Motorhome Wi-Fi

Fisherman

Fisherman

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Has anyone used equipment made by Motorhome Wi-Fi.
I am considering their 4G smart-flex system.

Thanks.
 
mistericeman said:
Been delighted with our teltonika rut 950 and EE data sim so far.....

External antenna on the lift up TV aerial makes a big difference too.
Click to expand...
Yes I have looked at that one to, it looks good. There is so much to chose from out there. I have an EE data sim. Do you use an external antenna with yours?
 
When there was a need to use Wi-Fi Hotspots, the kind of kit that MotorhomeWiFi did - such as the iBoost - was useful (and I had the same, albeit bought via Amazon and setup myself), but with Mobile Broadband with 4G being muich more affordable and widespread, I don't know what anything beyond using a Mobile Router (MiFi Dongle) is necessary?

I use a Huawei Router with a Sky Mobile SIM in my Motorhome, which serves the Firestick and Mini PC for TV Streaming, Alexas for Music, Victron Cerbo for system monitoring and Tablet and Laptop for Internet. Something which might be worth adding on sometimes is an external antenna to connect to it
 
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wildebus said:
When there was a need to use Wi-Fi Hotspots, the kind of kit that MotorhomeWiFi did - such as the iBoost - was useful (and I had the same, albeit bought via Amazon and setup myself), but with Mobile Broadband with 4G being muich more affordable and widespread, I don't know what anything beyond using a Mobile Router (MiFi Dongle) is necessary?

I use a Huawei Router with a Sky Mobile SIM in my Motorhome, which serves the Firestick and Mini PC for TV Streaming, Alexas for Music, Victron Cerbo for system monitoring and Tablet and Laptop for Internet. Something which might be adding on sometimes is an external antenna to connect to it
Click to expand...

I think its 4 and 5g stuff they focus on now. I partially agree but the issue I think is often signal strength. Down in the south west on our recent eight week voyage down there we got lucky and all we needed was my Vodafone hot spot from my mobile but last summer up on Arran, the South west coast of Scotland and the Lake District it was dire, very hit and miss which is why I started experimenting with that Alpha antenna and router but never got it working apart from with the antenna connected directly to the laptop via USB. I could have done with a roof mounted booster last year for sure.
 
barryd said:
I think its 4 and 5g stuff they focus on now. I partially agree but the issue I think is often signal strength. Down in the south west on our recent eight week voyage down there we got lucky and all we needed was my Vodafone hot spot from my mobile but last summer up on Arran, the South west coast of Scotland and the Lake District it was dire, very hit and miss which is why I started experimenting with that Alpha antenna and router but never got it working apart from with the antenna connected directly to the laptop via USB. I could have done with a roof mounted booster last year for sure.
Click to expand...
Yes Barry, I agree. Yes in towns and villages what David states is correct, but we have been to places were both our EE and Virgin mobile routers have been useless. Great play is made of cat7 particularly in locations were many are trying to get access at the same time.
 
This thread has got me looking again to get an external antenna .... Any recommendation for an Omni-directional fixed one?

I liked the idea of having one on the TV Ariel post but there would not be enough gap between roof and ariel when lowered
 
wildebus said:
This thread has got me looking again to get an external antenna .... Any recommendation for an Omni-directional fixed one?

I liked the idea of having one on the TV Ariel post but there would not be enough gap between roof and ariel when lowered
Click to expand...
We haven't gone down the external antenna route yet, I'm averse to drilling more holes in the roof. As a compromise, our Huawei is fastened to the main sky light with velcro so that in fine weather we can raise it and gain some height if we need to boost the signal.
 
Val54 said:
We haven't gone down the external antenna route yet, I'm averse to drilling more holes in the roof. As a compromise, our Huawei is fastened to the main sky light with velcro so that in fine weather we can raise it and gain some height if we need to boost the signal.
Click to expand...
I have a Cable entry box with a pair of the cables for the Solar and it would be a fairly simple process to add a couple of extra holes with glands (to keep watertight) for an external antenna and run the cables down the same hole.
This is a fairly good option to avoid extra holes :)

Interesting idea by velcroing onto the skylight but then have to run power cable which is a bit of a pain I would have thought.
 
We have a convenient power plug and route for the cable so not really an issue, just the last 400mm is exposed which can be tucked above a cupboard when not in use.
 
wildebus said:
This thread has got me looking again to get an external antenna .... Any recommendation for an Omni-directional fixed one?

I liked the idea of having one on the TV Ariel post but there would not be enough gap between roof and ariel when lowered
Click to expand...

wildebus said:
This thread has got me looking again to get an external antenna .... Any recommendation for an Omni-directional fixed one?

I liked the idea of having one on the TV Ariel post but there would not be enough gap between roof and ariel when lowered
Click to expand...
Think ours is a poynting Xpol....
It only stops the aerial being filly lowered by a inch or so so makes no big difference....

The extra lift on the pole is well worth it IMHO as it makes a difference between signal/no signal in some of the places we stop....
Obviously there are still places where there is no signal at all.
 
This is what the inside of a Poynting 4G-EXPOL looks like, one of the many overhanging branches in Albania knocked the top of it off and as you can see one side of the cross has been snapped off.

