High speed satellite connection

[cd34]

I believe Chop uses DirectWay Satellite internet for his connectivity. If you do a lot of ssh (secure telnet), then satellite isn't going to be enjoyable. ICQ, email, surfing is all ok because of the packet based nature, but, the latency is going to be high. I don't think you could use services like XBox live, World of Warcraft, etc because of the high latency. I also think that vonage/callvantage/skype, etc would also not work well over satellite.

Depending on where you are and how remote you get, there is also GPRS/Edge service through cell providers. Again, these companies don't understand the word 'unlimited' so, you'll find these to be somewhat costly. I believe http://b2b.vzw.com/productsservices/wirelessinternet/ does work pretty well. Cleo has had some experience with it.

Dialup & using your cell phone as a modem also work but are usually limited speeds. But, you can't be as 'remote'.

For even more remote, vsat services do work, but are very expensive. Like Jim said, the expense of those units is the positioning. However, Hughes does manufacture a 'flat' dish that can be mounted on a rooftop so that you can get satellite TV on cars. I believe you're looking at a few thousand for that + service. There are other solutions. Remember that satellite only covers a portion of the world with a signal, so, you might need multiple service providers depending on where you travel.

I believe GPRS/Edge probably holds the best chance of giving you what you want, but, its not unlimited. Coverage is pretty good -- including the caribbean, parts of Mexico, a good chunk of Canada. If you used signal strength to determine how far off the beaten path you wanted to go, you could still get relatively decent internet connections.

[Linkster]

Just to give an example of the Hughes/Directv connections - I was paying for their highest speed two way connection business line - D/Ls ran about 300k and the uploads were actually slower than a 56k modem (around 30k was the best I ever got) - if I did anymore than a free site and maybe two galleries worth of content, as well as the standard daily updates etc, I was capped off till 24 hours later

This was with their big dish that cost an arm and a leg - they also made me sign a statement that I wouldnt try to play with the thing as I evidently could bring down a small plane with it
I have looked at the systems for an RV and again it boils down to where you get the service - unfortunately Hughes subs are all going to suck in my opinion