Internet Acess

[Fordiesel250]

How can I set up my motorhome so I can get the internet?

[Devilishjim]

WE have a Verizon wireless jetpack

 

edit : Or you can use the hotspot on a smartphone but the Jetpack is much nicer and faster.

[TCW]

The two most popular ways to access the internet are by using a cellular device or by using the Wifi provided by some RV parks. These websites will tell you just about everything you need to know much better than I could in a post: RV Mobile Internet Resource Center, Jack Mayer's Communications on the Road.

[Max Death]

We have the wifi ranger on our fifth wheel. No need to drill holes and it has great range. For those times that we can't get a signal from it I use my Verizon smart phone as a hot spot. Of coarse I also still have the unlimited data package.

[LindaH]

We're using our Verizon smartphone as a hotspot.

[AFchap]

WE have a Verizon wireless jetpack

 

edit : Or you can use the hotspot on a smartphone but the Jetpack is much nicer and faster.

I've used a phone as modem or now as hotspot for about 10 years now. It has worked great for me, and I never felt a need for the additional expenses of a jetpack, etc. If I have a phone hotspot on 4g, and a jetpack on 4g, how/why would the jetpack be faster?

[WeBeFulltimers]

WE have a Verizon wireless jetpack

 

edit : Or you can use the hotspot on a smartphone but the Jetpack is much nicer and faster.

I used a Jetpack for 3-4 years and it worked OK. Last year switched to using my Samsung Galaxy 5S as a hotspot and it is more dependable and faster than the Jetpack. Goodbye Jetpack and the $20 monthly fee that it came with. Want to buy a Jetpack?

[Jack Mayer]

I also observe that use of the phone as a hotspot tends to be faster than the Jetpack IN BUSY TOWER areas only. If the tower is not seemingly overloaded then the Jetpack is the same speed. But where tower overload is occurring the phone does seem to be consistently faster. So I'll switch the phone hotspot on if the network seems slow with the Jetpack. Most of the time that helps.

[FULLTIMEWANABE]

I must have read something somewhere to think this in the past or dreamt it. Does using your phone as a hotspot versus getting a jetpack separately eat up more data? Have iPhone 5, and would assume need to get a verizon prepaid sim card to put in versus buying jetpack and data package at $90 per month? Like to use laptop a lot!

[wa_desert_rat]

We also use our smartphone as a hotspot. In our case it's a Samsung Note 3 on Verizon. There is no tethering fee with Verizon (after a settlement between them and the FCC) and so it costs no more per month than just the phone alone. We have a 6gb data plan and that, along with the occasional WiFi and breakfast at McDonalds does it pretty well. We do not stream videos or music, however.

 

We also have a Wilson Sleek 4g amplifier and external (outside) antenna for weak spots.

 

The Note 3 is not as large as a tablet but it's a lot nicer than the average cell phone so we just use that for a lot of Internet access and only occasionally use the tethering ability. If we had to, we could probably live with just the Note 3 for all our data access.

 

WDR

[Jimalberta]

I have a question regarding this. I am assuming that you need a plan to use a smartphone as a hotspot. So what about visitors to your country such as us Canadian snowbirds? Would a plan work if we were to put the plan on hold while we are back in Canada?

[LindaH]

Does using your phone as a hotspot versus getting a jetpack separately eat up more data?

 

I don't see how it could. If you download a file that's 5MB, for example, it's going to be 5MB whether you're using your phone as a hotspot or a jetpack. Now, you may have apps on your phone that use some data, but that's going to happen whether or not you use your phone as a hotspot.

[docj]

 

 

edit : Or you can use the hotspot on a smartphone but the Jetpack is much nicer and faster.

 

Jack has already address the "faster" issue, but I'm not sure why a Jetpack is "nicer." There's nothing too difficult about turning on the phone's hotspot--just touch an on-screen button. We have two phones and use both as hotspots so either one of us can take their phone "out" without effecting the other. Our Galaxy S4's are capable of simultaneous voice and data, as are most new phones these days, so there's no problem about talking on the phone while it serves as a hotspot.

