Do I still need home broadband or is a hot-spot the way forward

[Csmith]

Using someone elses connection with their permission its a box of tricks with lights linked to something else and what looks like a TV aerial- I glazed over at that point.

From what I gather if I got rid of my Nokia for a more modern phone it can do Internet from the phone, now I have a cheap tablet and a Windows 7 computer-do I actually need home broadband as I have been told that this fibre isn't going to be available.

I got lost but from what I understand I can use a modern phone for Internet in the motorhome and this will sound stupid, but what is the difference between a phone you can connect a tablet to and a mobile modem?

I'm guessing the mobile modem has an aerial connection similar to this contraption I have been lent.

Thanks.

 

[Allanm]

We use a Mifi unit at home ( and in the van) with a data sim in it. (100gb for €15.99 month) we connect our phones, tablets and ( at home) TV and printer to it. We can watch Netflix and iPlayer and any other streaming service if we need to
As long as you can get a decent 3G or 4g signal and down go mad with downloads, a similar set up should suit you

this is similar to our unit

 

[Reallyretired]

For motorhome use I have replaced my mifi with just using my phone as a hotspot. Seems to work fine pretty much everywhere I've used it and saves paying for another sim.

 

[DBK]

You can use a modern phone to access the Internet and share the connection with other devices. A lot do in their MHs although others prefer a MiFi. This is a device specifically used for creating a local WiFi network. It does need its own sim contract but only one for data and some of those available give a lot of data for not too much money. You can use an external antenna with a MiFi, I've done this but most don't.

But you mentioned use at home, not just in a MH. This does work for some but it will depend on how good your connection is and how much data you use. Reception where I live is poor, especially in the house because it has thick walls. I could fit an external antenna but for the moment BT broadband works for us.

 

[Nirvanauk]

In the MH I just use my phone and tether my iPad to it. It works fine, have binned the Mifi and my aerial booster.

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[Sheddy]

We have the '3' home cube at home with unlimited data for £20 a month on a 24 month contract, we have a good 4g signal so works well. We no longer have a land line.
We also use a mifi when away in the van but with a pre paid data sim. We could use the cube sim while away, but it runs the house Nest heating system so needs to remain at home.
Cheers
Ed

 

[h1ghway1]

We have the '3' home cube at home with unlimited data for £20 a month on a 24 month contract, we have a good 4g signal so works well. We no longer have a land line.
We also use a mifi when away in the van but with a pre paid data sim. We could use the cube sim while away, but it runs the house Nest heating system so needs to remain at home.
Cheers
Ed

Similiar to me.. I have the Huawei hub ... £22 a month unlimited data .. I need this at home as I have Airbnb guests, I'm trying to sell my house and don't want a tie-in.. when I'm away I have 6GB on Tesco for £10 a month and to supplement that I have a 3 PAYG 4G Trio Data SIM Pack with 12GB Data valid for 12 months from 1st use as backup..

 

[Csmith]

I shall investigate, thanks for your help

 

[Wild Brambles]

I tether a mobile to a netbook via the USB ports, and I have a chunk of data on an unlimited talk bundle from Asda. If you are going to do this, make sure your mobile provider allows tethering. I use a netbook in the van, because it has an internal SSD ( not totating disk hard drive ) and no fans.. Thus means I can getr around 10 hours from one battery charge. I junked Windows because of the security issues and the constant upgrades burning up bandwidth. I replaced it with Ubuntu ( Linux ), and it is much more efficient. I'm using the Brave browser as well, this is more secure, and a lot faster than the Windows spy browser. You can set up your mobile to use an available WiFi connection, and switch to mobile data if it can't find any WiFi. Many shopping centre car parks provide quite good WiFi, and this can help reduce your mobile data bill.

 

[Csmith]

I tether a mobile to a netbook via the USB ports, and I have a chunk of data on an unlimited talk bundle from Asda. If you are going to do this, make sure your mobile provider allows tethering. I use a netbook in the van, because it has an internal SSD ( not totating disk hard drive ) and no fans.. Thus means I can getr around 10 hours from one battery charge. I junked Windows because of the security issues and the constant upgrades burning up bandwidth. I replaced it with Ubuntu ( Linux ), and it is much more efficient. I'm using the Brave browser as well, this is more secure, and a lot faster than the Windows spy browser. You can set up your mobile to use an available WiFi connection, and switch to mobile data if it can't find any WiFi. Many shopping centre car parks provide quite good WiFi, and this can help reduce your mobile data bill.

