Subject: New Generation "Modem Friendly"

November 18, 2002

Hi Tom

Excellent article! I agree with your conclusions, and was especially
gratified that you did not play down the technical support issues. If I
may get up on the soapbox for a moment:

Whenever broadband access for RVers gets discussed, most proponents fail
to bring up the issue of support: Currently, with dial up modems, the
access provider or RV park owner has absolutely no support obligation.
If someone's laptop won't work, it's not his problem. As long as the
phone line meets typical telephone company standards, it's not the park
owner's problem. Indeed, even if the phone line goes belly-up, it is
still typically on the phone company to fix it. However, when we start
talking DSL, or Wireless, or any other dedicated type internet
connection, a whole raft of scary issues pop up.

Most of these broadband systems require that a dedicated piece of
hardware be used in the computer in order to access the net. Typically,
it would be either an Ethernet card, or some other type of 'modem'. Some
hardware systems depend on USB for communication, but in all cases, some
minimum configuration changes, and installation of drivers or software,
will be required to make this all work. That means installing software
or drivers on, and configuring, the RVers personal computer system to
work on your network. Can you say "liability issue?" No matter how
wonderful a step-by-step installation procedure you provide and no
matter how simple the set-up is, you are still going to be confronted
with situations like:

1. I can't get it to work... can you help me set it up?
2. I installed your card and it crashed my computer!
3. I set up my laptop like you said, and now I can't access my email
using my modem any more.
4. What's an IP address? What's a protocol? Where do I put them?
5. I left your park yesterday, after using your WI-FI system, and now I
can't get my computer to connect to the internet any more. It's your
fault, and I want you to fix it. Over the phone, and right now!
6. My printer stopped working. Since it worked before you installed
your card in my computer you must have done something to mess it up.
Now, I expect you to fix it!

Anyone who thinks these are far-fetched possibilities has never actually
worked with the general computer owning public in a support role! For
every RVer that will actually have the computer skills to successfully
configure and use it by themselves, you will probably have 2-100
computer owners who are going to need some kind of assistance in getting
your park-supplied broadband internet to work. The big question for the
parks is then: Who is going to do this support? In many cases, it would
have to be someone who has both the time and the skills to do basic tech
support on people's computers and the access system. Not a trivial
undertaking!!

I would love nothing more than to be able to access broadband services
at a RV park while traveling. I also have the computer skills to make it
work, as well as the needed hardware (mostly). However, for quite some
time yet, we will also have to be able to adequately support the average
AOL user as well.

Happy Trails

Mark Nemeth