Mobile Wifi

[Leon]

Can anyone tell me the best mobile WiFi to install onboard and monthly running costs. I have found both my phone and iPad are slow or don’t work all. It’s going to be used primarily for security cameras . Thank you Leon 

[OldBerkshireBoy]

 and  to NBN Leon,

Where is your home moorings (it can make a difference) and which network(s) are you currently using.

[grendel]

I now have 2 huawei mobile wifi hubs, one is on O2 where I can ger a 12Gb PAYG sim for around £60, this generally has good coverage on the broads and the sim lasts a full 12 months, recently however I found that three offer a 20Gb PAYG sim for a similar price that lasts for 24 months, now I dont know what the 3 coverage is like on the broads, I know O2 has a problem at Lodden and at Rockland- at low tide you drop out of reception, this was one of the reasons I got a new mifi unit, which has 2 external antenna that can be sat somewhat higher than the unit (up to 3m away)-(this was the Huawei E5785 LTE Mobile Wifi Mobile Hotspot E5785Lh-22c 300 Mbit/S 2 X Aerial) I did also buy 2 magnetic mount remote aerials to go with this, the standard aerial literally plugs into the side of the unit.

[grendel]

with the O2 package I found it cheaper to go into an O2 shop and buy the sim, as online as a top up it was more expensive.

 

[Andrewcook]

Hi just my luck the Nokia 7 went wrong as I could not get any phone calls or incoming calls I went to O2 Store in Romford as I'm on a Contract with them to get it sorted it was the Mobile it's  self up that was up the Creek  Bought a New Nokia 10 all's back to normal thank goodness

[OldBerkshireBoy]

Some say O2 is rubbish in Brundall whilst others disagree and that is those living in houses at the top of the hill!

3 sell a 24gb sim for £45 which works well and fast for the laptop and Smarty (part of 3 network) have just launched a cheaper deal for existing customers.

[ExSurveyor]

O2 is ok on the river front at Brundall but non existent in the marina. EE is rubbish anywhere in Brundall.

I am still hoping to find a decent signal from a supplier for the Brundall riverside area.

 

[OldBerkshireBoy]

8 minutes ago, psychicsurveyor said:

O2 is ok on the river front at Brundall but non existent in the marina. EE is rubbish anywhere in Brundall.

I am still hoping to find a decent signal from a supplier for the Brundall riverside area.

 

Agree about O2 and EE, try Smarty or 3

[Helian]

3 hours ago, psychicsurveyor said:

O2 is ok on the river front at Brundall but non existent in the marina. EE is rubbish anywhere in Brundall.

I am still hoping to find a decent signal from a supplier for the Brundall riverside area.

 

Stood on the flybridge seat I can sometimes, but not always, get a Vodo signal in Brundall, not far from Psychic. Down the road, in Kingwood, in open country, the signal is just as bad.

[Oddfellow]

Good mobile signal relies on a good antenna. Get a proper external antenna and hook it up to a good Mifi hub and you'll be surprised. 

Something like this: https://amzn.to/3EapROb but do your own research. 

I have seen good reviews of this router too: https://amzn.to/2XimVyj

I was looking to install a permanent system in my motorhome earlier in the year, so I researched this quite hard. In the end, we never went anywhere, so I never bought it. 

 

 

[wooster]

Hi. Found this post at an opportune time. I'm looking to find a good mi-fi device for the Brundall area too. After reading what @OldBerkshireBoy said in his post above, I looked at 3's map of coverage for 4G and it looked good for Brundall. Prices are competitive.

I was looking for a monthly contract as I would only use it for half of the year and these are available for Smarty, which, apparently piggybacks off 3 as well. 

[OldBerkshireBoy]

Brundall seems to be full of dead zones according to the local website where people living in the same street on the same network get mixed results including no signal so my conclusion is that the hardware plays a big part. 

Smartly have just released a no contact SIM with unlimited data but I haven't looked at the small print yet.

