Let's say I occasionally need to do a really big download - 30 or 40 Gb. This isn't a problem with my current Fios setup, but once we fulltime even with a 30 Gb Jetpack plan that's not going to be practical. What do other folks do? Is there a way, or do I just have to forego?
Lucky Mike said
06:01 PM Oct 29, 2014
I wouldnt want to know why a 30 or 40 Gig download would be needed on the road.......but you better hope for real good WiFi or paying your plan provider dearly!!
bjoyce said
06:41 PM Oct 29, 2014
The biggest downloads most RVs seem to need are GPS map updates, which run 2 to 4GB. Then there was that 13GB Xbox update.
Gannet said
07:07 PM Oct 29, 2014
Trust me, there are reasons for these, and larger. Many software models today assume that everyone has free broadband and plenty of it, and the number grows daily.
Lucky Mike said
07:21 PM Oct 29, 2014
Well as your going to find out on the road , Broadband isnt free and FIOS isnt portable......most likely you will have to find shore hookups that you can subscribe thru the cable company a download that big thru mobile services would be throttled down pretty fast
Ann and Steve said
07:31 PM Oct 29, 2014
Most restaurants these days have free WiFi. Go out for dinner with a good charge on your battery.
RVKevi said
07:37 PM Oct 29, 2014
Many libraries have free wifi and electric sockets for plugging in. Would that work?
Technomadia said
11:14 PM Oct 29, 2014
Some ideas:
Find a seasonal spot where you can subscribe to high speed unlimited internet for a while
Find friends on the road who live in houses with unlimited cable/DSL hook-ups.. and bring beer to share.
A lot of public locations may or may not be able to accommodate those sorts of sizes - they either just don't have the bandwidth and/or their open hours won't be long enough to complete that sort of download. We regularly have about a 5GB download we have to do for one of our projects, and going to a library/cafe could be a 5-6 hour stop for us depending on how fast we're able to get. And a major OS or developer tool update can be the same too.
- Cherie
Alie and Jims Carrilite said
05:40 AM Oct 30, 2014
I have found that Libraries, McDonalds in the middle of the night, hospital snack bars, and even asking a campground office if I could plug in for an hour or 4.
I use Dropbox to send and receive big files, when you start using the animated versions of Rhino 3D and other design software, the size of the files can be rather large. Friend of mine sent a 3D printer file from his house to office.... something like 200G and 3 days later the printer started working....
bjoyce said
06:07 AM Oct 30, 2014
Hopefully those downloads will allow you to use a download manager that will help you with partial downloads and restarts. I find that cell phone internet and free wifi can go down or get flaky for periods of 30 seconds to a few minutes. You do not want to be 35GB into a 40GB download and have to restart it from the beginning. I used to use Free Download Manager for Windows with my Hughes.net internet satellite, mostly because it could download during the 5 hour free period at night. My sister spent the money for GetRight, since DSL is flaky in Alaska.
Many home internet systems are not "unlimited", last I heard AT&T DSL has a limit of 150GB per month and Comcast 300GB.
cheryls-other-half said
08:00 AM Oct 30, 2014
Technomadia wrote:
Some ideas:
Find a seasonal spot where you can subscribe to high speed unlimited internet for a while
Find friends on the road who live in houses with unlimited cable/DSL hook-ups.. and bring beer to share.
A lot of public locations may or may not be able to accommodate those sorts of sizes - they either just don't have the bandwidth and/or their open hours won't be long enough to complete that sort of download. We regularly have about a 5GB download we have to do for one of our projects, and going to a library/cafe could be a 5-6 hour stop for us depending on how fast we're able to get. And a major OS or developer tool update can be the same too.
- Cherie
... OR if you had Milennicom, you could have used (and still use) the old simm until 11/8 in UNLIMITED, SUCK out as much as you can mode!
heh heh
Gannet said
05:21 PM Oct 31, 2014
Several good suggestions,and thanks for that. One I thought of that hasn't been mentioned is to just have a one-night "vacation" and stay in a motel with broadband. That may well be cost-competitive with some of the other choices mentioned, and it gives a shot at a real bathtub - quite the luxury. :) Kindof expensive, though.
Thanks for the reminder about download managers. I haven't used one in years, but I'm essentially going "back in time" here, so that's a good thought.
Camper Chronicles said
07:52 PM Oct 31, 2014
Great question. Love some of the suggestions.
Neil and Connie said
04:21 PM Nov 2, 2014
Library, kids, or friends with S&B. Usually the first one but the second one if we happen to be in VA.
The Crumps said
05:32 PM Nov 13, 2014
We have found a computer services and repair store will download for about $5/hr. My DH is a gamer and has a desktop tower so not easy to take to a restaurant. But, they downloaded a large game for about $15 We already have 40 GB on our Verizon MiFi and he often maxes that out. He loves his games and I love him so we try to make it work. A happy husband is a happy wife!
TXRVr said
03:44 PM Dec 19, 2014
I know this is an older post, but I see that no one mentioned Dropbox as a source for handling big files. Original poster did not specify what needed to be downloaded, but Dropbox will handle just about anything except software downloads. I wouldn't leave home without it.
bjoyce said
05:04 PM Dec 19, 2014
TXRVr: Dropbox doesn't give you that kind of space for free. You can get promotions that give you lots of GB, but they expire. I just had 2GB expire on me. When you upload or download that 5 to 20GB file from Dropbox, which is the kind of thing Gannet is talking about, it still takes lots of internet bandwidth. Dropbox is another service that implicitly assumes you have unlimited up and download. Just like all the other cloud services from Apple, Microsoft, Google and others.
bjoyce said
05:13 PM Dec 19, 2014
Another thought would be to put the computer or computers into an office that you can use remote control software to run. I used to run servers remotely using Microsoft Remote Desktop, only the screen video had to go across the internet.
Let's say I occasionally need to do a really big download - 30 or 40 Gb. This isn't a problem with my current Fios setup, but once we fulltime even with a 30 Gb Jetpack plan that's not going to be practical. What do other folks do? Is there a way, or do I just have to forego?
Some ideas:
A lot of public locations may or may not be able to accommodate those sorts of sizes - they either just don't have the bandwidth and/or their open hours won't be long enough to complete that sort of download. We regularly have about a 5GB download we have to do for one of our projects, and going to a library/cafe could be a 5-6 hour stop for us depending on how fast we're able to get. And a major OS or developer tool update can be the same too.
- Cherie
I use Dropbox to send and receive big files, when you start using the animated versions of Rhino 3D and other design software, the size of the files can be rather large. Friend of mine sent a 3D printer file from his house to office.... something like 200G and 3 days later the printer started working....
Many home internet systems are not "unlimited", last I heard AT&T DSL has a limit of 150GB per month and Comcast 300GB.
... OR if you had Milennicom, you could have used (and still use) the old simm until 11/8 in UNLIMITED, SUCK out as much as you can mode!
heh heh
Thanks for the reminder about download managers. I haven't used one in years, but I'm essentially going "back in time" here, so that's a good thought.
Library, kids, or friends with S&B. Usually the first one but the second one if we happen to be in VA.
I know this is an older post, but I see that no one mentioned Dropbox as a source for handling big files. Original poster did not specify what needed to be downloaded, but Dropbox will handle just about anything except software downloads. I wouldn't leave home without it.