..............................................................

Internet Online LapTop Warrior Discussion List
I - L-A-P-T-O-P W-A-R-R-I-O-R D-I-G-E-S-T

..................................................................
..................................................................
July 29, 1998 Issue # 021
..................................................................


.....IN THIS DIGEST.....


// -- SPECIAL FEATURE -- //

Mobile Computing for RV Travelers
~ Mel Chaney


============ Sponsor's Message ============

Laptop Travel

Shop our Web site for the best prices on a complete range of electric and telephone adapter kits, covering nearly 250 countries worldwide. Laptop Travel also sells the many other laptop accessories you'll need to stay online anywhere in the world.

Compare our prices! Also ask about our corporate and reseller programs.

For online ordering, visit us at:
http://www.laptoptravel.com
Or Email us at mailto:laptoptravel@msn.com
1-888-LAP-TRAV (888-527-8728)

========= Please Support Our Sponsor =========



// -- MODERATOR COMMENT -- //

Mel Chaney has written the following article about computing for permanently mobile travelers who make their way about in Recreational Vehicles (RVs). Mel has granted permission for I-Laptop Warrior to distribute copies of the article.

I know there are more than a few RV travelers on the list and I know you'll find this article useful. The rest of us will also find something of use in the piece, I'm sure.

This article is also posted on Mel's web site at:

http://www.concentric.net/~Lmchaney

together with other useful information for RVers. I'd recommend a visit to learn more about this end of portable computing. You can reach Mel at mailto:lmchaney@concentric.net



// -- SPECIAL I-LAPTOP FEATURE -- //


RV Computing and Communications

By: Mel Chaney (July 17, 1998)

Computing in an RV is little different than in the typical stereotype home, other than significant space limitations. We simply don't have the choice of taking over a spare bedroom or den and setting up a full sized office atmosphere. Still, we expect to perform the same functions. With some constraints, this expectation is reasonable and easily accomplished. Most of us need a good word processor, spreadsheet, presentation generator and maybe even a data base program. Travel guides, recipe storage, publication helpers, map and global positioning systems (GPS), online banking or investment monitoring programs and even a game or two are just a few of the many programs a typical computer friendly RVer may use. Other than online banking and investment monitoring programs, these are stand alone programs where inputs and ouputs need not enter or exit our RV homes.

RVers from all walks of life, whether on an extended vacation or travelling full time, usually want to maintain contact with family, friends and financial institutions. For the typical RVer, reliable postal mail is a one way street. It simply takes too long for turn around response time. Anyway, our somewhat nomadic lifestyle doesn't fit in with a mailbox in front of the RV. This is where a PC really shines for the mobile traveler. While we often deploy our personal computers for many other useful functions, communications in the modern world involves the use of a computer and a means to connect it to a communications network, which, for all practical purposes involves a telephone system. Certainly, there are other communications methods such as citizens band (CB) radio, HAM radio networks and even satellite communications, but those are simply not feasible or cost effective for private computer communications. Telephones remain supreme in providing the best means of communicating with family and friends, and conducting business in a timely manner. However, RVs simply don't come with a telephone line connected to a local telephone company. Herein is one of the two challenges to any RVer wishing to run more than stand alone or strictly local programs. How to effectively and efficiently connect the computer to a telephone system. The second challenge is equally demanding, how to fit it all into the limited space.

Most of us have read articles about computer friendly parks or resorts, the definition of which seems to differ with each park and author. For most parks, it's allowing a few minutes to connect a PC to one of the campground office extensions and sending/receiving Email. To others it's having campsites wired for telephone and allowing you to enter into a long term contract with the local telephone company. This means installation fees, deposits and typical monthly charges. Most of us are moving our home around too often to consider this a serious alternative, although this arrangement suits many RVers just fine. Very few parks have a separate room or space for one to connect a PC and dial a local or 800 number. We have read about a few campgrounds having sites pre wired to telephone systems. You pay a little extra for the service and calls can only be made to local or 800 type numbers. The later would go a long way in solving all our problems, but those campgrounds are far and few between. In over 4 years of RVing, we have never experienced one. Until that becomes as normal as an electric or water connection, we will have to find other means to accomplish our telephone connectivity. Someday, somewhere it will get better but this is the somber reality of the current situation.

All is not lost, but we will need to take the computer to the telephone system rather than the other way around, which implies the need for a portable computer with a modem installed. Not to imply that a fixed desktop or tower computer system is out of the question, they simply need to be augmented with a minimal cost, portable computer to connect with the outside World. Some, like us, decided on a totally portable system, minimizing space requirements, sacrificing ability to significantly upgrade, and spending more per computing power. Other RVers, needing full, current industry available computing power, have installed powerful, modifiable tower PC systems and sacrificed RV space and portability. There is no right or wrong way to implement your PC system. Both portable and fixed PCs have their good and bad attributes. Permanent, fixed computer installation planning exceeds the scope of this article. However, unless you are truly gifted in designing and constructing efficient, compact computer system work stations in a quality motorhome, I would highly recommend consulting your RV manufactuer and their experts or your dealer before getting out the saw, hammer and nails, or drill, screws and screwdriver, as the case may be.

