how to have good wifi abroad in a motorhome/camper van?

B9K9

I was looking through the various offerings online for mobile broadband gadgets suitable for good reception while travelling abroad in my motorhome.

I'm happy enough to have a solid 15 Mbit/s like we have at home. What I do think might be an issue has to do with having an externally mounted areial vs a dongle thingy or a spare phone as a hotspot.

Anyone here in the know about such options?

LoGiE

What's your budget? I use the setup below when I'm based in an area with no fixed broadband options and it would work really well for a camper van.

4G Router NETGEAR Nighthawk MR1100 Mobile Hotspot 4G Router
4G Antenna Poynting 4G-XPOL-A0001 Cross Polarised 4G Omni LTE Antenna
Adapter to connect themConnector TS9 Male to SMA Female Adapter Cable

Total cost would be about 400 Euro for the above excluding a SIM


Using a device that can be attached an antenna is usually a game-changer signal strength-wise. The antenna above has 4 suction cups for attaching it to a window but it can also be pole mounted.

If your looking for something low cost you can use the cheaper dongle provided by Vodafone (it's a rebranded Huawei) or hot spot your phone and see what happens signal wise.

B9K9

I got fixed up for about €180, for a mobile wifi with built in external antenna connectors, and a €70 log periodic directional. Happy days my upload speed is as fast as the download.

chewed

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/115066310#Comment_115066310

apologies for jumping onto an old thread, but was wondering how that setup worked for you? I'm looking at something similar for my campervan. Do you get a good enough signal with the antenna on the window?

I simply hotspot off my phone, if you have roaming and all you can eat data then it's more than adequate. Can stream HD media with no issue.

chewed

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122030001#Comment_122030001

OK, that works some of the time, but as I'm inside a metal box, I was hoping for a stronger signal. I was planning to work from the van as well (laptop/zoom, etc)

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122030014#Comment_122030014

What about just getting a mobile phone signal booster. Running another SIM based device is going to incur costs and not necessarily improve performance by much. If your in a poor signal area then there's not a hell of a lot you can do to boost it beyond what a basic phone signal booster will achieve since the receiver is working in the microwave range.

The metal box bit thing is a bit of a red herring since you have windows to place the phone next to.

if someone can demonstrate a significant improvement in performance then I am all for it, to me the thing that a dedicated system brings to the table is the convenience of a home WIFI setup - at a cost.

cnocbui

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122030014#Comment_122030014

Likely the cheapest option would be to get a dedicated mobile hot spot and stick it to the window with reusbable tape.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcOlKJHq1gs

for something not so cheap:

https://www.starlink.com/roam

If you are security and privacy paranoid, there is an organisation that is based in Switzeralnd called Calyx that does privacy focused mobile hot spots: https://calyxinstitute.org/hotspot-models

pizzahead77

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122030249#Comment_122030249

Apparently the devices only work in the US and Puerto Rico — https://calyxinstitute.org/help/shipping/where-we-ship

B9K9

even though I have a dedicated dongle and a patch antenna that plugs into the dongle, I have found the Vodafone unlimited data add-on is working fine in France.