailer while it's parked in a campground!

This thread is not about discussing wireless access in an internet cafe, around a starbucks, some corporate building, or near some school. I frequently log in to the internet at 4:30 am to make sure my servers properly did their overnight processing and I'm not going out seeking an access point at that hour of the morning.

It is also not about the usual, typically crappy "internet access" provided by most campgrounds that consists of a single "data port" in some office or laundry room that you have to take turns using with every other camper in the whole campground. That's why I asked about wireless, not wired internet access.

It is not about mobile satellite internet. Yes, I've thoroughly looked into mobile satellite internet but the current best solution for RVs... the MotoSat DataStorm F1 (http://www.motosat.com/products/specs/index.html) is really just too heavy and large to mount on the roof of on my TM's rear shell...and there's no spare room on the roof of the front shell...or over the bed of my truck. In addition to its 110 lbs (plus weight of mounting frame) being a bit much for the torsion bars, there's the stability issues of adding that much weight behind the trailer's rear axle. And a lot of boondock campsites I use don't have good southern views because of either trees or canyon walls. The DataStorm is also a tad pricey...usually around $5500 or thereabouts including installation...but having assured satellite viewing and the ability to handle the weight/size are my problems with this unit. I've haven't completely ruled out satellite internet but that's really the subject of another thread...which I actually started a year or so ago but which got almost no member interest.

As the system administrator of our company, yes, I'm well aware of security issues of public WiFi, do run a high end firewall, use fully patched Windows XP Pro, and have full password protection of the entire harddrive. And yes, most of my access is via a fully secured, encrypted VPN that I setup and administer myself.

So, PLEASE let's just focus on wireless internet within a campground where the wireless is provided by the campground management either for free or for some daily charge.

[sandy eggo]

I'm definitely interested in using wi-fi at campgrounds. I'm in the same boat as you Ray - being in IT services biz, I need to be tethered to the Internet 24x7.

I've noticed that some of the campground reservation websites now list this kind of feature but it can be very spotty/misleading. What may be billed as Internet access, ends up (as has been pointed out) as a single crappy phone line next to the soda machine. It'll be a few years at least before broadband wireless access is prevelant across a wide swath of parks. The most promising technology to provide coverage is not actually wi-fi but its close cousin known as wi-max or 802.16 in networking parlance. See here for a quick primer on wi-max:

http://www.intel.com/netcomms/technologies/wimax/index.htm?OVRAW=wimax&OVKEY=wimax&OVMTC=standard

The only thing you really need to remember about the key differences between the two is that wi-fi has a range of maybe 100 yards but wi-max has been tested to 30 miles or more. :new_Eyecr Obviously this should solve the problems of "wiring the last mile".

In this case it is all about of getting broadband access to remote areas such as campgrounds where it would be prohibitively expensive or completely impractical to run traditional cable based broadband, DSL and the like. Wi-max is the long term answer but what to do in the meantime when so precious few sites offer broadband access wirelessly around the campgrounds?

Here's what I've done (and I think someone mentioned this already): I have an "all you can eat" data plan with my cellphone provider (T-mobile). I simply use a GPRS/GSM card for my laptop and hop on the good ole information superhighway. Granted, it only gets you the equivalent of dial-up speeds but hey, it's way better than nothing at all. For my purposes, it works well enough to keep on top of my tasks and manage my workload while still being remote and sneaking in some camping.

The cellphone based data speeds are not standing still however. The cellphone companies are always moving towards faster and faster data access speeds so in the coming years you can expect something more akin to a moderate DSL or ISDN connection over your cellphone (acting as a wireless modem) or a GPRS/GSM style data card (PCMCIA). For example, if you were on Verizon in San Diego or DC in the past 18 months, you would have been enjoying 300 kbps data access (not bad!). I think Verizon has plans to roll it out further but since I'm no longer a subscriber, I have not kept up with their news.

Anyhow, I hope this has been helpful input.

Thanks all!

