Successful Internet Business From an RV; Satellite Internet
With a satellite connection, an Internet business can be mobile. Within 10 minutes of stopping somewhere for the night, the week, or just to download email, broadband Internet connection can be established.
This is two-way, mobile Internet satellite hookup. No cell phone, land line, or other transmission assistance is required. RV batteries can provide all the electrical power that's needed.
We did a lot of research before acquiring the satellite dish. We looked into alternatives. We looked for competitors of the system we had installed. And we joined discussion lists with other RV owners.
This article touches on the highlights of our discoveries. It also talks some about what it's like to be able to surf in the back country beyond range of cell phone and even of electricity.
A previous article talked about running a mobile with a cell phone modem. That "Successful Internet Business From an RV; Cell Phone Modem" article is linked from /library/
Cell phone modem limits the geographical areas where we can take our business. Unless we stay within the provider's service area, roaming charges accumulate. Also, our cell phone modem is slow, 14 k baud maximum. One's mental balance could slip a tiny bit waiting for pages to load!
Last winter, we stayed at an RV resort for five months (except for weekend excursions). During that time we had a land line and dial-up Internet access.
Come Spring, however, our wanderlust dictated we see towns and landscapes we haven't seen before.
Mari and I soon realized we simply could not put off getting the satellite dish any longer. With the technology available to do otherwise, why restrict our geographical area and put up with crawlingly slow Internet connections?
We had previously done much research and had a good idea of the cost and equipment requirements.
As far as we know, MotoSat's DataStorm system is the only two-way, mobile Internet satellite system approved by the FCC. We found several one-way systems by other companies, where a cell phone or other method must be used to upload data packets to an ISP in conjunction with satellite downloads.
MotoSat seems to have no direct competition in the two-way, mobile Internet satellite market. When competition does arrive, the cost of the system might go down. Currently, it's around 7000 USD. Their web site is at http://motosat.com/
For about a tenth of the price, we could have purchased an Internet satellite system available for non-mobile homes and businesses, and received training to manually point the dish to the correct satellite and do signal peaking adjustments. It would not meet FCC approval, however, to use the dish at new locations as we traveled about.
Once we decided not to delay getting the system, we surfed the net and emailed queries with the primary purpose of finding out as much as we could as fast as we could. We wanted to know what our equipment options were and which installers were competent. We were ready to buy.
Only one installer answered our query adequately. This was Arlyn Dale from Combined Resource Group, LLC, of Albuquerque, New Mexico (USA).
It's a bit of a gamble, selecting an installer. With a stationary home or business, the installation company might be just across town. If they don't provide the service you expect, you go knock on their door. With us, we'll be hundreds or even thousands of miles away, essentially all of the time. We need to feel confident service will not degrade once we leave the neighborhood.
We found Arlyn and his staff to be friendly, competent and professional. They know what they're doing and they're willing to answer questions. And they're busy, which is almost always an indication that the company is respected.
Our system needed to service both a Windows and a Macintosh computer. One of the choices we had to make was whether to network wireless or Ethernet.
We frequently access customer's servers to debug or install software. Which means we have access to server passwords. With wireless there is a slight chance transmission might be intercepted by someone using a wireless-ready computer nearby. So we chose Ethernet.
In the future, we may switch to wireless -- after I've had time to study up on firewalls and other methods to protect customer data.
After the two-day installation process, we went to a State Park an hour or so west of Albuquerque to give the new system a try.
It worked like a pleasant dream. We found a camping spot, started the laptop containing the satellite system software, clicked a button, and some minutes later we were surfing.
We answered email, surfed, updated some web pages, helped customers -- activities required when running a successful Internet business.
It put a smile on my face. It was broadband in the back country.
Some informal photographs of the installation and that first park are at /a/20t/pl.pl?dish
A week later, we decided to move to a park northwest of our current location. We got there and clicked the button. And the software was unable to establish a connection with the satellite.
Oops.
We had been told there may be infrequent and short outages due to the leading edge of thunder storms at our or the ISP's location, or due to software upgrades at the ISP or Hughes Satellite System (Hughes owns the satellite). It was evening, so we decided to let it lay until morning when things should be cleared up.
They weren't cleared up.
We had a business to run. We needed the Internet. So we drove to where we had cell phone reception and called the tech support line.
When I described that the software displayed a certain message and just sat there doing nothing, tech support suggested turning everything off, letting it be for five minutes, and then reconnecting with the satellite.
We did that. It didn't work. Tech support said the software message should clear within a minute, two at the most, and connection established.
The message had been displayed for several hours, not a minute or two. I felt that tech support wasn't going to provide a solution very soon, so decided to call Arlyn. Although not really his problem (tech support for the system is centralized and not the responsibility of the installation company), I knew he could help.
When I called his office, he was out on a service call.
As we were less than two hours away, we decided to drive to his office so he could see for himself what was going on and, hopefully, show us how to fix it if it should happen again in the future.
It wasn't that simple.
Turns out the persistence of the software message was something Arlyn never encountered before. It really should have disappeared within a minute or two; actually, it usually requires only several seconds. (The software message was "The system is waiting for a ranging request to be processed by the Network Operations Center.")
After several hours of telephone work with the support center, with the ISP (Direcway), and with Hughes, Arlyn found out that Hughes had uploaded new software to the satellite and they were unaware a few mobile systems could not connect. It took Arlyn and tech support the rest of the day and part of the next to coax Hughes programmers to fix their problem.
It's been working ever since.
The system is easy to use. Everything is software driven. Just click on a button and the software unfolds the dish, then points and peaks it. It uses very little power. When ready to move to different location, a click on another button stows the dish. Stowed, it's somewhat streamlined to reduce drag and it's only 12 inches high -- lower than our roof air conditioner, in fact.
Our current GPS latitude is 36.6119N, longitude 106.741W, and altitude 6804.41 feet. We're way beyond the range of cell phone towers. Even AM and FM radio signals are too weak for good listening. But Internet radio works real good. And we're running a successful Internet business from an RV.
One of the absolutely priceless perks of having this satellite dish is the ability to wander in the back country.
There's another lake near here, Lake Heron. Maybe we'll go there next week.
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Will Bontrager
©2003 Bontrager Connection, LLC
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