One of the most beneficial tools for Fulltime RVers
is access to the internet. Paying bills, banking, shopping, and receiving
mail are just a few of the tasks that are normally more complicated for
RVers who
travel extensively. Use of the internet can assist in all of these areas. Many
banks and credit card companies allow you to view your bill and even pay your
bill over the internet. Email allows timely exchange of information with friends,
relatives and, if you are still working, business associates and clients.
The internet lets you keep up with current news, sports and weather.
Additionally, purchases made through the internet offer new freedom for RVers
to do business with known merchants regardless of where you are at the moment.
There are two primary uses for the internet. For the users
only interested in email, small devices can be purchased for under $200 that
allow you to use a phone line or even a pay phone to send and retrieve email.
There is a monthly fee of
about $10. This is a good solution to communicating with
friends and relatives but access to bill paying services or even getting email
attachments such as photos of the new nephew is not possible.
To fully utilize the power of the internet, you must have a computer and an
Internet Service Provider (ISP). If you are traveling very much, a
national ISP such as MSN, Earthlink or AOL will allow you to call a local
telephone number to connect to the internet in hundreds of
towns and cities across the U.S. National ISP's have rate plans varying
from free (www.juno.com), if you don't mind lots of ads downloading while you
wait, to about $22 per month for unlimited connection time and no advertising.
Most RVers use a laptop computer since they are smaller, lighter, and can
be easily carried into a campground office to use a phone line. With a
computer and a national ISP, you can connect to the internet and use
email (including sending and receiving files such as photos), check the
weather (www.weather.com), pay bills, check to see if a deposit has made it to
your bank, etc. Then, the only problem is finding that phone line.
A few RV campgrounds are meeting the growing desire for
internet access by their customers. Unfortunately, the majority of campgrounds are not set
up to provide this service. Some new
campgrounds provide instant-on phone service at each site. This is a
terrific benefit but it is still a rarity and in some cases the campgrounds
are located in areas where it is unlikely that the RVer would have a local
telephone number to connect to their Internet Service Provider. The cost
of an instant on telephone line can be a flat rate per day of $1-5 or can be
based on the number of calls, typically at $0.50 each, or can be based on a
fixed charge per minute or some combination of these charges.
Some campgrounds provide a telephone
jack in the laundry room or office where you can plug in your computer during
the hours the facility is open. Others may allow you to plug into their
fax line or phone line for a few minutes. Some campgrounds do not have a
separate charge for use of their common modem connection. Others charge several
dollars to use the line and may place a limit of 5-15 minutes on it's use.
Unfortunately, many campgrounds still have no
facilities at all to aid you in connecting to the internet.
There are other ways to connect to the internet. Some city public libraries may let you use their internet
connection, although many require a library card which may be expensive or
unavailable to non-residents. If you are lucky enough to be near a
Kinko's Copy Center, most have workstations set up
for customers to plug in their laptop computers and access the internet.
Many Kinko's do not charge you for the use of this connection as long as you are
dialing a local number or a toll-free number and using your own computer.
A number of campgrounds have installed WiFi systems. For a
daily charge, you can log onto the park's wireless system from the comfort of
your coach if your computer has a wireless access card in it. As the
number of parks with WiFi systems increases, this will become a much more
viable option.
If you find that you need or desire to have access to the internet on a
regular, daily basis, you must currently still look at other alternatives.
page updated 12/28/05
