What Is The Best Way To Stay Connected Online?

[geeksontour]

Our friends at Technomadia have written the definitive book on the subject, "The Mobile Internet Handbook." They are full-time RVers with a great knowledge of technology and the ability to explain it. Order it on their website

[Pxr177]

We are also Canadians who split our time between the US and Canada. In Canada, I use Rogers cellular internet. I use an old smart phone as the hotspot. Since I supplied the phone, I can pay monthly, with a small disconnect fee. It works well in most places. I use it most for email, and non video surfing.

I also download movies and TV, but I do this for free at the local library.

For the US, we use a combination of resources. I have a stick from Virgin Mobile. I can buy a month's worth of data on a pay as you go card. Again useful for email and non video surfing. Not so good for Skype of internet phone. Most parks have some form of wifi, which ranges from excellent to indifferent. In many parks, the wifi is free in the clubhouse. In some its also free at each site. Tengo has contracts with many parks, but I find it poor service.at a poor price. Speed is dsl at best (or just dialup speed) When on the road we stop at a McDonalds or other free wifi provider, like the local library. This year I will see whats new in the wifi world before setting up a plan.

[astmi]

would anyone know "nanostation ?

I bought this wifi amplifier antenna and I have great trouble installing it on my computer.

The supplier does not reply to request on its web site

Anyone who ca help

[Jurisinceptor]

There's another new way to create a wireless hotspot in your RV using your Verizon data service. It's a device called the MiFi and it is like a card and a router all in one. It looks pretty cool. Check it out at Verizon.

Sadly that link doesn't seem to work but I think you might be talking about what I have which is the Verizon MiFi. It's great!!

I also have a regular Verizon cell phone and a Verizon home connect.

The home connect is GREAT because I just put it in the basement of the motorhome and plug it into the incoming phone jack (I have a 1998 motorhome which is pre mass cell phone usage) and then I can just plug a regular house phone into the phone jacks that are installed throughout the interior of the motorhome. I use ATT trimline phones and there is one located at all the convenient locations. The nice thing is that they fit in your hand and you can HEAR everything. I love technology but there are some older things that I prefer like a regular house phone.

I know that newer motorhomes are not wired with phone jacks but it's easy enough to do. The best thing about the home connect is that it can be taken from home to home with the same phone number and then you just plug it into your home telephone system.

For snow birds, it is the deal.

[SunshineMom]

After JUST spenting $375 on a wifi repeater and 5 foot antenna and drilling a hole in my roof, I found an UNLIMITED Jetpack form Verizion $29.99 PER MONTH:)

Anyone interested in the wifi repeater and antenna?

Debi

rving2011@gmail.com

[ticat900]

My friend has the Verizon 50$ 5G pack and its only lasting him 2 weeks.

I am lucky as I sit for several months so I get TW cable at $35.00 unlimited and hi speed.nothing(no charge) to hook up and no contracts. and I share it with my neighbour

TW have it as low as 14.95 for standard speed

On a side note Sunshine Mom is incorrect.The phone may be unlimited text and message and calling but the internet part is 6G not unlimited.

When I go to Verizon site it says 30$ for 4g on 2 year contract In fact I cant find anywhere where you even get the phone with the jetpack $30.

[desertdeals69]

I have the jet pack which is $50/mo and we run 2 laptops on it. Have not taken the full 5 gig yet, have had it for 2 months.

[BillAdams]

After JUST spenting $375 on a wifi repeater and 5 foot antenna and drilling a hole in my roof, I found an UNLIMITED Jetpack form Verizion $29.99 PER MONTH:)

Anyone interested in the wifi repeater and antenna?

Debi

rving2011@gmail.com

I have never seen this being availalbe from Verizon. They do have unlimited voice and messaging but the data should be limited. Can you give us some additional details?

