Camp Wireless article

First experiences with wireless Internet on a campsite

In July 2003 I went on a camping trip with a friend. I found the website for Vammen Camping when doing research for this site and since the camping trip was to be in Denmark, Norway and Sweden it was possible to visit Vammen Camping in Denmark.

On arrival we first did the things a camper is supposed to normally do when arriving at a campsite: set up camp. After that the nerd in us awoke and we tried to get on-line.

Vammen Camping uses a good outdoor antenna (or more) for their wireless network so it worked even when our spot was quite far from the main building but with a clear line of sight.

Outside connection was good. It was good enough for streaming video. Vammen Camping advertises itself as a family camping without television but we changed that with watching the Dutch evening news over a realmedia stream.

Having Internet access when camping is a weird mix of "the great outdoors" and technology. You are active outside and at the same time accessing the Internet.

We logged into our own systems back in the Netherlands to check e-mail and show up on irc to talk to on-line friends. We also browsed the web and uploaded some fresh digital pictures to a website to show friends where we were staying at that moment.

We kept our wireless Internet access to one stop that holiday (mainly due to lack of other campsites in Scandinavia with wireless Internet access that we could find) but it is easy to imagine being on a camping trip and checking e-mail, uploading pictures, updating a website and doing other things on-line on a daily basis.