One of our favorite back country RV parks has, in its laundry room, a bowl of quarters. If you need change, just trade your paper currency for its equivalent in quarters. While this scheme for making change wouldn't work in lots of places, happily it does so here. And we think it says a great deal about both the parkj's owners and the quality of their clientele. This tradition seems to continue because RVers have "assumed the responsibility" to see this unusual scheme continues to work.

With the emphasis which we and others have placed on RV parks becoming "modem friendly", we see another instance where RVers must assume responsibility. This time it's to ensure that certain common courtesies are observed when using an RV park's designated "modem" phone line. We hope all of you who have found your Internet home base here with your fellow RVers Online will not only observe these courtesies, but will help by encouraging others to do likewise.

The circumstance we are here describing involves the RV park which does not have overnight phone hookups at RV sites. Rather it has either (i) set aside a separate phone line and work area for RVers with laptops wanting to get email; or (ii) offers the use of an office phone line, such as a fax line, for RVers with laptops. We've found in some circumstances a separate, dedicated phone lines for modem access is physically not available because of circumstances beyond the control of the RV park; and in the case of some smaller parks the annual expenses of maintaining a separate dedicated phone line for modem use may not yet cost justified. Thus the "modem hookup office" solution is one we'll likely have to contend with at least for the foreseeable future in some smaller parks.

Each of these scenarios (i.e., use of an existing office line, or the availability of a dedicated modem line) creates its own set of issues RVers need to recognize. Here are the items which we feel deserve special attention

• While most RV Park owners will provide a special phone line which restricts calls to local, credit card, or 800 numbers, others may still be using standard phone lines which would permit long distance toll calls. It's our responsibility as RV guests to ensure that no toll charges are ever passed on to the RV park. Where this situation exists, we need to be accessing our online services with either local or 800 numbers -- or by programming our modems to make credit card calls. And it's the RVer's job to know how to do it properly. Let's not expect park staffers to be experts on how to program our laptops. Most are not. And it would be unreasonable for us to expect them to be.
• Where an RV park does have one or more dedicated lines for laptop users, RVers need to be considerate of the needs of all other RVers who also need to use those lines. It's unfortunate to find that some parks have time limits, such as 15 minutes, for the use of modem phone lines. However this has unquestionably resulted from the inconsiderate use of a very few RVers who have "hogged" the phone line. So when we find reasonable time restraints, let's be sure to honor them so that other RVers can have a chance to access their email too. This is really quite easy to accomplish with just a little bit of common sense and planning. We need to know the local or toll free number we'll be calling, and program it into the dial up software before we connect to the phone line. The computer should be on and "sleeping" when we arrive at the modem hookup area, with the email program already booted up. It should be our hard and fast rule whenever we're dealing with online access which needs to accommodate the needs of many RVers NEVER to compose email online; or to read email online. Outgoing messages should be composed in your rig, and quickly uploaded. Incoming messages should be downloaded, and read later. This requires a very few minutes to accomplish.
• Where we find that the only phone line available to us is the same line which the RV park uses for its business purposes, it's important that our access time be carefully planned and limited. The RV park clearly needs this line open to receive incoming reservations, and for other business purposes. We think parks that can not yet justify a separate line for modem access require our special consideration in being efficient and brief in making data calls. Find out what time of day would be most convenient for them, and plan your schedule accordingly.
• Where online time is limited at an RV park in order to provide reasonable access for all RVers who want to use the facility, by all means use it for uploading and downloading your email. But go somewhere else to do your "surfing". Find the local library, where you'll almost always be able to spend some time doing your net surfing. And Internet cafes are springing up all over.
• Generally RV parks are making substantial progress in responding to our increased need for access to a phone line to send and receive data. Let's not demand too much too fast. We've found that some RV parks which would dearly love to put a separate line into a quiet and secluded area can't do so for reasons beyond their control. Keep in mind this is all very "new" to many RV park operators. Let's give them some time to find a better solution. We're confident that as more RVers see "modem friendly" as an essential amenity in choosing RV destinations, we'll see increasingly helpful modem access solutions as we go down the road.
  

There are some "scenes" we should simply never have to witness where RVers need to share a modem hookup facility. One is two people sitting at a laptop. This is invariably a signal that something unnecessary is going on here. A public access point for email is NOT the place for one person to be teaching another about how to get online, surf the net, etc. RVers should do their "collaborating" before or after going online -- not while they're online. Another scene that signals trouble is an RVer who is online and furiously typing. As noted above, where access time is limited, email should NEVER be composed online. Get off the phone, go to your rig or the library, compose whatever messages you have at your own pace, and then come back and upload the completed messages. All too many of us have seen both these scenes. We've waited patiently, while some inconsiderate RVer must have been trying to download the Encyclopedia Britannicak; or was typing a lengthy thesis; or showing a friend how to surf to every corner of the Net. While these few RVers are happily the exception, they are also the inspiration for this article. We want them to "get the message".

The bottom line here is that RVers need to be well informed online users. They need to understand why it's not appropriate to compose or read email online, and they need to know how to access their internet service provider using a local call, an 800 number, or a long distance credit card call. They should bring their own piece of phone cord to hook into a phone jack. And they need to understand how to program their computer to access their own ISP using any special dialing requirements, such as dialing "9" to reach an outside line. And importantly we all need to be sensitive to the needs of the RV park management, as well as the needs of other RVers who need to use the same phone line for modem access.

There are unfortunately a few RVers who have abused the free modem access privilege provided by a growing number of parks. These few RVers are a threat to all RVers who are using the privilege responsibily. If park owners become subject to costly toll charges, who can blame them for either curtailing access altogether, or for charging a fee to recoup their losses. Many of the larger parks can protect from this abuse by installing a restricted modem line, which blocks all but local, credit card, and toll free calls. However some parks cannot justify the cost of installing this added service, and must rely instead on an office line or fax line -- both of which need the ability to make long distance calls for business purposes. So the "restricted line" solution, while effective, as a practical matter is not an available option yet for some parks.

Even where the existence of restricted phone lines protects against improper toll charges, the problem of inconsiderate RVers who dominate a modem line poses yet another potential threat. Some park owners who are presently providing free modem access may conclude the only way to keep RVers online sessions "short" is to install one of the many available services which charges users by the minute for modem access. While this would likely keep those few inconsiderate RV guests from thoughtlessly long online sessions, it would result in all RVers having to pay a fee for using the service. Let's not allow those very few inconsiderate RVers to ruin it for all the rest of us.

We invite all our readers here at RVers Online to take the lead in assuming responsibility for thoughtful and considerate use of modem friendly facilities. If RVers can keep these courtesies in mind, and encourage others do likewise, we'll all be doing our part to see that modem access continues to expand and improve for the benefit of us all. We invite RVers and park owners alike to freely copy this article with our permission. Where RVers find another RV guest abusing a limited access facility, we suggest you politely furnish a copy of this article. Park owners may wish to make copies of this article for their online RV guests. If so, please be our guest!

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