For the past month I’ve been working from a location in northern Wisconsin. A rather remote location that required my laptop, my iPhone, a laptop USB connect card, and a good amount of patience.
For the most part, I have to say that the experience was a very good one. Plugging in the card on that first day was nerve racking….not knowing whether or not the service area map provided by At&t was accurate. Once my familiar internet home page popped up there was a HUGE sigh of relief. It seems a miracle considering not too long ago the house was on a “party-line” phone system. It’s the end of the planet.
We use Macs here at DK Design so the only At&t card that worked was the 3G 881 USBConnect. You plug it into the USB port on your laptop and it literally turns it into a cell phone. You have a phone number and you purchase their service plan for about $60 a month. They will waive the price of the card if you buy a two year plan.
After setting up a little HP Deskjet Printer that I bought at Best Buy on my way up [that worked like a champ] and a 19″ monitor that I purchased from a guy in Madison off of Craig’s List, I was ready to work. I was able to do all my graphic design projects, photography, and project management just like I was in the Oakland or Tahoe offices. Of course, the internet access was a bit slow but considering where I was but, I was NOT complaining.
Our goal is to open a mid-west office and it will probably be at this location. I’ve found a DSL provider that we can install there after the new building is built which will give us even greater flexibility.