[ZimbiIV]

We are both with Smarty, me 14g for £8 a month jill on 4gig all calls and texts are included. You effectively pay for internet access.

Just to upset everyone's plans, when we were at Cove we could only get a reliable signal when sat in the helm seat!

I think Smarty's all inclusive plan is £20/month makes me think of getting rid of the landline and using MiFi.

paul

[RogF]

On 11/09/2021 at 08:52, Leon said:

Can anyone tell me the best mobile WiFi to install onboard and monthly running costs. I have found both my phone and iPad are slow or don’t work all. It’s going to be used primarily for security cameras . Thank you Leon 

Has anyone looked at the MaxView system please.  Picked up a leaflet at the local caravan shop..

www.maxview.co,uk

Ta

Edited July 9, 2022 by RogF
web address

[grendel]

just had a quick look, and for my money it seems a tad expensive for what it offers (talking just wifi internet here)

My system is a fraction of the price and works adequately most places, and the places it doesnt work are places everyone struggles, one sailor at one such place had the antenna hoisted half way up his mast to get a decent signal, and any system is reliant upon the phone networks.

[RogF]

Thank you kind sir.  Son has just given me a EE MiFi thingy and I have bought a 60GB data sim to go in it, we will see how we go..

Thanks all again...

[Paul]

generally, I would try and avoid kits designed for boats and caravans, they tend to be quite basic and expensive for what they include. They trade on ease of installation and being a one-box fix. 

I would look no further than a TP Link MR6400. It has a reasonable degree of configurability but is also plug n play out of the box, just power up, insert a sim, and away you go. It comes with 2 detachable antennae which you can remove and replace with high-power external ones if you wish and is reasonably priced at around £60

 

[OldBerkshireBoy]

On 09/07/2022 at 23:21, Paul said:

generally, I would try and avoid kits designed for boats and caravans, they tend to be quite basic and expensive for what they include. They trade on ease of installation and being a one-box fix. 

I would look no further than a TP Link MR6400. It has a reasonable degree of configurability but is also plug n play out of the box, just power up, insert a sim, and away you go. It comes with 2 detachable antennae which you can remove and replace with high-power external ones if you wish and is reasonably priced at around £60

 

Im reading that the current ones have non removable antennaes

[grendel]

I had that problem when ordering the huawei one, some of the pictures showed the antenna socket, but the fine print said not with external antenna sockets, but i did get the one I wanted in the end, the problem is they sell the same model number with and without the sockets. so be careful and read the description.

[OldBerkshireBoy]

1 hour ago, grendel said:

I had that problem when ordering the huawei one, some of the pictures showed the antenna socket, but the fine print said not with external antenna sockets, but i did get the one I wanted in the end, the problem is they sell the same model number with and without the sockets. so be careful and read the description.

Im reading that the website is out of date and online sellers are basically cutting and pasting the info unaware.

[floydraser]

On 11/09/2021 at 10:47, ExSurveyor said:

O2 is ok on the river front at Brundall but non existent in the marina. EE is rubbish anywhere in Brundall.

I am still hoping to find a decent signal from a supplier for the Brundall riverside area.

 

Blimey, don't you get a good signal from the marina wifi? You must be so close to the repeater you could tie your mooring ropes around it! 

I've found adding a USB wifi aerial to my laptop has made a big improvement.

[oldgregg]

On 11/07/2022 at 09:09, OldBerkshireBoy said:

Im reading that the website is out of date and online sellers are basically cutting and pasting the info unaware.

The other thing to note is that the MR6400 doesn't have dual-band WiFi, whereas its big brother the Archer MR200 does.

Whether that actually has detachable antenna I really couldn't say.

And yes, before anyone points it out, you'll saturate the bandwidth of the 4G connection before you saturate 2.4Ghz WiFi. But there are other reasons to have 5Ghz WiFi, particularly if you have multiple devices connected and accessing one another.