Internet connections from my motorhome

I read in the RV forums that people are connecting to the internet
from their RV's.

I have an old Gateway laptop with a Pentium II in it. It is runnig
Windows 98SE. It has a Linksys model WPC11 notebook adapter that works
fine around the house. It goes to a Linksys router to a DSL modem.

They say I can pull into a Residence in parking lot and surf the Web.

Does anyone know how I could do this?

Bill L

Bill Lederer wrote:
> I read in the RV forums that people are connecting to the internet
> from their RV's.
>
> I have an old Gateway laptop with a Pentium II in it. It is runnig
> Windows 98SE. It has a Linksys model WPC11 notebook adapter that works
> fine around the house. It goes to a Linksys router to a DSL modem.
>
> They say I can pull into a Residence in parking lot and surf the Web.
>
> Does anyone know how I could do this?
>
> Bill L
If someone has not secured their wireless network, then yes, you are
capable of surfing the web at their expense. To many, this is a moral
issue so get permission first. Besides, there are a lot of dummy
networks setup simply for logging purposes. If they have logging
features similar to that of the Netgear WGR614, then they know the IP
address, the websites visited, the times and even the IP address of the
advertisements in the sites they've visited. Be careful.

Doug,

Thank you for the reply.

So, the answer is YES. With the setup I described All I have to do is
turn on the laptop and good o'l Yahoo will pop up on the screen.

How cool is that!

Bill L

On Thu, 06 Jan 2005 20:43:39 GMT, Doug Jamal <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>Bill Lederer wrote:
>> I read in the RV forums that people are connecting to the internet
>> from their RV's.
>>
>> I have an old Gateway laptop with a Pentium II in it. It is runnig
>> Windows 98SE. It has a Linksys model WPC11 notebook adapter that works
>> fine around the house. It goes to a Linksys router to a DSL modem.
>>
>> They say I can pull into a Residence in parking lot and surf the Web.
>>
>> Does anyone know how I could do this?
>>
>> Bill L
>If someone has not secured their wireless network, then yes, you are
>capable of surfing the web at their expense. To many, this is a moral
>issue so get permission first. Besides, there are a lot of dummy
>networks setup simply for logging purposes. If they have logging
>features similar to that of the Netgear WGR614, then they know the IP
>address, the websites visited, the times and even the IP address of the
>advertisements in the sites they've visited. Be careful.

Bill Lederer <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> I read in the RV forums that people are connecting to the internet
> from their RV's.

> I have an old Gateway laptop with a Pentium II in it. It is runnig
> Windows 98SE. It has a Linksys model WPC11 notebook adapter that works
> fine around the house. It goes to a Linksys router to a DSL modem.

> They say I can pull into a Residence in parking lot and surf the Web.

> Does anyone know how I could do this?

Essentially the same way you do at home.

Take a test run around your home town. Try a Starbucks coffee shop parking
lot. Some of them have "T-Mobile Hot Spot" signs in the window. Your
wireless shoud indicate that it has a connection. Try to open Internet
Explorer to your normal home page. It should bring up a login window to
the T-Mobile network, which is a paid network, but that will show that you
can connect to the Wireless network there.

If Residence Inn offers free access to their guests, there may or may not
be some registration required. There is also a question of whether they
care about you accessing the network from their parking lot without being a
paying guest.
http://marriotthsia.netlinkrg.com/De...VCEC=InProcess
doesn't say that it is wireless. I saved a bookmark to the provider of
wireless access in the Denver Marriott.
http://www.suitespeed.com/Site.asp?id=110

http://www.koa.com/hotspotzz/index.htm shows wireless KOA sites, powered by
http://www.hotspotzz.com/ which is a subscription service that has
locations at KOA and some trendy coffee shops.

http://www.wi-fihotspotlist.com/search.html might be helpful, but it isn't
clear which locations cost money and which are free.

http://intel.jiwire.com/ lets you search by zip code, and show only free,
only paid, or both.

--
---
Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley (Lake County) CA USA 38.8-122.5

Bill Lederer <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> So, the answer is YES. With the setup I described All I have to do is
> turn on the laptop and good o'l Yahoo will pop up on the screen.

> How cool is that!

Very cool.
The problem is finding a hot spot that you can/should connect to.
They are prevalent, but not pervasive.

