Newb internet over the road question - US and Canada

This is the first time I seen this thread.

First, no mod edited any information or it would show it at the bottom of the post.

The thread was probably in the wrong forum and a mod doing housecleaning probably just keyed in on The Canadian words. 500 some post a day, there is alot going on in the background.

I'll move it to the Electronic forum as it pertains to wifi.

 

Now that's done...

Playing Xbox uses up the bandwidth quick. The same with movie downloads.

Using truckstop wifi is iffy depending on the connection and traffic. Flying J's usually had the best signals and dependability. Pilots and TA's were a coin toss. You'll find about 15% of the truck stops where the system is down, then about half of the rest you will have connection issues as the signal bounces around all the metal trucks in the parking lot with a weak signal. Usually the best connection is parking close to the antenna. I always looked for it when I parked. I have a keychain wifi finder with a signal strength meter on it. Pretty handy device.

You can stop at Walmart and shop the pay as you go plans. You can renew them online or buy a renewal card many places including truck stops. Something like that would be more accomodating to you.

Verizon limits you and is rather higher in cost than the others. Most cases you will be parked in a metropolitan area. Something like Virgin Mobiles plan might be what you want. It runs off the Sprint network. It has unlimited usage for $50 a month. I'm sure they have yearly plans.

I've never used it and have no idea how fast it is. Maybe someone else can tell you.

http://www.virginmobileusa.com/mobile-broadband/

My neighbor has the Verizon mifi and it works good.

 

I use Verizon MiFi. It's pretty good. I usually get about 120-150 ping, which is ok for games online. I do ok on FPS games, but not as good as at home. I usually use 6-7 GB a month, but that includes hours of YouTube. Video streaming is sometimes fast where you can watch a video without pausing. Sometimes slow, may have to let video load half way before watching. Don't even think about watching Netflix. It will burn your data in no time.

I tried wifi at pilot, flying j, loves, and ta. They were, for the most part, awful. If you did buy a year subscription of pilot wifi, well your not going to stop at pilot every night. And it is slow.

If you get the mifi, you can use it anywhere, truck stop, rest area, at the shipper/receiver. You can even unplug it and take it with you. If you buy an iPod or galaxy player, you can use Google Maps which will reduce out of route miles and stress. You can see the shipper before you get there. I use Google Maps all the time on my iPod.

IMO MiFi + iPod or get a smartphone with hotspot.

 

DON'T buy a service for a truckstop. It's too much money and not versatile. Subscribe to Verizon for $50 a month for 4gb's. You can use it anywhere in the USA not just in a truckstop parking lot.