Internet in van

Neckender

Neckender

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Are there any recommendations on internet installations in a VW T6.1 van as I have fitted an Xtrons flip down screen and an Amazon fire stick to watch movies etc, at home parked up it works brilliantly picking up our home internet but away using my phone as a hot spot it’s very patchy buffering or nothing at all on the screen. I want to sort this out before our winter trip to Spain, I’ve been in touch with motorhome WiFi who have sent information on their 4G system with a shark fin aerial, but that means drilling the roof. I’ve seen systems with outdoor suckered aerial but these just boost the signal on campsites etc not what I want for our fire stick hence any recommendations that I can understand being not so good on this kind of thing.
 
We used a teltonika rut 950 with ee data sim for a good while with an external antenna on the lift up TV aerial pole....

Swapped now to a 3 network 5g home broadband set up....
With antenna on external tv etc etc

£20 a, month unlimited for first year.... £24 second 12 months

Impressed so far....

So much so we ditched virgin medias broadband for a 3 network home 5g set up
 
Neckender said:
Are there any recommendations on internet installations in a VW T6.1 van as I have fitted an Xtrons flip down screen and an Amazon fire stick to watch movies etc, at home parked up it works brilliantly picking up our home internet but away using my phone as a hot spot it’s very patchy buffering or nothing at all on the screen. I want to sort this out before our winter trip to Spain, I’ve been in touch with motorhome WiFi who have sent information on their 4G system with a shark fin aerial, but that means drilling the roof. I’ve seen systems with outdoor suckered aerial but these just boost the signal on campsites etc not what I want for our fire stick hence any recommendations that I can understand being not so good on this kind of thing.
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I used a ZTE MiFi unit in France for 2 months; always reception when parked up, reception most of the time when driving. I also have a Teltonika RUT950 that I use in the UK with a puck aerial on the roof, but that involves having a hole somewhere to route the cable. Is the issue with your phone that your network doesn't have adequate coverage or does the phone struggle to handle the throughput?
 
Neckender said:
Are there any recommendations on internet installations in a VW T6.1 van as I have fitted an Xtrons flip down screen and an Amazon fire stick to watch movies etc, at home parked up it works brilliantly picking up our home internet but away using my phone as a hot spot it’s very patchy buffering or nothing at all on the screen. I want to sort this out before our winter trip to Spain, I’ve been in touch with motorhome WiFi who have sent information on their 4G system with a shark fin aerial, but that means drilling the roof. I’ve seen systems with outdoor suckered aerial but these just boost the signal on campsites etc not what I want for our fire stick hence any recommendations that I can understand being not so good on this kind of thing.
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Use my phone as hotspot in conjunction with fire stick .
Watch movies , live football etc all over Spain and France.
Very few problems
 
My phone sim is with ID and it’s hit and miss, at our caravan in Towyn Wales some days it works through my phone network and other days partway through a film it will just stop and nothing. other days it stop starts and this week end at lake Bala absolutely nothing. When this happens I go to the info and check internet connection and it says poor internet connection. So I was wondering if I need an aerial and router which I’m not knowledgeable about.
 
As already stated, use phone as a hotspot, watched Queens funeral in full with phone tethered to firestick whilst roaming, 5 hours - 9.75GB no problem :)
 
Neckender said:
I’ve just ordered this from Amazon will report how I get on with it.

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I wouldn’t buy anything off that company ever again,
Many years ago I bought a satnav off them at the nec it stopped working after two days, no matter how many calls and emails I made I just couldn’t get anywhere with them, at first they made assorts of promises,
Then they just blocked my calls and ignore emails.
I never did get it sorted
 
Neckender said:
I’ve just ordered this from Amazon will report how I get on with it.

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Now you need to decide what to do about a SIM card or SIM cards. I use Smarty in the UK and have had very few issues except in a few locations in Scotland; they are on the 3 network, as, I believe, are ID mobile. If you have been encountering network-related issues, you may want to look at other networks. If you intend to do much streaming in Spain, you may need to look at a Spanish SIM card and there have been other threads about SIMs for use abroad. If that is your intention, it's a good idea to go for a UK SIM that enables you to change the data package from month to month, or even pause it (as I do with Smarty).
 
Just to close this thread the Falcon was delivered today and I set it up quite quickly seams a bit flimsy for the money but it worked straight away, my Xtrons flip down monitor and Amazon fire stick worked straight away then I tried my apple iPad Pro at the same time and it worked also so I’m quite happy with it all.
 
We do not go out of Scotland 99.9% of the time and we encounter some very blank spots. In order to maximise our chances as after all if there is no signal at all then nothing will boost it.

We installed a Poynting's omnidirectional antenna and yes we had the roof drilled for it. We use a Netgear mobile router (watch Amazon market place and or the refurb bit as there are deals) and we carry three sims with us. O2, 3 and EE. One of them usually catches a signal. Then firestick. We also carry a cheap media player with a memory stick with some programs on it for when we get really blanked, which it's fair to say is now rare. In a spot last year where previously we got nothing at all, no TV no mobile we sat and on a rainy afternoon watched the TDF live on the firestick. That's the difference the antenna and router make.
 
Neckender said:
Are there any recommendations on internet installations in a VW T6.1 van as I have fitted an Xtrons flip down screen and an Amazon fire stick to watch movies etc, at home parked up it works brilliantly picking up our home internet but away using my phone as a hot spot it’s very patchy buffering or nothing at all on the screen. I want to sort this out before our winter trip to Spain, I’ve been in touch with motorhome WiFi who have sent information on their 4G system with a shark fin aerial, but that means drilling the roof. I’ve seen systems with outdoor suckered aerial but these just boost the signal on campsites etc not what I want for our fire stick hence any recommendations that I can understand being not so good on this kind of thing.
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I use a my iPhone with a Smarty sim rolling monthly contract you could try them and leave if it’s no use. It uses the 3 network which is now part of Vodafone.

My next step is to buy a tp-link 4g modem router from Amazon for £45 that has a SIM card slot and maybe use a roof mounted antenna for better reception.
 
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