---
Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley (Lake County) CA USA 38.8-122.5

More hotel chains are offering free wireless internet access in the lobby
areas. Sheraton (Starwood) is one chain that does it. I don't know about
Residence Inn. So I guess you could get lucky in the parking lot at ground
level, but I'll bet by not being physically in the lobby you'll get bleed
over from the in-room pay wireless service on the floors above, meaning you
could get the free login screen or be forced to the pay login screen.
Typically $9.95 a day or something like that.

If you want more of a sure thing get Verizon's BroadBand Access service and
the PC5220 AirCard for your laptop. Service is $79/mo unlimited. Speeds
vary depending on location in the U.S. Out in the boonies you'll only get
40Kb - 100Kb but it's better than nothing.

-- Paul


"Bill Lederer" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>I read in the RV forums that people are connecting to the internet
> from their RV's.
>
> I have an old Gateway laptop with a Pentium II in it. It is runnig
> Windows 98SE. It has a Linksys model WPC11 notebook adapter that works
> fine around the house. It goes to a Linksys router to a DSL modem.
>
> They say I can pull into a Residence in parking lot and surf the Web.
>
> Does anyone know how I could do this?
>
> Bill L

Many chains now offer free high speed internet. A couple of weeks ago I
stayed in Hampton Inns on 2 consecutive nights.
First night there was an Ethernet Cable that I plugged in and was instantly
connected after punching in the password given me by the front desk.
The next night was similar only this time it was wireless. Also needed a
password given to me by the front desk. I have a wireless card in my
computer. I think they might lend you one if you don't have your own.

"Paul" <paule-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> More hotel chains are offering free wireless internet access in the lobby
> areas. Sheraton (Starwood) is one chain that does it. I don't know
> about Residence Inn. So I guess you could get lucky in the parking lot
> at ground level, but I'll bet by not being physically in the lobby you'll
> get bleed over from the in-room pay wireless service on the floors above,
> meaning you could get the free login screen or be forced to the pay login
> screen. Typically $9.95 a day or something like that.
>
> If you want more of a sure thing get Verizon's BroadBand Access service
> and the PC5220 AirCard for your laptop. Service is $79/mo unlimited.
> Speeds vary depending on location in the U.S. Out in the boonies you'll
> only get 40Kb - 100Kb but it's better than nothing.
>
> -- Paul
>
>
> "Bill Lederer" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>>I read in the RV forums that people are connecting to the internet
>> from their RV's.
>>
>> I have an old Gateway laptop with a Pentium II in it. It is runnig
>> Windows 98SE. It has a Linksys model WPC11 notebook adapter that works
>> fine around the house. It goes to a Linksys router to a DSL modem.
>>
>> They say I can pull into a Residence in parking lot and surf the Web.
>>
>> Does anyone know how I could do this?
>>
>> Bill L
>
>

It looks like the Verizon BroadBand thing would be the best. I do have
Verizon DSL, at home now.

It's too bad I can't use that Net Stumbler software. It doesn't
support Windows 98SE. Do you know of any others?

Also, I see thay sell some sort of hand-held thing to find signals.

Bill L

On Thu, 6 Jan 2005 19:50:50 -0500, "Paul"
<paule-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>More hotel chains are offering free wireless internet access in the lobby
>areas. Sheraton (Starwood) is one chain that does it. I don't know about
>Residence Inn. So I guess you could get lucky in the parking lot at ground
>level, but I'll bet by not being physically in the lobby you'll get bleed
>over from the in-room pay wireless service on the floors above, meaning you
>could get the free login screen or be forced to the pay login screen.
>Typically $9.95 a day or something like that.
>
>If you want more of a sure thing get Verizon's BroadBand Access service and
>the PC5220 AirCard for your laptop. Service is $79/mo unlimited. Speeds
>vary depending on location in the U.S. Out in the boonies you'll only get
>40Kb - 100Kb but it's better than nothing.
>
>-- Paul
>
>
>"Bill Lederer" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>news:(E-Mail Removed).. .
>>I read in the RV forums that people are connecting to the internet
>> from their RV's.
>>
>> I have an old Gateway laptop with a Pentium II in it. It is runnig
>> Windows 98SE. It has a Linksys model WPC11 notebook adapter that works
>> fine around the house. It goes to a Linksys router to a DSL modem.
>>
>> They say I can pull into a Residence in parking lot and surf the Web.
>>
>> Does anyone know how I could do this?
>>
>> Bill L
>

About Netstumbler.. It is a really bad piece of software, but has one
benefit.. it's FREE. There are a multitude out there that work very very
well, but cost about $20.

