Many of us are addicted to our E-mail when we are at home or at the office. But when we go on the road in our Rvs, we lose contact with business associates, grandchildren, and friends. Many Rvers want to be able to check their stock quotes, bank balances, or shop online. Having an internet connection from the RV in the campground is not always easy. Some campgrounds have telephone connections at a few sites, for an extra cost, or a place in the office where you can plug in your laptop computer to collect your messages with an 800-number.

Our writers who are on the road have to be able to access the internet to send stories back to the office. Some go into the nearest library and book time on the internet, often for the next day. So it is necessary for them to stay in an area for more than one day to be able to send out their stories. Sometimes it is even necessary for them to send their stories and photos back to the office by overnight courier.

In the past, we have used Bell's Data-To-Go program if we were in a digital cellular area. But this doesn't work at all in an analogue transmission area. And to make matters more confusing, some areas do not use the same system for digital transmission. Ontario uses one system, while Vancouver uses a much higher frequency to transmit digital information. Data-To-Go connects your computer through your digital cell phone to a modem in the telephone companies' offices to allow you to send and receive e-mail.

Digital cellphones with e-mail capabilities allow users to send short text only messages (up to 160 characters) from one phone to another. Later this year some cellphone companies will be upgrading their networks in certain metropolitan areas of the country to accept the newer GPRS 2.5G phones. This could speed up the transfer of data, but any new development comes with a high cost for early adopters. This service will mostly be used by companies until the price comes down, and service areas become more universal.

Some of our readers stay in e-mail contact with family and friends when on the road using a toll-free number (1-800-320-6727 in USA or Canada) from any telephone with a system called PocketMail. The service is available for $14.95 per month or $149 per year in US dollars. You can send faxes to destinations in USA or Canada for 25 cents per fax. The system allows you to store the equivalent of 20,000 - 500 character messages on the PocketMail Network. (Top)

You compose your message using the integrated keyboard on the Composer, which is a full-featured 512Kb organizer with personal digital assistant features; such as, scheduler and alarm, to-do list, calculator, address book, and Memo pad. You dial into the PocketMail service with the 800-number, when it answers "Welcome to PocketMail", hold your Composer to the telephone receiver and press the PocketMail button. In moments you will have sent and received your e-mail. After activation, your PocketMail composer will include one e-mail account, and you can also store alternative Reply-To addresses to help you access mail from your other AOL, POP3, or IMAP4 e-mail accounts, receive forwarded mail and reply as if from those accounts.

Until digital cellular coverage is available in all parts of the country, the only way to communicate while travelling between cities and in rural areas is with analog mode. This fall I have been experimenting with the Ositech system of connecting to the internet while on the road. 'The King of Clubs' CellFlex card allows you to connect to the Internet whether you are in a digital or an analogue cellular area. This card is inserted into a PCMCIA slot in the side of the laptop computer and connected to your cellular telephone with a short cord. To make a cellular data connection, the King of Clubs PC Card uses your cell phone's internal modem and your computer's power supply. Our ISP (Internet Service Provider) provides us with a list of local phone numbers to use in each area so that we don't have to use long distance each time we want to call in. This list of phone numbers is available over the internet, but I keep our list of contact numbers for the ISP on a word processing file so that I don't have to be connected to the Internet to locate the local number when I am away from home. With Ositech, it has been simple to make the e-mail connection- as the screen comes up to signify that I am calling our Internet Provider, I click on the modem that I want to use for the call, either the standard modem that came with the computer for land-line calls, or the Ositech King of Clubs card for cellular calls. Then I key in the local number for the Internet Service Provider (ISP) and hit Connect. In a few seconds I am into the service providers network and can collect my e-mail messages and send off any replies or messages to readers, the office, or the grandchildren. So far the speed has been very good (14,400 kBps) when receiving and sending e-mails across the country, from either Canada or the USA. CellFlex products are also compatible with the popular Personal Digital Assistants (PDA), like iPAQ, Jornada, and Cassiopiea, as well as others with PCMCIA Card slots. If you are calling from the USA, you have to remember that local cellular areas will charge a roaming fee plus any long distance charges, unless you have subscribed to the North America One Rate Plan. For those of you who are travelling in the South for one to three months or more, you can subscribe for only those months ($69/mth). If you are only travelling in Canada, the Real Time Canada Plan is for you. For $39/mth, you have 200 minutes of connect time with no long distance or roaming charges. (Top)

Some of our readers know that my wife and I have a KVH L3 TracVision satellite receiver installed on our motorhome. This can be used to download information from the internet using ExpressVu's high power DVB DirecPC system. In the past it was necessary to have a landline connection or cellphone connection to tell the ISP what information you wanted to download. Your Internet requests are transmitted by the modem in your personal computer to the DirecPC Network Operation Centre, which gathers your digital content and transmits the reponses over the high speed satellite space link straight to your hard drive, by way of ExpressVu's high powered DVB satellite. Download speeds can reach 400 kBps and is available through KVH's TracNet's IEEE 802.11b wireless server or 10/100 BaseT Ethernet connection from anywhere in the RV . Requests for data, outgoing E-mail, and other information are relayed to DirecPC through TracNet's return path, which includes a landline connection when parked in a campground, and a wireless satellite/cellular system when on the road. Uploads to the system can be connected anywhere from 9600 bps to 56 KBps determined by which uplink system is used. The DirecPC signal is strong enough to be able to be received throughout Canada and the continental USA using your KVH TracVision antenna. Most people download much more information than they upload, so the total speed of the connection is faster and therefore less expensive. If you already subscribe to ExpressVu satellite service for your television programming at home and in your RV, you can order DirecPC Surf-a-Lot for $39.95/mth. This allows you 60 hours a month of connection time. If you need more time and subscribe to the "Works, MegaCombo, or Combo Maxi Plus", you can order DirecPC Surf Unlimited and have unlimited connection time for $49.95/mth. You still have to retain your current choice of Internet Service Provider. There is a one time cost of $299 for the satellite modem and installation.

One of the things we have found is that junk mail will still come in on your e-mail account, whether you are at home or on the road. This junk mail takes time to download, so try to put a block on as much as you can. Canadians use wireless banking more than any other nation, so this makes e-mail access more important to Rvers on the road. For more information contact: www.pocketmail.com (877)362-4543, www.ositech.com (888)674-8324, www.kvh.com (401)847-3327. (Top)