“What do you do for Internet?”

We get asked that question all the time.

It’s a good question. If you intend to travel full time in your RV, quality Internet access is crucial – especially if you are working from the road. It’s easy to claim that you can get work done anywhere you have an Internet connection; but it’s often a pain to actually get that connection.

We’ve stayed at hundreds of different campgrounds over the years. We have learned that campground-provided Internet is completely unreliable. The ones that offer genuine high quality, high speed Internet access throughout the park are exceedingly rare. (Shout out to the Red Trail Campground in Medora, North Dakota! Your wifi rocks.) Most campground Internet — to be frank — sucks. You simply can’t rely on it.

Usually the problem is one of coverage; to receive a strong signal, you need to be parked near the tower. So even in campgrounds with a strong wireless networks, your assigned site may be too far from the broadcasting tower to grab a decent signal. Or maybe you’ll have a strong connection for a day, only to find it blocked when a monster motorhome parks between you and the tower. Or your connection will work well in the front of your rig, but you’ll get absolutely no reception in the back. Or you can connect to the network just fine, but the network delivers no Internet access. (So you call the front office: “Can you please reset the router?”) We’ve encountered all of these scenarios.

What about “free wifi?” It’s nice when you can find it. We’ve grabbed our fair share of free wifi from coffee shops and restaurants like Panera Bread. This works well enough, only it’s not exactly ‘free’ if you are buying a $20 lunch for the privilege of getting some work done. And in the case of ‘free wifi,’ you also have issues with bandwidth and time restrictions. Many places like Panera Bread will automatically kick you off their Internet network after 60 minutes of usage. Others will throttle down your access speed if you are consuming much bandwidth.

The same goes for many libraries and the free Internet they offer. They all have different systems for Internet access. The best offer free “all you can eat” Internet access, but these are rare. Sometimes you are forced to get a ‘usage ticket’ that parcels out Internet access in 30-minute segments. While I understand their reasons for taking this approach, it’s a major inconvenience to anyone trying to get real work done.

Large retailers like Home Depot and Staples (and grocery stores like Safeway) sometimes offer free public wifi. We had great success with these networks in Canada. (I’ll never forget Skyping Kristy’s parents from the Staples parking lot in Whitehorse, Yukon.) But you can’t stay in these parking lots forever.

So your best bet, if you want a reliable wifi network, is to create your own.

There are satellite solutions. Most of them are priced well into the two thousand dollar range. They involve the installation of a dish or similar hardware to your rig. Then you pull the Internet signal from the sky, not unlike a satellite TV signal. If you are camping in areas of remote wilderness (like the Yukon) this approach may merit investigation. It’s not the fastest Internet connection, but it offers global coverage.

We do most of our camping in the lower 48 states. While we love camping in national parks, our rig is usually within reach of cellular towers. Heck, these days you can get cellular signals in parts of Yellowstone. (Whether or not this is a positive development is up for debate.)

This brings us to a company called Singlepoint and their product Wifi in Motion. On our way home from Alaska, Singlepoint asked us to try out their latest wifi gear in our Airstream. We happily agreed. Read More