truck stop wireless internet

Discussion in 'Questions From New Drivers' started by medic1, Sep 28, 2009.

  1. medic1

    medic1 Bobtail Member

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    Sep 28, 2009
    Grand Rapids, MI
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    been out of otr driving for awile, with all this new technology do truckstops have wireless internet
     
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  3. notarps4me

    notarps4me Road Train Member

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    Yeah, but I prefer a air card.
     
  4. brinkj23

    brinkj23 "Asphalt Cowboy"

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    Yeah I prefer air cards to, cheaper and easier to use. I never like the wireless at truckstops. Almost all the decent sized stops have wireless, and all the TA's, petros, hooks, and pilots have wireless.
     
  5. Crazyeyes

    Crazyeyes Light Load Member

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    Jul 18, 2009
    Bufu, Illinois
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    They do.... but all the big names charge a nice little fee to use it.

    you can pay by the hour, by the day, monthly, and yearly, and so on. They all don't necessarily have the same pay options/terms, but I was a lil sad to find out that there is a fee at all.... You could always find a decent hotel/motel to park in or other certain spots that dont charge a fee for service, but Ive also noticed its almost 50/50 at some of those places now too in order to use their service.

    Best option is buying a wireless card/usb device(not from a truck stop.)
    They also have varying plans. I chose verizon, unfortunately they dont have an unlimited plan, but I get 5 gigs of usage per month(which is very hard to go over, unless you download the music and pron every moment of your life) for $60.00 a month.. I researched and seem to have found they have the best nationwide coverage, plus you can use that card while traveling down the road as well, or wherever you wish. Certain places in Montana and the panhandle of Idaho(I-90) are about the only 2 places Ive found myself losing service off and on a bit, been just about everywhere else and have not had issue
     
  6. brinkj23

    brinkj23 "Asphalt Cowboy"

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    Dec 26, 2005
    Minnesota
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    I use my blackberry pearl phone as a modem, same thing as using an air card. I was with alltel before they merged with verizon so they had to let me keep the unlimited usage so I could download whatever I like and watch tv. It kinda stinks when your in the sticks though cause the internet is gonna be really slow. Another thing that stinks about truck stop wireless is most of them have a limit on how much bandwith you can use or how many bytes you can download, once you go over that you have to pay again even if you paid for 24 hours.
     
  7. notarps4me

    notarps4me Road Train Member

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    That and a 100 truckers log on and boot you off...:biggrin_2556:
     
  8. capfiremedic

    capfiremedic Light Load Member

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    Jan 8, 2012
    Bay St. Louis, MS
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    Most truck stop internet connections are slow, have connnectifity issues in various areas of the lot and are overpriced... as is most of the items they sell. That being said, I've been in smaller stops that offer it for free and it works quite well. However, (isn't there always one of those?) many wifi hookups limit the sites you can visit. I couldn't access the NRA because it dealt with "weapons" and some actual news sites are blacklisted as well. Bottom line, don't take my money for a service and then tell me I can't use it...

    The only sure way to have it is to get a boradband card. The downside here is the data limits. Most of your cell carriers offered unlimited plans until they say that people really wanted unlimited use. That put the kibosh on those plans. Now even the "unlimited" plans have data use limits.

    I have an old plan that I won't let go of. It's one of the old unlimited plans and verizon does their best to try to get me to change to the 4G or whatever catch phrase is in use, until I get them to admit that mine is the most economical...
     
    Last edited: Feb 10, 2012
  9. lonewolf4ad

    lonewolf4ad Road Train Member

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    I don't have an aircard, instead I use the EVO and I have unlimited with Sprint. Even in poor coverage areas I usually have at least DSL speeds (200k). In larger areas i even have speeds exceeding 1meg. Now while that's not blazing fast internet, it will load any website easily enough, and works fine for netflix.
     
    Last edited: Feb 10, 2012
  10. Hitchner2009

    Hitchner2009 Bobtail Member

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    Feb 10, 2012
    Panama City, FL.
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    anybody know if you can play online video games off of truckstop wifi?
     
  11. lonewolf4ad

    lonewolf4ad Road Train Member

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    It depends on what games Hitch, anything such as xbox, ps3, or extensive graphics computer games (WoW) not many truckstops are going to carry the bandwidth for it, and even if they do you still have alot of latency.
     
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