[AFchap]

The primary advantage I can think of for a Jetpack or similar is it is there/available all the time for multiple users. But when I use my phone as the hotspot, when I leave the rig and the DW is still there she would not have internet capability if she wanted it ...but she does all her browsing & email on her own phone (no computer or tablet use except tablet as a reader and all her books are on the tablet), so the phone hotspot works very well for us!!

[TCW]

The primary advantage I can think of for a Jetpack or similar is it is there/available all the time for multiple users.

This is my take also. If you have devices like a wireless printer, etc.; it would seem that playing musical hotspots switching from phone to phone would require switching the connection of every device on the network unless you use a router that will switch connections automatically when the primary connection disappears or all your devices will do this on their own.

 

I haven't looked into it since the demise of Millenicom, but shutting off the jetpack service was fairly simple and if you didn't need it for a few months was well worth the reactivation fee. I know there are pay as you go jetpack and phone data plans. Is there a time limit on how long the purchased data can be saved? Does the unused data on a phone monthly plan roll over like the minutes use to in some plans?

[docj]

This is my take also. If you have devices like a wireless printer, etc.; it would seem that playing musical hotspots switching from phone to phone would require switching the connection of every device on the network unless you use a router that will switch connections automatically when the primary connection disappears or all your devices will do this on their own.

 

 

That's an excellent reason for having a WiFiRanger or similar router. It enables us to easily switch everything in the network from one hotspot to the other or to campground wifi with a single keystroke.

[Kirk W]

How can I set up my motorhome so I can get the internet?

As you may have gathered by now, you will need to have some source of signal. There are locations that have free wifi that can be used and sometimes it works well from the RV and sometimes not. More and more RV parks have wifi for their customers and by choosing carefully that can be your source but there are many parks where the service is slow. You can also find it at most Lowe's stores and some Walmart stores if you are parked in their parking lot. The key to the best answer is how dependent upon it you are and just how critical it is to you.

[Jack Mayer]

About the "phone only" issue......

 

I do have a router in the mix....typically a WiFiRanger Go2....but often something else...so lets just say a router that handles WiFI as WAN.

 

This gives you the ability to take the phone hotspot and run it through the router (wirelessly) and redistribute the signal. WHY would one want to do this? The only real answer is convenience. I have my hardwired devices on the router: NAS, Printer, Solar Controller, etc. They are fixed devices. Using the phone as my Internet source allows me to supply the router with backhaul. If I leave, Danielle can enable her hotspot (she has an S3) and we just carry on - no change to devices. In fact with the WFR this "can" happen automagically....it will fail over from one to the other.

 

Do I run like this "typically"? No, I do have a jetpack. But at this point in time it is becoming superfluous and may be turned off.....unless I need it for testing.

 

If you don't have hardwired devices then just the phone hotspot meets 95% of peoples needs.... with the added advantage that it "does seem faster" sometimes. But I cannot prove that definitively. Yet.

[TCW]

...If you don't have hardwired devices then just the phone hotspot meets 95% of peoples needs...

I need to get a new printer. Was thinking of a wireless one so it would not have to always be near the router or computer. Are there wireless ones that would switch from one phone hotspot to another automatically?

[Jack Mayer]

I need to get a new printer. Was thinking of a wireless one so it would not have to always be near the router or computer. Are there wireless ones that would switch from one phone hotspot to another automatically?

Not that I have seen. The ones I'm familiar with handle a static SSID.

[Ricka]

For a wireless printer, get one that connects with Bluetooth and connect directly. Many printers like HP have apps to print as long as you are on line somewhere.

[TCW]

Jack,

Thanks for the quick response.

[Jack Mayer]

How about sharing some details of the plan and how you legally (within terms of service) do that? With the person's current sim.

[Cochise1949]

We have a Verizon Jet Pack. It works well. Our iPhone 6's also work well but if the phone owner leaves and takes it with, no hot spot. We only pay an additional 10 bucks a month for the Jet Pack. We have the Family Plan.

[rebntx]

We use AT&T myfi with no problems anywhere.