Personally, I use Both Winc (on my laptop) and PocketWinc (on my PDA - an Hp
iPAQ with built in Wi-Fi).. at http://www.cirond.com/products.php , Just
$19.95, and actually lets you connect your browser to open nodes it finds
(rather than just tell you about em like Netstumbler does) (download and try
it free for 30 days.. see what you think)

While the Verizon Broadband thing is neat, it only works in limited areas,
and drops back to NationalAccess speeds in areas that aren't EVDO yet.
Unforunately, those areas are usually not outside cities (where most RV
parks/places are) (Broadband (requires a Datacard, not a phone, seperate
contract about $79 a month) and is about 400-500kb, and NationalAccess (can
use a phone OR a datacard) is about 70-90kb connects).

One bad part of WiFi, the further away from the AP you are, the slower the
connects are. When driving around in the RV, it's hard to get close enuf to
the AP to get those high speeds.

While I have a WiFi card, I also have a cell-phone/with tether to my laptop,
and use the "minutes of use option" to do voice and data combined for about
$40 a month. That way, it's the best of both. I can use WiFi if I find it,
but can use the cell if I can't. (did I mention if you have free nights and
weekends, you can connect for free between 9:01 pm and 6am and all weekend?)


Bill Lederer wrote:
> It looks like the Verizon BroadBand thing would be the best. I do have
> Verizon DSL, at home now.
>
> It's too bad I can't use that Net Stumbler software. It doesn't
> support Windows 98SE. Do you know of any others?
>
> Also, I see thay sell some sort of hand-held thing to find signals.
>
> Bill L
>
> On Thu, 6 Jan 2005 19:50:50 -0500, "Paul"
> <paule-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>> More hotel chains are offering free wireless internet access in the
>> lobby areas. Sheraton (Starwood) is one chain that does it. I
>> don't know about Residence Inn. So I guess you could get lucky in
>> the parking lot at ground level, but I'll bet by not being
>> physically in the lobby you'll get bleed over from the in-room pay
>> wireless service on the floors above, meaning you could get the free
>> login screen or be forced to the pay login screen. Typically $9.95 a
>> day or something like that.
>>
>> If you want more of a sure thing get Verizon's BroadBand Access
>> service and the PC5220 AirCard for your laptop. Service is $79/mo
>> unlimited. Speeds vary depending on location in the U.S. Out in
>> the boonies you'll only get 40Kb - 100Kb but it's better than
>> nothing.
>>
>> -- Paul
>>
>>
>> "Bill Lederer" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>>> I read in the RV forums that people are connecting to the internet
>>> from their RV's.
>>>
>>> I have an old Gateway laptop with a Pentium II in it. It is runnig
>>> Windows 98SE. It has a Linksys model WPC11 notebook adapter that
>>> works fine around the house. It goes to a Linksys router to a DSL
>>> modem.
>>>
>>> They say I can pull into a Residence in parking lot and surf the
>>> Web.
>>>
>>> Does anyone know how I could do this?
>>>
>>> Bill L

Alan White <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> Many chains now offer free high speed internet. A couple of weeks ago I
> stayed in Hampton Inns on 2 consecutive nights.
> First night there was an Ethernet Cable that I plugged in and was instantly
> connected after punching in the password given me by the front desk.
> The next night was similar only this time it was wireless. Also needed a
> password given to me by the front desk. I have a wireless card in my
> computer. I think they might lend you one if you don't have your own.

http://www.stayonline.net has a login screen in their client hotels where
you can elect to subscribe, or chose a two week free trial. That might be
to avoid long term neighborhood users, or might not actually end after two
weeks. The signal was very strong in the parking lot at the hotel I
visited. The card in the room suggested that you needed a wireless adapter
that they provided for $6.95 per stay, but my wirless card worked just fine.

If there were free WAPs in the lobby, and pay WAPs in the room, as another
poster mentioned, I wonder if it would be possible to choose between them
via Windows or a utility. From the lobby, it must be possible to select
the free one.

---
Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley (Lake County) CA USA 38.8-122.5