We've got loads of Data allowance...but sometimes...🤔 (18 Viewers)

[jumar]

I been reading up on here...on Facebook and watched a few YouTube videos.
Our Data allowance is good....and generally here in Spain we rarely lack a good signal, but....there are times that we haven't got a good enough or even none at all...
Internet for us is fairly essential...planning bike routes, places to stay etc...and entertainment...TV (Footie) posting on here and Facebook...
I'm considering, and therefore asking, What's the latest external Aerial and Router solutions that would help us stay in contact with the outside world..
Just to add.... I've got a spare hole in the MH roof...actually it was where the TV Aerial used to be...the pole is still there.... advantage Me..
I await a bombardment of replies..

 

[JockandRita]

jumar. I too installed the Poynting 4g/5g 3-V12 antenna Martin, which until recent was connected to a ZTE MiFi. It is now connected to a house redundant TP Link Archer MR6400 router, which I power from a 12v USB socket.
Since installing the Poynting antenna, we have never failed to stream UK TV via the Firestick, but I have altered the settings for such, to reduce data usage where possible. ITV X is a bu@@er for sapping up the data, with no option to reduce it.

Good luck finding what's right for your needs.

Cheers,

Jock.

 

[Landy Andy]

Yes, YouTube (and Netflix and others) will automatically adjust both the video quality and the bitrate depending on the screen size and the quality of the internet connection.

If you want to save data you can manually change this in the YouTube app settings which has a data saving mode, or by clicking the cogwheel on a YouTube video and selecting a lower 'quality' from there if viewing on a laptop etc.

Understand that. But does bigger screen use more data.

For example, phone use is 1 data, tablet would be 1.2 data, 24”tv 2.2 data, 40”tv 5 data, all to show the same thing.

Bigger the display the more data needed to fill it??

 

[fishplug]

Kinda...

The 'auto' setting will adjust based on the screen. There's no point putting out 1080p to a tiny 2" screen so it will just dial it down to the max that the screen can display.

A 144p resolution on a 62" screen will work, but it will look terrible! Technically it's the same amount of data as your 2" screen so it's not 'needed' from a technical point of view, but it's very much advisable from a human point of view!

That's being pedantic and taking it to ridiculous extremes - you are fundamentally correct.

The smaller the screen, the fewer the pixels therefore the less data required in order for the quality to look good.

Found a decent review here which gives you an idea of how much that can vary.

 

[gus-lopez]

now days you really need to use a data sim.

I don' really know if they do standalone data sims here as jumar is in spain?

I have used both yoigo unlimited phone sim in our router,TP-link MR6400, & Digi the same .both have worked perfectly everywhere, even the UK.

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[Lenny HB]

That used to be the case years ago but there's legislation that prevents carriers from making this sort of distinction now.

They can't stop you using a phone sim in a Mifi but that doesn't apply to routers but they can still restrict the speed.

Last year I was getting between 35 to 95mb/s in my phone, same sim in either my router or my Mifi I was only getting 5 to 12mb/s.

 

[DBK]

Understand that. But does bigger screen use more data.

For example, phone use is 1 data, tablet would be 1.2 data, 24”tv 2.2 data, 40”tv 5 data, all to show the same thing.

Bigger the display the more data needed to fill it??

I'm in the middle of an experiment to try and quantify this issue. This year I replaced our Avtex TV with a 24" Cello and was a bit alarmed to discover on our current trip to France it was eating data watching iPlayer at a bit over 3Gb an hour. I have 200Gb on my EE contract and it was virtually used up after 2 weeks! We never had this problem with the Avtex.

I'm now watching the Saturday morning cooking programs on my MS Surface tablet and it seems to have gone through 5Gb in 3 hours, which is better.

 

[MartinandBev]

We’re also in Spain and I use this router the Spitz GLi 3000 which is dual sim for when we go outside of Spain (we buy a local SIM card) otherwise we use a lobster sim, and never struggle to get a decent signal or decent speeds.

GL-X3000 / Spitz AX

A WiFi 6 Dual-SIM 4G/5G Cellular Router that supports 5G NR Dual-SIM Failover & Multi-WAN, pre-installed with OpenWrt 21.02, OpenVPN and WireGuard.

www.gl-inet.com

And for aerial we are using this Teltonika 5G external aerial, since putting this on the roof my speeds have increased by over 40%, which gives us all we need

https://www.amazon.es/dp/B0CPD2Z5M9?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title

Did consider starlink, but couldn’t justify the ongoing monthly costs

 

[fishplug]

This year I replaced our Avtex TV with a 24" Cello

I'm going to hazard a guess that the Avtex was a 'dumb' TV and the new Cello is a 'smart' TV?

