Internet abroad 2016 options (1 Viewer)

Feb 24, 2013
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We are in France and have as a lot of us do these days a need or internet on the move

A couple of years ago we invested in a Mifi and an iBoost, we also have internet phones and Bev luuurves her iPad

For this trip I bought a new 3 sim for both the iPad and mifi, (one for each) both are on the same network but we can very rarely connect with the mifi but always with the iPad as a hotspot

Question or statement, is there any point in having a mifi these days if you have an iPad or similar that can be a hotspot, a couple of years ago it was too expensive, but maybe not so now
 
Oct 5, 2012
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Yes because you can plug a proper aerial into a mifi, if the iboost I looked at is two bits of plastic stuck on your iPhone the aerial set up is far superior. I have just rigged up my mifi to my cigarette lighter USB system (for charging on the move) and the aerial I got off EBay for 4G WIFI on the move http://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/4G-3G-LTE-C...iFi-Mobile-Broadband-/231519393445?nav=SEARCH. Got 10 days unlimited data on a Portuguese NOS Kanguru livre card for €10, after 10 days chuck it and buy another rather than register it for a worse rate!!
 
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DavidG58
Feb 24, 2013
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Yes because you can plug a proper aerial into a mifi, if the iboost I looked at is two bits of plastic stuck on your iPhone the aerial set up is far superior. I have just rigged up my mifi to my cigarette lighter USB system (for charging on the move) and the aerial I got off EBay for 4G WIFI on the move http://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/4G-3G-LTE-C...iFi-Mobile-Broadband-/231519393445?nav=SEARCH, 10 days unlimited data on a NOS Kanguru livre card for €10, after 10 days chuck it and buy another rather than register it for a worse rate!!

I agree with your logic, but with both in same MH, even with a 'proper' aerial the mifi usually doesn't but the iPad always connects

best of luck with yours, I might be doing something wrong, it is becoming the norm :LOL:

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DBK

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You've got a problem with your MiFi I think or something in its setup. I've just bought a new MiFi and a 4g aerial. At home I can get 30 Mbps upload and download with it. This is considerably faster than I get at home with the landline broadband.
 
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DavidG58
Feb 24, 2013
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You've got a problem with your MiFi I think or something in its setup. I've just bought a new MiFi and a 4g aerial. At home I can get 30 Mbps upload and download with it. This is considerably faster than I get at home with the landline broadband.

you are almost certainly right, but please let it rest there, do not try and help, my technical peaked at fitting the sim card :LOL::LOL:

the sim in the mifi has more data but shorter duration than the ipad sim so we are going to swap them tomorrow

will have a chat with motorhomewifi when home, not important enough for now (y)
 

Eamless

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We are in France and have as a lot of us do these days a need or internet on the move

A couple of years ago we invested in a Mifi and an iBoost, we also have internet phones and Bev luuurves her iPad

For this trip I bought a new 3 sim for both the iPad and mifi, (one for each) both are on the same network but we can very rarely connect with the mifi but always with the iPad as a hotspot

Question or statement, is there any point in having a mifi these days if you have an iPad or similar that can be a hotspot, a couple of years ago it was too expensive, but maybe not so now
Without being technical.
If you bought a MiFi that has worse connectivity than an iPad then you have bought a duff. iPads are generally the worse connecting bits of hardware going.
Is there any point in having a MiFi?
Yes, because with a correct functioning MiFi with LTE aerial you do not need a sim in your iPad to get on to the internet. This will save you the cost of two connections and provide you with a far better internet experience than you will ever get by using the iPad as a 'router'

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Soozywoozy

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Worth looking at 3's t&c's. Generally you can't use phone/ iPad as a hotspot wit 3 when abroad.
We have a mifi with a 3 sim which can connect to 5 devices simultaneously
The 3 dim is competitive and can be topped out easily. Also worth considering a local Vodafone sim if somewhere like Germany which isn't covered by 3.
 
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DavidG58
Feb 24, 2013
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Without being technical.
If you bought a MiFi that has worse connectivity than an iPad then you have bought a duff. iPads are generally the worse connecting bits of hardware going.
Is there any point in having a MiFi?
Yes, because with a correct functioning MiFi with LTE aerial you do not need a sim in your iPad to get on to the internet. This will save you the cost of two connections and provide you with a far better internet experience than you will ever get by using the iPad as a 'router'

I think it might well be something I am doing wrong, but my question still stands, why buy a mifi if you already have an ipad, we have used Bev's ipad at virtually every stop we have made, as the mifi can see internet but will not allow access, I will email motorhomewifi when home, I abused @Addie enough to get the iboost working (y)
 
