A huge interest has been expressed in connecting to the Internet for other than simple Email or on line banking. Many RVers wish to browse or surf the Net. Some need to access major newspapers, while others require extensive on line time to manage their business or maintain their own WEB server for others to surf. Still others want to enter chat rooms on line and communicate directly with other people in a private or forum conference, all very common needs for most Internet users. However, these wants require relatively high speed access to and from the Internet. Herein lies the universal problem faced while traveling in an RV, trying to do what is normally performed in an office or typical home with a permanent phone line.

In my last article I promised to test acoustic couplers and report on their advertised speeds of over 20,000 bits per second (BPS). I found that most of the modern, high speed couplers are made by Konexx Corporation. These couplers retail for around $150 under the name of Konexx Model 204. They are also wholesaled to a number of other respected communications firms. They tout the ability to simply set a telephone handset in the rubber cups of the coupler, plug the coupler into the modem and communicate at very high speeds. It's true these modern couplers can accomplish this, however they neglect to note that payphones in America cannot. The average payphone an RVer uses will not operate above 2400 BPS at all and is only reliable at 1200 BPS, because these phones use carbon packed diaphragms in both the send and receive elements of the handset. European telephone systems are all digital, as are the handsets, and work well at very high speeds.

All is not completely lost, browsing the Internet on the road is not impossible. We chose Concentric.net as our Internet provider because of simplified billing and the availability of an 800 number. If you call them for account set up at 800-745-2747 they will send you either the Netscape or Microsoft browser software free. Be sure let them know if you want it on CD ROM or floppy disks. Essentially the 800 plan costs 8.3 cents per minute of connectivity. They have other plans ranging from $7.95 to $19.95 monthly with multiple cities to select from, depending on where you are at on any given day.

Before you rush out and buy an acoustic coupler, change your speed settings in the dialer to 1200 BPS and then 2400 BPS to make certain your Internet provider will work at those low speeds. Juno, used for Email only will not. The 800 number simplified our dialing setup and remains the same wherever we are. We use Windows 95 modem dial facilities and Netscape Personal Edition Release 3 for the browser software. I have many personal reasons for choosing Netscape as a browser. It simply gives me more intuitive control over dialing situations than others I tested. As an example, if one is going to have to browse the network at 2400 BPS it is nice to be able to click on options and disable graphics downloads. Since it's the graphics on most WEB pages that require so much data transfer, disabling that part lets only the text data flow. In this manner, browsing is possible from a public payphone, but is still rather slow. Keep your bookmarks up to date and go directly to the sites and pages you want. While this is not true surfing, it does allow one to access pages they go to frequently without having to drill down through multiple WEB sites or pages.

The trick to getting acoustic couplers to work is not, repeat not, letting your PC do the dialing. The sequence of events, pulse or tone, operator interactions and even dial tones will be different everywhere you go. It is difficult enough to set up automatic dialing and automated operator responses from a fixed telephone in suburbia. To go through that effort every time you want to access the Internet is begging for mental pain. Set the Windows dial feature for maximum time-out to connect, and select the option for user or operator assisted dialing. While keeping the telephone hook down, the PC will try to dial out whatever number you have entered and will wait for the modem connection synchronization to occur. As soon as the modem has finished dialing into thin air, it will wait for the distant modem to answer. Let up on the telephone hook and manually dial the number(s). Take any other actions required by the automated operator. When the distant modem answers press "connect" on the dial software and place the handset into the acoustic coupler. After the modems synchronize, bring up the browser and/or Email program.

