The Internet is important to me and has become a vital part of the way I communicate with family and friends. I used the Internet since the mid 80s and watched the rise of the web with great interest. At one time I directed a web development projects and currently maintain several web sites. I plan to continue this while on the road and to do that I need to maintain an affordable Internet connection.

There are several methods for connecting while on the road, some expensive and some not. Some provide near full time connection at high data rates and some do not. Below is a brief description of each.

At the top of the heap is Datastorm. The datastorm is a satellite based system with high up and down link speeds. It uses a self deploying roof mounted dish and as long as you have a clear view of the Southeastern sky, you can connect. No matter if you are in the middle of the deep north woods or the great southwestern desert you can surf the web. The down side of all this is that the dish with installation is around $5000 and the monthly charges are about $100. There is a cheaper tripod mounted version but aligning to a tiny spot in the sky can be difficult and frustrating unless you are staying parked for a while. Visit http://www.datastormusers.com/ for more information on this great system.

There is another satellite system that uses the phone line for unlink and the dish for down link. It is significantly cheaper but you need that phone line connection.

Stepping down the line is WIFI or a local wide area network. Windows XP provides native support for WIFI and most laptops come with a built in wifi card.There are 3 versions of wifi, 801.1a, 801.1b, and 801.1a. Version a is rarely used as g provides the speed of a and is backwards comparable with b. There are wifi hot spots all over the place, some free and some you have to subscribe to. Camp grounsd are installing wifi as are many libraries. Most Starbucks and Borders Book Stores have wifi as well as Flying J truck stops. The state of Texas is planning on installing wifi in all its rest areas. Rumors are floating around that WalMart is adding wifi. Many individuals have wifi in their home systems. Some cities are planning a city wide wifi.

To make a wifi connection you will need a wifi card. As mentioned most new laptops come with a wifi car. Those internal cards are ok for home use and other places where the wifi router is near by but they do not work as well in marginal situations. External wifi cards with an antenna connection will allow greater chances of connecting. For more information join the Internet by wifi group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/InternetByWiFi.

Sliding down the scale is cell phone connections. Some providers allow only a slow 14.4 kps dial up speed connection but some allow much faster speeds at 144 kbs. The current favorite for cell phone connectivity is Verizon Q2N though others are working to catch up in speed and coverage. Wherever there is a digital signal you can connect directly to the Internet. Connection time counts against your minutes of use but on some Verizon plans have nights and weekends free. For more information join the Internet by wifi group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/InternetByCellPhone.

To use the Verizon system you need a tri mode ( AMPS 800, CDMA 800 and CDMA 1900 as well as CDMA2000 1XRTT) cell phone connected to the computer USB port. Verizon has a "Mobile Office Kit" available for many of its phones. Even if a MOK is not available many suppliers on the Internet provide the necessary cables and the software is available ffom Verizon and the phone manufactures. For marginal areas it helps to have a phone with an external antenna jack. Wilson makes several antennas and other manufacture make higher gain yagi antennas.

I have been a Verizon subscriber since they were called Airtouch and have an older Samsung A310 phone. With luck and searching the Internet I was able to purchase a USB cable that also recharged the phone battery. Samsung had the USB drivers and the application code was available from the above mail list. It took a couple of hours of tinkering around getting the necessary code and installing it and I can now connect at speeds of 144 kps and beyond. An antenna is in the works.

The remaining options are libraries and dial up. Libraries all over the country are providing computers for Internet hook up and few place restrictions on who may use them though they may restrict the amount of time you are allowed to use them and almost all restrict the sites you can visit.Many camp grounds provide phone lines to the sites or data ports in the office for dial up connection.