WIFI on the Road Update

Posted on 24-11-2004

Since my previous write-up about wifi at truck stops back in June I’ve tried getting connected at several truck stops including Flying J’s, TA’s and Truckstop.net sites. The clear winner is Flying J. No matter which one, the signal is always strong anywhere in the parking lot. I had really high hopes for when TA came out with their wifi because I get a discount on fuel but I have really been disappointed by their wifi. Signal strength is lame unless your right next to the building and even then it may not be very good.

Two weeks ago I was at the Ontario TA and was within throwing distance of the antennae and the signal kept dropping out. I talked to another driver that was even closer and he was having the same kind of problem. Then last week I was at Ontario TA again and both east and west truck stops had no signal at all. The price at TA’s is pretty good when you buy one month you get the other month free, but it’s not a good deal when you can’t use it. Truckstop.net sites don’t even work half the time. When they do, I get enough to get online for the day and I’m on long enough to pay for it and it drops off. Now they have an announcement that their network is completely down.

Texas rest areas are getting free wifi and I was driving through Iowa and one of their rest areas on I-80 advertised a wifi hotspot, I didn’t have the time to check it out but still thought it was pretty cool.

If I’m not at a Flying J or a TA that works I now get online with my cellphone. At a supposedly 115 kbps it’s faster than dialup but slower than a good wifi connection. But for getting email and posting once in a while, it’s not bad. Since it takes up airtime I try and save it for late at night or on weekends unless I’m only getting email or have to download a fax with efax.com.

Which by the way, is the greatest way to send and receive faxes while on the road. You get one fax number that you can hand out to anyone and get your faxes at your convenience through your email.

Comments

jafa on 18 December, 2004 at 8:43 pm #

Hi, neat site. Ever thought of blogging via cell-phone. I do it from my cab. Also can browse Web and send/receive images, emails, etc. I’m using a smart phone(data-capable) Nokia 7610 and a single Moblog with image and 1000 character text cost around A$0.70. Worth considering. Cheers,

William Surran on 30 December, 2004 at 10:37 am #

Good clean information from a real trucker. The wifi analysis was extremely helpful and the reminder about using the cellphone to connect to the internet was great. I am checking into eFax as I type this review. Thank you so much.
wfs/04

bluegrassdeb on 15 August, 2005 at 6:03 pm #

Wow, I’m a newbie and I’m real interested in hearing bout all the wireless stuff. I have a new laptop and am a mo. from grad. a 10 mo. Tech. Col. on truck driving and fully intend to get the air card unless of course someone on here says hey I know of something better. I already do know that the wireless cell phone web is pretty cool. THis weekend I was printing out some directions for a friend and noticed you can get directions from Yahoo sent to your cell phone. Does anyone know of some device I could hook up to my cell phone that would print out the directions? That would be too cool. Deb Hartley

Лина К on 17 July, 2008 at 11:16 am #

Круто! А отуда такая информация , если не секрет.;)?