Vacation internet access

May 26, 2006 6:45 AM

What's the best way to get on line at a remote cabin with no phone access?

I am spending a week at a cabin with no phone service. I will need to check email a couple of times a day to monitor the progress of a huge project in my office. I don't want to run into town to an internet cafe. Are there satellite services which would work through a PCMCIA on my laptop and would allow me to purchase the service for only a month?

posted by Jandasmo to technology (7 comments total)

If you have cell phone access, you might look into EVDO.
posted by Mr. Six at 6:49 AM on May 26, 2006

Well... if there are satellite services, you have the following problems (luckily yours WON'T be the horrible ping times or incredibly expensive per meg charges, since you just want it for email):

You will need a dish, which which will need to be accurately pointed. The dish could be as small as 18" if you had an upstream connection (normally through the phone line!!! sorry...), but you'd still need to install it yourself. I doubt the cabin owners will appreciate that (unless you own it!)

Or... you'll need two way service. AFAIK, the FCC requires two way dishes be professionally installed by a licensed installer (unlike one way dishes). They are bigger than 18" dishes and ridiculously expensive (mostly for the hardware, access can be very expensive, but isn't always).

In the US various providers sell two-way service, including DirecWay (uggggggh, although in your case you probably won't care about being FAPped to death, since you only want it for email).
posted by shepd at 6:56 AM on May 26, 2006

Blackberry? If there is cellular service in the area you can have your email forwarded to the RIM device.
posted by Gungho at 7:12 AM on May 26, 2006

Cell phones can be adapted if you have coverage. People around here do it fairly commonly from their cabins and boats. Ask your provider. Asuming you don't have cell coverage, portable satellite phones (in Canada) can be rented for in the order of 200$/month, and then around 1$ per minute of uptime. I have dialed in to an ISP through a fixed satellite phone using normal dialup connection so you might look into whether portable sat phones have a line in/out capacity. Sorry I can't be more specific than that.

I'd second the have a real vacation or figure out another way to stay in touch (rent a satellite phone and just talk to them?) rather than lugging your work with you, but then, that isn't what you asked....
posted by Rumple at 8:59 AM on May 26, 2006

Find someone who can rent you one of these
posted by adamvasco at 11:30 AM on May 26, 2006

One of these might also work.
posted by hades at 11:50 AM on May 26, 2006

Getting data out of remote locations is what I do. You have a few options. For satellite, there are the consumer satellite internet services, which require a dish, and there is Inmarsat (The two links directly above), which you can get to with smaller equipment, but it will cost you.

If there is any chance of a cell phone signal, you can buy an external antenna for your phone.

How far is the town? Do you have line of sight? If so, you could set up a directional wifi antenna and then talk someone in town into letting you have access.
posted by Nothing at 1:25 PM on May 26, 2006