[jarz09]

Hi Out there in RV world.. I'm a full timer and have had issues with wifi along with the rest of you.. I will not spend $ 2500 to $ 4000. for a high end system since I'm not running a business out of my RV. Yes some system or antenna are way cheaper but one has to pay a monthly connection fee or use a phone company provider units like a mobile hot spot, (which most newer phones & I-Pad have build in and you need to pay for date usage depending on you provider or plan.

Well I have those units and sometimes I can not get good reception or its to slow or drop's frequently or pause stops..Now I do not have a data plan and still use Wifi, So what I did was get a very inexpensive WIFI booster from Radio Shack around $ 99. to $ 119. It comes with a 15ft cable mounting cups works in or out doors, has an USB plug in and a CD plus instruction boo, unit is small and I use it inside my RV.

Yes it works great I have not had ant issues at all I use it on a ASUS and a MacBook Pro both laptops. Range is 1 mile or more. I looked in to a

I-Boost system and 4 others alone with Verizon, AT&T & Sprint (had a Sprint at one time after one year it failed and they want me to buy another, I did not do that). So I hope this helps some of you out there in the RV world.

[N8VTXN]

Here is a different solution to staying connected literally anywhere. Go to this web site: http://www.mobileinternetsatellite.com These folks are easy to deal with and honest. I am actually posting to this blog from the system they provided!

The service I am using from the available set up's offered by these folks is Starband. Starband is similar to the Hughs DirectWay satellite internet system but they don't cut you off if you use too much. Starband just cuts your speed way down for a few days, but you can still connect. So far I have never crossed this threshold, they seem to be very easy to get along with. They play straight and are not manipulative like the cell companies are. You simply just take a test and become your own certified satellite installer. Takes a little learning at first but once you get past that the rest is easy. You could install for others if you wanted some extra income but it's not required. While they do offer the more expensive fully automated systems, I have had great success with nothing more than a manual tripod dish much the same as TV satellite. The reason you must become certified is that the dish actually transmits to the satellite. TV satellite systems cannot communicate with the satellite, they are one way signal receivers only, and hence require no license or certification.

This has really become a pet peeve of mine. I just plain got fed up with all of the cell phone companies and they're just plain LOUSY service, and endless consumer manipulation strategies. Tried three different providers, directional antenna's, boosters, and hours upon hours of time fiddling with pointing antenna's and trying to finding decent reception with that type of service. Sometimes I would get great service, but usually very poor service. On one CG spot, good service, another pad in the same park, almost no service. Trees in the way, blind spots, and oh yea, "Agreed Blind Spots". These are spots that are intentionally designated blind spots. I have found that a lot of Corp of Engineers CG's want the cell phone services blanked out in the area or the park. You see, the cell phone antenna's know where you are located with amazing precision. If you happen to be in one of those agreed blind spots you will see a connection start with a high mark, 4 or 5 bars as the modem or air card looks for valid signals, then suddenly revert to 1 or less bars when the cell towers computer system locates your exact position to be in the "no service" zone.

Being an "extra class" licensed ham operator, having built my first radio transmitter back in the late 60's I am not new to radio and computer technology. Now days, it only takes one cell tower to locate your position using phased array technology. Triangulation requiring 3 towers is old school legacy technology, still fun on ham fox hunts though.

Now, with the dish, it only takes 15 to 20 minutes to set up and lock on the signal, and I'm done! Great speed and an extremely reliable connection. I used to take 1 to 2 hours fiddling with the directional antenna's, boosters, etc., and then in many spots I might just get barely tolerable service. With the dish I do use a meter to lock the signal and highly recommend that, it's a lot faster than giving your wife the walkie talkie and her waitng for the signal strength to show on your computer so she can tell you how you are doing with the dish aiming! Now days, all I need is a hole in the tree just big enough to beam the dish through, and I have yet to land in a spot where I could not do that. Anywhere, in any state, there is always a great internet connection. One last note, with a dish, the signal is beamed straight to the satellite, not very easy for some low life to listen in on your signal like WiFi or cell phone signals and hack into your data. Security is much better.