[B_and_D]

I've thought about getting a wireless thingey for our laptop. We usually take it with us, but have only been connected through a dial-up connection, and this can be very frustrating. The California State Parks system is in the process of installing Wi-Fi in many of their campgrounds, and I would like to be able to have internet access when I'm camping. With my DH's business, it really would help to be able to stay in touch with his clients this way. Most of them don't see him in person on a regular basis, so they wouldn't even know he was away, what with the cell phone and an internet connection. Unfortunately, most of the places that we really like to go are out in the "boonies", so we would have to invest in some more equipment other than just a card or whatever it is that you need for the laptop in order to use the Wi-Fi. I've read your posts, RMR, about how you've been connecting with your cell phone, and that would be ideal for us. We would have to buy a new cell phone and also the King of Clubs (?) thingey, plus invest in a more reliable power source to keep the batteries charged up. Things are looking up this year, however, so this may be the year that we're able to upgrade our technology.

I haven't been camping in so long that it seems kind of dream-like to think about it....it's been since October...

[sandy eggo]

The California State Parks system is in the process of installing Wi-Fi in many of their campgrounds,

I was so surprised to hear this, had to go Google it to find out for sure - I'll be darned if it isn't true.

http://www.computerworld.com/mobiletopics/mobile/wifi/story/0,10801,99123,00.html?SKC=travel-99123

Keep in mind however, as the article points out, coverage will be quite limited. If you like to work a little more remotely or need to do more than just check email from friends and family while near the "hotspots" you'll want another solution.

RMR, I just read the last entry about you using the cellphone data plans as well...sorry, didn't know that before my previous post. Hopefully others found it useful.

Happy surfing while you're camping.

[B_and_D]

Here's the original article from the Ca State Parks Website:

http://www.parks.ca.gov/pages/712/files/011905.pdf

I was very surprised, too.

[RockyMtnRay]

Here's the original article from the Ca State Parks Website:

http://www.parks.ca.gov/pages/712/files/011905.pdf

I was very surprised, too.
There aren't many things I envy about California but this is one of them. There have been occasional mentions of installing WiFi in Colorado State Parks (a primo park system). But so far it's been shot down each time by the "purists" who don't think that such newfangled technology should be allowed in a Park. I swear this crowd would have us all still cooking over campfires that we started by rubbing two sticks together. :rolleyes: But, anyway, now that California has taken the plunge into WiFi for its state parks, maybe there's hope here too.

Am wondering, however, how well the engineering is being done...will there be a satisfactory signal level at all campsites? How much bandwidth is being allotted...will everyone who wants to connect (say in the evening) be able to do so without bringing the response to a crawl?

[RockyMtnRay]

RMR, I just read the last entry about you using the cellphone data plans as well...sorry, didn't know that before my previous post. Hopefully others found it useful.

Technically I haven't been using a "cellphone data plan". Unlike the "G2.5" GSM/GPRS type service, the "G2" CDMA digital service I've had up to now from Verizon provides 14.4 data capability within the voice plan minutes...there's no special "data plan". I can use my regular plan minutes for any combination of voice and data. And it was/is available anywhere that I could get a digital CDMA signal (unlike the basically large-city-only signal areas for GSM/GPRS here in the Rocky Mtn states). And I have used this capability in some incredibly remote locations...even going so far as to spend about $400 for a Smoothtalker (http://www.smoothtalker.com/) amplifier and high-gain antenna system to be able to get a usable digital signal when as far as 60 miles from the closest cellular tower. And I have the Ositech comm "King of Clubs (http://www.ositech.com/Products/koc.htm) modem card that has cellflex technology which will even switch my cellphone into analog data mode at a screaming 4.8K. Yeah, 4800 baud is not very good for browsing :p....but it actually will work for text based email.

In the past couple of years Verizon has been provisioning its system with the "G2.5" version of CDMA...the 1XRT technology which provides roughly 70K speeds...and now has it basically anywhere they provide a digital signal...even way out in the boonies. This one does require some form of "data plan". :( I just got a "1X" capable cellphone and will shortly be ordering an appropriate data plan...given my need to sometimes move a lot of data in/out of my servers I'll probably be needing to spring for something in the 150MB/per month range...which won't be cheap :( :(

Yes, Verizon (and sooner or later Sprint, which also uses CDMA) has rolled out their "broadband...300K" "G3" (1XRT EvDO technology)...but so far its in only 32 metro areas and Denver isn't one of them. Gonna be a long time before this service is available in remote mountain camprgrounds.

