I'm IT Manager for a smallish trucking company. We run only "food - grade" tankers. We've just landed a contract with FEMA to run loads of water into hurricane effected areas without potable water. We're rolling 75 rigs first thing Tuesday morning. We're also sending one, maybe two of our dispatchers along to manage the logistics of the loads and deal with the paperwork.

OK folks here's the question... I have to provide internet access to a user on a laptop. He's probably going to be working in the area of Jackson, MS so I can't be certain that he'll have reliable cellular service. There is a possibility that we'll want to move him even closer to the damaged areas at some point. The application he needs to use is IBM Client Access Express. It's nothing more than a pretty front end on a telnet session. Being telent the bandwidth requirements are low BUT the software won't stand for a dropped connection, it makes the user log back in to the AS/400.

I've looked at the Verizon "NationalAccess" service and it appears to meet my needs. In that they're going to be setting up a RV in the area for him to work out of I also considered a satellite based solution such as StarBand or DirectWay. At this point I don't know if we'll have access to a phone line. If so problem solved.

Any suggestions as to where I should be looking or who I should be calling? Anyone here in the Jackson, MS area that could advise me as to who I should be contacting there?

THANX!

I'm a little too far north to know what to recommend, but one way to find out more might be to check with a Linux User Group. The Memphis group ( GOLUM ) is working on setting up at least one computer access site for evacuees to get online and search for family. There's LUGOJ in Jackson; a group in the Starkville area (as I recall from my college days - they've changed names some time in the last decade to BullyLUG ); and one in south Mississippi that may be inaccessible currently (their site is down and their membership is likely scattered and largely offline).