Thank you I'm not sure what Ubuntu exactly is, but it looks similar to mac operating system my friend has, I think your very adventous and technically minded. Far beyond my skill set.
Android is best for me and win 7 I use as a typewriter.

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[Mikeco]

As mentioned in a recent post we have dumped the broadband and landline and just use the HUAWEI mifi with a Vodafone unlimited data SIM card which costs £30 a month. This works fine at home as I put an external aerial onto the bungalow wall and is good enough to stream both Sky and Amazon prime.
We can then take the mifi away with us in the van and that will work okay as I put an external 4g aerial onto the van roof. This means that when we go to Spain for 3 months we are not paying for broadband at home and can use the mifi although we will be limited to 25gb a month while in Spain.
Spent last weekend at Jims Jasmin and as Jim is too tight to provide free WiFi we used it there and will use it quite often next year while we are away in the van.

 

[Csmith]

Very interesting, thank you I'm investigating

 

[DBK]

As mentioned in a recent post we have dumped the broadband and landline and just use the HUAWEI mifi with a Vodafone unlimited data SIM card which costs £30 a month. This works fine at home as I put an external aerial onto the bungalow wall and is good enough to stream both Sky and Amazon prime.
We can then take the mifi away with us in the van and that will work okay as I put an external 4g aerial onto the van roof. This means that when we go to Spain for 3 months we are not paying for broadband at home and can use the mifi although we will be limited to 25gb a month while in Spain.
Spent last weekend at Jims Jasmin and as Jim is too tight to provide free WiFi we used it there and will use it quite often next year while we are away in the van.

What antenna did you use at home?

 

[Ingwe]

We use a Mifi unit at home ( and in the van) with a data sim in it. (100gb for €15.99 month) we connect our phones, tablets and ( at home) TV and printer to it. We can watch Netflix and iPlayer and any other streaming service if we need to
As long as you can get a decent 3G or 4g signal and down go mad with downloads, a similar set up should suit you

this is similar to our unit

View attachment 351924

Are you based in France and, if so, which provider offers you 100gb for €15.99 per month?

 

[Mikeco]

What antenna did you use at home?

This one which is the Poynting 4g-XPOL-A0002

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[DBK]

This one which is the Poynting 4g-XPOL-A0002
View attachment 352771

Thanks, that's a directional antenna I think. We don't have line of sight to the transmitter where we live, there's a hill in the way. But the omni-directional Poynting antenna works well on the roof of the van when it's parked on the drive.

 

[Mikeco]

Thanks, that's a directional antenna I think. We don't have line of sight to the transmitter where we live, there's a hill in the way. But the omni-directional Poynting antenna works well on the roof of the van when it's parked on the drive.

This one is the omnidirectional one which I used even though I can see the mast about a mile away on the hill.

 

[Lenny HB]

For motorhome use I have replaced my mifi with just using my phone as a hotspot. Seems to work fine pretty much everywhere I've used it and saves paying for another sim.

In the MH I just use my phone and tether my iPad to it. It works fine, have binned the Mifi and my aerial booster.

Depends where you go if always near towns not a problem.
On our last trip at over 50% of the places we stopped our phones couldn't get a signal but the Mifi with roof mounted aerial pulled in 4G. Also even with a strong signal on the phone downloads was OK but uploading slow but the Mifi and Aerial gave good upload speeds.
As DBK & myself found out when we were experimenting with a Mifi with a rooftop aerial, with the aerial it doubles the upload speed.

