Can I play SL on a wireless internet account?

I'm not sure exactly what I'm asking, so see if you techies can read between my babbled lines.

I am on the road quite a bit, and find that I am spending A LOT of money on hotel internet--so much so that I am considering purchasing a wireless internet package from ATT or Verizon.

Will I exceed the 5GB monthly limits if I play SL on the account?

It is possible, depending on how much you play, how much you travel in world and whether you have streaming media or music turned on. Some other people have asked similar questions recently and since I started looking in to it, I am running between 50 and 100 MB per hour over a 3G link. Other than having media turned off I have not been that careful with bandwidth. I still have windows update turned on, for example. If you keep it to an average of 2 hours per night you can probably stay under the 5GB limit easy enough.

The service I have shows how much bandwidth I have used and when the billing cycle resets every time I connect. I would assume this is typical so you can keep an eye on when you are getting close.

I hadn't considered the lack of media playing. I didn't know if SL worked like streaming video. I know I sound very ignorant now, but I was told I can get a data counter to see just how much I am using. I wonder where I can get such a thing.

A quick google found this. It looks like it is free for 30 days.
http://www.bandwidth-meter.net/

I've accessed SL on a wireless lan many times - even whilst travelling on a train! It can be a bit shaky depending on consistency of the signal and overall it is better using a cable connection - but it's do-able.

I think i'm going to try....

short answer: you can play on either internet connection (cable, wlan, fiber, dsl, dailup (ISDN double), satelite), as long as the connection works

How well it works for you, depends on numerous factors (wireless), e.g. how far is the accesspoint away from the computer, how thick are the walls, is there interferences (other electronic devices) nearby that can cause troubles (instable speeds, packetloss)
etc etc...

but in the end, it can be played with a wlan connection..

A couple more details...

It is not supported. That is, if you have problems, and tell Support you are on a wireless ISP, they won't help you.

You can easily hit 5GB per month. You want to try to keep track and be careful (such as the advice about turning off media. Badger the ISP to provide some way for you to keep track of how close you are to your limit. Mine, for example (Wild Blue) sends me an email when I reach 80%, and has a web site where I can check. I am often around 10GB per month for all my Internet use, and I am a moderate SL user, with some Youtube.

lee

I don't think you're talking about the same thing. "Wireless lan" usually refers to a wireless router, which is what many home users have these days. For these, the older 802.11a protocol isn't fast enough, I find 802.11g acceptable, and 802.11n should be fine. There's a different connection between the router and internet, typically a cable modem, DSL modem, or satellite.

However, the original post is asking about cell phone connections to the internet. These are also called wireless, but it's confusing, and I prefer to call them cellular connections. Better yet, use the specific technology, which is likely to be 3G. I don't think older technologies would be fast enough. (My phone only has 1X, and I find simple web browsing with the phone to be painfully slow.) I've never used a 3G cell modem connection, but the reports I've heard are that it's barely acceptable for SL.

Put it up against a hotel's lan connection and it screams

I've never had a problem with hotel wireless being slow. I suppose it varies, especially if the hotel is using satellite, but they ought to be able to beat 3G easily.

Seriously? My experiences have been the opposite. From an ethernet drop to 802.11n I have usually find a hotel room will let me log in at home and chat over IM as long as I don not teleport or try to go to a crosded sim. My air card, on the other hand, I have gone to full sims and live music events. In a hotel, they will invariably have too many connections on a hub and the collisions cause some sever packet loss.

At the Arts in Clagary, one of the guys at the desk told me about the best place to get a wireless access point virtually to myself. It was down sort of off the lobby area and near resturant. But as for sitting in a room I have never had much luck doing anything more than reading web pages. Free Econo-lodge "broadband" is just as reliable as 15 dollars a day Omni suites. That is, I can reliably count on being dropped 3 or more times an hour.

No problem, have problem with my isp in sweden (bahnhof 100mbit) cant play sl on that connection. So i use a 3-g connection from telia, 2 computers sharing it and playing sl at the same time, both have streaming media (all sl features on) graphics ultra and res 1900x1200 resp 2560x1600. Looking on streaming media from other sources too without any problem.

I think I've decided to get a cellular ATT wireless package and try it out. I'll let everyone know of my experiences. I did find out that I am using about 100mb an hour using a bandwith measuring device. So that gives me about 50 hours a month of SL usage. I am only on in fits and spurts, so this seemed like the best solution for now.

I was going to a coffee shop a couple of times a week, but I realized that I was spending probably $30 in coffee and snacks each week. So, the $60 a month seems more reasonable to sit on my own couch with a glass of wine. LOL!

Thanks for posting this, Callista. It gave me my own ideas on how to access SL when it is blocked or when I just want to access it without any wireless connections.

Calliope - I'm on satellite internet with daily download caps - 425mb
How much bandwidth I use in SL depends on where I am, and how often I move to a different spot. Today I used about 20mb per hour.
I have my graphics on minimum, draw distance 64 meters, and, as soon as everything around me rezzes, I slide my bandwidth down to 50 kbps.
I'm mainly a sit and chat kinda guy in SL, so my daily 425mb is not an issue.

btw - Bitmeter is an excellent freebie bandwidth monitor, providing hourly, daily, weekly stats - you can download it at http://download.cnet.com/BitMeter/3000-2381_4-10398686.html