Internet access on the road

[DebY1956]

Any recommendations for portable Wifi? I've seen advertisements for Travlfi, etc. Don't know what's good/reliable/reasonable. My cell carrier doesn't have portable hotspots. FYI.... I'm ok with technology but not great!

 

[A.Texas.Yankee]

Any recommendations for portable Wifi? I've seen advertisements for Travlfi, etc. Don't know what's good/reliable/reasonable. My cell carrier doesn't have portable hotspots. FYI.... I'm ok with technology but not great!

There's a lot of information out there on this, but the first thing you need to figure out is how much data you need (gigabytes) and how fast of a speed you need? Then you'll need to figure out your budget. There are three main services (carrier, vmno, third party resellers).

 

[FL-Guy]

Any recommendations for portable Wifi? I've seen advertisements for Travlfi, etc. Don't know what's good/reliable/reasonable. My cell carrier doesn't have portable hotspots. FYI.... I'm ok with technology but not great!

We just use the hotspot our phones. I installed an inexpensive router behind the TV that I connect our internal WiFi items to (TV, tablets, computer, Zigbee hub etc.) If we go to a campground that has wifi available I connect the router to that and it passes the signal to everything. If there is no wifi but cell service I connect the router to the phone hotspot. That way I don't have to do a separate connection on each device each time we change wifi. If there is cell service it's usually a faster connection than most campground wifi.

If there is no WiFi and no cell coverage we're SOL, but isn't that one of the reasons we camp... to disconnect and relax.

 

[Ynot4me2]

I used Maplewifi with a Netgear cellular router. The good, no contract, so we only activated it when traveling, unlimited downloads, no throttling, works in Canada and the US, and you can carry that router with you (battery operated). The bad, not cheap, but the reason why we are trying out Starlink is Maplewifi has the absolute worst customer service x10. When Starlink came out with $200 for the h/w, I jumped on it. The monthly price for the mobile service is similar to Maplewifi.

 

[Casa_Woody]

Check out Townbroadband.com. They have plans from AT&T or Verizon. I use a MOFI 4G/5G router and the AT&T unlimited SIM card from townbroadband. Averages out to $70 per month. I use it as my home internet service as well. I average around 300Gb download per month without any major issues. Download speeds vary from 10Mb to 100Mb depending on location and network loading. I have always been able to stream movies at night.

 

[BobinICT]

Starlink hands down. $150 a month when we use it, about 4 to 5 months currently. So long as you have a good view of the sky. One thing I really like is we are up and online within 15 to 20 minutes from setup, that includes the 10 minutes or so to get it out. Another great part is no configuring devices all the time.

 

[GoodScout]

I also echo Starlink if the price isn't an obstacle. $600 initial for the equipment and then $150 a month, with the option to suspend the monthly charge for months when you're in storage/off the road.

We use Starlink with our cellphones' Personal Hotspot wifi as a backup for when tree cover is an issue (it rarely is).

 

[kb0zke]

We switched to T-Mobile from Verizon about a year and a half ago. We got the senior citizen plan then because we were in a S&B for a few months and had a wired connection. Once we went back on the road we upgraded to the bigger plan, which gives us 50GB of hot spot use for each of our phones. Jo Ann has used her 50GB up two or three times. I never have, so when she runs out she just uses my phone's hot spot.

We were warned that using the hot spot will work the battery harder, so the phone will get warm. That does happen, so removing the phone from the case is a good idea.

We rarely use public wifi, as we've heard too many stories of hackers. Our son works in computer security, and he would have our heads if we made a habit of using it.

 

[DECelt]

Any recommendations for portable Wifi? I've seen advertisements for Travlfi, etc. Don't know what's good/reliable/reasonable. My cell carrier doesn't have portable hotspots. FYI.... I'm ok with technology but not great!

We use Visible, a Verizon owned company. $25.00 a month with unlimited talk, text and data....bring your own phone or buy one. 5g included.

And.... Unlimited hotspot at 5mbps. That's sufficient to stream Amazon prime tv. Clearly no gaming and it likely wouldn't be sufficient if you had to work... but we have been able to stream on very weak signals anywhere Verizon has service. The antenna gets us locals if there are any and the DVR works if there is nothing else [emoji4]

 

[retired_engineer]

We use our phones as hotspots. We have phones on two of the nationwide services which gets us a strong signal pretty much any place it matters. I use a travel router in the trailer to connect to either the hotspot or campground WiFi, which ever has better signal, and our devices always connect to the travel router.