 

[Lenny HB]

We use a Mifi unit at home ( and in the van) with a data sim in it. (100gb for €15.99 month) we connect our phones, tablets and ( at home) TV and printer to it. We can watch etflix and iPlayer and any other streaming service if we need to
As long as you can get a decent 3G or 4g signal and down go mad with downloads, a similar set up should suit you

this is similar to our unit

View attachment 351924

Not advisable to use a portable Wifi for home use particularly the Huawei. They are not designed to be left connected to the supply permanently. The battery gets overcharged and expands and can go bang. I suggest anyone who leaves it on charge checks the battery and make sure its completely flat no bowing at all in the case, if not replace it ASAP. Unfortunately these units won't work without the battery.

For home use you need a proper Home Mifi router like the TP Link MR6400, also has the advantage of having Ethernet ports.

 

[kevenh]

Sorry if it's a mini-hijack/nearly off topic but I wonder how much use the cheaper puck like external aerial boosters like this are to help with mifi in poor areas.
Anyone got experience of the budget route? TIA

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[Lenny HB]

Sorry if it's a mini-hijack/nearly off topic but I wonder how much use the cheaper puck like external aerial boosters like this are to help with mifi in poor areas.
Anyone got experience of the budget route? TIA

I've seen reports on the cheap eBay ones users saying they didn't do much to improve the signal not surprising as a lot of them come with 5m cables which is likely to lose more signal than the aerial would gain.

Poynting's do a Puck version about £60 so half the price of the MIMO being Poynting probable works it comes with 2m cables, performance would improve if kept to under a meter as cable losses are high at the frequencies used.
I went for the MIMO as I didn't want to spend £60 and find I'd wasted £60 rather spend a bit more and know it works. The MIMO is £125 and I spent another £25 on cables.

 

[Mikeco]

Sorry if it's a mini-hijack/nearly off topic but I wonder how much use the cheaper puck like external aerial boosters like this are to help with mifi in poor areas.
Anyone got experience of the budget route? TIA

I stuck the Poynting Puck one on to the van roof and it seems to work okay.

 

[Lenny HB]

I stuck the Poynting Puck one on to the van roof and it seems to work okay.

What is it like when you are in an area with no phone signal or a very weak one. With MIMO only twice we have not been able to get a signal when in remote mountains.

 

[Allanm]

Are you based in France and, if so, which provider offers you 100gb for €15.99 per month?

Free mobile. Should be €19.99 but we got a special deal. We have heard there are special deals on the same package for €9.99 month but we need to check that out first with the store.

Not advisable to use a portable Wifi for home use particularly the Huawei. They are not designed to be left connected to the supply permanently. The battery gets overcharged and expands and can go bang. I suggest anyone who leaves it on charge checks the battery and make sure its completely flat no bowing at all in the case, if not replace it ASAP. Unfortunately these units won't work without the battery.

For home use you need a proper Home Mifi router like the TP Link MR6400, also has the advantage of having Ethernet ports.

Thanks for the info. Might consider getting a TP link or similar, but our Huawei unit has been connected to the mains for two years and the battery is fine. I check it regularly.

 

[Lenny HB]

Thanks for the info. Might consider getting a TP link or similar, but our Huawei unit has been connected to the mains for two years and the battery is fine. I check it regularly.

I would be inclined to plug the PS into a timer so at least it's off overnight and possibly a second time period during the day so the battery gets discharged a bit.

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[Mikeco]

What is it like when you are in an area with no phone signal or a very weak one. With MIMO only twice we have not been able to get a signal when in remote mountains.

Don’t really know, only put it on a couple of weeks ago and the only place we have used it was at Jim’s Jasmin last weekend.

 

[busby]

Not advisable to use a portable Wifi for home use particularly the Huawei. They are not designed to be left connected to the supply permanently. The battery gets overcharged and expands and can go bang. I suggest anyone who leaves it on charge checks the battery and make sure its completely flat no bowing at all in the case, if not replace it ASAP. Unfortunately these units won't work without the battery.

For home use you need a proper Home Mifi router like the TP Link MR6400, also has the advantage of having Ethernet ports.

Do you need an external aerial with the MR6400 Lenny..? Could it be used in the van? BUSBY.

 

[Lenny HB]

Do you need an external aerial with the MR6400 Lenny..? Could it be used in the van? BUSBY.

It depends how good your signal is, the external aerials are the 4G ones, wireless one is internal. So if you have a reasonable signal on your phone it should be fine.