Work from the lake

[Lin]

Morning everyone, a few months ago I started a new online business. Right now I am attached via desktops and Verizon Fios at home. However, we want to go up to the lake for an extended stay so I'm thinking of purchasing my first laptop and wireless card? I have no clue as to a wireless laptop and the how reception for upload/download would work at the lake (Moultonborough). I only plan on using the laptop for the business of uploading stories and photos when I'm at the lake or at my sisters in MD. I don't need a laptop with all the bells and whistles just something that could handle a photoshop elements and frontpage and with word processing programs. Someone told me Verizon has a wi fi card if you pay for a program. We don't have any cable or satelite dish as of yet at the camp. So any help would be appreciated, thank you.

[Wolfeboro Matt]

I have a Sprint EVDO card and it works wonderfully at the house in Wolfeboro. I've not tried it "out and about" but the connection speed is terrific. Not sure of the exact speed but its closer to DSL/cable than dial-up.

The card was free, and service is $49 per month.

Here's some information I pulled off of evdoforums.com (http://www.evdoforums.com/thread1235.html):

EV-DO is a form of high speed wireless now broadly offered by Verizon and Sprint. While typically not as fast as WiFi, Internet access tends to be available metro-wide. You never have to look for a hotspot as long as you have a voice signal. Both Sprint and Verizon offer EVDO phones and EVDO laptop cards. Verizon markets EVDO as VCast for phones and BroadbandAccess for laptop cards. Sprint markets EVDO as PowerVision for phones and Mobile Broadband for laptop cards. Both promote the average range of speeds between 400-700Kbits/sec (compared to a 56Kbits/sec modem dialup) but it is possible to get speeds over 1000Kbits/sec in ideal conditions.

Before EVDO there was 1xRTT data with slower speeds typically between 50-100Kbits/sec and max of 144Kbits/sec. If EVDO is not available in an area, the EVDO device will step down and use 1xRTT. In general, wherever Sprint/Verizon have voice service, there is likely 1xRTT data service.

Cingular has begun rolling out a comparable technology known as HSDPA. Performance is comparable to EVDO but only a handful of markets have HSDPA. Alltel also has rolled out EVDO to a few markets and will have EVDO roaming with Sprint networks later in 2006.

[jetskier]

Morning everyone, a few months ago I started a new online business. Right now I am attached via desktops and Verizon Fios at home. However, we want to go up to the lake for an extended stay so I'm thinking of purchasing my first laptop and wireless card? I have no clue as to a wireless laptop and the how reception for upload/download would work at the lake (Moultonborough). I only plan on using the laptop for the business of uploading stories and photos when I'm at the lake or at my sisters in MD. I don't need a laptop with all the bells and whistles just something that could handle a photoshop elements and frontpage and with word processing programs. Someone told me Verizon has a wi fi card if you pay for a program. We don't have any cable or satelite dish as of yet at the camp. So any help would be appreciated, thank you.

You have a few options with this one. First the Verizon service is based upon EVDO. You can go to the Verizon Wireless web page and research their wireless PC cards. The card fits in the PCMCIA II slot (cardbus). The advantage of this service is that it is available anywhere there is Verizon EVDO coverage. The disadvantage is that it will be tied to a single computer and the speeds are a bit less than some of the alternatives.

The alternatives are:

See whether you are close enough to the Verizon CO to get decent ADSL service. The Verizon web page will walk you though a menu. Note that DSL is distance sensitive, so the further away from the CO you are, the slower the data rates.

Get a data service from the cable company (Metrocast). It runs about $40/month and the data rates are distance insensitive. Since it is a shared cluster, data rates can be reduced by congestion. I am seeing about 5Mbps download rates, generallly.

Get a Hughs Net service...the most expensive and they do limit the amount of downloads (so I am told).

In any of these configurations, you can put in a wireless router (WIFI) and use the connection for any number of wireless computers. In addition, you can have a wireless printer etc... Most laptops have internal WIFI cards.

Laptops: There are a ton of laptop choices these days. It really depends on your budget. I tend to like Dell computers (although their customer service is pretty bad). HP has a number of nice machines. Sony is very nice but a bit pricy. You should check the system requirements for the programs that you want to run (Elements 3.0, Frontporch) before you buy. Also, most windows machines are sold with Vista (Dell will put XP on their machines upon request). Vista is very different than XP and you want to verify that your applications are Vista compatible. In general, I would opt for a larger disc (100 G or more) and larger RAM (1 G - preferably 2G) for media applications. In addition, you will likely want either Vista Home Premium, or XP Media for what you are doing.

