Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2008 21:40 Post subject: War driver for long-haul trucks
I drove cross country for a few years after the tech crash final downdraft in 2002; at the time there was precious little reliable wifi for truckers, and it was only available for ruinous fees from truckstops who typically gouge truckers.
By now I think that truckers should be able to keep intermittent connections up even while driving, allowing email and IMs to accumulate as the trucks roll through the endless wifi clouds that surround every community.
Also, trucks can benefit from having a pc running for other purposes.
The first iidea that should come to mind is the common llaptop, but from experience I can tell you that no laptop can handle life in the truckers' cab very long. My HP took the 12 foot flight from the top bunk to the dashboard several times, but some how survived; I know my present Compaq would not.
Ideally, it seems to me, an X86 router bolted to the truck with its antenna on the cab top would be best. The primary requirement sould be the very best Wifi chipset, even if it has to be supported with NDIS.
The router could then do a service by forwarding connectivity from communities surrounding truck stops to other truckers -- by-passing the gouging truckstop companies.
Here is some writing about my life over the road; I get a lot of nice emails about the writing -- makes me feel good. Trucking is a world unto itself -- brothers and sisters of he road.
I see several hundred people looked at this, but no one left a comment. Why is that?
Propably because many peoples have interest in topic itself, but I'd say your question is still all original here, so no one knows what to answer.
Problem would be basically the data accumulation, and then automatic sending of it when any free wifi occurs...I know DD-WRT has OLSR mesh networking mode, but AFAIK any end node would need to know to use it too...