 

[ajg617]

We switched to T-Mobile from Verizon about a year and a half ago. We got the senior citizen plan then because we were in a S&B for a few months and had a wired connection. Once we went back on the road we upgraded to the bigger plan, which gives us 50GB of hot spot use for each of our phones. Jo Ann has used her 50GB up two or three times. I never have, so when she runs out she just uses my phone's hot spot.

We were warned that using the hot spot will work the battery harder, so the phone will get warm. That does happen, so removing the phone from the case is a good idea.

We rarely use public wifi, as we've heard too many stories of hackers. Our son works in computer security, and he would have our heads if we made a habit of using it.

Had much better success across the country with T-Mobile than Verizon last year. But T-Mobile is eliminating our $10/month auto pay credit for Magenta 55+ unless we give them bank or debit card as opposed to credit card. Given that their cyber breaches have already put my PII on the dark web twice, not going to happen despite their free McAfee service. Now that I have Starlink, I may have to reconsider T-Mobile since the original lower cost plan is no longer available.

 

[SilentService]

Starlink hands down. $150 a month when we use it, about 4 to 5 months currently. So long as you have a good view of the sky. One thing I really like is we are up and online within 15 to 20 minutes from setup, that includes the 10 minutes or so to get it out. Another great part is no configuring devices all the time.

X2. 158MPS, deep in a canyon with some tree obstruction!

 

[hartcentr]

Any recommendations for portable Wifi? I've seen advertisements for Travlfi, etc. Don't know what's good/reliable/reasonable. My cell carrier doesn't have portable hotspots. FYI.... I'm ok with technology but not great!

IPhone as a hot spot. 5G, and even if it drops to LTE it is workable. Plus, we can run it through the WeBoost amplifier if needed.

Consumer Cellular has an unlimited data plan for $47.50/mo, and you can move it back to a cheaper plan at any time. Most of the time we are on a 5 GB monthly data plan for $23.75/mo.

If you are out in the boonies with no cell signal at all, some kind of satellite WiFi would be needed.

 

[Jim and Patty]

Internet

Any recommendations for portable Wifi? I've seen advertisements for Travlfi, etc. Don't know what's good/reliable/reasonable. My cell carrier doesn't have portable hotspots. FYI.... I'm ok with technology but not great!

Hi, we just picked up box from T-Mobil, all you do is plug it in. I use it at home and on the road. Anywhere there's T-Mobile cell service, you have internet. I plugged it in my truck, and had internet the entire trip. At the campgrounnd, I plugged it in in my trailer,was able to stream Netflix and work on my laptop.

 

[RoscoeTX]

We too use the box from T-Mobil. So far it has been great, better than using the iPhone for a hot spot. Plus, it is only $30 a month and since our phones are also on T-Mobil Netflix and Apple TV are included free.

 

[Delramp]

Agree ? % with Starlink
It’s a little pricey but hands down easiest setup we’ve ever encountered.
Used it now for about 7 month and have only had one campsite due to lots of tree coverage we could only get sporadic signal but we didn’t try really hard for a better location either.

 

[eodenc]

Interesting note, my wife and i use our hotspots (verizon) and the hd antenna. If I connect my tv to the hotspot and stream we use a good bit of "unlimited" data and one of us can run out. If i steam on the app on the phone but connect my phone to the tv diretly (usb to hdtv cable) it does not count against the hotspot which I need to use for work a good bit.

 

[dandyrandy]

Gateway?

Hi, we just picked up box from T-Mobil, all you do is plug it in. I use it at home and on the road. Anywhere there's T-Mobile cell service, you have internet. I plugged it in my truck, and had internet the entire trip. At the campgrounnd, I plugged it in in my trailer,was able to stream Netflix and work on my laptop.

Is this their new home internet service called tmobile gateway? do you find it difficult to set it up at each campground?

 

[dandyrandy]

is this tmobile gateway program? if so is it easy to setup at each of the campgrounds?

 

[Linndoren]

Starlink hands down. $150 a month when we use it, about 4 to 5 months currently. So long as you have a good view of the sky. One thing I really like is we are up and online within 15 to 20 minutes from setup, that includes the 10 minutes or so to get it out. Another great part is no configuring devices all the time.

Same here, going in my second year, get internet when there is no cell service and always better than the parks wifi. Even when there are trees it isn’t that much of a hassle.