the DFW metroplex if it matters
Want to spend about 5 - 7 weeks in the area. It’ll be easier for me to be gone from home/work that long if I can still put in some hours at work via telecommuting.
I won’t need the access everyday, just some days–probably evenings…maybe some Saturday afternoons as well.
I posted about hotel internets and the consensus seemed to be that they are hit or miss w/o a reliable way to determine the quality of service before hand.
I’ll need to be have the reliable internet for about 5 - 6 hours at a time.
I’ll need to be able to have intelligible phone conversations–so not too much noise or people who will be bothered by my noise.
Tethering to the phone sounds awkward as I would still want to be using the phone as a phone. But I would be open to using GoogleVoice or w/e through the computer for my calls. That may be too much bandwidth to make a call while accessing the internets–I’m not sure.
Even if tethering would work, I’d still need a physical space to be for the duration.
How about joining a coworking space? That’ show I manage working in Santa Barbara when my company is in Seattle. I pay a reasonable monthly fee and get desk space, solid Internet, printers, conference rooms, projectors and mass quantities of coffee. Just like being in the real office.
I think you’re overthinking this. There are people whose jobs require 100% travel. They’re out there working in their hotel rooms every day.
Booking a coworking space is also an option, if you’re that concerned about the internet connection (though I never had a problem in the 5 years I did it).
Most of the hotels I’ve been in lately have a business center - it’s just a 1-3 person office with a door, a computer with a printer & fax, and probably some kind of docks for laptops (with a wired connection, not wireless).
There was a tiny one at the middle-of-nowhere Holiday Inn Express I was at earlier this summer. There was a huge one (maybe 10 docks) when I stayed at a business hotel in Redmond, Washington.
Just make sure the hotel you book has one of these.
The utility of hotel internet depends a lot on what you’re doing. Emailing & surfing will be fine at damn near any hotel. Conversely, trying to VPN to a terminal server to do remote video editing won’t work at any hotel I’ve ever stayed at, regardless of cost or orientation towards road warrior telecommuting business customers. The same will be true for other common sources of WiFi, such as libraries, coffee houses, etc.
At least on my phone, I can make calls and tether for internet simultaneously. What I can’t do is tether internet and also use my phone’s Bluetooth connection to my headset.
Seems to me the OP needs to tell us what “internet for telecommuting” means to him/her.
Also the DFW metroplex is about 75 miles in diameter. Any specific advice will need a tighter target than that.
IIRC the DFW airport has business centers that can be rented by the hour. The intent is to permit far-flung business groups to fly in from wherever but only as far as the airport terminal, have their meeting there, then walk to their plane to return immediately to wherever they came from. Maybe not as cheap as a dedicated co-working outlet someplace in town, but if the location is good for the OP it might work.
[ol]
[li]I may not need the internet connections at all–but it still has to be available.[/li]
[li]I may only need to answer e-mail and surf the web.[/li]
[li]I may need to connect back to the home office and then back out to a client’s computer where the client may be doing any number of things up to and including working with video.[/li][/ol]
Of these options, #2 is the most likely scenario.
But I have no control over and no way to anticipate what I may have to do.
I am planning this adventure for summer 2016 or 2017
I have not picked out a place to stay yet. But I am looking at some of the local campgrounds–I’ll have my kids with me.
The only geographical constraint is that I’d like for everything to be relatively near what Google calls Far North Dallas
But as most of my time will be free-time, and I will not be working everyday–maybe 3 or 4 half-days a week, I am willing to drive a fair bit if it makes things work.