We both work 9-to-5 office jobs in advertising, remotely, from a van. Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm Eastern, we’re usually working from inside it, wherever we’ve parked that week. Here’s what keeps that running. Starlink is our main connection. When Starlink can’t connect, we switch to the hotspot on a phone. Behind that sits a mobile data plan as another backup.
The gear is the easy part. Most of the plan happens before the workday starts, when we choose where to park.
Our jobs keep normal office hours, so our connection has to keep them too: online from 9 to 5 Eastern, five days a week. A dropped connection on a Tuesday morning is a work problem, so we can’t leave it to chance. That’s why we treat connection as part of choosing a campsite, not something we sort out after we arrive.
Our jobs keep normal office hours, so our connection has to keep them too: online from 9 to 5 Eastern, five days a week. A dropped connection on a Tuesday morning is a work problem, so we can’t leave it to chance. That’s why we treat connection as part of choosing a campsite, not something we sort out after we arrive.Starlink needs a clear view of the sky to find its satellites, as Bearfoot Theory’s guide to van life internet explains. So the first thing we look for in a campsite is an opening above the van.
We find those openings with two tools. iOverlander is a map of campgrounds and places to stay, added by other travelers. Satellite view shows us whether a spot sits in the open or under trees before we drive there.
Before a workday we also look for a road with several sites, each with a clear opening for Starlink. If the first spot is taken or doesn’t work, there’s another one a little further down.
In our experience, staying out of tree cover is the main thing. Outside of that, we haven’t had issues with Starlink.
Bearfoot Theory’s guide says the same: it notes that Starlink can’t be used in tree-covered areas and doesn’t work if you’re surrounded by a lot of trees. So a shady forest campsite that’s perfect for a weekend can be a poor one for a workday.
When Starlink can’t connect, we use the hotspot on a phone. Behind that, we keep a mobile data plan as another backup.
If you plan to rely on a phone hotspot, read your plan’s fine print before your first workday on the road. Bearfoot Theory points out that hotspot speeds can be throttled after a certain amount of data use, depending on your carrier, and that some plans only let you connect one device to a phone hotspot at a time.
If you’re planning to keep an office job running from a van, this is the order we’d do it in:
Connection is only one part of how our week fits together. For the rest, the workdays, the travel days and how we pick each week’s campsite, read Our Real Work Week article.
Our week starts the same way wherever we park: Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm Eastern, working from inside the van. We’ve traveled full-time in
