Connie and I will be heading up to Edmonton, Banff and Jasper National Parks for about 6 weeks in the spring and wanted to see what advice ya'll might have for internet access. We normally use a WiFiRanger Pro to connect to park wifi with a Millenicom Verizon based aircard as backup. Obviously the aircard won't work up there without serious roaming charges (verified with Millenicom). We'll probably get an international plan on one of our iPhones for that month in case anybody needs to talk to us but are there any other options we should consider or just stick with Wifi from the park? Connie needs to work at her part time job about 10 hours a week and that requires internet access for the VPN to the college but we can always use Panera/McDonalds/whatever as a backup if we have to.
I don't want to get into a long term contract for a short term need but figured maybe one can rent a MiFi with a Canadian SIM card for a month for not too much $$ as a backup.
Any suggestions beyond these?
Lucky Mike said
02:22 AM Dec 20, 2012
Try Craigslist in Canada for that area under cellphones......you might be able to pick one up cheap and have it shipped down.....or ebay.
Im sure when your done you could sell it on here!!
Raytronx said
09:50 AM Dec 20, 2012
A lot of the Mcdonalds have free wifi and there are coffee/donut shops called Tim Hortons all over the country and many have free Wifi like Starbucks.
When I was visiting the maritimes I was able to get a pay as you go sim card for my Ipad, no contract through Bell, also you might check the Telus website they are big out west.
Ray
-- Edited by Raytronx on Thursday 20th of December 2012 09:53:31 AM
RVPAINTER said
03:30 PM Dec 20, 2012
We were in Hubbards Nova Scotia for 1 month this summer and in Old Quebec City for one month this summer and campground WiFi in Canada at best is HORRID - we were without it most of the time and when we could get it, it was very iffy and very,very slow. We have a WiFi Ranger mobile boost in our rig and it was not much help.
dianneandsteve said
06:53 PM Dec 20, 2012
With all due respect...is it really fair to paint the campground WIFI in an entire country as HORRID after just visiting a couple of campgrounds:) We have had HORRID and really good reception in many places throughout our travels in both Canada and when visiting the U.S.A.
We purchased the Telus MiFi and cancel the service when heading south. You could check with Telus and Rogers to see whats involved in buying one then selling it before leaving. And if it's feasible...with the following on this site I'm sure somebody is going to be heading north and would be glad to have it.
Cheers!
adeline and ed said
11:51 PM Dec 20, 2012
I don't know where you were in Canada but service is SAME in both countries..........In between Banff and Jasper it is iffy because of the mountains
RVPAINTER said
02:21 PM Dec 21, 2012
My post indicated where we were and in those 2 locations the WiFi was horrid - other parts of Canada I don't know about as we were only in the parts mentioned. In these parts of Canada if you are going to rely on just the campground WiFi you will be sadly disappointed.
Raytronx said
05:25 PM Dec 21, 2012
My experience with campground WiFi in both countries is its not built out with the bandwidth to accommodate peak demand when it is jammed packed. Also when its packed there are more rigs blocking things. I guess if your an owner you only want to pay enough to handle the average amount of campers.
Also in some spots like Eastern Canada the camp season is really short, the campgrounds have a whole different philosophy than some further south that can get a good load of campers 8-9 months of the year.
Generally its been my experience if the park is near capacity the WiFi will suck , if its half full usually fast WiFi. The WiFi booster usually only helps get the signal to the rig not make the crowded WiFi faster.
Ray
RVPAINTER said
05:35 PM Dec 21, 2012
Raytronx - you just described my month long experience in the area I mentioned - the campground was full all the time and the WiFi wasn't just bad - it was horrid - also a lot of kids trying to download all sorts of crap. However that said we LOVED Nova Scotia - great place and the scenery was GREAT!