Unless you are staying in federal, state, county or municipal park systems, many park owners or administrators will allow you to connect a portable computer to a telephone line in the office. Those tax payer supported park systems will almost never allow you to use their telephone for anything. Private and commercial parks are quickly becoming familiar with requests for short term connections, i.e., Email or online banking. They don't expect us to monopolize their office for a lengthy period of time, surfing the Internet. Neither do they expect to sustain a long distance charge for our phone call.

When we first started out, we had a scripted telephone-line-begging-routine we carefully carried out while checking in at a new campground office. This worked for awhile, but as parks learned of the need for many RVers to connect their laptop PCs, they formed policies to follow and are unlikely to deviate from it. Now, we simply ask if they know somewhere we can connect to dial a local or 800 number to send and receive some quick Email. We take pains to emphasize we will only need the telephone line for a few minutes. If their policy is to allow short term connectivity to a local or 800 number, they will smile and tell us immediately. They will also probably let us know when is the best time to do it. This up front question potentially avoids the attendant's anxiety of having to explain the park's negative policy, if that's the case. It also gives them the opportunity to let us know where else we might gain telephone connectivity. Most private or commercial parks have this worked out thoroughly and will either let you connect or tell you where you can, solving the problem right then and there. When they refer you elsewhere, it has usually been coordinated in advance. Sometimes it's to a local Kinkos, Office Max, coffee shop, CafŽ or Restaurant, a Pack and Send, library or truck stop, all good candidates. These off campground businesses often charge the price of sending a FAX for their trouble, a fair price for what we get in return, since we're usually sending and receiving a week's E-mail.

Selecting a versatile Internet Service Provider (ISP) is extremely important. While moving from state to state or even from city to city you will need to connect to their services. Those ISP's that have available numbers covering the most cities are also the biggest, such as America on Line (AOL) or Microsoft Network (MSN). Unfortunately, these ISP's also send a lot of unrequested Email advertisements called spam, a real problem for the RVer. Many computing RVers, including us, have switched to an ISP named Concentric.net after having tried both AOL and MSN. Concentric.net does very little spamming and offers services ranging from $7.95 to $19.95 a month. They cover a significant quantity of cities with their access telephone numbers, although it's nowhere near that of the big ISP's. They also offer an 800 number for 8.3 cents a minute, which negates the need to configure different telephone numbers into your dialer software every time you move the RV. Neither do you have to configure the PC dialer to use a long distance calling card 800 number or pay those charges.

If your ISP doesn't have an 800 number you will need to get a long distance calling card, which we recommend for normal calling anyway, and configure your PC dialer to use it. You will also still need to enter in the closest city telephone access number to minimize long distance charges. It's absolutely necessary for your PC to dial an 800 number, even if it's your long distance calling card number. First, you don't want long distance charges incurred by an RV park or benefactor allowing you use of the phone; the fastest and most common way to develop a non modem friendly park or benefactor. No one, computing on the road, wants this to happen. Second, many of the phone lines you will be connecting to only accept local or 800 numbers. We periodically log onto our ISP in a browser mode and print off all their telephone numbers and the cities they serve. Sometimes, the only way we can do that is to go to a library, log on to concentric.net and save it to a diskette. Thus, when we arrive in a new area we know if there is a local number and configure it into our dialer while we are in that area. If we don't have the different city numbers recorded in the RV, we couldn't dial them to get the local numbers, (catch 22). Otherwise, we configure the dialer for either our ISP's or long distance calling card's 800 number. Our on line banking service comes with it's own 800 number as should all such accounts.

Please note I've not mentioned: browsing the net, chat room use, audio and/or visual two way conferencing. For all practical purposes, one needs a full time telephone connection for those. This does not exist on a mobile RV. Their functions require lengthy time on line and coordination for all parties to be logged on at the same time. That's a difficult thing to arrange and accomplish without a dedicated phone line. Besides, if you need to speak to someone, the common campground payphone works quite well and you don't have to lug around a PC either. We use pre-paid calling cards, or our long distance calling card, so we don't need to carry change either. We find Wal-Mart or Sam's sell them for a reasonable cost.

So what does one do when there's simply no possible connection to a real phone line? We have two possible solutions on board, the first of which is a cellular phone with a cellular enabled modem, and a special, proprietary interconnecting cable between them. As a previous, professional Telecommunications Engineer, I have never seen or heard of a standard modem, for use with a tower or desktop PC, that has cellular phone enabled features. There simply isn't enough market for a manufacturer to consider building one. Conversely, portable PCs are ported around and they are often deployed in cars or trucks with cellular phones. Since cellular phones and laptop computers are both portable technology solutions, the marriage came together and cellular enabled modems are available for portable computers. They come in the form of a credit card sized, slide in board called PCMCIA technology. U.S. Robotics made some of the best PCMCIA modems. They recently merged with 3COM, Inc. and are still available.