The only downside is that you do have to park somewhere and set up the dish. If you preplan your route from stop to stop this need not be an issue. Just use a notebook computer with WiFi next to a McDonalds or Starbucks or some similar place if you need to connect while in route between stops. For phone service, we just use plain old prepaid cells now, simple, no hassles or manipulations, and you can buy airtime at any WalMart anytime you like, although we don't really use that much airtime.

Hey this is my first post here, I'll take more time to figure out the bells and whistles of this blog editor later!

[desertdeals69]

I have been using the Verizon jet pack for a few months. Verizon use to have unlimited data usage but that was years ago and if you had it then you are grandfathered in now. Mine is 5 gig for $50 month. It works good enough that I discontinued my hard wire dsl connection at home and constantly use the jet pack on the road, which is about 8 months a year.

[kaypsmith]

I use Verizon myfi 4g. Most of my travels are in the northeast, so I can't possibly tell the national story. I have very good throughput, downloads exceeding 700 k, and the modem is about the size of a credit card, 1/4 inch thick, and supports up to five computers simutaneously, which requires no additional router.

[BillAdams]

Donwloads exceeding 700K? I hope it is WAY exceeding 700 K! You should be seeing something closer to 15,000 K (15MB down).

[tbutler]

I was interested to see this pop up on the active list again so I went back to read the postings from the last several years. I'm using the latest (as of December) model Samsung 4G T-Mobile Hotspot which offers full speed 5 GB and then throttles down for any more. There is no limit if you can stand the slow service. There is of course a great T-Mobile desert in the Great Plains. I was in the area last week and picked up AT&T for a while but that ended so I called T-Mobile just to make sure I wasn't being charged extra for roaming on AT&T and then to ask what happened why I couldn't continue to connect? Their answer, I had used my 100 MB, yes I could get 100 MB roaming (per month)! Wow I said.

I also have a Verizon 4GLTE Jetpack which covers us in the areas where T-Mobile doesn't. We had a 5 GB plan but seem to need more so I have bumped it up to 10 GB per month. Even at that we're running up against our limit. We find Verizon has pretty good coverage but are headed for our daughters home near Valley Springs (in the California Gold Hills) and we've never had good service with any wireless service there.

We have updates shut off and do those only when we have wi-fi at a campground. We have two computers with us and a desktop at home. Trying to keep three computers updated is insane but I don't want to try dealing with the desktop on the road. We don't download video , no movies, no youtube, no skype, just e-mail, blogging, financial stuff and the occasional sports feed. When we are on the road, and most of the rest of the time, we are almost totally paperless.

I'm still looking for the magic bullet but no good answers yet. Interestingly, speeds are up but as this happens web designers are making their web sites fancier with more video and moving video displays. This slows down the loading time for the site and also eats up more of the GB limit on our account. For an excellent example, look at the recently updated FMCA home page! My credit union just did the same thing. Don't even think of going to the DirecTV home page! Curse you Red Baron! Shot down again...

[geeksontour]

We use a combination of Verizon and AT&T cellular Internet. We are lucky that our Verizon data is grandfathered in unlimited. The AT&T is a 5G plan.

Speeds in excess of 25G down and 10G up are spoiling us.

We typically have more than 5 devices connected, so we connect our WiFi Ranger Go to one of those signals. The WFR also can connect to public WiFi when it is better than cellular (rarely!) To extend our reach to public WiFi, we connect our WFR Go to an external WFR Mobile on a mast.

Our friends at Technomadia have updated their excellent Mobile Internet Handbook. I don't think there is a better resource out there for this information.

http://www.technomadia.com/2013/06/announcing-the-mobile-internet-handbook-now-available/

[BillAdams]

Most folks don't need anything more than a reasonable Verizon plan if they are actually traveling. Verizon has the best coverage and that cannot be disputed. If you plan to spend the Winter/Summer in one spot, check the coverage at that location. Otherwise, buy Verizon/Millenicom (Verizon is better in almost all cases) and sit back and enjoy the ride.