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DavidG58
Feb 24, 2013
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Worth looking at 3's t&c's. Generally you can't use phone/ iPad as a hotspot wit 3 when abroad.
We have a mifi with a 3 sim which can connect to 5 devices simultaneously
The 3 dim is competitive and can be topped out easily. Also worth considering a local Vodafone sim if somewhere like Germany which isn't covered by 3.

not sure if this is a shouldn't do or can't do, we have used or abused Bev's ipad for the past 2 weeks all round France, good connectivity and no problems making it a hot spot (y)

We haven't knowingly breached the T's and C's

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DBK

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I think it might well be something I am doing wrong, but my question still stands, why buy a mifi if you already have an ipad, we have used Bev's ipad at virtually every stop we have made, as the mifi can see internet but will not allow access, I will email motorhomewifi when home, I abused @Addie enough to get the iboost working (y)
You really should be able to get a better connection with a MiFi and an aerial but if the iPad works for you then I suggest stick with it. By all means raise the issue with the supplier and see if they can talk you through setting the MiFi up - or determine if it is faulty, which it might be. However, you shouldn't assume a MiFi is a waste of money, it certainly isn't and they work well for many of us but clearly something about your set up is odd, - your MiFi setup is definitely iffy, or should that be iFFi? :)

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Jul 29, 2013
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Have always used our iPad wifi-cellular with a mobidata card and can get internet in most places in France,Spain & Portugal although there are always a few black holes where you can't get a signal don't see the need for Mifi
 

Eamless

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I think it might well be something I am doing wrong, but my question still stands, why buy a mifi if you already have an ipad, we have used Bev's ipad at virtually every stop we have made, as the mifi can see internet but will not allow access, I will email motorhomewifi when home, I abused @Addie enough to get the iboost working (y)

What the MiFi with an aerial will give you is the best possible connection. All hardware has design compromises. This means the aerials in a phone or a tablet or a laptop or MiFi are basically rubbish due to size. You may well be getting a connection with your ipad but the speed of your connection will not be as good as a MiFi with a LTE aerial. With such a beastie you will get 4G through most of Europe, anywhere. Your iPad is probably connecting at 3g speeds at best.
So the reason for a MiFi is you have one data contract that is fast and secure. With your current set-up you are paying twice for slow and secure. With the iBoost you are slow with no security. That is why you have a MiFi.
 

Eamless

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Have always used our iPad wifi-cellular with a mobidata card and can get internet in most places in France,Spain & Portugal although there are always a few black holes where you can't get a signal don't see the need for Mifi
I think you answered your own question. With a good Mifi you do not get the black holes.

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DavidG58
Feb 24, 2013
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Have always used our iPad wifi-cellular with a mobidata card and can get internet in most places in France,Spain & Portugal although there are always a few black holes where you can't get a signal don't see the need for Mifi

but do you then use it as a hot spot? that is key for us, so we can both be on line at the same time (y)
 

Malcolm Bolt

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We have often been in places where Cathryn's iPad and iPhone have worked well with their own sim yet my android phone and tablets and mifi with aerial did not. Currently in Portugal, great connectivity with NOS (thanks for heads up on that one JJ). Unlimited, great speed and only 1 Euro per day, both of us using phones, laptop and tablets via mifi. RESULT
 

dabhand

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I have a net gear mifi, it is essentially its own hotspot as you can connect up to 15 devices on1 sim. I use three in France and Spain, Maroc Telecom in Morocco, and presently the Nos sim previously mentioned in Portugal. The only problem I have ever had is in Morocco last year when the APN settings did not change automatically which they normally do. This MAY be your problem if so Addie will help even though it is relatively simple to do it yourself (thanks @TerryL and @CherryPirate) by the way, see the thread on here for the deal 3 has at the moment for 12gig 1 year sims. Good luck.

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DavidG58
Feb 24, 2013
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I have a net gear mifi, it is essentially its own hotspot as you can connect up to 15 devices on1 sim. I use three in France and Spain, Maroc Telecom in Morocco, and presently the Nos sim previously mentioned in Portugal. The only problem I have ever had is in Morocco last year when the APN settings did not change automatically which they normally do. This MAY be your problem if so Addie will help even though it is relatively simple to do it yourself (thanks @TerryL and @CherryPirate) by the way, see the thread on here for the deal 3 has at the moment for 12gig 1 year sims. Good luck.

Thanks for that, I reckon that might well be my problem, although it seemed to work brilliantly when we first came over, but after a couple of days we couldn't connect again

I reckon we have the identical system to you (y)

Will be I touch with Adam when Bevs sim runs out of data :LOL:
 

Minxy

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This is the Three 12gb pre-loaded sim for £30 which lasts up to 12 months:

http://store.three.co.uk/view/searchSimOnly?tariff=570

NOTE: We've got one and hubby was nagging me to check it was okay so I stuck it in the mifi but did NOT intend to actually activate it (ie by connecting to the internet) and just go into the settings, unfortunately just turning the mifi on activated it immediately!!! As we will use it for our holidays this year it's not a problem for us but for others if you want it to extend into next year do NOT put it in your equipment UNTIL you definitely need to activate it!!!

