Tricks With Technology

[Pilgrim]

I'm on vacation at the moment, parked on the highest hilltop in the area.  It's part of my in-laws' farm and I had to drive a half-mile into a field across hilltops to get a decent cell signal.  So I turned on the wireless hot spot on my phone, connected my laptop to it via wi-fi, and have connectivity.

It's a beautiful late spring day, the fields are green all around me, and I'm parked on the hilltop with the windows open, letting a light breeze blow through.  Not bad!

I'd include pix, but the bandwidth is too limited to access Photobucket, and the interface doesn't seem to allow me to load images from my computer.  I'll get around that that eventually.

In the meantime, be well and I'll check in when i can.

[OldManC]

That is pretty cool. Enjoy!

[Lightyear]

My corporate issued cell phone is a BlackBerry and our current version, not the latest one, came with the hot spot feature.  When they pushed these things out to us we were told they would have "near" broadband speed - not!  It's not bad but it's really only good for basic browsing and such.  I have downloaded a 600 meg file before using it - that entailed leaving it running at my client's location a taking a one hour plus lunch and I still waited another 20 minutes for it to complete.

[the mojo hobo]

Broadband speed is attainable from a mobile hotspot. I know a local rural household that uses a Verizon 4G mobile hotspot for their internet service. However, performance will vary greatly with location and signal strength, and 4G is not available everywhere.

[Dave W]

Broadband speed is attainable from a mobile hotspot. I know a local rural household that uses a Verizon 4G mobile hotspot for their internet service. However, performance will vary greatly with location and signal strength, and 4G is not available everywhere.

From what I've heard, some advertised 4G is really just souped up 3G and can't achieve 4G speeds.

[Pilgrim]

Problem is, the terms 3G and 4G don't actually mean anything. They're marketing terms with no technical definition and 4G only means "faster than 3G". And there are times when I question that.  Your 4G may be same-same as someone else's 3G depending on where you are and the signal strength at that spot.

Now that I'm in town, I'm still limited to cell phone hotspot but have a slightly faster connection.  Photobucket will open, but it's taking 3+ minutes just to get the home page to render. I should be able to add the photos soon.

[Dave W]

Where are you anyway?

[Highlander]

I think I'm running on "G"... singular...

[the mojo hobo]

Problem is, the terms 3G and 4G don't actually mean anything. They're marketing terms with no technical definition and 4G only means "faster than 3G".

Technical definition of wireless generations: http://www.techspot.com/guides/272-everything-about-4g/

We got 4G coverage where I live in the last year, but there are vast areas of the country where 4G isn't available yet.

Coverage maps(no direct links, but each map is one click away):

http://www.verizonwireless.com/wcms/consumer/4g-lte.html
http://coverage.sprint.com/IMPACT.jsp?
http://www.att.com/network/

[Highlander]

There were five TV channels until the UK went digital and as part of the switchover (so 4G could use the bandwidth once used for analog TV) there were warnings over signal issues - 4g has already run into problems here in the first year of operation...

I'm still net-free on the personal phone, which is rarely used - both PAYG, Roshina uses 3G (iphone) and Jackie has it but rarely uses it - works from home anyway...

When I was up in the Hebrides, putting up that travelblog was only possible whilst next to a wifi spot - on the Atlantic side of the Island I had no signal of any kind... a basic phone signal was only possible in certain areas... when in Devon at my friends (south-west UK - country location) I mostly have a no or very weak standard phone signal...

[Dave W]

I only use my cell phone to make telephone calls. How radical is that?

[Highlander]

+1

... and maybe an occasional text message...

[Pilgrim]

I really felt like the low processor on the priority agenda while traveling.  it's petty clear to me that roaming devices take a back seat to local devices when requesting bandwidth.

Where I had a good cell connection, I connected my laptop to it via wi-fi, and spent 20 minutes waiting for my photobucket page to load...never made it.

NOW I can show a photo of the hilltop I was parked on. This is about a half-mile into the field, climbing steadily, on the third hilltop.



And a view to the east from that hilltop, showing the green hills of eastern Washington and spring wheat (Mark, you may wax nostalgic now...).  In the interest of accuracy, I can note that the crop closest to the camera is actually small garbonzo beans, which my in-laws are trying for the first time,

[TBird1958]

Oh man!

Al, is that Steptoe Butte in the background?  It sure takes me back to the '60s

I think there's an Eastern Washington road trip in store for me later this Summer!

[Pilgrim]

Oh man!

Al, is that Steptoe Butte in the background?  It sure takes me back to the '60s

I think there's an Eastern Washington road trip in store for me later this Summer!

YES, that is Steptoe Butte!  http://www.spokaneoutdoors.com/stepbutt.htm

My brother-in-law is getting set for a mountain climb this summer, and a couple of times a week he hikes up it one side and down the other - twice.  It's only 1000 feet up, but that's a very steep climb.

Yesterday was a long driving day.  Started in Dillon, MT west of Yellowstone, stopped for a couple of hours in Jackson WY (Jackson Hole) and then made Fort Collins about 1:30 AM.

Dillon to Jackson: 215 Miles
Jackson to Rock Springs, WY: 177 miles (left Jackson at 5 PM)
Rock Springs to Fort Collins: 306 miles (left Rock Springs about 8:30, hit Fort Collins @1:30, went through Cheyenne rather than taking the cutoff at Laramie.)

Making it a 698 mile day of travel.  That was a bit more than we usually tackle, but the last 300 miles was all I-80 and I-25.