I've been living on the road from an RV for the past 4 months and would be happy to share a bunch of tips. Data connectivity was the biggest concern I had before starting out and thus did a ton of research before embarking. So far that research has paid off in spades and I have not had any issues, despite using 700GB+ a month in cellular data. I don't have time at the moment to break down all the details in this comment, but please feel free to reach out to me (contact info in my profile). I'll try to come back later and share more details here for anyone who is curious, but you can also reach out and ask even if you aren't the OP too!
Ask HN: Digital Nomads: What's Your Setup?
131–140 of 209 posts
Re: Ask HN: Digital Nomads: What's Your Setup?
#132I make an annual donation to the Calyx Institute, which has worked out really well for me: https://calyxinstitute.org
For details, you help a non-profit and the unlimited Sprint data plan costs about $33.33 per month though you have to prepay for a year in advance which comes out to $400. If you don't have a compatible hotspot, it's a one time extra fee of $100.
Re: Ask HN: Digital Nomads: What's Your Setup?
#133I've been pretty happy with spending most of my time in Costa Rica for nearly a decade or so. The pandemic numbers here have been really low, partly because people are fairly health-conscious here. Anti maskers are basically just gringos nobody likes or want anything to do with here instead of crazy people yelling vitriol in grocery stores. I don't live at the beach, because frankly it's kind of distracting having pe…
How's the process of getting permanent residence there?
It's not too difficult. There is a fair bit of bureaucracy, so I would recommend going through a lawyer here. The essential requirements are a fair bit of documentation (birth certificate, marriage certificate if appropriate, and your FBI report) each of which have to be apostilled and submitted within six months of the first documents date. Then once you've submitted all your paperwork you'll go in process, after which you won't need to leave the country every 90 days to renew your visa.
Once you've been approved, if you're going to be in the so-called "rentista" category (i.e. not retired, but not working in Costa Rica) you need to show proof of bringing in at least $2,500/month to the country for 24 months. That can be done by transferring $60,000 into a bank here, which will dole out the $2,500 to you every month, or, in some cases, you can provide a different proof of guaranteed income.
After three years you can apply for permanent residency, which at that point is more a formality, and is pretty automatic unless you end up with a police record or some other issue.
Re: Ask HN: Digital Nomads: What's Your Setup?
#134Earlier quoted context omitted.
>But honestly, if Zoom is your biggest bandwidth hog, just get a cell with unlimited data and use it instead of your laptop. Or mostly just use a dial-in number and do without video. Doesn't help if a presentation is being given and hasn't been shared in advance of course.
I've tried using a dial-in number a few times, and the latency was horrible - made it really hard to jump in and say things without interrupting others. Not sure if it was just the crappy connection, or if that is a product of using the cell network.
Agreed, between latency and terrible quality I always hate when people dial in to Zoom/Teams. It always sounds like the person is talking through a sweater from the moon.
What makes it worse for me is they never seem to notice, and if you tell them they immediately go "oh, is that better?" and then they stop talking. How are we supposed to know if it's better...?
Re: Ask HN: Digital Nomads: What's Your Setup?
#135I run https://www.waveform.com and we help a lot of folks like yourself get better signal. It's not really worth messing around with cheap options - your productivity is on the line and it's worth spending a little for great connectivity. With that in mind, the best option is a Pepwave MAX HD2 Dual SIM. Then put a Visible SIM from Verizon in one slot and a Calyx SIM (T-Mobile) in the other, or sign up for the AT&T iP…
I use Pepwave gear as well. WELL WORTH THE MONEY!
I use the Pepwave Balance 20X with the Cat12 add-on card with four SIM cards installed. AT&T is my primary provider (with a monthly usage limit of 1TB/month, no fair use limits), but I also have two T-Mobile SIMs (with "unlimited" plans, but with fair use cutoff at 50GB/month) and a Verizon SIM (50GB/month). It's a dual radio setup, so AT&T and one of the T-Mobile SIMs are always active, the other two SIMs are for fallback.
I would not recommend using the whip antennas, the roof mounted 4x4 MIMO antenna should be considered a must in my opinion.
Re: Ask HN: Digital Nomads: What's Your Setup?
#136I've been living on the road from an RV for the past 4 months and would be happy to share a bunch of tips. Data connectivity was the biggest concern I had before starting out and thus did a ton of research before embarking. So far that research has paid off in spades and I have not had any issues, despite using 700GB+ a month in cellular data. I don't have time at the moment to break down all the details in this comm…
Thanks for posting! If you get the change, you get 700GB a month of data from one provider or this is split over multiple?
Re: Ask HN: Digital Nomads: What's Your Setup?
#137I mostly stay at airbnb - and I make sure that it has wifi and that there are positive comments re wifi and no negitive comments - I will also ask the host before booking
I bring a 27' 1440p monitor and a monitor arm to use in conjunction with my laptop to have a good dual screen setup - I also tend to bring a 50' ethernet cable to connect to the router to avoid wifi trouble
I use google fi for my phone - it works all over the world and if my internet goes down I can tether to my phone (at 10 USD per gb) - its also great that I have the same number wherever I go so whatsapp etc just works and I can give work contacts a stable number
Re: Ask HN: Digital Nomads: What's Your Setup?
#138I mostly stay at airbnb - and I make sure that it has wifi and that there are positive comments re wifi and no negitive comments - I will also ask the host before booking I bring a 27' 1440p monitor and a monitor arm to use in conjunction with my laptop to have a good dual screen setup - I also tend to bring a 50' ethernet cable to connect to the router to avoid wifi trouble I use google fi for my phone - it works al…
I guess I should clarify that I have spent almost 3 years living in airbnbs and working remotely - usually staying about 2 months in each place
Re: Ask HN: Digital Nomads: What's Your Setup?
#139I've been living on the road from an RV for the past 4 months and would be happy to share a bunch of tips. Data connectivity was the biggest concern I had before starting out and thus did a ton of research before embarking. So far that research has paid off in spades and I have not had any issues, despite using 700GB+ a month in cellular data. I don't have time at the moment to break down all the details in this comm…
Thanks for posting! If you get the change, you get 700GB a month of data from one provider or this is split over multiple?
That is blended across multiple providers due to my setup, but my AT&T account alone allows up to 1TB/month.
I did provide a bit more detail on my setup in this comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26571061
Re: Ask HN: Digital Nomads: What's Your Setup?
#140There are some amazing Digital Nomads groups on Facebook where you might also try posting this question (or just searching, this has been asked plenty of times)