Mifi is it worth it ?

I recently upgraded to a Huwaei E5785, a 4G device with two plug-ins for an external aerial for which I bought a 4GLite which I stick outside, preferably in the direction of any mobile phone mast I can see. Used it in Europe on our way south and now with a "3G" branded Maroc Telecom simcard (which I already had) in Morocco. Generally I've had excellent reception everywhere and even appear to be getting 4G with the MT card! In Europe I use a "3" PAYG datasim.

But interestingly the mifi has a feature where it can lock on to a local wifi signal, e..g. campsite wifi (you need to log in of course) as well as the mobile signal and it then uses both signals for internet.
 
Jewellbags said:
Thinking about getting a mifi for the MH the one I am looking at is a maxview one which also boost signals/increases reception from other WiFis
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The Teltonika RUT240 as used in the Maxview setup doesn't 'boost' local WiFi, nor does it automatically detect a local WiFi signal and use that in preference to its 4G connection unless you have already waded through the web interface and its 30-odd page manual to set this functionality up at your particular location.

The antenna on the roof is cellular only, so it's the internal WiFi antenna that it would be using to connect to an external WiFI source and thus not offering much in the way of range extension vs a stand-alone WiFi booster that would be dual radio and with an external antenna.

Huawei's basic units are the exact same 4G category (CAT3 150Mbps/50Mbps) and in fact, have always had an identical 'WiFi Extender' mode accessible by a simple setting in the web interface or on-screen display. We rarely mention it as a benefit because it's not that effective and in reality in 2020 with a decent SIM you shouldn't need to worry about oversubscribed site WiFi.

We could offer our antenna with the same RUT240 router for the same price, but the odd occasion we've sold Teltonika hardware to customers who explicitly wanted it we've subsequently found the support burden significant even with extensive supporting documentation. Perfect for the enthusiast.

It's no bad thing having an alternative package on the market as far as I'm concerned, greater customer choice and interest in this sector is only going to grow as time goes on. While we've been doing this for 8 years, when three of the well-known satellite players launch a 4G product it's clear to see where the market is going.
 
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Addie Lenny HB

Advice if you can assist please

Poynting MIMO-3-V2-12 seems to come in a 2 aerial (cellular) and a 5 aerial version (2 cellular, 2 wi-fi and a GPS)

Is there any benefit in paying for the more expensive version?

Cheers

Neil
 
I use the HUAWEI 5577 both at home and in the van with a Vodafone unlimited data sim, there is one aerial attached to the bungalow wall and one on the van roof.
9EF6185E-BCA7-446B-905D-C549FBFD9CB3.jpeg
 
Bustup15 said:
Addie Lenny HB

Advice if you can assist please

Poynting MIMO-3-V2-12 seems to come in a 2 aerial (cellular) and a 5 aerial version (2 cellular, 2 wi-fi and a GPS)

Is there any benefit in paying for the more expensive version?

Cheers

Neil
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Don't think it is worth the extra as most of us don't bother with WiFi now also for the WiFi to work you would need a router that has aerial connections which probably means an expensive business router.

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Camdoon said:
Used mifis from 2011 to 2018. Now use a Samsung with Vodafone while wife has Samsung with Tesco. Never been in a position of not getting a signal, France or Spain, so now would do away with Sat Dome for TV as well. The cost, installation, etc of a mifi now make them a dubious case unless you have a specific need as phones are far more practical.
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mifi via mobile hotspot choices depends on how many devices needing connectivity and how hot the hotspot host mobile gets.
You'd expect a mifi device like the Huawei one to be better at splitting bandwidth to ~10 devices than a mobile
And run cooler for longer.

My life with the Huawei is in the early days but the always on wifi is good.
Its better than having to manage the hotspot of either my wife's or my mobile.
Only up to 4 simultaneously connected devices with no one saying their share is poor.
 
I have just bought a TPLink M7200 4G mifi from Amazon for about £40 and an unlimited UK 4G data SIM from Smarty which is run by Three at a cost of £20 per month on PAYG. Not tried it in our MH yet as we are yet to pick it up, but it seems to work okay at home. Only downside is that there's no port to connect an external antenna so might have to re-investigate when on the road.
 
I use EE mifi both at home and away in UK. I connect through a Huawei 5785. It 4g is 20 quid for 30 gig which suits me fine as I don't stream. Mostly about 40 meg, but has been 56 depends where you are. Not had to use arial yet. At home I run my desktop hard wired to it and all other pads and phones through it
 
kevenh said:
mifi via mobile hotspot choices depends on how many devices needing connectivity and how hot the hotspot host mobile gets.
You'd expect a mifi device like the Huawei one to be better at splitting bandwidth to ~10 devices than a mobile
And run cooler for longer.

