Which truckstop hotspot is best?
 

I'm hoping to be able to watch the games I want to see here:

http://www.channelsurfing.net/

I need a fast connection and these national services don't like you to use much bandwidth. Years ago, I had the Flying J service, and I was very satisfied. I only had one problem with them, toward the end of the contract for "unlimited use" they claimed I was using too much bandwidth and cut me off. But, that was years ago.

Obviously, the Pilot has the most locations. TA just changed over their service. Which one is best?

Anyone watch sports online? Which websites do you use? TIA

flying J is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO slow. i wont pay for it anymore

i have better luck with idle air internet service. but thats not too muck better.
but i have been able to watch streaming video there before

Your best bet, imo, is to get somewhere near a Panera or a Starbucks or a WiFi-ready McDonalds (not one that's IN the truck stop) and use their Wifi. I'm not a hotspot user, but, when I've used them, those places seem much faster. Of course, they don't have truck parking most of the time. There are some within walking distance of truck parking but you have to keep track of that.

There's a Starbucks near the Petro in Wheeler Ridge and a Panera up by the Wal-Mart on I 80 PA... can't seem to remember what exit. It's where there's a TA and it's middle or eastern PA.

Anyway, they're around.

Truck stops like to charge their captive audience but places where "normal people" (aka people who aren't limited by the size of their vehicle and, therefore, have choices) make WiFi a free perk.

Some rest areas now have Wifi. If you use the internet a lot it may benefit you to have an air card. I prefer my air card due to it's mobility. I don't have to worry about being at a particular truck stop to get on line. I pay about $60/month plus sales tax. If you are an OOIDA member you can get Sprint for a 10% discount. That would bring your monthly cost down to about $54/month.

I agree with Gman, the air card is the way to go. Not only do you not have to hunt for WiFi hot spots, consider this: anyone with a little know-how can hack into a WiFi router and watch all the traffic going through it. The vast majority are *not* secure. Free WiFi? Yeah, you get what you pay for and it could be costly if you send personal info over a free router and it gets pilfered by an identity thief.


Get an air card. You can get on anywhere your provider offers service through the cellular network, not somebody's router being watched by God knows who.

I have been told by my provider that they scramble the signal from the air cards. That makes it difficult for anyone to get your personal information.

Problem with air cards is they limit bandwith usage to 5 gig a month and streaming video is a huge bandwidth hog. I just listen to the NFL games on Sirius then download them later as bit torrents if I want to watch them.

That's what I was trying to say about bandwidth in the OP if it wasn't clear. I have an aircard, but it's slow and you'll use a lot of bandwidth watching TV.

The card works great for most functions, but I need a fast hotspot when there is something particular on TV that I want to watch like a game. For instance, if I know the game will be on noon on Saturday, that means I just need to get to a hook or a Pilot or a TA or whatever...IF the connections are fast enough. Same with the presidential debate (though that's usually on Youtube soon after). Mostly just sports.

I do go to Panera or some place like that when I'm bobtailing.

I notice that when I look at any video from my laptop that it will constantly start, stop then start again. I was wondering if anyone could tell me how to correct this problem? It makes it difficult to follow some of these videos.

if the video is streaming, it's playing as it's downloading, if you can, set the player to buffer more of the video to be downloaded first, before the player starts playing, would be your best option.