WI-FI service

hondaking38 · Feb 21, 2006

i just bought a new pc for the road..i signed up for a month of wi-fi service thru flying-j i can be sitting in the same spot and at times the pc will scream thru the programs and at times it laggs, what i dont understand is if these wi-fi antennas are stationary, why isnt the connection speed consistent?? and are there any better carriers out there, thanks for any input you might have..brian

redytrk · Feb 21, 2006

Speed will vary depending on how many are connected at a givin time.
Also trucks moving between you and the FJ antenna can affect speed and connection.

The phone lines that the FJ use are also involved.I understand they use DSL wherever possible. Otherwise its just plain ordinary dialup.

Blacksburg SC is the worst. Connections can only be made while inside.They say regulations in that area restrict the range of theie antenna.

greg334 · Feb 21, 2006

>Blacksburg SC is the worst. Connections can only be made
>while inside.They say regulations in that area restrict the
>range of theie antenna.

I was out in that parking lot and had good signal, but the problem there are the DSL lines going out. I connected, had great ping times to the routers but at times I could not even authenicate my account. Blackburg just plain s**ked.

I noticed that many 'J's have been upgraded, now I can play some of my online games. I was in Wilimington last week and it screamed until 6 PM and everythign was so slow, they were uploading something in the office. that lasted until 6:30 and then everything was fine.

Axis714 · Feb 21, 2006

I have found that I usually have much faster connection rates and more reliable service from Siricom (Pilot). Also dont think that closer to the building means closer to the transmitter, some lots have antennas located near the back.

aquawarrior7 · Feb 23, 2006

We have the same problems. Another issue we have had of late is the signal on channel 6 is say 50% and on 1 it is 75% but the darn thing switches back to 6 instead of staying on the one I choose. Logs me off my game and says cannot connect to internet. Then i put it back on the channel that works and theat stays for a while.
By the way what online games do you play?

rode2rouen · Feb 23, 2006

After about a year of using truck stop (or nearby motel) WiFi, I bought a Verizon Air Card a few weeks ago.

As my runs take me to lots of places where there aren't even truck stops let alone WiFi, I've been quite happy with it. Speed is on a par with my DSL at home when it's cookin' and even when it's slow it's faster and more consistant than a lot of the truck stops.

At $59.95 per month, it's pricier than WiFi, but if you're in Washington,IN or Wheatland,WY or Marshall,TX or Rockland,ME you can get on the Web with no muss/no fuss.

Rex

tec1959 · Feb 23, 2006

Rex hi i was wondering with that verizon air card will it work at someones home if they live in a large city,Or just certain places like businesses.I have dsl at home but when i travel i maybe be able to use verizon and do away with my home service...Would that be possible????

ATeam · Feb 24, 2006

The Verizon air card will work anywhere Verizon has digital coverage including a house, hotel, office building, truck stop parking lot, a beach, in a small Texas town 200 miles from the nearest large city, in the woods, and even driving down a highway. We have used it in all of the above locations.

It's nice to be able to settle into the sleeper and surf the web and check e-mail as your codriver drives. In some states, we can go nearly border to border without losing the signal. Though, in others, coverage is sporadic and limited to population centers.

The air card is worth the price, in our opinion. Our signal strength and range noticably improved when we added a Wilson cell phone amplifier system to the truck.

klippencott · Feb 24, 2006

Did you know most air cards can be adapted to use an external wilson antenna? It helps my reception a bunch.

Tennesseahawk · Feb 24, 2006

How is verizon's reception? I've heard it was off and on in most of the country.

I've had a sprint card for almost a year, and I have to say it's a great investment. Especially when I was able to renew my contract when they had the big promotion a month ago. $60/month with no limit. This last three weeks out, we've had no problems getting connections where we were at, and many places where we got EVDO connection. It's not as fast as Flying-J wifi at its best, but it does what we need it to do. I'm thinking about cancelling my wifi with J, but I'll give it another month or so.

Klip... what is a wilson antenna? I've never heard of them.

rode2rouen · Feb 24, 2006

>Rex hi i was wondering with that verizon air card will it
>work at someones home if they live in a large city,Or just
>certain places like businesses.I have dsl at home but when i
>travel i maybe be able to use verizon and do away with my
>home service...Would that be possible????

