S
sutton
Guest
Does anyone know if it's possible to receive wireless Internet on board any of the western LD trains? I'll be on CZ, CS and EB. Any wireless companies whose services I could use? Thanks!
Help Support Amtrak Unlimited Discussion Forum:
- Status
I've had pretty decent luck with AT&T's service. I have data service for my cell phone and hook the phone to my laptop with a USB cable. I don't get continuous service, but I've been quite happy with the amount of service that I've had while onboard the trains.
The worst was probably the EB, which tends to run in far more rural areas than the other two trains.
The worst was probably the EB, which tends to run in far more rural areas than the other two trains.
Rafi
Conductor
Alan,
Along the same vein, do you (or does anyone else) have any experience with wireless service along the LSL (including the BOS-ALB stub), Starlight, Surfliner, Sunset from LA to SAS, Texas Eagle, and CONO? I'm going to be blogging from the train on my upcoming trip (see www.RafiOnTheRails.com) and plan to have 10 minute incremental updates to a GPS locator and webcam from the sleeper room. Of course, that assumes I have connectivity....
-Rafi
No experience using my cell regarding the stubbie, but I had halfway decent service on the LSL last summer, and this summer I was pretty much online coming home from Toronto, starting at Buffalo and continuing east and south. I had a few drops, and many slow points where it would take a few minutes for a page to load. But overall I was able to stay online.
I wouldn't want to guarantee that you'll be able to update every 10 minutes, but I'd say that it's a safe bet that you could update every half an hour for sure from BUF to ALB. Now the webcam might be a problem, due to the intense data stream that would create. It might well take you 10 minutes just to upload 1 minute of footage. West of BUF, I can't say for sure that you'd be able to manage 10 minute updates, as I didn't try to stay online the whole time, between meals and sleeping.
Last edited by a moderator:
Rafi
Conductor
Alan,
Thanks for the insight; the webcam is actually just going to be one still image every 10 mins... I'll have to tweak the timing as the trip goes on, I'm sure (last thing I need is 30 images backlogged in the middle of Montana). No experience on the other lines, by chance?
-Rafi
on #448/449, we usually have good coverage between boston and springfield, but between there and albany there are huge areas of no coverage whatever while you're in the birkshires. once on the actual LSL, our verizon experience matches alan's for the most part. there were a few holes in coverage between syracuse and rochester and many more between buffalo and cleveland.
on the eagle, you're traveling through mostly rural areas for much of the journey and the cell network coverage reflects that. i wrote up some notes on this as a guest on the forum a while back, although i can't find them. between chicago and st. louis you should have reasonable coverage except when traveling through corn fields, but south of st. louis during the night you will have several extended periods with no coverage whatever. between little rock and texarkana you'll have a mix of digital and analog roaming, reasonable coverage between there and longview, and then between longview and the dallas/ft worth metro area you'll be going in and out of digital coverage. the good news is that from dallas to san antonio you should be well covered.
very much looking forward to your live travelogue.
-- eliyahu
waterbury, ct
Last edited by a moderator:
Sorry, somehow I stopped reading after the LSL and didn't realize that you had asked about other routes. No experience with trying to connect on any of the other routes, other than the Coast Starlight. I don't recall trying to be online a whole lot during that trip last June on the CS, but I do know that I got on a few times at least.
I suspect that I probably wouldn't have gotten on all that much in northern Cal and Oregon, but I didn't really try since I was too busy enjoying the scenery.
Last edited by a moderator:
Grandma B
Train Attendant
Will our Verizon service be able to pick up cell sites (towers) traveling from New York to Florida? :unsure:
B)-->
QUOTE(Grandma B @ Thu, Sep 6, 2007, 08:36 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Will our Verizon service be able to pick up cell sites (towers) traveling from New York to Florida? :unsure:
You'll certainly have service almost all the way from NY to DC. After that I would expect spotty service, especially in between larger cities. At most major cities though, service should return for a little while though.
QUOTE(Grandma B @ Thu, Sep 6, 2007, 08:36 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Will our Verizon service be able to pick up cell sites (towers) traveling from New York to Florida? :unsure:
You'll certainly have service almost all the way from NY to DC. After that I would expect spotty service, especially in between larger cities. At most major cities though, service should return for a little while though.
S
sutton
Guest
Thanks, Alan. I'll deal with AT&T. Appreciate it. 
Rafi
Conductor
Eliyahu, Alan,
Thanks for the advice/report/headsup. I'll be doing some live beta testing on the MARC Penn and Camden lines next week in the mornings (8 AM to 9 AM) and evenings (5 PM to 6 PM), followed by a trial run/dress rehearsal on the Crescent from BAL to ATL on September 16/17 in case you want to watch (RafiOnTheRails.com). If I can get away with 3-5 second webcam updates, I'll try it. Not holding my breath, though. Ideally, I'll come up with a script that just ignores images that don't make it to the server so there's no queue or backlog in dead zones... Should be fun!
