Truly mobile internet, satellite Internet!

I am interested in putting a internet in our RV, Satellite Internet to be exact.

The company hugesnet.com offers satellite internet service that is fairly cheap if you consider that DSL/Cable costs at least $25 month or more and the speed is comparable to DSL/Cable.

So what do you need to accomplish this connect anywhere? You need the transmitter/receiver set, and an antenna (the setup). You would also want to have a router setup between your Satellite connection and your computer.

When you buy (I would not rent the setup, the company you contact may not rent the setup anyway if you are putting it on an RV) you have to mount the antenna on the roof of the RV or have a tower to setup when you are stationary. I think if your RV supports air conditioners and travel pods on the roof it will support a mount for the Satellite antenna.

I plan on using a 'turntable' platform for our antenna (drawing), that way I can take the antenna down and store it while I am traveling then setup the antenna when we stop, with the turntable I can rotate the antenna in the correct direction to connect to the Satellite, then set the correct angle (azimuth) of the Antenna to connect.

Inside the RV I am setting up a network, I will be working while I travel around the country and part of that work is a computer web site along with this web site. So I need all of my resources with me. For this network I am using two old laptops that will not consume a lot of power and will have a battery in case of power interruptions.

The network will consist of a router, a firewall server, an Active Directory Server, and our computers. I may have a desktop but will rely on my laptop for my work. For now I don't plan on having a Desktop computer but if my laptop doesn't have the power to do the great pictures that I am going to put on this web site I will have to figure out how to put one in the RV.

Wired or Wireless?

I really want to do wired network inside the RV, even though the RV skin (outside covering) is fiberglass and may block or reduce the signal of the wireless broadcast I am still not convinced it is enough to degrade the signal to keep someone from trying to hack or connect to the network.

Wiring will be harder with the thin spaces between the outside and inside walls of the RV. How ever a professional Network Engineer has the tools and may be able to 'pull' the cables from one point to another for the nodes.

Wireless is easier and cheaper, but remember that wireless has two inherent weaknesses: Signal strength and Signal hacking.

For inside the RV the signal will be strong enough but once you go outside the signal may degrade to a point where if you go over a certain distance away from the RV you will not be able to connect. If this is the case then  you could use a wireless signal booster wired to the outside of the RV. If you go this route be sure to secure your wireless router with the strongest security possible.

If you decide to go the wired inside route and want to have a wireless access point you can turn on when you want to be outside the RV then you could set the access point up the same as the wireless router. The idea of using the secured access point is you reduce your risk of someone using or hacking in to your network. With wired network they have to have physical access to the network to connect, where as with wireless the only have to be close enough to connect and with a RV park the RV's are close enough.

Remember the better you protect your data the longer it will be yours only.