Wifi hotspot

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J

jtcowman

Member
Joined
Mar 10, 2018
Posts
6
Hello All,
I am fixin to take the plunge and get a hot spot for the trailer.  I was wondering if anyone had a suggestion for a hot spot/carrier?  I am leaning toward verizon because of their coverage in the Northwest, but I am on totally new ground.  Any suggestions would be welcome!
Thanks, Jim
 
Do you have a smart phone?  Then that will do just fine despite what Verizon stores tell you.  The latest MIFI does a good job.  There is one, I think the latest version that is capable of inputing from an external antenna.  Which is a good thing.
Verizon doea offer the best coverage.  But you might check first where you spend most of your time how the coverage map looks.  I know our favorite camp ground wifi is only good until aboit 6:30 in the morning even with Verizon,
 
I use my IPhone 6 as a hotspot for internet use via my tablet. Had a Jetpack for a while but realized it really wasn't necessary and costing $ each month. Phone hotspot is free. Carrier is Verizon.
 
We have Verizon and Sheryl uses an Ellipsis Jet Pack for logging into work with  her laptop. When using her cell phone for this, it gets very hot and we are afraid of damaging the battery, so she just uses the Ellipsis. We both use our phones as  hotspots when using our tablets. Neither streams anything more than short videos. Mostly we just email, looking at websites and, of course, this forum.
 
We have a Verizon JetPack & an ATT hotspot. We'll take the ATT over the Verizon completely. We aren't on the road no more than 4, maybe five times a year and have the pay as you go programs. Cost per gb is about the same. Our Verizon would cut in and out while driving. This is particularly aggravating when trying to use a mapping app. ATT - solid. The other reason we prefer ATT is that we can renew anytime we want. Add data easily on line. Verizon, if not renewed within 90 days charges a $35.00 re-activation fee. ATT - not.
Neither of us are big cell phone users and both have minimal plans so tethering isn't really practical for us at this point.
 
We have both an AT&T and a Verizon hotspot, and it's rare that we have better Verizon service than AT&T. We have low cost unlimited data plans for both, but the Verizon hotspot is limited to 3G speeds only, so the AT&T 4G/LTE hotspot gets the most use by far.
 
I usually have 2 or 3 ways to get online from the coach. I gave up on Direcway via a rooftop satellite antenna due to continual hardware (antenna) issues.

I had a T-mobile hotspot for a number of years with great coverage in the US, Canada and Europe. T-mobile apparently lost or cancelled their partnership with AT&T, and coverage in the USA fell off significantly, so I eventually cancelled the service.

I've had a Verizon JetPack for a number of years. It has the advantage (v tethering to my cell phone) of allowing 5 devices to connect at one time, although not as good as the T-mobile hotspot when we have grandkids around (they all have 2 or more devices that need to be online). These internet hogs required me to add a router to the JetPack (thanks to Jeff Cousins for the suggestion), which allows 10 devices to connect concurrently.

I also have the AT&T Mobley hot spot.

While at our summer RV lot in WY, neither Verizon nor At&T have a usable signal, and park wifi is useless, so I signed up with the local comms company for a DSL line to a router that feeds the coach. They had a "vacation hold" charge of only $2/month, but that recently went to $12/month.
 
I should mention we also have a Maximum Signal Max Amp RV cell amplifier/repeater that has given us usable signals even in locations where the carrier coverage maps show no service. The Max Amp repeats the roof antenna cell signal on an inside antenna that covers the entire interior of our coach.
 
Tom said:
Dutch, which rooftop antenna do you have?
Click to expand...

I'm currently using a pre-release Maximum Signal "SuperMAXX" magnetic antenna, Tom. The standard omni-antenna that ships with the Max Amp RV is your choice of a 5dB mag mount or "trucker" clamp mount. I don't have any specs on the SuperMAXX.
 

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I use T-Mobile and it does farily on Freeways. not so good in some areas (S.E. Ga) or on back roads but fairly good on most freeways.

Something you may not know.. Many States the rest areas now offer guest WI=Fi so even if there is no cell tower nearby your map will update on the state's penny.

Also Google maps you can often download a good hunk of map to on-device storage this means the map continues to work even if you have no network.

I like that Google seems to be monitoring all users so if there is a back up ahead you are warned in REAL TIME.
 
John From Detroit said:
I like that Google seems to be monitoring all users so if there is a back up ahead you are warned in REAL TIME.
Click to expand...

It's the phone's GPS via it's location services that provides the traffic info.  The same thing that plots your location on the map and tells you about nearby restaurants, etc.  It's not just Google but Microsoft, Yahoo, Shadow Traffic and SigAlert all use the same system.

it started in Los Angeles when the location services and GPS were added to the phones.  It didn't take the phone companies long to figure out if there were 50 phones all travelling at 55 MPH down the freeway right of way they could infer traffic was flowing at 55 mph, if the phones slowed to 10 MPH there was a jam up, etc.  They then sell this information to Google, etc.
 
NY_Dutch said:
Yes...

https://www.maximumsignal.net/store/?model_number=A_TS221071Yagi
Click to expand...
Interesting because when I first looked at Max Amp they did not, and during my discussion with them I recall them saying something along the lines of a directional wouldn't comply with the FCC requirements they had to follow.

I note though that they do not list gain specs for this antenna, which makes it impossible to compare to others
 
The high gain yagi may not have been submitted to the FCC as part of the new "package" testing requirements, but that doesn't mean you can't hang one up there as an end user. I don't know if Gord has a gain spec available for the yagi or not.
 
Yes there is still truly unlimited and unthrottled data with Verizon.
I hate all the ?unlimited? talk...with the ?but? somewhere in there.  :mad:
It?s like buying a motorhome with 600hp...?but?...it has only 7 wheels and they take 1 wheel away for each 10mph you go over 45mph.
 

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We use our phone hot spots (via AT&T) whenever we travel since public wireless is so susceptible to hacking (one trick hackers are using these days is to pretend to be a free WIFI hot spot and when you connect, they are monitoring every packet you send/receive, including password information).


As an added benefit to anyone using both AT&T and DirectTV is that AT&T will allow you to stream all your DirectTV content unlimited, and without impact to your data usage. When on the road, we'll use Chromecast to stream our DirectTV programming to our rig's TV from the phone without having to worry about our data plan.
 
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