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Feb 16, 2013
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Thanks for that, I reckon that might well be my problem, although it seemed to work brilliantly when we first came over, but after a couple of days we couldn't connect again

I reckon we have the identical system to you (y)

Will be I touch with Adam when Bevs sim runs out of data :LOL:
I have come into this late and havnt read all posts so might be talking tosh, but if you are useing a three sim , we had similar problem, when first used we tethered to it even though it said you couldn't, and it worked brill for a couple of days then they shut it down, and it wouldn't connect at all again.
 

DBK

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I have come into this late and havnt read all posts so might be talking tosh, but if you are useing a three sim , we had similar problem, when first used we tethered to it even though it said you couldn't, and it worked brill for a couple of days then they shut it down, and it wouldn't connect at all again.
That's what happens if you use a phone sim, you have to have a mobile data sim in you mifi with 3. They will have sent sms texts to the sim warning about this, they are readable from the mifi or just put the sim in an unlocked phone.
 
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Robert Clark

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You really should be able to get a better connection with a MiFi and an aerial but if the iPad works for you then I suggest stick with it.
I couldn't agree with this more, your MIFI should be a better option than an I-Pad, plus you can always take the MIFI with you when you leave the van, so you can still use it to connect to the internet using your phones.
This is exactly what I plan to do on our forthcoming trip to Portugal, where my Three, 'feel at home' wont be operating on my Iphone.
I shall use a local simcard in our MIFI, then take the MIFI with us when we go out on our bikes.
We use Google Maps and Tripadvisor whenever we're out and about, and I wouldn't want to risk being without these

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Addie

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MMM Magazine asked us to write a simple guide, which was published in January.

It's available on our website if you wanted read it and you missed it in print:
Broken Link Removed

1st of June 2016 sees the cost of data abroad drop from 19p per MB to 5p per MB - but that still means the cost of roaming will be £50+ per 1GB. As we've seen reported on this forum, operators that do allow you to roam (eg Three) find that their host networks (eg Orange in France) don't allow you the same speeds as a local customer would. For example in France, Orange appears to restricts access to the 4G network.

So while the EU are doing the 'right thing' in forcing operators hands to reduce charges, operators are finding ways around by allowing limitations in terms of time (60 days with Three) and usage (eg data caps or network restrictions). A local SIM will always be the best option, as has always been our advice, but a UK Three SIM is still a massive step in the right direction.
 
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DavidG58
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Typical, last day here in France parked in Le Clerc car park in Neufchatel while Bev does the last shopping, decided to fiddle with our Net Gear mifi, I have no idea what a WAN is but by turning it off I seem to have instantly connected

For now at least, not sure I am going to get through 12Gb of data in 24 hours though :LOL:

In reality though, I think in future we will load up Bevs ipad with more data and tether to that, not so good when she takes it shopping though, but we have had brilliant connection everywhere we have been using a 3 sim and sharing (hot spot) seems to be allowed

A lot of my concerns over amount of data usage, other than my incompetence with anything with a switch (or even just with options :D) go back to a stupid mistake I made a few years back, inadvertently left our home security cameras live in the background on my lap top, always do at home as use them for a monitor on wifi there, but was told later that I had effectively been streaming four films constantly since leaving home, we used 8Gb of data in three days :( and hardly used it for anything (other than the cameras that I didn't even look at, although when I did I saw I hadn't locked my car, 7 days later got daughter to pop round and lock it (noticed as mirrors were not folded in (y))

Without the cameras on and using my Vodafone work phone as a hot spot, (because I couldn't make sense of the mifi) the phone has just gone over 1Gb since we left, in reality I would reckon most of us who only do forum and emails will not use many Gb's per month

I must find out what this WAN thing really means though, or was it just a coincidence, I know the mifi worked at home fine when I first put the sim card in, wasn't aware I had changed any settings since then, maybe coming abroad something changes?

And they let me out on my own and drive a 5 ton MH :):)
 

DBK

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Some MiFis can connect to a local Wi-fi network which can also be called a WAN. It is possible yours was trying to locate a WiFi and stumbling because there wasn't one.

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dabhand

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By the way David a couple of times when mi mifi has not worked I have gone into settings/wifi then clicked ignore this network ( your wifi) turned everything off then back in and rejoined network and everything has worked!
 
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Robert Clark

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Some MiFis can connect to a local Wi-fi network which can also be called a WAN. It is possible yours was trying to locate a WiFi and stumbling because there wasn't one.
Maybe the MIFI was trying to connect to the IPad personal hotspot?
 

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