My life with the Huawei is in the early days but the always on wifi is good.
Its better than having to manage the hotspot of either my wife's or my mobile.
Only up to 4 simultaneously connected devices with no one saying their share is poor.
Click to expand...
Horses for courses. It is only the 2 of us on longer trips and any offspring have enough for their visits. Never had any heat issues with the Samsungs and putting the hotspot on or off is not arduous with a swipe down and select while the other benefits of a phone being you can take them out of the van more easily, there is one less contract to manage and one less thing to charge/ remember/ take/ change sims on.
 
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A lot of you keep saying you don't bother with a Mifi now and your phones work fine, that is OK if you always camp in areas with a good signal.

But once you get out in remote areas a phone is often useless where as a Mifi with a rooftop MIMO aerial will pull in a 3 or 4 g signal when it's impossible to get a signal on your phone. On some of our trips we find ourselves in that situation more than 50% of the time.

Another big advantage of the MIMO aerial is most of the time it doubles your upload speed.

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We haven’t used ours for a couple of years we use both mobiles and hotspot to pads and tv
I only keep the mifi for European travel if we should get low on data then fit a local sim
 
Lenny HB said:
A lot of you keep saying you don't bother with a Mifi now and your phones work fine, that is OK if you always camp in areas with a good signal.

But once you get out in remote areas a phone is often useless where as a Mifi with a rooftop MIMO aerial will pull in a 3 or 4 g signal when it's impossible to get a signal on your phone. On some of our trips we find ourselves in that situation more than 50% of the time.

Another big advantage of the MIMO aerial is most of the time it doubles your upload speed.
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I think the point being raised is that for the past 6 or 7 years a mifi was worth investing in for anyone wanting to download mail and surf, especially abroad with 3sims in particular. Now that the price of data on phone contracts has fallen dramatically, roaming is free throughout the EU while speeds and connectivity are improving all the time, the case for using a mifi, or aerial for a mifi or to share the camp wifi, is receding which along with the cost of a mifi and cost and management of a separate sim are moving them to be a niche product. It is also moving Satellite Dishes into becoming redundant.
 
ymmv
but I am connecting devices without sim cards via mifi
and find it easier to have always on mifi than the extra complication of hotspotting via a mobile phone,

the nature of a mobile phone is that it is portable and stays with the owner. Who is free to leave the MH without taking the hotspot with them.
 
I think MIFIs are great.


I use a MIFI for my home Internet.

Signal is great, never had a problem with streaming. We watch all TV on a console connected to the MIFI. Phones are connected. I can play the console online no problem...

I've changed my mums over to a MIFI, she said the only change has been the price

MIFI is £20 for unlimited data and no fair usage clause

Compared to a phone line Internet £45—50 for the same deal with a binding contract...

Seems like the only option to me.

Plus my mums Internet is faster now with a three sim and huawei MIFI, than she got with virgin broadband. (there's signal strength apps you can download to test, I move the MIFI around to find the best spot)

And I've always found the MIFI is much better at picking up a signal than a phone
 
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Lenny HB said:
A lot of you keep saying you don't bother with a Mifi now and your phones work fine, that is OK if you always camp in areas with a good signal.

But once you get out in remote areas a phone is often useless where as a Mifi with a rooftop MIMO aerial will pull in a 3 or 4 g signal when it's impossible to get a signal on your phone. On some of our trips we find ourselves in that situation more than 50% of the time.
Click to expand...

I agree completely. I have often found that the Mifi is better than the phone. There have been many cases when the signal has been marginal and having an aerial has made the connection usable.
They may also be situations where you are roaming and it would be better to use a local SIM. You can use that in the Mifi and continue to receive calls on your phone. In the small number of cases where you don't have a good connection on the Mifi then you can have the backup of the phone if you use a different provider.

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HillRunner said:
In the small number of cases where you don't have a good connection on the Mifi then you can have the backup of the phone if you use a different provider.
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When roaming it's easy to change the network on the Mifi.
 
We have a Huawei 5785 Mifi and a magnetic booster on the roof of our van also last van, works a treat its unlocked so we can use any data sim, the bonus with having the booster is ? you can shut all your blinds without losing your signal. ? Bob.

20200402_141951.jpg
 
Mifi certainly seems to get a better signal than phone. I have a dual-sim phone that struggles to pick up a signal at home on both suppliers (despite us living right next to an international airport!) but the mifi never has any problem.

This last trip I've experimented with a 4G aerial plugged into the mifi and just stuck on the outside of the van with a view to eventually having a more permanent setup. Been quite pleased with it, even picked up 4G in Morocco with an old "3G" sim card.
 
I have a mifi Huawei5577 with aerial sockets
unlocked to any network
works ok cost me £70
anyone want to make offer ( wrong section i know but relevant to post)

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Bustup15 said:
Addie Lenny HB

Poynting MIMO-3-V2-12 seems to come in a 2 aerial (cellular) and a 5 aerial version (2 cellular, 2 wi-fi and a GPS) Is there any benefit in paying for the more expensive version?
Click to expand...

