On Board Wifi Setup

[keynsham1]

Has anyone got experience of using this:



 

[colinthefox]

Why can't you just use your mobile phone as a hotspot?

[keynsham1]

I thought that too but apparently this unit with the external aerial will pick up and amplify the signal in areas where your phone will not work. Also the phone tethering is limited in number of devices but this can support 32. Loads more than I will ever need!

[PaulFDennis]

I’ve no experience but have started to think about using Starlink mini with a roaming account. Costs seem to be coming down rapidly and coverage is going to be better than the 4G/5G network.

[TwinTurbo]

I don't use that , but use a 4G router in my office as I can't get a landline. started off tethering to my mobile but signal was poor and generated a lot of heat. profressef to a mifi but that was a marginal improvement. proper device with external antenna is the way to go on 4g.

 

[patrickpawsey]

The external antennae on those make a real difference. Had one on an off grid narrowboat and it was like night and day, especially as you can mount it high up as well. The WiFi performance is better too like you say it's not a phone getting really hot - which is fine for a few devices but switching to a dedicated device did make things much more reliable, albeit needing another mobile SIM card and monthly fee.

Sent from my CPH2409 using Tapatalk

[keynsham1]

Yes I have been looking at sim deals. I would really only need a small amount of data as I don't use the van that much. I was hoping that I could buy a sim which has data on and no contract but I think you always have to end up with a monthly fee. Also the sim cards you buy which are preloaded with data seem to expire, often after only one month!

[keynsham1]

Does anyone know what this sim actually allows? It sort of suggests to me that you pay a one off price of £48.19 and then have 120GB of data to use as and when you like for 12 months with no monthly contract. I just cannot find a proper explanation of it!!

[keynsham1]

So I have got my WIFI up and running for a test. I opted for a Chinese made router and Puck aerial, suspiciously identical all but the stickers, to the Kuma products but £34 and £29 respectively instead of £170 and £100! I also went for the EE 120gb prepaid sim at £48. It is literally plug and play and needs no monthly payments. Data lasts for 12 months.





I have been running it constantly from a small Allpowers power bank to see how much power it uses and it has used 8% of it's capacity in 24 hours so it will last weeks on a leisure battery. I will install it in the van with a switch though so I can turn it off at night.



The unit did come with it's own little aerials but they are rubbish. Testing the speeds on 4G (that is what it covers) I get the following:

My phone on normal 4G                32.8 mb/s
WIFI setup with original aerials      25.5 mb/s
WIFI setup with Puck antenna        50.8 mb/s

A check on Google suggests expected real world speeds for 4G (not 4G+) is as follows: The average download speed for 4G LTE typically ranges from 15 Mbps to 20 Mbps, with potential peaks reaching up to 100 Mbps under optimal conditions.

So even in a good reception area it is 55% faster than just the phone. The real test will be to take it somewhere where there is no phone reception to see if it works then. I am pretty happy though for a total cost of £135 which includes wiring, a switch and some sealant!!

The puck antenna also covers 5G bands so if I ever want to upgrade the router, I can but there seems little point until 5G has better coverage!

 

[Oldiebut goodie]

You do realize that there are no pretty pictures showing?

[keynsham1]

Yes. It is apparently because the IMGUR software this site uses in the UK at least, is no longer available. There is a thread about it in the General Chat section:

viewtopic.php?t=183300  

Out of my control sadly. If you download the TOR browser and look at this website, you can see everything. That is what I do now. It's easy and most importantly, free!!

[mike the van]

OK, I think the IMGUR issue is pretty much known, but not really answering the fact that you can’t see your images. Using TOR isn’t necessarily an option that everyone wants to take.