Date: Wed, 18 Aug 2004 21:17:19 -0400
Reply-To: The Bus Depot <vanagon@BUSDEPOT.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: The Bus Depot <vanagon@BUSDEPOT.COM>
Subject: Re: Any direcway experiences?
In-Reply-To: <C7991E00-F0C0-11D8-8C18-000A959B3796@knology.net>
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> The idea is internet access and maybe TV when we travel.
> Anybody have any experience with this at home or traveling,
> or any warnings or alternatives I should consider?
My solution is the following:
1) An ultra-compact notebook computer. (In my case a Dell L400, about
3.5 lbs, $450 on Ebay. I believe a Toshiba Portege 3480 or 3490 would
suffice as well, and is equally small.)
2) An inexpensive Walmart voltage inverter (so I can use the laptop's AC
adapter off of my cigar lighter; without buying a pricy notebook DC
adapter).
2) A modem-equipped cell phone on Verizon America's Choice plan. (As
of last week you could get an Audiovox 8900 free after rebate at Circuit
City with a 2 year contract, or for $40 with a one-year contract;
regularly $150. National airtime is $39 a month for 400 weekday minutes
and unlimited weekends.)
3) A USB data cable for the phone. (About $15 on Ebay.)
4) A Verizon Data Express modem connection. This is about 3x the speed
of dial-up, with no additional cost for internet access. (It just
deducts from the bucket of airtime minutes on your cell phone plan.)
This link tells you how to configure your laptop:
<http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php?s=d730b1bc51f8f0a0e7ef2a27f6
74eafc&threadid=432527&highlight=%2B8900+%2Bmodem>
The above gives me reasonably fast internet service anywhere within the
area covered by Verizon. If out of their internet access service area, I
can still connect to any dial-up ISP (www.myfreei.com is free), but it's
just 14.4 so it's very slow. Basically the laptop thinks the cell phone
is an external modem so you just configure Dial Up Networking
accordingly.
For video, I copy DVD's onto the laptop's hard drive (mine is 20 gig),
in MPEG4 format (DIVX), which is sufficent quality for decent playback
without taking too much drive space You could add a USB TV tuner if you
wanted to receive TV stations over the air, but movies work fine for me,
and the screen is plenty large enough for video playback in a confined
area. You could also put MP3's on it and output them to a car stereo or
headphones if you were so inclined. Or add a USB GPS unit.
- Ron Salmon
The Bus Depot, Inc.
www.busdepot.com
(215) 234-VWVW
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