If you're asking the question, the likely answer is no. The WiFi elements are not going to be powerful enough to connect to anything weak/distant and if you were to connect it to 4G router that also had a removable WiFi antenna the net result would be broadcasting your local network outside of your vehicle.
 
Addie said:
If you're asking the question, the likely answer is no. The WiFi elements are not going to be powerful enough to connect to anything weak/distant and if you were to connect it to 4G router that also had a removable WiFi antenna the net result would be broadcasting your local network outside of your vehicle.
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Thanks for that and it confirms what I suspected but wasn't totally sure. I'm assuming the wifi is for much larger vehicles with multiple occupants such as coaches or trains?
 
Ordered a Poynting roof mount unit at a great cost compared to others @ £80+ and showing 50 units in stock

Supplier just rang to say ' you did notice there was zero stock and delivery not expected till next month. Do you want to wait or cancel the order?'

Strongly suspect they cocked the web page and pulled it as site now shows zero stock.

??????
 
Bustup15 said:
Thanks for that and it confirms what I suspected but wasn't totally sure. I'm assuming the wifi is for much larger vehicles with multiple occupants such as coaches or trains?
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The WiFi elements in the antenna when connected to a 4G router broadcast the local WiFi signal externally - so it would be no use for coaches or trains where the connection would need to be broadcasted internally, same as a motorhome. An example of its intended use might be police offices with handheld devices being able to connect to their 'in-vehicle' WiFi when outside of the vehicle ~50m away.

For use as a receiver, an example might be an Ambulance parked outside A&E connecting to a close-by (~50m) access point in preference to its own 4G connection.

I would say that the MIMO-3 is a bit of an oddball choice, it is a HUGE antenna as its primary benefit/aim is its response at 450Mhz - something we don't have plans to use in Europe any time soon. Its performance where it matters for rural use at 800Mhz (Band 20) isn't great and as its ground plane independent there is no scope to improve this even if you have a metal roof. You'd likely get better results from our antenna at the same price point as the 5-in-1 you were considering or the cheaper MIMO-2 like Lenny has (even better still if your roof has a metal skin) if you want to go down to the Poynting route.

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Addie said:
The WiFi elements in the antenna when connected to a 4G router broadcast the local WiFi signal externally - so it would be no use for coaches or trains where the connection would need to be broadcasted internally, same as a motorhome. An example of its intended use might be police offices with handheld devices being able to connect to their 'in-vehicle' WiFi when outside of the vehicle ~50m away.

For use as a receiver, an example might be an Ambulance parked outside A&E connecting to a close-by (~50m) access point in preference to its own 4G connection.

I would say that the MIMO-3 is a bit of an oddball choice, it is a HUGE antenna as its primary benefit/aim is its response at 450Mhz - something we don't have plans to use in Europe any time soon. Its performance where it matters for rural use at 800Mhz (Band 20) isn't great and as its ground plane independent there is no scope to improve this even if you have a metal roof. You'd likely get better results from our antenna at the same price point as the 5-in-1 you were considering or the cheaper MIMO-2 like Lenny has (even better still if your roof has a metal skin) if you want to go down to the Poynting route.
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Many thanks again for the information provided.
It just proves again the danger of jumping into an area where my knowledge is limited. I assumed the mimo-3 would be an upgrade/replacement for the previous mimo models and therefore better!
 
Lenny HB said:
You are confusing Wifi & Mifi 2 totally different things.
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I know they are 2 different things but both which 2/3 years ago were more relevant to the wider motorhome community. Fon; going to McD's because you could get free WiFi and tended to have large car parks; checking whether a camp site had free WiFi; checking the price of 3 sims (there was a whole ongoing thread on what you had to do and when with the sim before replacing with a new one); being others that using my phone's allowance which is now cheaper and refreshed each month has stopped me having to do.
 
Zigisla said:
We have the MotorhomeWiFi set up; MiFi unit and roof aerial. We use the New Forest often and the phone data signal is gprs at best and very poor if any phone signal. With our set up, we have good 4G constantly. I have drematically reduced the data package with Vodafone for my phone and transferred this to the MiFi sim. Cant see us without one now - Thought that of the SatFi unit though.:rolleyes::censored::censored:
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Hi can you please let me know what your mifi setup is exactly, thanks Steve
 
we have two mifis in thye van we havent used them for 2 years, phone always seems to work and if we found we couldnt get a signal for a couple of days it wouldnt worry us any way as were on holiday
 
Stevelacoste said:
Hi can you please let me know what your mifi setup is exactly, thanks Steve
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I got this set up when it was just the "Pack 2" so no router or SIM deal, but still the antenna, quick mount and MiFi unit with cables. It replaced the Status aerial that was there and slotted straight into the same hole in the roof.
https://www.motorhomewifi.com/product/4g-roof-antenna-e5577-mifi-save-25/

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