Simple WIFI Hot Spot for computer usage

[Guest]

We have been out of service for 4 days where we have used the Tethering Hot Spot feature on our Verizon phone for internet. It works so well we can even stream a movie from the phone.

Data pack is unlimited where this helps as well.

Jim

[BillinTexas]

I concur with those that are using the T-Mobile home internet option. Very good, inexpensive, and fast in our rural location. Since we are currently living in our rig we also have Starlink. We will have to decide which to keep when our home is finished. Most likely it will be T-Mobile.

Understand that the cellular option is hit or miss based on which service is best in a particular locale. We have used Verizon Jetpack, AT&T phone hotspot, and Starlink options. Verizon doesn't work in many areas of Texas where we camp. AT&T is better but not everywhere. We also have a WeBoost that will boost cellular signal if a signal is present.

Best of luck to you.

[Yoda]

Thanks Folks
I have limited service this morning.

It looks like I have a lot to research when I get home

I appreciate the information on the various plans an services - some I have never heard of before.

Question. Is there a cell phone boost device available that covers all carriers? I assume that have bigger antennas to receive signals and increase the signal strength to you phone. Is this a correct assumption? Just wondering if there is one that might work with all the carriers where you just change the setting to fit the phone you have.

Thanks Again

Keith

Happy New Year

[ncitro]

Thanks Folks
I have limited service this morning.

It looks like I have a lot to research when I get home

I appreciate the information on the various plans an services - some I have never heard of before.

Question. Is there a cell phone boost device available that covers all carriers? I assume that have bigger antennas to receive signals and increase the signal strength to you phone. Is this a correct assumption? Just wondering if there is one that might work with all the carriers where you just change the setting to fit the phone you have.

Thanks Again

Keith

Happy New Year

The WeBoost options are carrier agnostic, but they're generally not worth the money. I have one and it only works in a very specific set of circumstances. Using it disables your phones MIMO antenna which allows it to communicate with multiple towers or multiple antennas on a tower. I've found most of the time I'm better with MIMO than running the booster. It'll work well if you're having trouble"talking"to the tower, but can "hear" it ok. This usually presents as a decent download rate but a very slow upload on a speed test.

A few years ago I switched from mobile hot spots to a dedicated Peplink router with its own high gain antenna on the roof. That did more for me than the booster ever did, and last year I took the booster apart and buried it in the pass through storage "just in case".

We also carry Starlink since February, it's great when you have a clear view of the sky and has opened up staying inside the larger national parks for us as options. The RV plan allows you to pause and resume service, so that might be an option for you.

[CasadeMike]

If you really want to get educated about all the options and their trade offs, this is a great place to start:

https://www.rvmobileinternet.com/curated-collections/

They have lots of articles and helpful videos. What’s best for you depends on many personal factors so there is no one right solution.

Personally I use a Pepwave router. This is often what’s used on Amtrack trains and commercial buses etc.

This is a cellular router that allows you to use 1 or 2 SIM cards from various carriers. Some you have to manually set which SIM/carrier and some will auto switch over based on strongest signal. Depends on the model of router you get.

I have a Verizon 30 gig hotspot plan /SIM card which was a $15 a month add on to our Verizon family plan. I also have a second AT&T prepaid SIM with a 150 GB data plan in the other SIM slot. This allows me to bounce between networks based on who has the best coverage. I mostly stick with AT&T since that has more data. But it’s nice to have the redundancy.

The router can also simply extend WiFi from a public campsite if that’s an option that has reasonable quality. Unit runs on 12V or 120V. Has cigarette lighter style plug or can be hardwired to 12Volt. If you really need reception and signal strength there is an option for powerful external antennas. At that point things begin to get rather spendy though.

[Yoda]

If you really want to get educated about all the options and their trade offs, this is a great place to start:

https://www.rvmobileinternet.com/curated-collections/

They have lots of articles and helpful videos. What’s best for you depends on many personal factors so there is no one right solution.