So, thanks for the suggestions...Cellphone data will always be my primary on-the-road data means but, when possible, I'd like mobile data comm that's a lot faster and not metered by the Megabyte. Which is why I keep asking about people's actual experiences with WiFi in campgrounds.

[aldebnj]

Hi Ray,

As a Systems Administrator, I have the same needs as you.

Being that I am on the more populated East coast with digital service most anywhere, I am using a Sprint data plan while traveling with speeds in the 200 - 300k range. It has been alright, but I would prefer a Wi-Fi connections. My current Wi-Fi card, a Motorola, does not like any network but its home Motorola router, so, I haven't had any luck when testing Wi-Fi traveling. That router just died this week and now I will be purchasing a new router and card and will begin testing while camping and on business travel. This time I will be going with the LinkSys gear I have been installing for my customers. I'll make a note to share my experiences.

Al

[RockyMtnRay]

Hi Ray,

As a Systems Administrator, I have the same needs as you.

Being that I am on the more populated East coast with digital service most anywhere, I am using a Sprint data plan while traveling with speeds in the 200 - 300k range. It has been alright, but I would prefer a Wi-Fi connections. My current Wi-Fi card, a Motorola, does not like any network but its home Motorola router, so, I haven't had any luck when testing Wi-Fi traveling. That router just died this week and now I will be purchasing a new router and card and will begin testing while camping and on business travel. This time I will be going with the LinkSys gear I have been installing for my customers. I'll make a note to share my experiences.

Al
Cool...a fellow techie who understands the need to stay connected for business reasons while camping! Yeah, my one use of the LinkSys WiFi card to connect to a public network (the one I tried in the motel) was very satisfying. Connecting took only a few seconds with no need to muck with settings.

I envy your widespread high speed cellular digital service but I sure don't envy the congestion/population density that comes with it.

Please do provide as much feedback as you can about how well the WiFi service works in the campgrounds that are offering it...plus any info about what these campgrounds are charging (if anything) per day.

[Denny_A]

used WiFi at both campgrounds and motels. NO CHARGE for the service.

In fact I used motel WiFi twice, during my last fateful trip, traveling too and from Biloxi, MS, then had WiFi at the Cajun RV Resort in Biloxi.

Although we were as far as could be from the Resort office(source), the connection was strong and reliable at all times. Same for the motels.

Here's a fairly complete listing of RV parks which offer WiFi.

http://www.rvtravel.com/wifi.html

The directory includes just shy of 400 RV parks with WiFI, 8 in CO. There's one near you in CO Springs, Actually Manitou Springs, Garden of the Gods(If one were to desire running a test).

HTH,

Denny_A

The original question was about wireless intenet within the confines of a campground/RV Park...interest therein and experiences with that specific form of access. I want to know who's interested in/actually has used wireless internet from within their Trailmanor trailer while it's parked in a campground!

[RockyMtnRay]

used WiFi at both campgrounds and motels. NO CHARGE for the service.

In fact I used motel WiFi twice, during my last fateful trip, traveling too and from Biloxi, MS, then had WiFi at the Cajun RV Resort in Biloxi.

Although we were as far as could be from the Resort office(source), the connection was strong and reliable at all times. Same for the motels.

This is very encouraging...I'm sure dependent on the layout of each park and how well the engineering was done. When it comes to WiFi, a spread out RV park is a much different thing than an office building.


Here's a fairly complete listing of RV parks which offer WiFi.

http://www.rvtravel.com/wifi.html

The directory includes just shy of 400 RV parks with WiFI, 8 in CO. There's one near you in CO Springs, Actually Manitou Springs, Garden of the Gods(If one were to desire running a test).

HTH,

Denny_A
Thanks, Denny. Most helpful list...though seems a bit out of date. I know there are more RV parks in Colorado that have WiFi...suspect a fair number of them are installing this winter for the upcoming season. I recently noticed that 2 RV parks in Estes Park, CO (just outside Rocky Mtn NP) are featuring "wireless internet" in their ads in the 2005 Woodalls or TrailerLife directories. And the owner of a pretty nice KOA in remote northern Colorado told me last summer that KOA was requiring that he have WiFi for this coming summer...and that he hated the idea (too urban for him I guess). These recent WiFi opportunities in areas I often go to are what motivated me to start this thread...and might get me to stay in these RV parks instead of public campgrounds.

