Thursday, August 6, 2009

WiFi Issues

Traveling and online instruction should, in theory, be easy. There is wifi available everywhere....right? Wrong. Last year I found out just how wrong. Hotels might have internet access where ever you go but we camp. So looking for RV sites with wifi was an adventure. But we consistently booked at them. What we considered good access and what we got was sometimes two completely different things. Some places were good and wifi was available at our site. Other places, the wifi was only available at a bench outside of the main office. Other places went the cheap route and had "residential" wifi instead of multiple. So, if you were the first person on in the morning, you were good to go. Otherwise, you were pretty much out of luck.

This year Rogers introduced tethering - I thought great, this will solve all my problems. Almost. You still need to be in cell phone range (camping at a provincial park in the middle of nowhere does not get you cell phone access).

All in all though, it has been much better this year. Whether I am linked to wifi access at a Starbucks or tethering on my cell phone, I can get access at least a couple of times a day.