Personally I use a Pepwave router. This is often what’s used on Amtrack trains and commercial buses etc.

This is a cellular router that allows you to use 1 or 2 SIM cards from various carriers. Some you have to manually set which SIM/carrier and some will auto switch over based on strongest signal. Depends on the model of router you get.

I have a Verizon 30 gig hotspot plan /SIM card which was a $15 a month add on to our Verizon family plan. I also have a second AT&T prepaid SIM with a 150 GB data plan in the other SIM slot. This allows me to bounce between networks based on who has the best coverage. I mostly stick with AT&T since that has more data. But it’s nice to have the redundancy.

The router can also simply extend WiFi from a public campsite if that’s an option that has reasonable quality. Unit runs on 12V or 120V. Has cigarette lighter style plug or can be hardwired to 12Volt. If you really need reception and signal strength there is an option for powerful external antennas. At that point things begin to get rather spendy though.

Thanks
Your one of several that like Pepwave routers. What model do you have? I noticed they tend to be expensive, so is there a good place or time to shop for them? Going that way seem to give me options of just getting sim cards for data, but what brand sim cards work. I know my AT&T sim card (I phone) will not swap with DW's T-Moble sim card in her (Samsung Galaxy S8)

Question - with the Pepwave router can I also connect my victron equipment into it and remote program from the house (200' away) . Maybe I should ask Howard to chime in howson

Thanks for all the help folks

Keith

[howson]

Yoda -- Neil is much more informed on this topic than yours truly. ncitro, over to you...

[Jlawles2]

Yoda Keith AT&T and T-Mobile run different types of networks. Unless you have an unlocked dual band phone the cards are not swappable.

I would guess the prepwave is the same, again Neil has more information but he did mention running AT&T and Verizon (again different networks) in the prepwave.

He had a link in one of his post as to where he was renting and getting his RV network stuff.

[Yoda]

Yoda Keith AT&T and T-Mobile run different types of networks. Unless you have an unlocked dual band phone the cards are not swappable.

I would guess the prepwave is the same, again Neil has more information but he did mention running AT&T and Verizon (again different networks) in the prepwave.

He had a link in one of his post as to where he was renting and getting his RV network stuff.

Thanks Joseph
Consumer cellular uses both networks - the sim cards appear to be slightly different in size. We put a different network on each phone for better coverage.

[hjmichael]

We have a Pepwave BR1 Max Pro 5G, yes on the expensive side, but able to use WIFI as a WAN connection with fail over to cell is great. Carries 2 sim cards, 5g and a great router to set your system up. I have ours set sot the internal WIFI is a MyRV so when we connect we have access to the OneControl Panel from our phones. Our winter lot has a T-Mobile home internet that we leave there so we can access the security cameras while on the road.
We use Verizon and T-Mobile sims and have AT&T in the truck, as a result we have a lot of cell bills, but a lot of data as well.

[ncitro]

Yoda I run the Peplink Balance 20X, but if I was to do it over again I would run the Max Transit series. I got the Balance 20X to be upgradable (via a flex slot) to 5g, but it turns out the hardware will not support it anyway. It is carrier agnostic and should support everything. I have personally had Verizon, AT&T, and TMobile sim cards in mine (I currently run AT&T & Verizon) and feed my Starlink into the ethernet port as a third option. No issue with the Victron gear, I have mine connected with no problem. I graduated from mobile hotspots to the Peplink in order to run multiple carriers (they can be run independently or bonded together for reliability or performance) as well as looking for a solution that would run more stably off the 12v power in the rig. The hotspots always needed a battery in them even if plugged in, and I cooked two or three before finding that to be a pain. My unit does not have WiFi as WAN, but honestly I have only encountered decent park WiFi once or twice and I do not miss the feature. The Transit series does support this.

The other advantage of having internet in the rig full time is when we need to leave it we can see the Victron status as well as all of my temperature probes to check on the status of the rigs. I have alarms in VRM that alerts me when the rig loses shore power, and SOC drops below a certain level, but those only go out when its connected to the internet.

