Internet routers....why?

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GaryGavlaar

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Hi all,

See quite a few people setting up internet routers in their van that use sim cards. loads of the van life influencers seem to go on about them.

Just wondering what's the point in these? Do they give you better internet than just using your phone as a hotspot?

Cheers
Gary
 
They can be better than a phone with an external aerial.

When I fitted ours, several of my devices only had wifi, so it was either hotspot to the phone, or couldn’t use them. My kindle and IPad still don’t have mobile data neither does the laptop.

Means I don’t have to think about being connected and just go.
 
We use a TP Link mobile router with a data only sim card. We get significantly better (faster and more stable) internet than if we were to use a phone hotspot. Even if we use a phone sim, it's still better than a hotspot. We travel a lot, so have a mobile unit rather than fixed one so that we can use it in hotels, in the car, at home if our internet drops (we live in rural France) etc. Having stable and faster internet is important to us as we work when we're away and stream a lot.
 
GaryGavlaar said:
Hi all,

See quite a few people setting up internet routers in their van that use sim cards. loads of the van life influencers seem to go on about them.

Just wondering what's the point in these? Do they give you better internet than just using your phone as a hotspot?

Cheers
Gary
Click to expand...
Probably still have a couple of routers in van but just use hotspot on phone now .
Seems simpler and just as efficient . Use it for tablet , laptop and firestick .
Should add use mostly for movies and football . Work is mainly emails .
 
They can sometimes get better reception than your phone especially with a roof top aerial, and leaves phone free for other things.
And doesn't cut off the TV if you decide to go for a walk taking your phone and OH is watching Corrie 😭
They also drain the battery quickly and my old phone used to get hot while on hot spot.
I now use a Netgear nighthawk M1 with IQ sim and find it very reliable

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Guessing that folk who need routers maybe watch a lot of TV/Streaming etc.
I just tether my laptop to my phone, enabling us to watch BBC player occasionally, or YouTube.
 
I’m now about to install a Poynting MIMO -4-17 Puck along with a Teltonika RUTX50. (y)
Two different data SIM cards will be going in to back up each other so I’ll never be without Wi-Fi service.
One thing that happens in my van when I put up my blinds at night is that it totally kills any network coverage so having a top of the range external, omnidirectional aerial is essential.
It’s going to be set up so I’ll be completely unhackable and also have a guest network along side. Probably overkill but why not.
 
Thanks all..... A lot of places I go have rubbish phone signal, so was just wondering if by some magic they would do a better job. The roof top aerial idea sounds a decent though.
 
I use both, but mostly my MiFi, as using my phone can be an inconvience.

With my phone? some sort of Samsung, as a 'Hotspot' it eats up the battery power, the phone is never where I need it, usually propped up in a high corner of the van.

My 'Three' router is 'Credit Card' sized, sits in the cab overhead, on and connected to van battery power, very much out of sight and out of mind. Additionally I can pull the single power lead, put it in my pocket and go for a walk or bike ride and staying connected subject to local signal.
 
We have a TP-Link Portable Travel Wi-Fi device. We don't have an external antenna and don't watch TV.
The big advantage for us is being able to just buy one high data allowance with EU roaming SIM card (i.e. IQ Go) and share is across the 4 devices we travel with (2 phones, 2 tablets). The phones keep there low cost tariff SIMs for when we are away from the van and, of course, at home.

