ham Posted November 5, 2021 Share Posted November 5, 2021 I am looking to fit WiFi into my van. any suggestions on which router to use ?.looking at 3g/4g/5g and hopefully local internet access Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barryd999 Posted November 5, 2021 Share Posted November 5, 2021 These guys are pretty good if you want a system ready to go. https://www.motorhomewifi.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keithl Posted November 5, 2021 Share Posted November 5, 2021 Barryd999 - 2021-11-05 3:42 PM These guys are pretty good if you want a system ready to go. https://www.motorhomewifi.com/ And Adam from MH WiFi is hosting MMM's Webinar in a few weeks time... https://www.outandaboutlive.co.uk/motorhomes/news/live-motorhome-campervan-and-caravan-webinar-launched That is if you want to spend a tenner for advice you would get for free at a show! Keith. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevec176 Posted November 5, 2021 Share Posted November 5, 2021 Still have to pay to enter show and to travel there so £10 isn't such a bad deal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keithl Posted November 5, 2021 Share Posted November 5, 2021 stevec176 - 2021-11-05 4:04 PM Still have to pay to enter show and to travel there so £10 isn't such a bad deal. Good point Steve! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
witzend Posted November 5, 2021 Share Posted November 5, 2021 One similar to this https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/284308095167?var=585811427152 powered with one of these https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/292798549234?var=592115829216 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barryd999 Posted November 5, 2021 Share Posted November 5, 2021 Keithl - 2021-11-05 3:55 PM Barryd999 - 2021-11-05 3:42 PM These guys are pretty good if you want a system ready to go. https://www.motorhomewifi.com/ And Adam from MH WiFi is hosting MMM's Webinar in a few weeks time... https://www.outandaboutlive.co.uk/motorhomes/news/live-motorhome-campervan-and-caravan-webinar-launched That is if you want to spend a tenner for advice you would get for free at a show! Keith. Glad to see Addie is still doing well. I remember when it all started off and we were using the old Repeat it Swedish military USB unit on Windows XP, then there was a better one Addie found and I have a recollection he picked up wifi across the Bristol channel on it, about 14 miles or something. Best I managed was five miles I think in the Alps. The iBoost was a big success I think. I still have one in the van. Must admit though the biggest issue this year on a UK four month trip was mobile signal. We have plenty of data now but 70% of the places we went there was either no 3 or 4g or it was very weak and unreliable. Might have to speak to him myself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevina Posted November 5, 2021 Share Posted November 5, 2021 Can somebody please explainin why a router is a better option than a mifi (still using a 5573 from a 1 month sub with Vodafone 5 or 6 years ago) or even using a mobile hot-spot come to that. We've been in France for a week stopping in some out of the way places and have watched TV most nights with a Superdrug sim in the mifi. Last night involved a lot of pauses on the channel 4 player but bbc was fine. Tonight, for the first time, I'm using a phone (Sky sim) because, despite a three bar 4g signal, the superdrug mifi isn't streaming well. Nevertheless, I don't see that a router would help and its fine for Web browsing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barryd999 Posted November 5, 2021 Share Posted November 5, 2021 kevina - 2021-11-05 8:20 PM Can somebody please explainin why a router is a better option than a mifi (still using a 5573 from a 1 month sub with Vodafone 5 or 6 years ago) or even using a mobile hot-spot come to that. We've been in France for a week stopping in some out of the way places and have watched TV most nights with a Superdrug sim in the mifi. Last night involved a lot of pauses on the channel 4 player but bbc was fine. Tonight, for the first time, I'm using a phone (Sky sim) because, despite a three bar 4g signal, the superdrug mifi isn't streaming well. Nevertheless, I don't see that a router would help and its fine for Web browsing. See my post re signal strength. Its not just the router, its the mast or antenna its attached to I believe. 3 and 4g coverage in rural UK is rubbish so the idea is a booster attached to a router will boost that. Ideally you need a mobile signal booster and a wifi booster. I find in Europe though my phone as a hotspot (Vodafone) is way way better than it is in the UK and the reason for that is it locks onto the best provider of which there are a fair few Vodafone has a contract with. Here in the UK its just Vodafone and its rubbish. Well it is in Arran, Western and southern Scotland and the Lake District. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
veletron Posted November 8, 2021 Share Posted November 8, 2021 Hi I've recently updated my setup after finding myself working from the van due to being between houses in the summer. I'd been using the usual Huawei MiFi's for ages, but never found them to be massively reliable and I needed something with ethernet sockets, and proper SMA internal antenna connectors. I went with a RUTX 11 which is the sort of solution you would usually find in remote hydro installations as it can be controlled via SMS - eg to force remote reboots. It has client/Server VPN, so it always connected to my house, and it takes two sims (EE and Voda in my case) and will switch between them. I wanted the RUTX12 which has two LTE modems but that was too expensive. Link: https://amzn.to/3wxALtN Its only 4G, 5G kit is too expensive and signals too scarce at present. I will switch it over once price comes down. Teltonika has 5G kit, as does Proroute, but its ~£600 currently!! https://4grouter.co.uk/product/proroute-h685-wrt-5g-router-compact-industrial-iot-m2m-5g-router-with-gigabit-lan-and-wan-ethernet-and-wifi/ Obviously, the router is only a half of the solution, one needs decent antenna's. There are loads of cheap and nasty antenna's on ebay/amazon, but I wanted something to match the quality of the router. I bought a pair of these: https://www.connextech.co.uk/lmo6138-wb-smsm---5g4glte-multiband-mimo-outdoor-omni-antenna-1536-p.asp Why two? I hear you ask. well they are both 2x2 MiMo antenna's, and 2x2 is what 4G LTE requires (2 antenna cables), however, 5G requires 4x4MiMo (4 antenna cables), so I decided to future-proof the setup to enable a simple router swap when the price for 5G comes down and coverage increases. The supported frequency range means that these work well at 2.4GHz for WiFi (but not for 5GHz WiFi). So currently the second antenna is used for WiFi. The RUTX11 also supports re-broadcasting campsite WiFi so that's handy, and when the device is picking up the mobile network the WiFi hotspot it creates stretches several hundred M around my van providing a signal for the mountaineering club which I am a member of on our weekends away(!) They are mounted on a Perspex plate which is in turn screwed to 2x 1" alu box sections with end caps, the resulting assy is Sika'ed to the roof. Performance wise, its better than my old system (which also had an external antenna), I have an Android head unit, and quite often listen to internet radio or amazon music on the go via Alexa. The improvements to the 4G network here in Scotland (due to EE being awarded the ESN contract by Scot Gov) has led to better coverage, and having two sim options with 300GB/Month included between them means that I am able to use my FireTV stick to stream or play recorded/live content from my home 'Emby' recorder. Having alexa on the steering wheel button also means I can shout 'alexa turn on the heating' on my way home from a weekend away etc. NB: MiMo: Multiple Input, Multiple Output! Karen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ham Posted November 8, 2021 Author Share Posted November 8, 2021 Thanks Niigel.I like that setup. I want to include seting up my Ham radio linked to the internet twin feeds will help Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ham Posted November 8, 2021 Author Share Posted November 8, 2021 THANK YOU Everyone for your help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keithl Posted November 8, 2021 Share Posted November 8, 2021 ham - 2021-11-08 6:21 PM Thanks Niigel. Who is Niigel (sic)??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevec176 Posted November 16, 2022 Share Posted November 16, 2022 So, go on then expand and let the rest of us into the secret. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keithl Posted November 16, 2022 Share Posted November 16, 2022 Spam postings removed! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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