Cellular enabled modems have two connectors, one for connecting to a standard telephone line and the other for cellular phone connection. Since modem manufacturers use unique cellular plugs and cellular modem manufacturers also have unique plugs for data connection to the PC modem, a special cable built by the modem manufacturer is needed to connect them together. By logging onto the 3com.com Internet server you can look up a table of cellular modems, the cellular phones they are compatible with and the special cable part number needed. Cellular modems are mostly compatible with either late model Motorola or Nokia cellular phones. If you plan on purchasing a laptop PCMCIA modem and wish to use it with a cellular phone, make absolutely certain the modem is cellular enabled.

After purchasing both modem and cellular phone, configure your dialer software from the instructions listed in the manuals. There are too many possible combinations to address here, but configuring the dialer from the individual manuals is not very complex. You can expect to obtain modem speeds ranging between 2400 to 4800 BPS. That's not very fast and some of the speed per second is used for retransmitting or receiving data that was sent or received with errors. Cellular data Email can get very expensive if abused. You will sustain roaming, long distance and air time charges. This is why we recommend getting an ISP that doesn't spam. There's little more frustrating than having your PC notify you there are 10 messages to receive and the second one takes 30 minutes to load down because of unwanted, junk, spam Email which may even include some large graphics files. I'll provide some hints how to stop those later.

The second tool in our communications tool box is called an acoustic coupler. It's a device, having two suction cups that fit over and stick to the send and receive elements of a payphone handset. In turn, it connects directly to the PC modem by a short telephone line. It converts the sound in the handset element to electrical pulses the modem can understand as well as converting the normal electrical transmission of the modem to sound in the send element of the handset. With this type of telephone connection, it's necessary to check off the place in your dialer that allows for Operator assisted dialing, which will be you. This is the real trick to getting acoustic couplers working, regardless of what the manual says. As soon as your PC attempts to dial the ISP number, it will stop and notify you to dial the number. It also instructs you that when you hear the two modems trying to communicate (a buzzing noise) to press enter. Depress the now empty on hook lever on the payphone (the handset is occupied by the acoustic coupler) and let it back up until you hear dial tone from the PC. Then either dial your local ISP's number, your ISP's 800 number or go through the long distance calling card sequence to your ISP's area code and number until you hear the modems trying to communicate. When you hear that immediately press enter on the PC. If you are fortunate enough to be dialing a local or 800 number preset the dialer at 2400 BPS. You will manage to have the PC modem and the ISP modem connect at that speed about a fourth of the time. 1200 BPS is more normal.

If you're going to be paying for the phone call no matter what happens, preselect 1200 BPS in the dialer. The odds are in your financial favor that 2400 BPS won't work but 1200 BPS will. However, if the call's free, it's worth the chance of doubling the speed. Now, this is really slow communications speed but most often it costs you nothing but the trouble of going through it. Sometimes it is the only way we can send or receive our Email, Cellular is not available everywhere we want to be. We're not going to stay away from a great, isolated place just because a real telephone line or cellular service isn't available.

We take it one step further using a small, portable Radio Shack amplifier with a suction cup device that sticks onto the handset at the back side of the receiver (top) element. It makes hearing what's going on between the computer, modem, telephone system and distant modem at the ISP very clear and easy. It has a second use. There's more to communications than computers. When we're calling family and friends, one of us can talk and hear what's going on in the campground payphone while the other can listen and fully hear both sides of the conversation. There's no more repeating, misstating or misunderstanding what was said.

All these devices, programs, processes and procedures interact to form what has evolved to become a consistent means of us staying in touch with the world, our family and friends. We hope it assists somewhat in your determining and adopting whatever methods are consistent with your individual style and needs. If spamming is really getting on your nerves, and if you're using Microsoft Outlook Express as your Email product, click on tools, in-box assistant and add entries such as, delete from server, or do not download from server, any selected Email address, subject or even part of it. You can select any words, such as free, opportunity, or any other combination of previously received, unwanted words in the subject line. Some of these spammers have become really good at hiding their return address. They can't avoid their own subject at hand and are finally out of here for good. The only unwanted spamming you can't normally order deleted from the server are those that originate from your own ISP's server, so select your ISP carefully.

If you have access to a telephone line or an on line library and the time to browse, you are encouraged and welcome to peruse our personal WEB site at www.concentric.net~Lmchaney. It's dedicated to RV Computing and Communications, is totally non-commercial and is committed to assisting other RVers in Computing and Communicating on the Road. Selecting articles and editorials from the main menu will lead you to a myriad of subjects we think are appropriate, timely and reflect our personal experiences.. From our main menu, you can also send us an Email and ask whatever questions you like. We will answer them in detail and for free. It is simply called giving something back to the RV community and we enjoy doing it.

Mel & Susan Chaney 201 Rainbow Dr. Apt 11025 Livingston, Texas 77351-9361 Tele# 888-202-4254 (Select Option 2 & leave a message) Or check out our non-commercial WEB site at: www.concentric.net/~Lmchaney

-joe lacey- Live Your Dream, *Life* Is Not A Dress Rehearsal
http://www.escapees.com

------------------------------------------------------------------


Send suggestions and comments to
mailto:editor@roadnews.com


---------- End of I-LapTop Warrior Digest --------------