 

[DBK]

I'm going to hazard a guess that the Avtex was a 'dumb' TV and the new Cello is a 'smart' TV?

Smart but a bit slow. I appreciate it will update the apps from time to time which will use a bit of data. There's a setting to pause that which I might turn off.

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[fishplug]

Really interesting specs on that Spitz router MartinandBev - I'd never heard of them before but that looks like a lot of router for the money.

Sounds like you've been happy with it? A proper external antenna does make a huge amount of difference.

 

[MartinandBev]

Really interesting specs on that Spitz router MartinandBev - I'd never heard of them before but that looks like a lot of router for the money.

Sounds like you've been happy with it? A proper external antenna does make a huge amount of difference.

I had never heard of it, but saw a couple of reviews and found a discount code and so gave it bash, iv been very impressed with it……. Speeds were good off the internal aerials but with the external aerials it’s a whole new ball game

 

[jumar]

Here in Spain RUTX14 sells at just less than 300€. So far with extensive searching and valuable advice on here, I've narrowed my choice down to this model...Have I made the right choice...?

 

[Lenny HB]

Here in Spain RUTX14 sells at just less than 300€. So far with extensive searching and valuable advice on here, I've narrowed my choice down to this model...Have I made the right choice...?

Pretty good spec for the money & cheaper than in the UK.

 

[jumar]

Pretty good spec for the money & cheaper than in the UK.

Yes Lenny....and that's an offer on Amazon.es
They aren't normally the cheapest...might grab this and have it sent to my neighbours apartment...

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[zac]

Only thing I can see about the rutx14 if that its not 5G. Still well specced though. I don't think this will be an issue as 5G is useless anywhere I have been but if you want to future proof it

 

[fred_jb]

The smaller the screen, the fewer the pixels therefore the less data required in order for the quality to look good.

Found a decent review here which gives you an idea of how much that can vary.

That is not necessarily true. Many physically small screens on phones these days have very high resolution, i.e. more total pixels than a full HD TV. A full HD TV has about 2 megapixels, and a 4k TV has about 8. Many phone screens exceed full HD in terms of pixel count. My phone goes up to QHD+ which is 3200 x 1440 pixels. I run it in FHD+ mode which is 2400 x 1080 to reduce battery usage, but this is still more than a full HD TV which runs at 1920 x 1080.

Fortunately many phones allow you to select lower resolution settings and as already mentioned you can further restrict data use by setting lower resolution in apps such as YouTube. In this case your phone will generally adapt the incoming signal to still fill most of your phone screen, depending on aspect ratio.

 

[jumar]

Only thing I can see about the rutx14 if that its not 5G. Still well specced though. I don't think this will be an issue as 5G is useless anywhere I have been but if you want to future proof it

Hi Zac...exactly...but we do not think we will be searching for 5G signals in the areas we intend using it....
I've just put an Amazon order in for it, and it will be delivered to my neighbour....bless her...she is my Vice President, so ....,
Have a good Sunday...

 

[ChrisL]

Last year I was getting between 35 to 95mb/s in my phone, same sim in either my router or my Mifi I was only getting 5 to 12mb/s.

Have you checked to see what the CAT rating is of the devices you are comparing? your phone likely has a higher CAT rating then the other devices so can stream more data, the link may help you understand what I'm on about..

Mobile Router Classifications | Solwise Ltd

www.solwise.co.uk

 

[fishplug]

Here in Spain RUTX14 sells at just less than 300€. So far with extensive searching and valuable advice on here, I've narrowed my choice down to this model...Have I made the right choice...?

I very nearly bought the RUTX14 and in hindsight probably should have.

I think it's a very good choice personally.

One of the things that might be worth mentioning is that it will come with a power lead that connects to mains electricity. If you want to power it from 12v in the van then you can either cut the end of the cable off and use that, or you can buy a separate cable for not a huge amount of money. There are genuine and aftermarket ones on eBay.

Black wire is neutral, red wire is live. Green and white wires are input/output and you can simply ignore them. They're for things like additional sensors.

Have you chosen an antenna to go with it?

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[Lenny HB]

Have you checked to see what the CAT rating is of the devices you are comparing? your phone likely has a higher CAT rating then the other devices so can stream more data, the link may help you understand what I'm on about..

Mobile Router Classifications | Solwise Ltd

www.solwise.co.uk

Both my router & mif are only CAT4 but I've never seen differences like that before.