[Denny_A]

...................UPDATED: Feb. 1, 2005

Directory of RV Park hotspots


Denny_A

[tritterbrew]

A little WIFI humor - Two years ago my wife and I were camping in SC. I was desperate to get on the Internet to communicate with work so we went into Charleston to find a Starbucks. I asked the kid behind the espresso machine if they had WIFI? His response - "Sorry, this is Charleston, people here think that the Internet is just a fad."

Seriously, WIFI is a necessity for me. So much so that I haul around my Direcway Internet Antenna (didn't have it when we were in SC) so that I can have access anywhere in North America (that has a southern facing view). From the Direcway I connect the Router/802.11G Access Point and I'm ready to roll. In fact, my neighbors in the campground are also ready to roll if I give them the SSID and keys. If anyone is interested in this setup, let me know since I'm happy to provide more info.

Has anyone used Linkspot? Linkspot is a company that has been wiring campgrounds for WIFI. They charge by the hour, day or month. They are mostly installed at the big commercial parks.

Well, that's my .03 on WIFI.

[tucsoncarol]

As you can tell by the wide range of responses, Ray, the trouble is defining the terms. Even some people who use these various devises aren't sure what they are called, and most don't know exactly how they differ from the other stuff out there. Having said that, I AM NOT calling this group dumb. Exactly the opposite. Most of the members of this board are remarkably well informed. What I have found myself (out of simple curiosity since I don't have a computer in the TM, yet) is the surprising array of connectivity in campgrounds where THEY don't know what they have. The point, I guess, is that you'd better look at what they have before you pay to stay. It's a good bet it's not what you want nor what they said. Am I interested in using wireless internet in campgrounds? Heck ya, prob'ly by this time next year. So far though, I'm not encouraged about the availability of wireless in campgrounds.

[B_and_D]

If anyone was interested in my previous post about the California State Parks installing wireless internet, tonight the local news channel ran a story about the new wireless internet at Big Sur (I'm pretty sure it was at the State Park, but they were also talking about people in a hotel there). So I guess it's up and running there. They showed a guy sitting in a kick-back chair, in the river, with his feet in the water using his laptop. I'm kind of surprised that they put wireless internet in there since there aren't any hookups in the campground.

[ddnavar]

Some Campgrounds will give you instructions to set up your pc to make a primary connection to a specific website where you can use your credit card to get a userid and password -- for a day to a year depending on how much you want to pay.
Some Campgrounds will give you a specific userid and password correlating to your camp space.
Some charge -- sometimes it is free.
Suprisingly, I can access the router inside the TM despite the aluminum frame - only once I had to use the picnic table to access the router.
Best thing to do is call the campground you are going to visit..and ask for details....

[Bill]

Having just completed a 7000-mile 6-week trip around the US and Canadian Rockies in our new TM, and then across the country to Maine, perhaps I can give a more useful answer than I did last time.

A year ago, when we did a smaller version of this trip, only about 1 out of 10 commercial campgrounds even mentioned "Internet Connection Available". And when they did, it was always a phone jack in the laundry room.

What a difference a year makes! This year, the campgrounds are falling all over themselves to get and offer free wi-fi at every site. At least 8 out of 10 say "yes, we have it", but the definition of "have it" is a little loose. Most of them don't quite have all of it, but it is pretty close.

Most commonly, it means that they haven't yet erected enough antennas to completely cover the campground. No problem, it just means that you have to go to some specific location, usually a comfortable lounge area near the office, to get wireless access. This was true in the remote mountains of Canada as well as the US.

Another variant of "yes, we have it" was a beautiful campground in Torrey, Utah where there was full accesssibility at every campsite - but back in the office it all funneled into a single dial-up connection. The phone company had missed their date to bring DSL to the campground. Same thing happened in Burlap, Iowa (sorry, I've forgotten the name of the town). DSL was available a half mile away, but was two months overdue in reaching the campround. As you can imagine, the campground owner, having invested in all the infrastructure for his campground, was not happy with Iowa Telephone.

