Mifi question

[Bern8]

I have done a bit of reading on routers, Mifi etc but we have only been away in the Motorhome once so far and the signal to our phones (O2) was terrible (1 bar). Didn’t do a speed test. Just enough to send text & the occasional pic. That was inside or outside the MH. We have a tv aerial on the roof so was able to watch ordinary tv.
If I was to start investing in a router or even put an aerial on the MH, how much would it increase my signal? Really I’m just trying to justify the outlay. We only require data for Netflix, surfing the web, watching Sky on the Ipad. Nothing needed for work.
Would there be a lot of difference in a cheap router (say a Huawei or tp link) compared to a Netgear Nighthawk?
Thanks for any advice

 

[Realist]

How long is a bit if string?

It's down to site location and coverage so what I would do is look on each sim card providers site and do a signal check and see who's the best for your needs.

Then you have a choice of teethering to your phone or pay for van wifi and that again depends on who you use as a provider for the sim card.

I used the following in my vans and swooped between two sim cards dependent on signal quality......

Roam WiFi System | 5G Ready Antenna

Caravan Wifi, Motorhome Wifi | 4G Router WiFi Booster | 5G Ready | Maxview Roam - Internet in Your Caravan, Internet in Your Motorhome.

maxview.co.uk

Now I use Starlink that resolves all my issues......

Starlink

High-speed internet. Available almost anywhere on Earth.

www.starlink.com

Regards.

 

[Swifter]

I’ve just fitted a 4g external antenna linked to my M1 Netgear router . I will post some speed test results both with and without the antenna plugged in .

 

[Figaro]

A decent wifi antenna will give you a better signal in remote locations, but ultimately if the signal is poor where you are there's only so much a antenna can do.
If you look in the forum section Web Connections, there are lots of useful posts on antenna recommend by funsters.
About 150 pounds for a decent Poynting mimo, plus fitting is about the mark.
I bought a Poynting puck antenna for about 50 and found it to work very well.

 

[Bern8]

I’ve just fitted a 4g external antenna linked to my M1 Netgear router . I will post some speed test results both with and without the antenna plugged in .

That would be much appreciated. If the speed was increased sufficiently I would even be tempted to ditch my broadband in the house.

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[Swifter]

That would be much appreciated. If the speed was increased sufficiently I would even be tempted to ditch my broadband in the house.

I just tried but we are in such a strong signal area it made little difference. I will test it out more when we in an a really poor signal area and let you know .

 

[Bern8]

How long is a bit if string?

It's down to site location and coverage so what I would do is look on each sim card providers site and do a signal check and see who's the best for your needs.

Then you have a choice of teethering to your phone or pay for van wifi and that again depends on who you use as a provider for the sim card.

I used the following in my vans and swooped between two sim cards dependent on signal quality......

Roam WiFi System | 5G Ready Antenna

Caravan Wifi, Motorhome Wifi | 4G Router WiFi Booster | 5G Ready | Maxview Roam - Internet in Your Caravan, Internet in Your Motorhome.

maxview.co.uk

Now I use Starlink that resolves all my issues......

Starlink

High-speed internet. Available almost anywhere on Earth.

www.starlink.com

Regards.

This is what I’m trying to justify. What am I getting for £350? Tethering off my phone was a no but would a set up like the Maxview fair any better?

 

[DBK]

A mifi on its own will be no better than your phone and could be worse if your phone is a recent Apple one or something else recent from a major manufacturer. But a Mifi can give you the option to use a different operator than your phone. For example, my phone is EE but the router has Vodafone.

As already mentioned in marginal areas a roof mounted antenna can usually find a signal when a phone can't.

 

[Kannon Fodda]

Inside my PVC the mobile phone, a modern Samsung thing often won't get a data signal, especially in slightly more country areas. I suspect being surrounded by metal is enough to block the signal. Indeed last weekend on Quackers site even the voice signal was dropping out. The 4G MiFi with external roof aerial worked perfectly and often I was using that for the mobile phone data as well as a lot of Netflix TV streaming via a Firestick in the later evenings (something like 35GB in 4 days).

But, data streaming by mobile / MiFi can be variable due to the mast capacity. If you are one of the average number of users connected to a cell that is fine. Turn up to one of the larger rallies or shows and there are a lot of motorhomers all trying to connect and you are likely to see a fair bit of buffering and drop outs.

 

[Realist]

This is what I’m trying to justify. What am I getting for £350? Tethering off my phone was a no but would a set up like the Maxview fair any better?

All technology has its limits and again installing an external antenna and a router will help but if the sim card supplier has poor coverage then its back to the same problem.