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GaryGavlaar said:
Thanks all..... A lot of places I go have rubbish phone signal, so was just wondering if by some magic they would do a better job. The roof top aerial idea sounds a decent though.
Click to expand...
I think the secret is to have alternative sims on different networks to maximise your chances of getting a signal.
So if you get a sim for a router make sure it's on a different network to your phone
 
The roof aerial is a gamechanger ; technically in many rural campsites your phone gets stuck on band 20 (800mhz) as it's all a phone antenna can pick up. This is slowest of the bands. A roof antenna same location can often pickup band 3, band 28, or band 32 (700, 1500, 1800 mhz but not in that order), and this is why it's faster. Some mifi devices also have better antennas than phones, so can also be "better"

Only thing to add is be sure to buy a roof antenna and mifi combination that support over category 4 these days (LTE CAT4 is about 8 years old now). You can tell something is cat4, as it'll say somehting like peak performance of 150Mbit. The more modern modems (which often costs the same) are cat6, cat7 cat12, or cat20, and weill be about 5 times the speed in same locations as they transmit data more effeciently. The category 4 modems cannot access band 28 or 32 for the most part so they also sometimes won't work as well as a phone.. Band 28 and band 32 is what is being rolled out to combat "congestion" on 4g these days, so if your device does not support this it may be worth an upgrade.

These days I would consider if you buy a modem/mifi device of any sort to buy a minimum of LTE cat11 or 12. They honestly are usually same price as a (worse) cat4 device. But cruicially they are about 3 to 4 times the speed of a cat4 device in same location usually.
 
I just have a cheap mifi with a flexible tariff (on which I activate plenty of UK/EU data, only when needed).

As well as offering flexibility on where to position the device (eg. on roof!) to get best signal, it allows me to keep a cheaper/basic tariff on our phone(s) for 'normal' use (or when at home).

Again,for flexibility, the SIMs are on different network(s) to cover more bases...

I've not pursued expensive (ie 5G) mifi, external aerials or specialist MH Wifi systems and (bar one occasion at Loch Doon), over the last few years I've been able to effectively work remotely and stream in HD across the UK & France/Belgium.

As suggested elsewhere, it also means I can go for a walk without interrupting other half's viewing/laptop/tablet use (which is worth a lot of brownie points).

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BrochMike said:
I've not pursued expensive (ie 5G) mifi, external aerials or specialist MH Wifi systems and (bar one occasion at Loch Doon), over the last few years I've been able to effectively work remotely and stream in HD across the UK & France/Belgium.
Click to expand...
Worth noting the lower spec 5g devices (which are also 4g cat 20) are these days £140 or so, so not actually much more than (some) cat4 mifi. You do have to go to ebay for those prices, but they may be that price on prime day today too (I've not checked). YOu are right the high end 5g devices are £450 or so now, and thats now something I would spend money on personally, given the rapid evolution of 5g means it'll likely be £150 in a year.

As ever the lower spec devices work until they don't ... congestion and you are snookered. Summertime on busy(ier) campsites and you can find nothing works. But the largest issue with cat4 devices is the band 28 support (which only the 2024 cat4 devices are starting to support). Without this vital band (which all the companies except Vodafone are using) you will not get coverage in very rural places, as this is the lowest freququency band, and thus goes "furthest". I would expect scottish highlands coverage to rely on this ...
 
BrochMike said:
Can I ask - why, why, why, why, why?

(sorry repeating myself):ROFLMAO:
Click to expand...
I can see a reason for one, to cover "outside". But I agree 2 is quite mad. We find ours covers entire van and outside without one, but ... if the wife decides to store metal food trays (as she has once) in the cupboard containing the router, the signal does go to pot!..

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FWIW I have had two mifi devices which were great however, I bought a reconditioned iPad Mini to use as a sat nav with CoPilot App. As it is cellular I have my Popit SIM installed and I now hotspot off the iPad Mini, successfully so far in 6 countries (we streamed the EURO24 final using it in Switzerland….nevermind!).

As it fulfills two purposes, satnav and router, I doubt I’ll bother with a mifi or any other kind of stand alone router.
 
claude et maude said:
FWIW I have had two mifi devices which were great however, I bought a reconditioned iPad Mini to use as a sat nav with CoPilot App. As it is cellular I have my Popit SIM installed and I now hotspot off the iPad Mini, successfully so far in 6 countries (we streamed the EURO24 final using it in Switzerland….nevermind!).

