WIFI and Hotspots

[sdw215]

Thanks Steve!

 

[NY_Dutch]

We use an aimable dual antenna MIMO set mounted just above our TV antenna with our Visible and AT&T unlimited data services as needed. In many areas we've been to the $150 MIMO set has outperformed our previous $600 booster.

 

[2CampingMoms]

Thank you everyone for all of the info. For those of you with Visible, is the Hotspot high speed? We would only be streaming TV. And do you like them as a provider in general? We may switch one of our phones from Verizon (where we pay ALOT) to Visible and use it as a hotspot.

Thanks,
Heidi

 

[NY_Dutch]

Thank you everyone for all of the info. For those of you with Visible, is the Hotspot high speed? We would only be streaming TV. And do you like them as a provider in general? We may switch one of our phones from Verizon (where we pay ALOT) to Visible and use it as a hotspot.

Thanks,
Heidi

Visible has worked well for me with Verizon towers pretty much everywhere we go. The hotspot feature is limited to 5 Mbps down/up, and we've routinely streamed with it with minimal to no buffering. There is a way to bypass the speed limit if you search for it. I've never needed Visible's customer service since my initial sign up in 2019, so I can't comment on that.

 

[phil-t]

I can echo Dutch's experience with Visible. Been using them for over 3 years while RVing, for data connectivity.

 

[LMHS]

The Visible 5mbps limit hack is in the document towards the end. I did have to buy a (Belkin BOOSTCHARGE Braided USB C to USB A Charger Cable + Strap, Rose Gold, 5 ft from my local Wal-Mart $12) high speed charge cable in order to tether the Beryl router to the Visible phone. Every cord we had just wasn't good enough. With the new cord, everything worked great. I have not set up the speed hack. I haven't needed to. I do need to get a cellphone booster I think. The steel shell of my bus messes with cellphone signals and I only get 1 to 2 bars of signal on the hotspot cellphone inside. I have the phone sitting next to a window. Amazon and Netflix occasionally buffer, but that is normal for where I'm at. One day I won't be so close to a military base airport.

RV Internet $30-$45/month unlimited internet setup process

I got the $100 Visible Midnight phone because the cheapie one was sold out at the time. I suspect the cheapie one now is the $100 Midnight. My daughter has a Samsung S22 and she likes her phone but not the price of a replacement. We were unable to swap our unlocked phones for some reason. As we have never been able to simply "swap" for an upgraded phone, I wasn't surprised. So I got the cheapest phone to use as a hotspot. Later, I will try to get a cheaper phone and use it as a hotspot and use the $100 phone as my personal phone. I don't need much of a phone and the Midnight seems to be a nice phone. I have the $40 plan. I used to have the old Unlimitedville/Sprint hotspot plan but T-Mobile put an end to that. Since T-Mobile was only interested in charging me more and getting rid of my unlimited data plan, I dumped them in favour of Visible.... for now.

 

[phil-t]

The Visible solution noted by LMHS, above, has worked for me for a few years.
I have the router configured with the same wifi networks as my home network - when we travel, or otherwise occupy the RV, all our devices, laptops, phones and printer just work; no changes.
We stream most all of our TV, including live stuff from near our home base.
Though I have managed without one, I intend to add the Weboost cellular device; there are a couple places we visit regularly that have marginal Verizon signal. Just wish there was a less expensive solution than the Weboost.

 

[LMHS]

I intend to add the Weboost cellular device; there are a couple places we visit regularly that have marginal Verizon signal. Just wish there was a less expensive solution than the Weboost.

There are less expensive solutions than Weboost. I may not be understanding this right but I have found "residential cellphone boosters" for $200 and less. I downloaded LTE Discovery App to find what band the cell phones use (has to be on each phone). Our Visible cellphone uses band 66. The hotspot phone is the only one I an interested in boosting. I found this for $100 amazon.com/dp/B09NKJVTXY/

 

[NY_Dutch]

There are less expensive solutions than Weboost. I may not be understanding this right but I have found "residential cellphone boosters" for $200 and less. I downloaded LTE Discovery App to find what band the cell phones use (has to be on each phone). Our Visible cellphone uses band 66. The hotspot phone is the only one I an interested in boosting. I found this for $100 amazon.com/dp/B09NKJVTXY/

I've found our dual aimable MIMO antenna set to be the equal of and sometimes superior to any booster we've tried regardless of the price.

 

[DutchmenSport]

For the OP. We have Visible also. We purchased a ZTE phone from them and we upgraded to the 5G. Because Visible connects to only 1 device at a time, we also have a small router / wifi. Now, multiple devices can connect to the router. But there is still only 1 device connected to the phone .... the router.

About speed? We use our Visible a lot. Both my wife and I worked full time remotely for our respective companies. We were both in Information Technology working with software development. We took our life style on the road when Covid hit and we were tossed out of the building. We could access 2 Roku televisions with streaming video, 3 laptop computers, and 1 I-pad. We could both be on "Teams" with our respective companies for business meetings ... at the same time, while having 2 different Roku televisions streaming in the background and not a hint of interruption on any device.

Note: I said we both "worked" for our respective companies. I retired in January, she's still working. Even at home, my wife continues to use the Visible system, even though we do have a completely different system at home.

We also added the WeBoost. Yes, it wasn't cheap, but it REALLY does work very well. As long as we can get 1 bar on our Visible phone, we can stream on both televisions and still work all our computers at the same time with no buffering, pauses, breaks, or time-outs. .... all at onece.

Plus, the WeBoost also boosts our AT&T phones, which also have an unlimited plan, but they do throttle after a certain point. We use the AT&T phones for the internet connection only when the Visible absolutely does not work because there is absolutely no Verizon signals anywhere.

 

[phil-t]

I see Amazon has their own "booster" solution now -

Amazboost​