Good Luck

Jetskier:cool:

[Lakegeezer]

In M'boro, its Time Warner Cable (purchased Adelphia), not Metrocast. I've moved my home-office to the lake and find the Internet service fast and mostly reliable. Can't get Verizon FIOS or DSL where I'm at. Working at the lake is great - except for those days when its just too hard to stay in-doors.

[islandAl]

The Moultonborough town library has free wireless. Perhaps you can create your work and set up the emails in draft form and then travel to the library (does not need to be when they are open, just sit in the parking lot) and connect via the laptops build in wifi card.
If you are doing a lot of sending and receiving, it would not be practical.

[upthesaukee]

One thing to make note of is that if you are looking for a wireless card to connect up with "on the go", make sure that your computer has the appropriate slot. Several of the HP & Compaq laptops that we sell have a "pci express" slot, which is not just rectangular, but has a "shoulder" to it. Those customers who I have talked to about these cards say that Verizon and Sprint do not offer a "pci express" card, only a "card bus "type card, which is rectangular in shape. Check with your proposed carrier first, and find out what kind of cards they offer, then find the laptop that matches that requirement.

Oh, and Windows Vista is somewhat of a memory hog, and most of the video memory in a laptop is shared memory, meaning they appropriate a good sized chunk of the regular RAM to use as video ram (can be as high as 256 megabytes of ram, and Vista is looking for 512 mb of ram, so at a minimum, I would be looking for 1 gigabyte of memory (1024 megabytes), and more would be better, like two gigabytes of memory. Good luck, Lin.

[Silver Duck]

Several of my colleagues have had very good luck with the Verizon USB wireless gizmo.

[Lin]

Thanks every one for the great info. I'll be printing it all out. I was wondering about the windows vista because I'd heard it was a memory hog, upthesaukee. It's tough to find anything with XP vs Vista. So another question that comes up are the compatibility of working on an HP with windows XP do fine transferring info back and forth with the Vista system if that is all I can get on a laptop? That was one reason when I went into the business I bought an HP media center with windows XP. I'd always had a Dell desktop before the media center but I find I now need a laptop to keep up with the site when I'm out of town and this is my first foray into laptop/wireless country. So this info is great. The business is sort of like the lake winni site but more of a photo journalism community news and events site for our community. Town doesn't pay, I'm doing this all on my own and it's been taking off well in the community. It's been bringing the community together and I've had many people telling me it's a great idea and cant' believe no one had thought of it before. I write articles on different things that go on around town and post photos and notices of events and meetings. I'd probably put a bunch of photos I could use on a disc and take it with me to use up at the lake. I can write the articles from up there and I have some friends that have been helping me out on the site that said they'd roam town and attend meetings and events and send me the info and photos via email to upload onto it. Thanks again everyone.

[jetskier]

Thanks every one for the great info. I'll be printing it all out. I was wondering about the windows vista because I'd heard it was a memory hog, upthesaukee. It's tough to find anything with XP vs Vista. So another question that comes up are the compatibility of working on an HP with windows XP do fine transferring info back and forth with the Vista system if that is all I can get on a laptop? That was one reason when I went into the business I bought an HP media center with windows XP. I'd always had a Dell desktop before the media center but I find I now need a laptop to keep up with the site when I'm out of town and this is my first foray into laptop/wireless country. So this info is great. The business is sort of like the lake winni site but more of a photo journalism community news and events site for our community. Town doesn't pay, I'm doing this all on my own and it's been taking off well in the community. It's been bringing the community together and I've had many people telling me it's a great idea and cant' believe no one had thought of it before. I write articles on different things that go on around town and post photos and notices of events and meetings. I'd probably put a bunch of photos I could use on a disc and take it with me to use up at the lake. I can write the articles from up there and I have some friends that have been helping me out on the site that said they'd roam town and attend meetings and events and send me the info and photos via email to upload onto it. Thanks again everyone.

Hi Lin,

If you buy a Dell laptop, they will ship it with XP (if you specify that). Many customers were grousing about compatibility with Vista and they added XP back in as an option. If you are worried about compatibility, stick with XP. IMHO.

Jetskier :cool:

[wifi]

There are two wireless providers that I am aware of. As you know, it really varies with your line of sight with their tower(s). Cyberpine.net operates in Sandwich, and lakesregionwireless.net operates off the Ossipees with spotty coverage over the whole lake area. Good luck and let us know what you do!