Currently in Switzerland and country 26 of the 29 planned over a six month period from March. The Poynting is paired with a Netgear Nighkhawk and an EE sim with the roam abroad pass.

It still works fine, just not as well as it did. By that I mean since the ‘accident’ if we are well out of site of a tower, we’re reduced to social media but have never lost signal altogether despite staying in some pretty remote places. Can’t complain about that - apart from having to buy another one when we get home 🙄



2456B884-27C5-436A-9B85-D0CCF76BC88D.jpeg
 
wildebus said:
This thread has got me looking again to get an external antenna .... Any recommendation for an Omni-directional fixed one?

I liked the idea of having one on the TV Ariel post but there would not be enough gap between roof and ariel when lowered
Click to expand...
I have spent quite a lot over the years on routers to use with SIM cards and antenna. We used to supply computer till systems for shops and used SIM cards as backup for the card machines. If a shop was in an area where we couldn’t get a signal with internal antenna then they couldn’t have a backup in those days.

Since getting the van I have tried a few things but as the money comes out of my pension now I don’t experiment too much. I used to use a Huawei B511 router but accidentally crossed the wires one day and blew it up. Since then my wifi systems consist of a Teltonika RUT255 router connected to a Solwise Puck antenna with an additional Huawei dongle 5777(?) that I can connect to a cheapo square eBay antenna fixed inside the top fridge vent or dongle placed anywhere it works best.

Most of the time I run on the Teltonika and Puck but if I can’t get a signal (fairly rare these days) I swap to the dongle.

At one point I thought the puck wasn’t working but you only really notice an additional antenna in very poor signal. I don’t think the puck is the best by any means (May be puck2) but it works most places for me. All this in U.K., no idea abroad.
 
Nabsim said:
I have spent quite a lot over the years on routers to use with SIM cards and antenna. We used to supply computer till systems for shops and used SIM cards as backup for the card machines. If a shop was in an area where we couldn’t get a signal with internal antenna then they couldn’t have a backup in those days.

Since getting the van I have tried a few things but as the money comes out of my pension now I don’t experiment too much. I used to use a Huawei B511 router but accidentally crossed the wires one day and blew it up. Since then my wifi systems consist of a Teltonika RUT255 router connected to a Solwise Puck antenna with an additional Huawei dongle 5777(?) that I can connect to a cheapo square eBay antenna fixed inside the top fridge vent or dongle placed anywhere it works best.

Most of the time I run on the Teltonika and Puck but if I can’t get a signal (fairly rare these days) I swap to the dongle.

At one point I thought the puck wasn’t working but you only really notice an additional antenna in very poor signal. I don’t think the puck is the best by any means (May be puck2) but it works most places for me. All this in U.K., no idea abroad.
Click to expand...
That cheapo antenna you mentioned .... one like this? https://amzn.to/3JkHy0h

I have that one in the link, but can't imagine it lasting long with a sucker on the roof :) Given the roof of the motorhome is wood, polystyrene and plastic, I wonder if there would actually be much difference between an antenna in a top cupboard and one glued to the other side of the sandwich?
I do like applying "fit and forget" with kit though so moving around to find the best service each time stopped would be a pain. I could stick it in the Fridge Vent like you sometimes do for maybe the best average result?
 
wildebus said:
That cheapo antenna you mentioned .... one like this? https://amzn.to/3JkHy0h

I have that one in the link, but can't imagine it lasting long with a sucker on the roof :) Given the roof of the motorhome is wood, polystyrene and plastic, I wonder if there would actually be much difference between an antenna in a top cupboard and one glued to the other side of the sandwich?
I do like applying "fit and forget" with kit though so moving around to find the best service each time stopped would be a pain. I could stick it in the Fridge Vent like you sometimes do for maybe the best average result?
Click to expand...
Yes that looks like the same one. I have mine inside the van stuck to the top fridge vent.mi don’t have a 3 way so no problem with heat. A lot of times I tray things with and without antenna the results are the same, it’s when you try them in poor signal areas you notice some difference.
The one outside on the roof stuck down is the puck👍

Edit: is your roof not aluminium outer skin composite? Walls and roof kill the signal in mine, needs window, vent or roof lights for internal to work
 
Nabsim said:
Yes that looks like the same one. I have mine inside the van stuck to the top fridge vent.mi don’t have a 3 way so no problem with heat. A lot of times I tray things with and without antenna the results are the same, it’s when you try them in poor signal areas you notice some difference.
The one outside on the roof stuck down is the puck👍

Edit: is your roof not aluminium outer skin composite? Walls and roof kill the signal in mine, needs window, vent or roof lights for internal to work
Click to expand...
Same here.... Even the thin aluminium panels on our swifts walls/roof make a great Faraday cage...
Not an issue in string signal areas BUT kills connection in poorer ones.
 
Nabsim said:
Yes that looks like the same one. I have mine inside the van stuck to the top fridge vent.mi don’t have a 3 way so no problem with heat. A lot of times I tray things with and without antenna the results are the same, it’s when you try them in poor signal areas you notice some difference.
The one outside on the roof stuck down is the puck👍

Edit: is your roof not aluminium outer skin composite? Walls and roof kill the signal in mine, needs window, vent or roof lights for internal to work
Click to expand...
I am pretty sure it is molded plastic.
 
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