Laptop in Vibe...

[viberationz]

So I have a Pioneer AVIC-N1 and I want to make some road trips this summer - what do I need in order to have internet in my car?! I'm clueless as to what steps I need to take, what to buy, or how much to look at spending - any tips?

[northvibe]

theres a couple waysif you want internet in your car all the time,-get internet pcmcia card from cell phone company - it uses minutes of your cell phone bill for the internet-satillite internet, you would need to mount a dish somewhere....and its expensiveor just have wireless enabled on ur laptop and hope when you stop places they have a wireless network running.

[mcgusto82]

direct tv has a internet service. it's 100$ a month for 15 months, then it drops to 59$ a month.it's basically DSL speeds.they don't mention mobile satelites. only the stationary ones that go outside of a house. but i do know that they have a mobile satelite for tv reception. maybe that one is compatible with the internet service too. BUT that one sat is like 3k$.the pcim cards from sprint are like 80$ a month service. it would be expensier to use your phone as a modem. sprint anyways..

[northvibe]

tmobiles pcmcia card is 199 and the unlimited service is 50 per month. For mobile satellite internet, i googled and it came up with some companies that do it. Ive never used it, but ive had some clients that had to in their RV and liked it, they used High-speed satellite internet, so its sorta pricey.

[viberationz]

Ouch 3G's! Maybe I will just haul it along and use the wireless in hotel's... Although it was a thought I had - now I see why more people don't have it. It would be very cool for camping for long periods of time though. Thanks for the heads up!

[AKLGT]

sorry, we're no there yet, but this is what i have: http://www.clearwire.com. recently signed an agreement with Bell Canada to start working on systems in 75% of Canada.

[viberationz]

how much do you pay?

[johnsoax]

Quote, originally posted by mcgusto82 »the pcim cards from sprint are like 80$ a month service. it would be expensier to use your phone as a modem. sprint anyways..Wow that's expensive, you can get unlimited data from sprint through a bluetooth phone for $19.99 a month. It will be bluetooth speeds though.

[Jahntassa]

By the way, getting internet on your AVIC-N1 is pretty much impossible. Only thing you could do is get a computer or a laptop with a video output and plug that into a composite input on the N1, which will probably not be very readable. You'd really need a seperate laptop, or a screen like what Hope or I have (or MatrixPC if he's lurking)

[viberationz]

I don't want the net on the AVIC-N1 screen - I want to put my laptop in the Vibe. But thanks for the heads up on that one - I never knew you couldn't have the net on that screen... Although when you think of it - it would be fairly small. Movies aren't too bad on there - and I have had people play the Game Cube on it before.

[AKLGT]

yes, keep in mind if you are trying to do any computing via PC or even Mac, any OEM screen isn't going to do the trick. as i learned the hard way, you have to have a VGA monitor of some sorts. IF clearwire were in your area, expect to pay anywhere from $30-50/mo unlimited bandwidth usually from 512K (slow package) up to 1.5 Mbps (and I usually get much more than that). Right now, my car system doesn't cost me anything since it's my demo modem, however I love it so much that I switched our home system out where I happily pay my $55 after all fees (this is about $25 LESS than I was paying before for LESS speed!). Once our Mobile Units come out, this modem will be swapped out for that. We'll also be coming out with some sort of PCMAI card later this year I'm told too. so we'll see.....

[Jahntassa]

Sorry, just wanted to make sure! I see a lot of posts on the CarPC forums of people wanting to use their regular screens for PCs.Well, if Clearwire is in your area (as Hope said, and I've heard a lot of good things about it aside from her reviews!) that's one idea. Other than that Verizon offers several packages. One is National Access which offers around 200Kb, the other is Broadband Access that can spike up to 2Mb depending on where you are in the service area. I think that costs around $60 if you aren't a Verizon cellular customer.Cingular and T-Mobile also have portable data plans, but plenty of people have hooked up their phones and used those to connect. The data plans might work out better though, because they're often unlimited.

[vibebob]

we have Panasonic Toughbooks in our work trucks and have cell cards on them. I think the city pays $50.00 a month for unlimited access. it is really quick. The screen has brightness adjustment and it works well inside and out side the truck. We also have an external antenna adapter for those areas where the signal is weaker. The toughbooks were pricy, $4,000 and we got them through Homeland Security backing.

[AKLGT]

nice. we have crappy IBM Thinkpad R51's. they are about 3 yrs old now and a bit outdated and slow. up here, the only cellular based system available is CDMA-EVDO through a local vendor. it sucks because at best, you can only get 400 kbps and usually about 32 kpbs. for their unlimited package it's $99 and you have to buy their Sierra card from them for $300 on a 2 year contract or $599 for no contract. plus, they don't want anyone else to use their system, so they made no roaming agreements with outside companies like Verizon who also uses the CDMA-EVDO system. for people who come up here, they can't use their's either!

[ToolGuy]

We sold Tough Books for a Harley Davidson application. Nice equipment!

[AKLGT]

our Lead Field Tech just bought himself a toughbook. running Linux on it. pretty cool system, he got it off ebay for like $100!