For most of May we were visiting friends in Iowa. They are renovating a beautiful old church in a tiny town - now I know why we live in an RV!  That's way too much work. The last week we presented seminars at the Escapade RV Rally. The picture is Jim presenting the Internet on the Road seminar in his Captain Wi-Fi shirt!

Next up is the FMCA Midwest Area Rally in Albert Lea, Minnesota - June 17 to 21. Then it will be on to Bowling Green, Ohio for the FMCA International convention - July 20 to 23.

So you don't miss anything, here's a list of other articles we've written this month. Notice that the Picasa tips now have a domain all their own: www.PicasaTutorials.com!
Don't Delete your Original Photos
What is Twitter?
Picasa Tip: Keeping Pictures in Order
Picasa Tip: Blue Skies
Picasa Tip: Synchronized Web Albums

In this newsletter

• Internet by Data Card
• Email Netiquette
• 'Labeling' your Blogger Blog posts

www.GeeksOnTour.com  
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$29 Membership Special - June 2009

Internet by Data Card

Your options for connecting to the Internet have changed a lot in the 6 years we've been on the road. In 2004 we had to convince people that high-speed was better than dial up. The main option was Wi-Fi, Cellular data cards didn't exist, and satellite was pretty new. Now - dial up is unheard of, Wi-Fi is taken for granted, Cellular data cards are mainstream, and satellite is old hat.

What is a Data Card?
You get it from a cellular provider, it connects to a nearby cell tower. It receives and transmits data. Think of it as a cell phone for your computer. The card pictured below fits into the Express Card slot in your laptop computer. Be sure your laptop *has* an express card slot before purchasing the card!

Recommended data 'cards' today connect to your computer's USB port. Like the device pictured at right. Every laptop has a USB port.

Cellular Data Cards are also referred to as Mobile Broadband Modems. A 'modem' is a device that connects your computer to a communications network. In this case, the communications network is one of the cellular carriers like Verizon, Sprint, AT&T or TMobile.

Why are Data Cards so popular?
In the short time that they have been available, the Cellular Data Cards have become the primary way that travelers connect to the Internet. They are SO easy. The first time you use it you will need to install some simple drivers from the disk provided. From then on, getting online can be as simple as plugging in the device and booting up your computer. If there is a cell tower within range, you're online. You may have to click on a button to 'connect', but even that can be set up automatically.

Data cards are the only technology that allow you to be online while driving down the road.

Coverage has improved dramatically, the cellular providers have been busy adding towers all over the country. If you tried this in 2006 or 07 and didn't like it, you should try again! We talk to RVers all the time who say they've traveled the entire country and *almost* always are able to get online with their cellular data cards. They love their data cards.

How fast are they?
The speed of your Internet connection will depend on the cell tower that you're connecting to. If you're close to a fast tower, you'll be thrilled with the speed you get - it's as good as the DSL you're used to at home. If you're not in a digital coverage area, you'll be lucky to get dial up speed.

How do you know you're in a high-speed area? We use Verizon, and when we see a Verizon Wireless, 1X-EVDO indicator on our phone with more than 2 bars, we know we're in a high-speed area. If we're on 'Extended Network' or see 1X without the EVDO indicator, we can connect but it will be slow. My litmus test is to watch a video. I am currently connected with Verizon (tethered cell phone) and I just watched a 5 minute video on Youtube.com without a hiccup. That's a good connection! For those of you who like numbers, here is a speed test I just performed at TestMy.net:

You'll have to learn what the indicators are for your provider and equipment. Other terms that indicate high-speed include HSPA (AT&T's network) and 3G. Actually, 3G is used to describe high-speed mobile internet in general. It means 3d Generation. You may already be hearing rumors about 4G!

Why would you use anything else?
Price is the first limiting factor. Mobile Broadband services usually cost $60/month and require you to commit to a 2 year contract. Wi-Fi is $1 - $5/day, no commitment required and, in many places, it's even free.

Usage limits is the other specific factor. Most plans limit you to 5 Gigabytes per month. This has nothing to do with minutes - it has everything to do with what you're doing on the Internet. If you read email, browse websites, upload and download pictures, 5 Gigabytes is more than enough for a month. If you share your connection with one or more other people, and any of you watch videos online - you could go over. A full length movie is often 2 Gigabytes.

There is a charge per megabyte of overage. We know people who have been billed $1,000 and more in a month where they were over and didn't realize it! Rarely does a Wi-Fi hotspot have any bandwidth limits. When you're at a good Wi-Fi hotspot, that's when you can get those big downloads like Windows service packs and full length movies.