One campground chain, KOA, seems to have made an idiotic corporate decision. They have actually formed a full-time ISP, Kamper-Konnect (kute, huh?), and they want to be your ISP year 'round. And if you sign up for Kamper Konnect, then Internet availability is free at KOA campgrounds. Of course, if they are not your ISP, you pay for Internet access at KOAs. Fortunately, most KOA campground owners are smart enough to ignore the corporate edict, and are putting in their own Internet access. Kamper Konnect will die a well-deserved death within a year.

The whole thing reminds me of the early days of cable TV. Only a few campgrounds had it, and those that did, advertised it heavily. And many of them charged a premium fee to put you in a "cable-equipped" site. It didn't take long for most campgrounds to install a cable TV connection right beside your electrical connection at every site, advertise "free cable TV", and build the fee into the basic site fee.

Wait a year. It will be everywhere. I love it. And sorry, Denny, any list is out of date before it is created. Things are just moving too fast. As was posted above, you need to call the specific campground no more than a couple weeks before you arrive.

Bill

[Denny_A]

Having just completed a 7000-mile 6-week trip around the US and Canadian Rockies in our new TM, and then across the country to Maine, perhaps I can give a more useful answer than I did last time...........snip....

And sorry, Denny, any list is out of date before it is created. Things are just moving too fast. As was posted above, you need to call the specific campground no more than a couple weeks before you arrive.

BillIn the current PC environment, it's no longer fashionable to be judgemental. From now on I propose to cite only lists which are up-to-date 6 months in the future! Absent omniscience - nevermind.

So how'd the new trailer fare during the break-in period? Did you arrive in Maine with a full complement of functioning componnets?:cool: After 7k miles, you certainly should know how much (if any) TM have improved in 2006.

Regards,

Denny_A

[ddnavar]

I am in Aspen-Basalt CO campground that has wifi. They just put in another antenna with a repeater so the back of the campground has good signal. Only Problem I had is with Cisco 350 wifi pcmcia card and their D-Link repeater. Could see the repeater but couldn't ping the router. Still haven't figured out why..."probably win98 instead of xp"

The campground loaned me an external usb d-link card and that works fine. Excellent strength in the TM.
The cost is $25 a month or $1.00 a day.
It is an open architecture with an ssid name.. And you have to give the campground your mac address.

[Bill]

The cost is $25 a month or $1.00 a day.
It is an open architecture with an ssid name.. And you have to give the campground your mac address.Oooh, in my opinion, this approach is too costly (i.e., not free) and too complex. The winners among campgrounds will be those who make access "free" (and of course boost everyone's site fee by a dime to cover the costs).

We did stay at two campgrounds where all the locals had been pulling up in their cars, connecting to the campground's wireless service, and overloading it. Both campgrounds addressed the problem by turning on WEP, and giving the key to everyone who checked in. One of them gave out the passcode (the 10-digit hexadecimal number that grants access), which is easy to plug into Windows' Wireless Manager. The other gave out the passphrase, the English-language password, which gets converted to a passcode. This was not as helpful, since Windows' Wireless Manager can't use the passphrase.

Little technical details like this will get sorted out at each campground in short order. But overall, the situation is really improving rapidly.

Bill

[Bill]

So how'd the new trailer fare during the break-in period? Did you arrive in Maine with a full complement of functioning componnets?:cool: After 7k miles, you certainly should know how much (if any) TM have improved in 2006.

Regards,

Denny_ADenny -

The new camper has 4 or 5 warranty issues, which was disappointing I guess, but I don't expect any problems getting them resolved. Pretty straightforward stuff.

What continues to surprise me is how comfortable and serviceable the TrailManor is for extended trips. I knew we had been out 6 weeks, but I had no idea we had done 7000 miles (7014, to be exact) until I checked the odometer when we arrived here in Maine and did the calculation. A hot shower every day, a comfortable bed, reliable cold food storage, good meals - I'm still as tickled with the whole thing as I was on the first day with my original TM. As one of the other members of this board says, "It really is the greatest thing on wheels!"

Bill