The Verizon Air Card is essentially a wireless connection to Verizon's data network...it will allow you to access the web where ever they have data coverage. There are places where they don't have coverage, but I haven't found any yet. Go to: www.verizonwireless.com and click on the BUSINESS tab and then click on VZ Access for more info.

I have DSL at home as well as a wireless LAN. I use the LAN for my GoKart laptop to transfer data acquisition info from the laptop to my PC, as well as info from my truck laptop to my PC. The Verizon card will not communicate with the LAN, I use a regular WiFi card for that.

Rex

TeamDrivers2 · Feb 24, 2006

>How is verizon's reception? I've heard it was off and on in
>most of the country.

Verizon:
For me, i've found it's extremly reliable near and surrounding dense populated areas. Outside those areas it's deffinatly hit and miss. I'd say east of the Mississippi you'll connect 75% of the time. Don't buy the units without antennas. I just upgraded from the cheapo 5740 and got the new Kyocera KPC650. Its got a hinged antenna and seems to be fairly tough.---- as in, it ain't snapped off yet.
Service plan is Unlimited @ $59.00 a month.

But, compared to the horrible experiences i've encountered with, Pilot - TA - Fly J ....NO WAY !!! Sketchy at best. You're 50/50 keeping a connection at just about all of um. Simply horrible !!

When ever I can, I always park near the hotel clusters off major exits. Its like an all-u-can eat smogasborg of freebie wireless. Best part is that most of um offer 1 to 2+ Mbit speeds. Many times i've had a choice of 3-6 different signals i coulda used. My intergrated wireless handles that nicely.

TIP: if your laptop uses Intel wireless , then go to Intels site and download the newer PROSet/Wireless Drivers. Version 10.1.0.3
No matter what brand of laptop ya got....if the wireless is Intel ? , these drivers will work

TeamDrivers2 · Feb 24, 2006

>Klip... what is a wilson antenna? I've never heard of them.

Wilson Dual Band In Vehicle Cellular Amplifier / Repeater
For Cars, Trucks and RV's

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The Wilson Dual Band Wireless Mobile Amplifier features the benefit of an external antenna and 3 watt amplifier without a physical connection to your phone. It even allows multiple phones to be used simultaneously.

The signal is received by the outside antenna from the cell site. It is then amplified and repeated to your cell phone from the inside antenna. When the phone transmits, the signal is received by the inside antenna, amplified, then repeated to the cell site via the outside antenna.

Requires No Physical Connection to Your Cell Phone
Passes TIA/EIA-98 Transmit Tests for Evaluating CDMA Cellular Phones
Power Control Logic Ensures Maximum Output Power is within Cellular Standards
Allows Multiple Phones to be Used Simultaneously
Maximum 3 Watts Output Power (cell site controlled)
Designed for All Cellular Systems Including AMPS, CDMA, EDGE, GPRS, GSM, TDMA and 1x Technologies
LED- Power & Overload Shutdown/Oscillation
Overload Protection Circuit - Protects Cell System from Overload
Automatic Reset - If overload occurs
FCC Thype Accepted
Out Performs Other Units

Tests show Wilson Cellular's Dual Band Wireless Mobile Amplifier outperforms Digital AntennaÂ® and RF Engineered SolutionsÂ® (RES).
More Test Information (Document Opens pdf File in Another Browser Window)

Parts Included:

Dual Band Vehicle Bi-Directional Amplifier
Low Profile INside Antenna (Wilson Stealth Antenna)
12v DC Power Adapter Cigarette Lighter Plug
Additional Antenna Requirements (Important)
The Wilson In Vehicle Amplifier comes with a Wilson Stealth antenna for inside your vehicle. Another antenna for outside the vehicle is required and not included.

IMPORTANT: For external antenna use a magnetic mount, pole mount or hole mount antenna. Do not use a glass mount antenna. The Wilson Trucker Antenna, Wilson Dual Band magnetic mount are recommended for outside use. More About Wilson Antennas.

klippencott · Feb 24, 2006

>Klip... what is a wilson antenna? I've never heard of them.

TeamDrivers2 already explained a little about Wilson but they also make just the antennas for around 50 bucks.

Smoothtalker.com also makes antennas and boosters that can be adapted to most air cards.

I use a Smoothtalker booster on my cell phone. It gives me coverage up to 60 miles from a tower. Sure is nice out in the middle of nowhere to plug the booster in and all the bars come up on the cell phone screen. There a little expensive but one emergency could justify the cost of $350.