Raytronx said
05:49 PM Dec 21, 2012
RVPainter, We were there summer 2011 and most were like that, but in September all the kids left and the campgrounds emptied out and most WiFi Was good. :) Traveling in FLA in January 2012 was the same, full parks, terrible park internet even the TenGointernet pay type!. ;)
We went to all 4 maritime provinces and loved them all
Cheers Ray
Neil and Connie said
03:02 AM Dec 23, 2012
Thanks all. I'll check Craigslist and also see if we can rent a MiFi short term. We had already pretty much planned on McDonalds and Hortons (along with Panera and whatever else we can scrounge up) if the park wifi isn't up to snuff. We'll be there from mid May to mid June; so hopefully for at least the first part we'll miss the heavy summer season. As I said we'll get an international plan for one of our iPhones and set up call forwarding on the other to the one that has service for phone. We already figured phone service would be iffy in the parks (our phones were left off the last time we were up since we were only there for a week or so)…but figure most parks will have wifi.
We've had good wifi and bad wifi and I can't say it's always depended on whether the park was full. Here in Fort Myers the park is pretty full and we're averaging 1.5 Mb/sec. We've had wifi that was down in the modem speed range and others that were decent.
I think I'll get Connie to tell her boss that work may be spotty for that period just in case we have trouble with bandwidth…I just wanted to make sure that I hadn't missed any obvious avenue to explore.
Connie and I will be heading up to Edmonton, Banff and Jasper National Parks for about 6 weeks in the spring and wanted to see what advice ya'll might have for internet access. We normally use a WiFiRanger Pro to connect to park wifi with a Millenicom Verizon based aircard as backup. Obviously the aircard won't work up there without serious roaming charges (verified with Millenicom). We'll probably get an international plan on one of our iPhones for that month in case anybody needs to talk to us but are there any other options we should consider or just stick with Wifi from the park? Connie needs to work at her part time job about 10 hours a week and that requires internet access for the VPN to the college but we can always use Panera/McDonalds/whatever as a backup if we have to.
I don't want to get into a long term contract for a short term need but figured maybe one can rent a MiFi with a Canadian SIM card for a month for not too much $$ as a backup.
Any suggestions beyond these?
Im sure when your done you could sell it on here!!
A lot of the Mcdonalds have free wifi and there are coffee/donut shops called Tim Hortons all over the country and many have free Wifi like Starbucks.
Here is a link to their WiFi locator
When I was visiting the maritimes I was able to get a pay as you go sim card for my Ipad, no contract through Bell, also you might check the Telus website they are big out west.
Ray
-- Edited by Raytronx on Thursday 20th of December 2012 09:53:31 AM
Also in some spots like Eastern Canada the camp season is really short, the campgrounds have a whole different philosophy than some further south that can get a good load of campers 8-9 months of the year.
Generally its been my experience if the park is near capacity the WiFi will suck , if its half full usually fast WiFi. The WiFi booster usually only helps get the signal to the rig not make the crowded WiFi faster.
Ray
Traveling in FLA in January 2012 was the same, full parks, terrible park internet even the TenGointernet pay type!. ;)
We went to all 4 maritime provinces and loved them all
Cheers Ray
Thanks all. I'll check Craigslist and also see if we can rent a MiFi short term. We had already pretty much planned on McDonalds and Hortons (along with Panera and whatever else we can scrounge up) if the park wifi isn't up to snuff. We'll be there from mid May to mid June; so hopefully for at least the first part we'll miss the heavy summer season. As I said we'll get an international plan for one of our iPhones and set up call forwarding on the other to the one that has service for phone. We already figured phone service would be iffy in the parks (our phones were left off the last time we were up since we were only there for a week or so)…but figure most parks will have wifi.
We've had good wifi and bad wifi and I can't say it's always depended on whether the park was full. Here in Fort Myers the park is pretty full and we're averaging 1.5 Mb/sec. We've had wifi that was down in the modem speed range and others that were decent.
I think I'll get Connie to tell her boss that work may be spotty for that period just in case we have trouble with bandwidth…I just wanted to make sure that I hadn't missed any obvious avenue to explore.