This is why I changed to Starlink in the end as I can use it anywhere and speeds so far up to 260Mbps.

But I paid for the equipment outright and now only pay the monthly fee.

Its all pros and cons and how deep your pockets are and how badly you want, need decent internet.

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[autorouter]

Look at the size of the aerial compared to the size of the aerial in your phone, which is about the size of a postage stamp. That's more or less how much the signal could be improved. It's not much benefit if you always stay near the beach where there's always a phone mast, but out in the sticks it's a big benefit.

 

[Realist]

but out in the sticks it's a big benefit.

Hence why Starlink comes into play and also you can use it at home.

 

[autorouter]

Also most external aerials are made of two or four small aerials which are combined electronically by the router to give a stronger signal. They are called MIMO aerials (Multiple In Multiple Out). The routers have two or four aerial sockets to connect to them.

 

[rosalan]

We must be lucky, our '3' data sim has worked everwhere we have been in France, Spain and Portugal.

 

[DBK]

We must be lucky, our '3' data sim has worked everwhere we have been in France, Spain and Portugal.

I've been surprised on our current trip to Spain how often my phone says it has a 5g signal. They seem to have rolled it to a lot of places. I don't expect to see it when we are away from towns but generally mobile phone seems very good.

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[vzac]

I put mifi in after much deliberation.
Wish I haddent put it in for me it's a waste of money.
Tried and used it in England, Scotland, Norway, Germany, Belgium and Holland plus a couple of others. The signal from my phone was as good as the mifi or as bad, if my phone struggled so did the mifi, I think the WiFi stuff in motorhomes is over hyped.

We have ee for both mifi and phone, if one did not work the other did not work as well.
Plus I had to change the settings on the mifi for certain countries.

I now have a phone with 2sim slots, one is for 160 g data use only and has abroad roaming and my sin with data and calls, which is used as an emergency as it's not got EU roaming, but fine at home. If I need data I can walk with the phone to another part of a field or down the rd. If it's fixed to the van then I have to move the van, that can be inconvenient.


So my judgement is if you still want one you can have mine as it's very redundant.

If I can't get netflix of I player I read a book that night and move to another site the day after.

Hope that helps.

 

[GMLS]

With an A class roof essentially being plastic so no Faraday cage effect, is there likely to be much difference between a using a Teltonika router mounted high up with internal aerials against adding a Poynting type mimo on the roof?

 

[vzac]

With an A class roof essentially being plastic so no Faraday cage effect, is there likely to be much difference between a using a Teltonika router mounted high up with internal aerials against adding a Poynting type mimo on the roof?

We have an a class our phones are no worse or better than the thing mounted on the roof.

 

[Lenny HB]

We must be lucky, our '3' data sim has worked everwhere we have been in France, Spain and Portugal.

Very lucky Three is about the worst sim you can get for roaming, I would never have one again.

If I need data I can walk with the phone to another part of a field

A bit of a pain lugging the tv down the field with you.

 

[VXman]

A mifi on its own will be no better than your phone and could be worse if your phone is a recent Apple one or something else recent from a major manufacturer. But a Mifi can give you the option to use a different operator than your phone. For example, my phone is EE but the router has Vodafone.

As already mentioned in marginal areas a roof mounted antenna can usually find a signal when a phone can't.

You can change the sim in your phone - or, as we do - have 2 sims in your phone. We also have a spare phone that we put a different sim in. Have been known to put it on the roof too!

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[vzac]

Very lucky Three is about the worst sim you can get for roaming, I would never have one again.

A bit of a pain lugging the tv down the field with you.

Lol. Just put magnifying glasses on and use the phone.

 

[Bern8]

Sounds like Mifi is not much better than sticking your phone on top of the MH
I might buy a small router to free up my phone and buy a different SIM card to the 1 that’s in my phone.

 

[Hettie's Crew]

Aerial Aerial Aerial. There’s a lot of talk about mifi’s which is just a box with a sim in it, the same as a mobile phone. The aerial is what really matters.
We have a Teltonika RUT950 router but it would be useless without a decent aerial.
When I fitted our Panorama mimo aerial to our motorhome in storage where there is no signal at all to our phones we got a reasonable signal through the router, so obviously better.

 

[Bern8]

If I was to go ahead with putting an aerial on the roof, I take it that any work I did would void any warranty? My MH has a junction box fitted on either side. One has the solar cables (fitted by dealer), the other has nothing coming out of it and has a blanked conduit inside one of the cabinets, directly below the JB. The junction box would be too shallow to take any decent size glands but was thinking of removing it and fitting a decent aerial over the top and using the hole through the roof for the cables etc.
I am trying to transfer my warranty over from the previous owners but even after phoning the dealers up to chase this has still resulted in me waiting 6 weeks, so getting them to fit an aerial would take months .