As it fulfills two purposes, satnav and router, I doubt I’ll bother with a mifi or any other kind of stand alone router.
Click to expand...
The issue I have with my phone (iphone) or ipad acting as a hotspot, is not all devices auto-reconnect to it, unless I go up to the phone or ipad, select the hotspot screen (which maeks the network visable to the firetv etc) to get it to connect succesfully.
That problem as first world as it seems is why I don't use my iphone or ipad for the same -> we have > 8 devices connected most of the time to the van wifi, and managing the "connect" screen becomes a full time job quickly.

Worth noting it's not an issue with the iphone connecting to the ipad, it's for "non apple" devices like the Kindle, laptop (which is not apple at moment). Given the TV itself relies on the wifi working for the program guide to work properly, it gets very annoying.

If anyone has a fix for above I've be greatful, but I've not found one in several years of "trying".
 
dunnah01 said:
Run everything for the Moho and house off it with no need for landline 👍
Click to expand...
Soon as we get a 5g tower around here we'll be doing same. See no need to keep a landline with how fast 5g (can) be these days. At present at home the 4g is horrible on all networks though, so we can't "at present".
 
starquake said:
Soon as we get a 5g tower around here we'll be doing same. See no need to keep a landline with how fast 5g (can) be these days. At present at home the 4g is horrible on all networks though, so we can't "at present".
Click to expand...
In the turnip fields of Lincolnshire 5G is distant dream. We only get a couple of 4G Megabit speeds but it still works fine. On a good day we can stream in HD so works well enough for us 👍

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dunnah01 said:
In the turnip fields of Lincolnshire 5G is distant dream. We only get a couple of 4G Megabit speeds but it still works fine. On a good day we can stream in HD so works well enough for us 👍
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Was on a campsite last week and speedtested at > 900Mbit down and > 100 up). (5g on my phone) . Around 10 times better than my current home fibre connection.

Nuts I got better service in the motorhome. Unfroutnatly my current cat12 mifi couldn't get that fast (it managed about 1.5 times the speed of home as it's limited by the 4g maximums... but still was > 100Mbit). But still insane to be away in the motorhome with a better service than at home on real BT fibre.
 
starquake said:
The issue I have with my phone (iphone) or ipad acting as a hotspot, is not all devices auto-reconnect to it, unless I go up to the phone or ipad, select the hotspot screen (which maeks the network visable to the firetv etc) to get it to connect succesfully.
That problem as first world as it seems is why I don't use my iphone or ipad for the same -> we have > 8 devices connected most of the time to the van wifi, and managing the "connect" screen becomes a full time job quickly.

Worth noting it's not an issue with the iphone connecting to the ipad, it's for "non apple" devices like the Kindle, laptop (which is not apple at moment). Given the TV itself relies on the wifi working for the program guide to work properly, it gets very annoying.

If anyone has a fix for above I've be greatful, but I've not found one in several years of "trying".
Click to expand...
I have that issue if I use my iPhone but my iPad Mini stays on the hotspot screen and doesn’t turn off unless I manually switch it off…must be in the settings but no idea how I did it, sometimes my own stupidity overcomes obstacles!
 
HKF said:
We use a TP Link mobile router with a data only sim card. We get significantly better (faster and more stable) internet than if we were to use a phone hotspot. Even if we use a phone sim, it's still better than a hotspot. We travel a lot, so have a mobile unit rather than fixed one so that we can use it in hotels, in the car, at home if our internet drops (we live in rural France) etc. Having stable and faster internet is important to us as we work when we're away and stream a lot.
Click to expand...
I work online when we are away too. I am very interested in this:unsure:
 
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starquake said:
Around 10 times better than my current home fibre connection.
Click to expand...
You need to change your fibre broadband supplier if it is that slow.

Of course, it is quite possible that like me, you do not pay for the fastest fibre available. In which case comparisons are pointless.

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