Really looking forward to the trip at this point...
-Rafi
Last edited by a moderator:
- Joined
- Jul 16, 2003
- Messages
- 11
I traveled from Newport News, VA, to Washington, DC, on August 29 using a Blackberry as a modem with Sprint service, and I was dropped only once the entire trip. From DC to Chicago on the Capitol Limited the service was pretty good when I was awake. Of course I don't know how it was when I was asleep. I left Chicago on September 1 on the Empire Builder to Seattle, and the connection was good all the way to Minneapolis. After that, it wasn't great, but I could still get a decent signal most of the way that enabled me to use the Blackberry for email but not as a modem. I left Seattle on Wednesday, September 5, on the Coast Starlight. The wireless was good through Portland, but was mostly poor south of there except when we were near decent sized towns and/or close to the highway. Right now I'm on the California Zephyr east of Roseville, and while it's not a great signal, I'm still able to use the internet. Oops. I spoke too soon. Just lost the connection in a tunnel. I'll try to reconnect and send.
B)-->
QUOTE(Grandma B @ Thu, Sep 6, 2007, 08:36 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Will our Verizon service be able to pick up cell sites (towers) traveling from New York to Florida? :unsure:
I'm a few miles north of Orlando and ride within Florida quite a lot. There are a few iffy areas well south of Jacksonville and north of Deland, but you've got pretty good coverage most of the way from there to southeast Florida. We also have Verizon and have used them a lot all over Florida from the Panhandle to Key West and most points in between. South of Deland you have the Orlando corridor with very good coverage, then through Kissimmee (near Disney), then over through Haines City and Auburndale, south to Winter Haven, through Lake Wales, Sebring, to Okeechobee, and then southeast from there to West Palm. Most of that path is fairly close to major U.S. Routes, like I-4, U.S. 17, U.S 92, U.S. 27, and so forth, and then I-95 from West Palm to Miami, all of which of course have pretty good cellphone coverage. It might be a little spotty along the northeast shore of Lake Okeechobee, which is between the Okeechobee station and West Palm, but otherwise pretty good. It's been a long time since I've had a dropped call anywhere in there. And the last time we travelled on 97/98 as far north as Charleston SC, that coverage was also pretty good.
QUOTE(Grandma B @ Thu, Sep 6, 2007, 08:36 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Will our Verizon service be able to pick up cell sites (towers) traveling from New York to Florida? :unsure:
I'm a few miles north of Orlando and ride within Florida quite a lot. There are a few iffy areas well south of Jacksonville and north of Deland, but you've got pretty good coverage most of the way from there to southeast Florida. We also have Verizon and have used them a lot all over Florida from the Panhandle to Key West and most points in between. South of Deland you have the Orlando corridor with very good coverage, then through Kissimmee (near Disney), then over through Haines City and Auburndale, south to Winter Haven, through Lake Wales, Sebring, to Okeechobee, and then southeast from there to West Palm. Most of that path is fairly close to major U.S. Routes, like I-4, U.S. 17, U.S 92, U.S. 27, and so forth, and then I-95 from West Palm to Miami, all of which of course have pretty good cellphone coverage. It might be a little spotty along the northeast shore of Lake Okeechobee, which is between the Okeechobee station and West Palm, but otherwise pretty good. It's been a long time since I've had a dropped call anywhere in there. And the last time we travelled on 97/98 as far north as Charleston SC, that coverage was also pretty good.
Yes, you can sometimes get random signals. Only problem is that they usually come and go to fast to do anything, unless you are lucky enough to catch one while sitting at a station. And then of course there is the danger of doing certain things on such a connection.
Thanks, I don't think I'd be doing things like checking emails or banking, rather checking weather, train times, things I'm intending to do at my destination. Or were you talking about generally using someone elses network?
Just be nice to have the opportunity at some point if it's possible.
All the hotels I'm staying at have internet access luckily
Just be nice to have the opportunity at some point if it's possible.
All the hotels I'm staying at have internet access luckily
Well I definately wouldn't do any banking or stuff like that for sure.
But yes, there is always a chance that you could hit a router that tries to infect your computer, either accidentally or intentionally. So make sure that you have a strong firewall and a strong anti-virus program running.
- Status
Latest posts
-
New Gulf Coast service (New Orleans - Mobile and Baton Rouge)- Latest: John Bredin
-
North East Corridor (NEC) speeds, new stations and state of repair- Latest: JamesWhitcombRiley
-
-
-
-
-