ATeam · Feb 24, 2006

>>How is verizon's reception? I've heard it was off and on in
>>most of the country.

At this moment, we are westbound on IL I-80 at mile post 45. Nothing but fields in sight. Next large community is Davenport/quad cities. The I-80/I-39 interchange is about 30 miles behind us. Pretty remote area here but I'm accessing web just fine while rolling down the road.

This is ATeam reporting live from rural Illinois. Back to you EO.

MR.SNAPPY · Feb 25, 2006

I also just bought the verizon wifi card and I love it.works very well in most locations but I do have one question,when iam sitting at the flying J it keeps switching to the flying J wifi which iam not a member.I have to log off and log back on to the verizon national access is this a setting I need to change or something I just have to live with,thanks for any help with this.

klippencott · Feb 25, 2006

MRSNAPPY
Assuming you have Windows XP. When the Flying J connection is active you should have a small picture of a computer on the lower right corner of the screen. Place your mouse pointer on it and click. A "Wireless Network Connection" screen should pop up. Click on the button that says "View Wireless Networks". On the next screen click one time on the Flying J connection to highlight it then click "Disconnect" on the lower right side of the screen. Follow the instructions that come up.

MR.SNAPPY · Feb 26, 2006

KATHY,thanks for your help.I tried what you said and seems to have fixed my problem.I called verizon tech a couple of weeks ago and explained the problem to them I talked to someone named Akeam Abdul Mohammad not only could I not understand him but he was no help at all.people like you is what makes this such a great site .thanks again and may all your travels be safe,MR.SNAPPY

vipra · Feb 26, 2006

Here's a cheaper and better way to get the Internet anywhere in the country for $15/month if you have Sprint, Verizon, AT&T or T-Mobile. Go to Radio Shack and get a software program on CD called FutureDial SnapDialer for $40. Also get the $20 cable that connects your cell phone to the USB port of your laptop or computer. Just install the program and connect your cell and laptop with the cable. If you have Sprint you need their Vision plan for the Internet, which is $15/month. I don't know what the 3 other companies Internet plans are called. This way you can get the Internet anywhere you get your phone company's signal so you don't have to be at a truckstop.
There are some disadvantages:
--It doesn't work when you're roaming- you have to be getting your phone company's direct signal, but that's rarely a problem for me since Sprint covers just about the whole country now.
---The connection speed is slow, compared to the very fast Wi-Fi.
---If someone calls you when you're on the Internet your phone may ring so you can talk, but sometimes your phone won't ring and the call will go straight to your voicemail, so you have to check your phone's screen occasionally to see if you have a voicemail message.
Some of the other people who replied talked about using a card from Sprint or Verizon and paying $60 to $100/month. That's much more expensive, obviously, but it gets the fast connection speed, if that's important to you. I prefer the cheap price and slow speed, the only thing I don't like is that you can't download movies at the slow speed.
Info about SnapDialer here: http://www.futuredial.com/Products/snapdialer/P_SD.aspx
You can order SnapDialer on that website for $30 and the cable also if you don't want to go to Radio Shack.

Vipra

klippencott · Feb 26, 2006

Vipra,
I tried the cell phone, cable and software method and found it painfully slow. Maybe cause I have several years of hard core computer programming experience, I guess I just expect more. The method also eats up your cell phone minutes, which if you have free nights and weekends or unlimited air time would not matter. I selected a cheap prepaid, nationwide cell phone plan, since I seldom use my cell phone and spent the $60 a month on an air-card with Cingular that I can keep connected to the internet as I travel down the highway. I guess it is a trade off as to what is more important to you. With the air-card and Yahoo or Google mail instant messenger I can talk to my family and friends via the internet connection and it is usually a better voice quality than the cell phone.

My communication bill stacks up like this:

$20 added to my prepaid phone every three months, more if I use it alot which usually I don't. I like the security of the cell in case I'm out in the middle of nowhere and have a breakdown. As I mentioned earlier I have a booster on the cell.

$60 a month plus all the taxes and other junk fees Cingular can find to stick on my internet bill.

I'm happy with it.

I still do alot of programming while I'm waiting for a load, waiting for my log book to catch up or taking my required HOS time off. When it comes time to send all that programming back to a server I need the speed of the air card.