Living in camper what is best for wifi

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Dbutman

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I am going to be selling my home and living in my camper soon.  Trying to figure out the best way to go about internet in the camper.  Any and all thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated.
 
I like Millenicom.com  it has no contract and depending where you are it runs very fast, other places not so much.  Normally it works about 90% of the time.  You buy what you need or think you need extra left over carries over to the next month.
 
Check out the AT&T Mobley, unlimited (may be throttled after 22 gigs per month) plan for $20 per month, hard to beat the price.
 
I use a multiple approach
For Park Wi-Fi where it works. I use a Umbiquiti Nano-Station Lock M2 (The Loco M is better by the way.. They make products much much better if you want to spend the $$$$$$$$)

This feeds a router inside the house.

Wi-Fi Ranger... More or less the same set up I use only all in one box when you buy it.

Cellular.. My provider is T-Mobile but that's my phone on a monthly plan.. "Unlimited' Slow data. limited HIGH SPEED data and I've gone into slow every month this summer since half the time I can't get Park Wi-FI.

I will tell you the Nano-Station has been very impressive range wise  But it takes a bit of skill or training to set it up. the documentation ... Sucked.
 
I have an old Verizon plan and use my mobile hot spot on the phone. I have used 20 g of data with a bill of $200 +iirc  for two phones. It works pretty good but it's obviously pricey. I considered changing to unlimited but then noticed people saying they were sorry that they did so I haven't researched it more.

I dont go to many campgrounds but when I do I cant remember ever having one where their wifi worked very well.  I need to go look at web sites like this one to see if I want to change everything.  http://www.technomadia.com/2014/08/how-we-keep-online-illustrated-tour-of-our-rv-mobile-internet-setup/
 
You will want multiple means of access, powerful wifi for access to local networks that have internet, and cellular service for internet data and phone. I prefer to have a separate cellular modem (aka hotspot, Myfi, or Jetpack), but some people use their smart phone as the hotspot.

The wifi built into laptops and other devices have mediocre radio & antenna, so using a separate wifi with a good antenna and powerful radio is worthwhile.

Unfortunately, the best choice in cellular service will depend on where you go. Verizon & AT&T have the broadest nationwide coverage, but neither has 100% of the US & Canada. Sprint and others are a distant 3rd place or lower.  Services like Millenicom piggy back on the networks owned and operated by on of the major carriers, but may not have the use of the entire network.
 
We just signed up with Verizon. Hated Sprint. We just purchased a Verizon Jet Pack (Model 7730L) to take to FL with us. The WiFi in the campground we stay in stinks. As long as we have a Verizon signal, the jet pack should work. Cost is $10.00 a month. The jet pack cost us $50.00.  I had it plugged in the other day inside the RV, about 50' away, and was in our house, I turned on my PC and was able to connect to it.
 
It also depends on your usage.  If you're retired and just interested in things like email and maybe some forums then we use Verizon and have our own router.  If you're still working then your needs might be quite different than ours.  It might be useful to provide more information on what you actually need.  By the way, places like campgrounds don't handle streaming very well as a rule.  Such intense usage degrades the system for everyone when overused.

ArdraF
 
We used Millenicom and it was so/so.  $50 for 10g is expensive IMO.  And the device was more expensive than most too.  Around $100 as I recall.  When the 10g was used, it supposedly still let you online, but at a lower speed.  We could get onto Google with that lower speed, but couldn't surf, so pretty worthless.  We also used hotspot from our phones or just used our phones.  When we were in town, the Millenicom worked great.  When we were camped more than 5-10 miles from a town, it was spotty.  Hotspotting uses more data than just using a smart phone.  What we didn't like about Millenicom is that you never really know how much data you have left unless you call them.  There is a website but it is only updated every other day, unless they have changed things in the last few months.  They are very nice, and I usually ended up talking to the same people all the time, but I hated to call just to see how much data I had left until the end of my month.  If I had it to do over again, I would get an unlimited data phone plan.
 
Try Consumer Cellular. You can use your smart phone as a hotshot, or buy a portable hotshot that you can turn on and off between trips. We have two smart phones and a hotshot for $87 a month.
 
Our current onboard Internet setup consists of a Netgear "Unite" hotspot using the SIM from an AT&T Mobley on their "Connected Car" unlimited 4G/LTE $20/mo plan. The plan calls for potentially "deprioritizing" (NOT the same as "throttling") our speed after 22GB. "Deprioritizing" just means that our speed may be reduced to mid 3G speeds when connected to a very busy tower, but only for the busy period. After that, it returns to normal. In reality, we have never seen this happen so far even when using 70 or so GB a month. In case we happen to land somewhere with a poor AT&T signal though, we have a third-party "flashed" Verizon hotspot with unlimited 3G data at $5/month as a backup.
 
thomasamski said:
Try Consumer Cellular. You can use your smart phone as a hotshot,

Hmmm... I can (USB) tether with my phone to use the computer on the internet, using PDAnet, but I can't use it as a hot spot (wireless), because the phone says I don't have permission to do that. Other than that we've been happy with CC -- is there something special to do to get that capability?
 

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