If you are using on line banking or other non browsing Internet dialing programs, you will have to modify the AT string slightly. AT commands tell your modem how to operate. There is always a place to modify the AT command string. At the end of the string enter X1. If the string ends with an &M enter X1 before that. If there is an X4 in the string change it to X1. This tells your modem not to pay any attention to the dial tone or lack of it. We ordered & tested the acoustic coupler from TeleFast at 408-965-1400. The coupler was called a TeleFast Plus Acoustic Coupler (made by Konexx). That is about as technical as I should get in this article. If you have any further questions regarding this or any other related material, select my Email address at the bottom of this article and pose whatever questions you may have directly to me. I will be glad to personalize a response

The very latest in high speed communications is satellite data reception. The only current offering is from Hughes Electronics named DirecPC or DirecDuo. The packages come in a variety of flavors. All options require the purchase of the Direc antenna. It is 3 inches larger in diameter than the 18 inch satellite TV antenna and is slightly elliptical. You can use this antenna to receive standard DSS television simply by plugging it in rather than using the smaller 18 inch antenna. It has a second capability, by accessing a 4th satellite, for high speed Internet access data rates up to 400,000 BPS (absolutely amazing). Package one is simply a PC board and software. Package two is a standard Hughes satellite receiver and the PC board. Package three is just the standard Satellite receiver with the option of adding data later. The prices appear to range between $400 and $600 for the data and TV options after a $100 rebate offered. Obviously, if you already have DSS, with Hughes satellite receiver, you would only need the antenna and PC board with software. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that unlimited monthly access charges are $39.95 a month for 6PM to 6AM and weekends at 400,000 BPS and $19.95 for the same at 200,000 BPS. For 6AM to 6PM and weekends it is an expensive $129 a month. There are many other tailorable plans. To get more details call 800-DIRECPC.

The above is the relatively expensive but good news. The bad news is that one still needs a telephone line to talk to the system. The system sends to your PC via satellite but only receives from your PC via a telephone line having a minimum speed of 9600 BPS. Incidentally, 9600 BPS is what one can expect from a cellular telephone. I think you get the drift. The object is: it takes only a small request (at 9600 BPS) for a massive data response (at 400,000 BPS). If one needed to transfer worldwide stock quotes daily to an RV this would be an excellent way to accomplish it. A short on line connection at low transfer speeds via cellular phone sets the wheels in motion for a massive high speed data transfer via satellite. At the same time major newspapers could be being downloaded from pointcast.com while Email is also being loaded down in a flash. Entire library books could be downloaded in seconds. Putting 400,000 BPS into perspective, it is the same as 50,000 typewritten characters per second, or 8 bits per character.

If you gain nothing else from this discussion, please remember that satellite received data is over 41 times as fast as using cellular alone. Those that complain about cellular costs for data could potentially reduce their cellular charges by as much as 40 to 1. The overwhelming percentage of data transferred in a typical browsing mode is from the WEB site to your computer. You only make small requests, resulting in a massive page transfer to your computer. If used together, teaming cellular and satellite could be the way to go. I talked to representatives of Schwab online banking and Omega Research, a stock tracking, research program. Both are looking into ways that appropriate data can be sent to users at predetermined times. This would relieve the need to use a cellular phone to request the same repetitive files information daily. I can not help but think that eventually all providers will self initiate such repetitive data files transfers, including inbound Email. For now, we will have to wait for those functions.

One major constraint is that the PC must be able to handle the insertion of a standard 16 bit ISA circuit board. The PC must be Pentium and have 20 meg of hard drive space available. This means one must have a standard desktop or tower PC with an empty card slot rather than simply a portable laptop. Laptop owners, lucky enough to find a compatible one, could purchase a docking station or port expander that could hold the PC card. All-in-all this is an expensive endeavor, but it is the only show on the road of its' kind. However, for those just considering what to buy, investing in a small tower computer rather than the traditional traveling portable, could save money by starting and ending with the more modifiable traditional computer at less cost. I will still maintain my portable PC for those times I find a computer friendly campground or to use payphones to send simple Email and perform on line banking, but only because already own it. Otherwise, I am not sure I would.

In the next article we plan to discuss Global Positioning Systems (GPS) on RVs as well as some of the map and travel routing programs associated with GPS. These systems track your route as you travel and your RV shows up on the map indicating where it is and has been. We will go into detail about how to start a newsletter using Windows 95 built in features and label printing for mass mailings. Please select my Email address below if you would like to comment on this article or to request specific subjects or details in future articles. lmchaney@concentric.net

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