Portable Internet

Hamster_style

So, I've come into possession of a vehicle which can be described as a "bigass van." I live in California, so I'm probably going to be doing a number of roadtrips up the coastline which will consist of me sleeping in said van and surfing a metric fuckton.

However, I would also like to get work done and not be a complete drag on society and all using its roads 'n' stuff. In order to do this, I need internet so I can ssh into various machines and do stuff like that. A lot of writing code / calculations I can do either locally on my machine or by hand, depending on the work. The internet access is the main concern, especially if I'm in the middle of nowhere in, say, norcal.

Do any of you guys have any experience with these "mobile broadband" services I see advertised, where you get some USB modem or whatever for your laptop? Usually they run about 60 $ per 5 gigs per month, which is plenty, and the coverage looks pretty good along beaches along the California coast. What are some good deals? Which providers are good?

rfalias

Hamster_style wrote: »

So, I've come into possession of a vehicle which can be described as a "bigass van." I live in California, so I'm probably going to be doing a number of roadtrips up the coastline which will consist of me sleeping in said van and surfing a metric fuckton.

However, I would also like to get work done and not be a complete drag on society and all using its roads 'n' stuff. In order to do this, I need internet so I can ssh into various machines and do stuff like that. A lot of writing code / calculations I can do either locally on my machine or by hand, depending on the work. The internet access is the main concern, especially if I'm in the middle of nowhere in, say, norcal.

Do any of you guys have any experience with these "mobile broadband" services I see advertised, where you get some USB modem or whatever for your laptop? Usually they run about 60 $ per 5 gigs per month, which is plenty, and the coverage looks pretty good along beaches along the California coast. What are some good deals? Which providers are good?

May I ask what cell phone/provider you have?
Tethering may be a good option.

Hamster_style

Currently I use AT&T for the old Iphone, not 3G :-(, I have.

What is tethering?

rfalias

Hamster_style wrote: »

Currently I use AT&T for the old Iphone, not 3G :-(, I have.

What is tethering?

Well if you get a 3g you can 'modify' it to tether.
Tethering is the act of attaching your phone to your computer via it's USB cable in the case of the iPhone and obtaining an internet connection.

I've seen 3g tethering in action and it is very respectable.

Gdiguy

However, it's technically not allowed, so while it's perfectly possible if you have a 3g iphone already, if you're going to have to buy something (tethering over the Edge network with an old iphone might make you want to hurt something) I think something like the Tmobile plan for the G1 actually allows tethering and is cheaper

DeathPrawn

So you've got an iPhone 2G through AT&T? Jailbreak your phone, and install PDAnet. It's tethering software, an option that others have mentioned. Basically, you connect your iPhone to your computer (either via USB or via WiFi) and using it like a modem. It's actually not that bad... it feels significantly faster than using Safari on your phone.