Ross...If you buy a tripod Sat system they are very well priced. I just bought a brand new one for under 500. I bought a Survey Tripod off ebay for 60 and the monthly fees have come down to 69.00 a month for unlimited access.If you go with the auto system it's around 4500 installed...monthly fees are the same.I tried the WiFi thing and maybe it's great out east but it's very spottly out west. With the Sat Sys you can get online anywhere you may be, why limit yourself to camp where there's WiFi... . besides its a business expenceDatastorm users forum /tripods & auto systemshttp://www.datastormusers.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi/index.htmlRonPS way cooooool toys on your site
Ross, I strongly recommend Scott Whitney at: http://dustyfoot.com/.Scott is a bus nut and manufacturers the tripod system. He has at least one distributor, but he will sell direct.As for the house, you can use the tripod, or you can buy the dish and feed horn and mount it on the roof. I think they are going for about $100 on Ebay.I suspect you already know, but on satellite, the down load is about the speed of cable or DSL, but the upload is only a bit faster than dialup. The upload speed has not been a problem for us, we just plan to do something else when we are updating the website or sending a large file. Email is a bit slow as well if you use pop3 since each message has to have a "handshake" and the 22K mile one way trip delays the handshake a bit. Email attachments are fast, though.
(Dr Dave Sez "Oh the other hand... Isn't part of the idea of the "Bus" to get away from stress and constantneed for being "connected"?)I agree Dave but some of us can work where ever we are with a high speed internet connection. I also use it for VOIP (both ways in & out) and only use my cell phone for emerg. when in cell service... we find it way cheaper than useing the cell phone.Ron