 

[Hettie's Crew]

If I was to go ahead with putting an aerial on the roof, I take it that any work I did would void any warranty? My MH has a junction box fitted on either side. One has the solar cables (fitted by dealer), the other has nothing coming out of it and has a blanked conduit inside one of the cabinets, directly below the JB. The junction box would be too shallow to take any decent size glands but was thinking of removing it and fitting a decent aerial over the top and using the hole through the roof for the cables etc.
I am trying to transfer my warranty over from the previous owners but even after phoning the dealers up to chase this has still resulted in me waiting 6 weeks, so getting them to fit an aerial would take months .

If there’s a hole there anyway it shouldn’t affect any warranty, it just needs to be 1” round and directly over where your router would be to keep the cables as short as possible. So if there’s a 12v supply to tap off for the router in that location you’re fine.
Both the Poynting and the Panorama mimo aerials fit in the same way with the cables coming through the mounting spigot, plus they have a seal to the flat roof, though I used sealant as well.
You just need to decide which router, then you can match the aerial to it, we chose a X2 LTE X2 WiFi Panorama to match our Teltonika RUT950 connections.
As far as I could figure, the Poynting and Panorama mimos are extremely similar in performance, I just preferred the low profile round Panorama.

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[JockandRita]

I put mifi in after much deliberation.
Wish I haddent put it in for me it's a waste of money.
Tried and used it in England, Scotland, Norway, Germany, Belgium and Holland plus a couple of others. The signal from my phone was as good as the mifi or as bad, if my phone struggled so did the mifi, I think the WiFi stuff in motorhomes is over hyped.

Is the MiFi Cat 3, 4, 6, or higher?

Is it connected to a MIMO roof mounted antenna?

TBH, since fitting the Poynting 3-17 V2 4G antenna, our ZTE Cat 6 MiFi has not failed to bring in a decent signal yet.

Cheers,

Jock.

 

[Bern8]

If there’s a hole there anyway it shouldn’t affect any warranty, it just needs to be 1” round and directly over where your router would be to keep the cables as short as possible. So if there’s a 12v supply to tap off for the router in that location you’re fine.
Both the Poynting and the Panorama mimo aerials fit in the same way with the cables coming through the mounting spigot, plus they have a seal to the flat roof, though I used sealant as well.
You just need to decide which router, then you can match the aerial to it, we chose a X2 LTE X2 WiFi Panorama to match our Teltonika RUT950 connections.
As far as I could figure, the Poynting and Panorama mimos are extremely similar in performance, I just preferred the low profile round Panorama.

View attachment 740080 View attachment 740081 View attachment 740082

I was looking at the Poynting 3-15 and getting the rutx11 router. I have a 12v socket directly below in the cabinet.
The only slight issue I might have is the JB is sited under part of the tv aerial. If I was to go for the same as yours I only have 125mm to get spigot & aerial under the tv aerial. Is the spigot detachable from the aerial? This would mean I would need to replace the JB for a deeper one to allow for a gland and fit the aerial to 1 side.

 

[Hettie's Crew]

The spigot on mine was separate and needed to be fitted, so could be attached during fitting, it’s alloy and I think the Poynting one is plastic but not sure.
I think you’ll find that combo to be great, I bought the RUT950 for £85 used off eBay just to try it, with the plan to upgrade. I’ll be replacing it with the RUTX11.

 

[vzac]

Is the MiFi Cat 3, 4, 6, or higher?

Is it connected to a MIMO roof mounted antenna?

TBH, since fitting the Poynting 3-17 V2 4G antenna, our ZTE Cat 6 MiFi has not failed to bring in a decent signal yet.

Cheers,

Jock.

Hi, it will/ supposed to receive 5g , yes it's connected to a roof mounted antenna. But am not going to bother with it any more like the tv aerial that's fitted but we have no TV. We use our phones and tether a laptop to it for Netflix's and I player. I have a VPN on the laptop so I can pick up UK TV, if need be.

 

[berni109]

From one bern to another how much are you prepared to spend, can you do the installation yourself and do you need a digital terrestrial ariel. Oh and have you got a smart TV or fire stick.
There is a guy on youtube 'vanlife' who has done some good vids on this subject.
I think the consensus on here is that you need an external antenna to get the best results with a mifi or full blown router.

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