Luminous Landscape Forum
Equipment & Techniques => Landscape Photography Locations => Topic started by: spotmeter on April 29, 2016, 07:12:48 am
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I need Internet access in Yosemite during my annual photo shoot. Since I don't stay in the valley, I have had problems getting access.
I wonder what others have done about this problem.
Do portable broadband devices like NetZero work in the valley?
I don't need to download big files or watch video--I just need to access my email and home desktop.
Appreciate any recommendations.
Thanks.
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Broadband internet is a joke here in Yosemite. At El Portal School on a good day I can get maybe 2 mb/s and other times I can't even get a speed check. What works best is Verison and AT&T I hear is the worst. My brother once came up to Tuolumne Meadows with a broadband device and it worked for him. Personally if you need a good connections, I think you will be disappointed. This is why I still don't own a cell phone. Good luck.
Hugh
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I can't even get a connection on my Verizon dumb phone in most Yosemite areas.
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Just there only good coverage was past the third tunnel on 140, otherwise you need SAT phone!. I'm also glad people can't use cell phones very easily because it would cause casualties.
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I'm also glad people can't use cell phones very easily because it would cause casualties.
How's that?
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Broadband internet is a joke here in Yosemite. At El Portal School on a good day I can get maybe 2 mb/s and other times I can't even get a speed check. What works best is Verison and AT&T I hear is the worst. My brother once came up to Tuolumne Meadows with a broadband device and it worked for him. Personally if you need a good connections, I think you will be disappointed. This is why I still don't own a cell phone. Good luck.
Hugh
AT&T works the best in the Valley, to my experience.
In fact, that's the single biggest reason we changed from Tmobile years ago: no reception in YV.
Haven't had any problems with it there at all.
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I need Internet access in Yosemite during my annual photo shoot. Since I don't stay in the valley, I have had problems getting access.
I wonder what others have done about this problem.
....
Let me get this straight, you're not staying in the valley but when you're there, you need Internet access, right?
My advice would be this: the reason people go to Yosemite is not WiFi or rather the exact opposite: to get away from WiFi, etc, so consider spending less time looking at email and more time looking at and appreciating where you are.
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+1
Going to Yosemite should leave you "beyond the bars...." I know work sometimes gets in the way, but sometimes being NOT connected is relaxing to the soul.
In my month on the road here in Serbia and Greece, it's been hit-and-miss with wifi. It is nice to be disconnected from it all. Last weekend, we simply ran through a month's bandwidth in less than a week just doing system updates for my colleague where I am staying.
Sometimes it's hard to leave the ball-and-chains behind, but unless you are awaiting an organ transplant (which I sincerely hope you are not!), try to disconnect and leave it behind. The world will wait. Your colleagues can wait. You can't... It's your once-a-year time for you, shut the door on it and leave your worries behind!
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First World Problem
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Have any of you considered the problem this creates for a person working in the valley for several weeks (be it shooting, research, etc.). My Verizon phone did not work at all last summer. I do not understand why there isn't one unobtrusive tower there. (Unfortunately) millions of visitors are in the park each year. I hope to shoot for a few weeks there next year and have wondered how I will keep in contact with clients, family, etc.
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I had excellent AT&T service at Glacier Point last fall.
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Ansel Adams didn't need a cell phone or computer.
I do not understand why there isn't one unobtrusive tower there.
Because Yosemite is a National Park!
Living in El Portal, I feel your pain. I don't own a cell phone but my wife's work phone gets spotty coverage. Furthermore, we have limited bandwidth. At El Portal School I'm lucky to get 1 Gigabit per sec. At home I use AT&T and downloads can take hours!
Last summer I was out for 54 days in the high country. We had no cell phone and got our news and info from friends who hiked in to resupply us. It was a spiritual experience!
The last thing Yosemite needs is another cell phone tower.
Maybe I"m coming across as snarky, but I'm just saying that a place like Yosemite is there for you to get away from your cell phone. I first came and started living in the park in 1992. At that time most of my friends wanted to live on the edge of this beautiful meadow in Foresta. Now most of the staff doesn't want to live in that housing because you can't get DSL. We are definitely in the midst of a paradise shift regarding what is essential.
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I need Internet access in Yosemite during my annual photo shoot. Since I don't stay in the valley, I have had problems getting access.
I wonder what others have done about this problem.
Do portable broadband devices like NetZero work in the valley?
I don't need to download big files or watch video--I just need to access my email and home desktop.
Appreciate any recommendations.
Thanks.
If you have cellphone access you can set up a wifi hotspot. My Android phone has this built in and there are also standalone devices. Of course it won't be all that fast even under the best of reception conditions and I do not know how Yosemite is in this regard. I used this in Japan and also when wandering around the NC coast and it works very well.
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Past the third tunnel on 140 is reliable, sat is reliable and anything else anywhere at any lodging is futile.
Good Luck!
Oh I forgot if Aitforce 1 is around and you can hack it your golden!
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A new cell tower was just installed in the park (in Foresta). I here that it should be up and running within a week.
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It is a First World "problem," yes. OTOH I found internet access very handy a couple years ago in Grand Canyon National Park. I shot time-lapse video of each sunrise and most sunsets during my stay, and was able to post edited versions online for friends & family within a couple hours of the events. I always managed to beat the sunrise in Honolulu with a video, to the delight of my Hawaiian friend (and early riser) Leah. One evening, with particularly good 'net access and a lovely sky, I Skyped the sunset from my iPad to a group of astronomers in Melbourne early in their workday. We were all amazed at how well it worked. None of this was necessary, of course. But it was fun and enriching.
(Attached is a photo from the Skyped sunset in question, taken with my Oly E-M1.)
-Dave-
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It is a First World "problem," yes. OTOH I found internet access very handy a couple years ago in Grand Canyon National Park. I shot time-lapse video of each sunrise and most sunsets during my stay, and was able to post edited versions online for friends & family within a couple hours of the events.
Sometime in the (not really distant) past I was able to have all the 7 kilos of KodaChromes from our 7 month trip processed in a couple of weeks after returning, and was able to show the pictures to our friends 2-8 months after they were taken. So…?