[thefro526]

I'll preface this by saying that I haven't read through this thread with the appropriate attention to detail, so please forgive me if this has been repeated but, I've also been looking into and talking to people about how to have a reliable internet connection at competitions primarily for the purpose of scouting - and if possible, the uploading of pictures/videos/updates to the web for those following at home and these are the routes that seem most feasible:

- Tethering through a 3G/4G/Cellular Data Device. Personally, I have a 3G/4G Laptop that's more or less attached to my hip during competition season. I bought it with the intent to use it for tethering throughout the build and competition season right before kick-off last year, and it hasn't let me down yet. I've got a 5GB data plan that I've only exceeded once (2013 Championship) and that was due in large part to streaming video for an hour or two. I've also used it to stream webcasts of an event while on the go, and it worked surprisingly well. If we were to integrate something like this into our scouting system as the access point/link device, odds are it'd be tethered via USB to one machine, and then all other machines networked via ethernet cables. I need to test this method a bit to see how well it actually works (and if I'll need a bridge, or if a bridge makes sense) but if you only need a computer or two on the net, it should be fine.

- Purchasing an array of Cell-Data enabled computers and/or USB modems. Neither of these methods is all that 'cheap', but depending on the amount you were planning on investing in devices, it might not be too bad. Something like a $300-$400 Chromebook would work perfectly with a Google-docs based system, and assuming that you don't need more than 2 or 3 of them, the hardware portion would come out to just over $1,000. The data plan could be the tricky bit, depending on what plan you'd need and the service provider, it could be as little as a few hundred dollars or as much as a few thousand. I haven't had the chance to research 'pay as you go' data plans too much, but if they're reasonable, they could be the best method.