WondersAwait bought a new Transit earlier this year.

As for vendors I used a combination of 5gstore and mobilemusthave. Both were great to deal with.

[Yoda]

Yoda I run the Peplink Balance 20X, but if I was to do it over again I would run the Max Transit series. I got the Balance 20X to be upgradable (via a flex slot) to 5g, but it turns out the hardware will not support it anyway. It is carrier agnostic and should support everything. I have personally had Verizon, AT&T, and TMobile sim cards in mine (I currently run AT&T & Verizon) and feed my Starlink into the ethernet port as a third option. No issue with the Victron gear, I have mine connected with no problem. I graduated from mobile hotspots to the Peplink in order to run multiple carriers (they can be run independently or bonded together for reliability or performance) as well as looking for a solution that would run more stably off the 12v power in the rig. The hotspots always needed a battery in them even if plugged in, and I cooked two or three before finding that to be a pain. My unit does not have WiFi as WAN, but honestly I have only encountered decent park WiFi once or twice and I do not miss the feature. The Transit series does support this.

The other advantage of having internet in the rig full time is when we need to leave it we can see the Victron status as well as all of my temperature probes to check on the status of the rigs. I have alarms in VRM that alerts me when the rig loses shore power, and SOC drops below a certain level, but those only go out when its connected to the internet.

WondersAwait bought a new Transit earlier this year.

As for vendors I used a combination of 5gstore and mobilemusthave. Both were great to deal with.

Are the videos here accurate https://technorv.com/products/pepwav...SABEgL3ffD_BwE. He seems to indicate an indoor antenna is included.

Also is there information here on how one of these units would be set up in an RV connected to a Victron Multiplus or a Cerbo GX, etc. Im trying to get the big picture. I am assuming the computer connection is WIFI based, or by hard line, or both if we are both trying to use it.

Thanks again - BTW - this is currently way over my head - might be rally project somewhere.

Thanks
Keith

ON edit - now confused, are Pepwave and Peplink the same? Just wondering as some articles an sellers seem to interchange the name?

[Guest]

Quote: The other advantage of having internet in the rig full time is when we need to leave it we can see the Victron status as well as all of my temperature probes to check on the status of the rigs. I have alarms in VRM that alerts me when the rig loses shore power, and SOC drops below a certain level, but those only go out when its connected to the internet.

A nice feature to have along with full time internet would be a security system with a camera(s).

Jim

[ncitro]

Yoda mine included an internal antenna for one modem and I had to buy a roof antenna for the other. I believe the transit comes with internal for everything. That said use an external roof mount. I get noticably better signal from the external antenna, better even than when I was playing around with my booster.

I believe Peplink is the company and Pepwave is the product line but honestly I'm not sure. Most people seem to use them interchangeably.

Connecting the cerbo is pretty easy. The Peplink makes a wifi network and you join that network on your cerbo touchscreen. Once on the internet you can link it to your VRM web account and access most of your settings and a virtual reproduction of your cerbo screen anywhere. You can also hardwire it, the Peplink has a wired output and the cerbo has a wired input but running the cable in an RV is not usually easy enough to justify it.

[John Brumbaugh]

I am new to this conversation so please bear with me. We live up in a cold climate, so only camp May-Oct. I have been investigating purchasing a portable wifi hotspot. Two that I am interested in are Travlfi Journey1 Lite, and Solis Lite Wifi. Each has good and bad points. I don't anticipate using much wifi, just to check emails, pay some bills etc. No streaming. The Travlfi system sounds good as it will use the best tower available from 3 different major carriers. Data plans are decent price. Purchase on monthly basis, no rollover of unused minutes. Solis Lite allows you to roll over any unused minutes, but the best I can tell has only ATT as a partner. They advertise "multi-carrier access". Can anyone advise what carriers they use for the system?
Thanks,
JohnB