Coverage is still limited. If you want to boondock in the middle of a National Forest in Wyoming, odds are you will not be within range of a cellular tower. Satellite is still the only way to insure that you have an Internet connection *anywhere.*

Do The Geeks use a data card?
Yes, and No. We have a Datastorm Internet satellite dish, and we love our satellite dish. Last fall, our 5 year old system needed some new parts. We planned to spend the winter in a park with good Wi-Fi, so we opted to turn off the Satellite service. Since we got back on the road this spring, we have been able to make do with a combination of Wi-Fi and our Verizon phone 'tethered.' So - we are using Verizon for an Internet connection, but we don't have a data card. The cell phone cannot connect at the highest EVDO speed - Rev A - but we do get Rev 0.

We're getting by with the combination of Wi-Fi and tethered cell phone, but we do miss our satellite Internet. We find that some of our itinerary is based on knowing where there is good Wi-Fi, or good Verizon signal. When our dish was active we could go wherever we wanted.

What's New?
This technology is a fast-moving field. There's lots of recent news.

1. Verizon's price for overages has been lowered from 25¢/Mg to 5¢/Mg
2. Verizon's price for tethered cell phone Internet access has lowered from $59/mo to $49/mo
3. Verizon has introduced a Data Card/router combination device called the Mi-Fi,
4. Walkinghotspot.com is a software solution that turns your SmartPhone into a Wi-Fi hotspot with unlimited broadband access. Not available for Verizon phone. Pretty magic stuff.

Email Netiquette

Please don't forward emails that have already been forwarded to you.

First of all, it makes the message very long and confusing because all the header and footer information is there from every time it's been forwarded. Your reader is aggravated long before they get to the meat of the message.

Secondly, your message will show the email addresses of everyone else who received the message before you. Anyone viewing this could add those emails to their list, and it will be on your shoulders that these people are getting a lot more spam now!

If you really want to send the contents of an email on to your friends, there are two ways to do it. Click on forward, then delete all the header and footer garbage. OR Copy just the meat of the message, then open a new message and paste it in.

And ... when you address it to several people, make sure to put the email addresses in the BCC field. BCC stands for 'Blind Courtesy Copy' and it means that none of the recipients will see the other addresses. It will be sent to everyone on the BCC list, but the addresses will not show up.

For more information you can read Ten Rules for Email Netiquette. If you are a Geeks on Tour member, you can also watch the Show-Me-How video, Using BCC to send Email. If you're not a member, now is a great time to join! The normal $39 is only $29 - just for the month of June. Sign up now.

Labeling your Blogger Posts

I hope you've had a chance to browse The Geek's personal blog sometime. We've been keeping this blog since before we actually started RVing, and we now have 1,168 posts! If you tried to read it all, that would take you a while. But, maybe you'd like to see the posts we've written when we visit Presidential Libraries? You could click on the Label for Presidential Libraries, and your screen would now be displaying just the 7 posts from the Presidential Libraries we've visited so far. Or click on 'rallies' and read the 29 posts where we've talked about RV rallies we've attended.

These are called 'Labels', and they don't happen automatically. You have to assign labels to your post. It's easily done. At the bottom, after you've written your post in Blogger, there is a place to type whatever you want. Any post can have 0 or several different labels, just type the word(s) for the label and type a comma in between different labels. So, for example, the post about Reagan's Presidential library could be labeled with 'presidential libraries' as well as with 'california.'

The only hard part is coming up with the labels you want to use! I think they are more valuable if you don't use too many. So, for example, using 'Presidential Libraries' is more valuable than 'Reagan Presidential Library.' After all, you don't want your list of labels to be longer than the blog itself!

If you have already written many posts, and haven't used labels, you don't have to go to each post to do it. You can go to your 'Edit Posts' screen, check the box next to one or more posts, and apply a label to them all.

Then, to have the labels show up in your sidebar - that's a gadget. Go to your blog's Layout screen and 'Add a Gadget' then click the plus symbol next to the Labels gadget.

To see a 'Show-Me-How' video on adding a gadget to your Blogger Blog, Geeks on Tour Members can click here. As mentioned above, if you're not a Geeks on Tour member, join now during our June special of $29.

That's all for now. We hope you learned something. Your next issue will be next month. Any questions, please email us. If you like this newsletter, please forward it on to your friends! If you received this issue forwarded by a friend you can subscribe to get your own copy delivered to your in box - it's free. To see the archives of past newsletters, go to www.geeksontour.com/newsletters.

Happy Computing!

The Geeks on Tour website is an online classroom for Travelers who want to learn to use their computers for managing digital photos, making blogs, using maps and other online resources. Anyone can watch our free sample videos, read articles on our Articles and Links Blog, sign up for our free monthly newsletter, or Picasa weekly tips. A small fee makes you a 'member' and you can then view any of our 140+ video tutorials on these subjects. If you're an RV traveler and you have a Web site, please add it to our list.