[charleighastone]

Hands down MaxxFi is the way to go. Best service we've had! We tried the mifi with Verizon and At&t and using the hotspot feature on our phones. Nothing could stream multiple Netflix movies but we can now! We've had the service for about 6 months and we love it. It slowed down a little in Colorado but we were still able to stream 2 movies at once with no issues.

[elkhartjim]

Isn't this spam?

Hands down MaxxFi is the way to go. Best service we've had! We tried the mifi with Verizon and At&t and using the hotspot feature on our phones. Nothing could stream multiple Netflix movies but we can now! We've had the service for about 6 months and we love it. It slowed down a little in Colorado but we were still able to stream 2 movies at once with no issues.

Check it out at www.MaxxFi.com

[seangraham6]

With everyone talking about their experiences with different providers, how can you single out one lady and say spam? Technically every post here is spam for one company or another. She's sharing her experience with her mobile internet service.

Isn't this spam?

[hermanmullins]

Sean,

Welcome to the Forum. What Jim meant to say that what the lady posted might be seen as an advertisement of a product and or service. On the FMCA Forum Ads for product or services are not allowed. There is a moderator that follows all post that are brought to his attention, and he will decide if it falls into either category. I am sure he didn't mean to slam the post.

Still welcome to the Forum we hope to see your question, answers and comments.

Herm

[charleighastone]

I wasn't trying to offend anyone, I was just sharing our experience with mobile internet. I'll clarify my setup, it's a MaxxFi router running on an At&t unlimited data plan and it's fast. I apologize if I sounded spammy but I wanted to share my experience and setup with mobile data, which is what I thought this post was for..

[elkhartjim]

I wasn't trying to offend anyone, I was just sharing our experience with mobile internet. I'll clarify my setup, it's a MaxxFi router running on an At&t unlimited data plan and it's fast. I apologize if I sounded spammy but I wanted to share my experience with mobile data, which is what I thought this post was for..

Just curious about your rving experience. I believe both these posters are spammers. In the last few days they have been denied access to some of the other rv forums.

[seangraham6]

I've never been denied access to any forum. Rv or otherwise. My experience is mainly with boating because I just put a deposit on my first coach. The mobile technology applies across the board. I don't know what Carleigh's experience is. I just don't think it's right for you to slam someone's opinion just because you don't like it or you don't use that technology. The whole point of this thread is to explore the options, not slam someone for naming one. This is America after all.

[majorberry]

Hands down MaxxFi is the way to go. Best service we've had! We tried the mifi with Verizon and At&t and using the hotspot feature on our phones. Nothing could stream multiple Netflix movies but we can now! We've had the service for about 6 months and we love it. It slowed down a little in Colorado but we were still able to stream 2 movies at once with no issues.

Thanks for posting your experience. It sounds like a very good plan for someone that just must have a connection or needs to stream high data from anywhere. Must admit I wish equipment was not so pricey as I really just need to surf and email. Nice to know other providers are available besides the cell carriers. Fair price $70, for unlimited data compared to cell carriers data prices for very few GB. My bride gets from Verizon 1 GB $20, 2 GB $30, 4 GB $40, you get the drift here. Can not do much streaming with that.

Edit: Note after posted this I saw you had opened a new Thread on Maxxfi.

[Batsome]

There's another new way to create a wireless hotspot in your RV using your Verizon data service. It's a device called the MiFi and it is like a card and a router all in one. It looks pretty cool. Check it out at Verizon.

I have used the MIFI from Verizon for several years and am generally pleased with it. I upgraded to the 4G MiFI and just recently bought out the contract as I use it only 5 months of the year and Verizon will only allow two 3 month service suspensions in a rolling year. I was not happy having to pay the $50 for the month in which I did not use any of the 5 GB per month plan I had.