I have WiFi anywhere, even when moving fown the road

Having tried all of the usual solutions to staying connected to the Internet with my laptop while traveling, whether it be in rest areas, Wall Marts, Campgrounds, or even driving down the road, I have finally found a solution that works and I am happy with.

It is a high speed cel phone based wireless router that installs in the motor home, and turns it into a mobile hot spot so that anybody in the RV (or up to 100 feet from it) can access the Internet.

It is always on and available, and works anywhere in the US where any kind of cellular phone signal can be detected, which is pretty near anywhere. I have been using it for about a week now, sometimes in quite hilly and difficult areas, and have never failed to be able to surf the Internet almost as fast as I can at home. I even use it to play my favorite Jazz radio station over the Internet while driving, when I am far out of range of the station, and it's just like being at home.

I have tried air cards (would not work with 64 bit Windows Vista), satellite (too difficult to set up, and cannot be used while driving), and of course dial-up (too slow). This WiFi router is even better and often faster than the WiFi that I get when staying at a campground. And I don't have to pay to use a Starbucks WiFi.

I had it hooked it up to the 12 volt system, to a light fixture in the motor home so that the switch to the light also switches on the router, and within two minutes of switching it on, I have a WiFi hotspot in the motor home and for about 100 feet radius.

I bought it from Autonet, near San Francisco California. Because of the understandable restrictions on advertising in this forum I don't want to say any more than that, but if you want more info you can contact me at [email protected]. I do not work for them, but I am just so excited about how it works for me that I just have to tell you.

Andy,

I don't think that revealing the cost of the system would breech the web site rules and I'm sure would be very useful and informative to many members.

Several staff members received one or more emails from forum members asking if this was an ad; FYI after talking with Andy, I'm quite satisfied that he has no connection with the product, the manufacturer, or supplier, beyond being a customer wishing to share his experience.

Apologies to Andy for the misunderstanding that led to his message being temporarily moved out of public view. We really do appreciate hearing about more ways for RVers to get online while on the road.

Thank you Tom for your help. I want to reassure everybody that I am just a customer of the company that makes this product. Obviously my enthusiasm made me sound like a salesman, ha ha.

Somebody asked about the price. The unit cost me $599 (a bit steep), installation was $100, and monthly service costs me $30. If you need any more info, email me at [email protected], or go to Autonet's Web site (do a Google search), because I don't want this forum to become like an advertisement either.

If Autonet does, in fact, have access to both Verizon Wireless and Sprint data networks, then the $30/month is a fair price for access.  The wireless router is overpriced at $600, however.  Those devices typically sell for <$200, plus the aircard.

There are several of those on the market now.. Cradelpoint, Linksys and others all have competing products.

There are basically two things I can tell you about them

1: They exist

2: There are two different types of cell networks they work with.. And generally speaking a router works with one or the other

T-Mobile & AT&T use one network type.. Verizon the other.. I'm not sure what Sprint/Nextel uses

Many of us have been doing cellular internet access for some time - more than 10 years in my case. Adding a wifi router to internet access is easy enough these days - I have two different routers I carry in the coach that I can use when I want to share my connection. As Ned says, $600 + $100 installation is a steep price for equipment, but $30/month for use is a bargain. Is that an introductory offer (I saw something about first three months) or a guaranteed price for a year or more? The going rate from cellular carriers and third part ISP for wireless internet service is $59.99/month (with no equipment charges).

I'm using a cellular data modem as I type this - it connects on the Sprint cellular network and plugs into a USB port on the desktop system in my coach. Upfront cost was $20. I paid another $57 for the wifi router I attach when I want to share.

I recently upgraded my AT&T cell phones to the 3G Nokia 6555. I use one of the phones as a tethered modem to the notebook via a USB cable. I have used the system for a couple of months now and it seems to work about as good as my DSL Lite service, sometimes better. The cost for unlimited service is $40 per mo plus taxes. They do however, have something to say about 5GB same as the other services. I plan to stop the DSL service around the end of the month. I have no plans for a router. I noticed that Cyberguys has a cellular modem router for $179.The Manufacturers name appears to be Cradlepoint. They say "Convert a 3G Cellular Modem into a Battery-Powered Hotspot".

After the original post was taken from view, I called Autonet Mobile to get more information. They quoted a price of $499 for the hardware, with basically just a plug in install for MH usage. An antenna was recommended but it was hard to pin down whether that was for cellular reception or wi-fi networking. The monthly service was $30 with a 1 GB data limit. Higher limit plans are available. One large advantage over the air card is that Autonet supposedly has operating arrangements with multiple cell companies and can shift from one's tower to another's seamlessly.

$30/1GB is not a bargain.  With HughesNet I can get that much data every 3 days.

Ned said:

$30/1GB is not a bargain.  With HughesNet I can get that much data every 3 days.

Click to expand...

Ned

You are a special case. We've been pretty much on cell phone this billing period and have used 362mb for the 1st 10 days of the period. That would put us just over 1 GB for the month. But the hardware cost is what is the kicker.

I'm not so special.  How many people are watching the Olympic videos online these past days?  That will chew up 1GB in a day or less.  Then there's the YouTube viewers, and every news site has video as well.  1GB isn't very much today.

I don't use my 375MB every day, but when I need it, I need it.  And that doesn't count the FAP free period of 0300-0600ET when I can transfer as much as I can.  I can get almost 1GB during that 3 hours alone.

My wife and I are both Internet and email addicts at home. We live in front of our computers. When we're on the road we make sure we can get WiFi at each park or campground we visit if possible. Last week we stayed in a beautiful park in Big Sur, California. It's a campground, actually. We had water and power but no sewer, TV or WiFi.

Guess what? We kicked the habit! After just a day or so we learned how to talk with each other again! When we got home we had hundreds of emails to sort through but nearly none of them were important.

That's just us. I'd love to have the kind of constant connection you're talking about but for us "getting away from it all" now means the Internet, too! (As long as we can find a signal every few days or so.)  

Just another perspective.

We are online constantly but don't view much video, just the occasional short clip. We use around 2.5 GB per month.

We made the change few months ago.  Prior to that we had ATT's package at home that included TV, Cable, and high speed internet.  Because we couldn't take any of it with us we switched TV to DirectTV, data to Sprint's air card, left the wired phone service with ATT, and installed a wireless router at home.

At home the air card is plugged into the router, from which we operate the laptop and the desktop.  Sprint's air card at home provides internet connection slower than we were accustomed to, but it is about DSL speed which we can live with.  When we go on the road we take the DirectTV rec from the kitchen remove the air card from the router and plug it into the PCMIA slot on the laptop.  For the most part, we are satisfied.  In some non-Sprint locations we get slow internet, but it is usable.

We have discovered that the air card in the laptop eats a lot of resources, more than when we are wireless using the router.  So, we are going to begin taking the router with us too.