Internet Connectivity at Truck Stops

Most truckstops have WiFi . It costs about $4.99 for a day but the signal could be weak . For a while I was stopping at Flying J's 3-4 times a week and bought the yearly subscription for $120 . If you Google Free Wifi it'll give you locations to find it . If you have AT&T DSL at home you can get free WiFi at businesses like Starbucks and McDonald's .

 

When I was OTR I had an air card from Verizon. It worked extremely well for me. It should have, at $80.00 plus a month. But it was well worth it to me at the time. That was for unlimited access.

This was several years ago. I have no idea what they get for those now.

 

According to the FlyingJ website the price is $149.99 a year. not $120.

Idleaire I believe is $125 a year but I never can get enough bandwidth to do video or audio streaming from them. They are good for email.

Pilot is even worse. They have about the same quality of service as Siricomm did as far as bandwidth is concerned. If you're not familiar with Siricomm, be happy you did not have to conduct business with them. They are out of business now thank god.

T/A and Petro have moderatly good wifi speed which is strange as the provider to them and Pilot is the same company named Wandering Wifi. I guess Pilot has a lower level of service or something from Wandering Wifi so thier speed is slower.

IMHO, FlyingJ has the best wifi at this point but this may change as FJ is going through bankruptcy and thier funds are limited. This could reflect in the maintenance of thier equipment and a reduction of bandwidth as they try to control costs. I have also noticed that a lot of the stand alone FJ access points have stopped working. I called FJ about it and they said they were not utilizing the stand alones anymore as they wewre too expensive to maintain.

In my order of preference of getting online:

#1 My Slingshot wifi aircard - $60 a month - Available net anyplace you get a cell signal from SPrint.

#2 FlyingJ

#3 T/A and Petro. I lump them together as they are the same company now.

#4 Idleaire. it's hit and miss as to quality of service.

#5 Finding free wifi - Google free wifi to find locations

#5 Pilot. My absolutly last choice of preference only to be used if I have ABSOLUTLY no other choice of online access, and then thats only if I REALLY need to look something up online.

These are just my humble opnions. Do with them as you will

 

Once you hook up to Flying J they offer discounts when you log on , like buy 2 months , get 1 free .

 

Nice list, I've been wondering what connectivity was like for those.

I use Sprint mobile broadband. So far I haven't been without internet (even if it was terribly slow at the worst possible places), and I do a lot online. I tend to park at the truck stops as Sprint normally has a tower near them, so reception tends to be pretty good.

Cost: $60.00/mo.

 

was at the pilot in nashville a few weeks ago... had free wifi so I opened up the old laptop and waited and waited and waited, then realized it was on and working.... just slowwwwwwwwwwwww

popped in a dvd and skipped the net altogather...

 

I have a sprint aircard but I only pay 30 dollars a month due to me having multiple lines and working a deal. I'm happy with my service.

 

I've always had decent luck with IdleAir. Flying J is pretty good, but don't get the $5 daily plan if you use the internet for anything other than simple web browsing. They have a 300mb limit on the $5 a day plan, which is unusable for me. I loaded up a movie from Hulu.com and the internet shut off not even halfway through and it told me to cough up another $5.
Pilot sucks because they use satellite internet. Half the time your lucky to get dial-up speed. I only used their service once, At the Pilot south east of Indianapolis on I74, a brand new Pilot in fact. It was awful. I called them up demanding my $5 back, which they never did give me. Never again. The Pilots out there in Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas are run by Bosselman, have free wi-fi, and it's fast. Unfortunately I rarely get out that way.

I've had the best luck at the mom and pop truckstops when it comes to wi-fi. You'd be surprised how many of them have it and almost never charge for it. I have the Sprint card, with the 5 gig cap. I always check and see if a wi-fi signal is out there.