Mobile internet, what do you guys use???

[thewanderlustking]

(Disclaimer Linda, I stuck this here as the subforum it probably should be in doesn't seem to get any traffic, but if you decide to move it I won't be offended.  This new forum setup might eliminate that issue anyways, I don't know.  Anyways...)

 

So I have been having an adventure of things here.  Hurricane Ian just went through and DEVASTATED a huge swath of Florida.  I wasn't in the eye, but it was still sustained cat 3-4 conditions here approaching 5 with winds hitting 155mph.  It is one of the biggest hurricanes ever recorded.  Here in Sarasota, we were WELL prepared.  I think we all remembered Irma just a little too well.  And Irma probably already had taken down all the weakest trees.  We were ready.  But further South, they only had maybe 12-18 hours of warning when the eye shifted lower.  

 

Just 20 miles from me, it is an ABSOLUTE war zone.  What is normally a 40 minute trip, took almost 3hrs each way.  I75 is now closed down.  Conflicting reports of just flooded vs an overpass was taken out.  The flooding is so deep I am not sure anyone can tell without scuba gear!  It was an adventure for sure.  And I came to two conclusions.

 

1)  I want, perhaps even "need" a shorty 18' 4x4 Sunrader.  I greatly enjoy camping in out of the way spots, so an overlander type setup, but OG Sunrader style, would be awesome. 

Wow that takes me down a whole tangent for another thread...  Lets move on.  I should post that on its own...        

 

2)  I need mobile internet.     

 

I have a ToughBook problem.  All my laptops (except my MacBook) actually have built in WWAN cards (cellular modems).  I went off to ask questions over on my favorite ToughBook forum, ToughBookTalk.  But then I realized that this is probably an even better resource to utilize!

 

What do you guys use out on the road for internet?  Tethering to my phone is cheap and easy.  It works well enough.  But if I spend more than 30 seconds writing a post, the connection goes dead and I have to reinitialize it.  It is super annoying.  I have the built in modems, but those do take an extra data plan and I am unsure yet if I can use just one sim and swap to whatever laptop (physically easy to do), or if I lock the sim to the particular modem.  

 

I figure most RVers aren't using military laptops with night vision capable monitors and cellular uplinks.  And especially our extra frugal and more analog ToyHomers.  I am super curious as to what you guys do???  

 

Tethering was not working well yesterday when it actually was a SHTF situation.  I needed real-time road condition updates.  By the time we made it in and were ready to head back, road conditions had changed DRASTICALLY.  Randomly, carplay on her Subaru also stopped working with my phone.  Still, this doesn't completely shut down the just "using my phone" option.  But I know that stressful situations can easily occur under normal driving conditions where trying to use the phone for simple GPS navigation can cause disaster.  The fewer layers of technology that are involved, usually means the more reliable.   

 

I need to take a look at the current options for Garmin units out there, but at best that would only solve part of it and not give me an internet connection. 

 

     

[sunshinerader]

hey @thewanderlustking! did you end up coming up with anything? still working and would love to be able to head out for longer periods beyond PTO. engineer friend thinks T-Mobile is the best option for strong connectivity and reliability (long zoom calls, etc) - but came here to see if anyone else had experience with this. let me know if you came up with anything! thank you 🌞 

[thewanderlustking]

Funny, as I am writing this another devastating hurricane (Idalia) has just passed up by.  It missed us directly, but we still saw cat 1 conditions.    

 

On 5/29/2023 at 12:47 PM, sunshinerader said:

hey @thewanderlustking! did you end up coming up with anything?

 

I actually use T-Mobile myself and usually just tether to my phone.  I never properly got around the issue of the connection quitting on a long post writeup, but playing Pandora in another window was a workable "bodge" to prevent the connection dropping.  This is just a "home remedy" though.

 

On the road I found a different approach that works WAY better.  I put an Eonon headhunit with Android 11 in my  1994 4Runner.  This automatically and wirelessly connects to my phone and activates CarPlay.  This keeps the connection activated.  I also have a wired connection that will keep the phone charging.  GPS and live traffic work awesome under this setup.  Now the hurricane didn't do any real damage here so I wasn't under the conditions I was last time with almost every road being impassable....  

 

This solution doesn't solve the working remotely setup though, that would be more like the "home remedy" above.  But yes, TMobile seems to do pretty decent.  I can't say on the Zoom calls though.

 

I also want to say that a tethered Android headunit and just relying on it for GPS and navigation is a BAD IDEA.  NOTHING replaces having a dedicated Garmin.  And there are some awesome ones out there now for off-road navigation too.  Pricey and pointless for anyone sticking to the roads.  Still lots of places in the mid West and also out West where there is no cell service.  Garmin's can be had cheaply enough there is no excuse for not having one as a backup in the globvebox!