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Thinking of something for the caravan. How good are they? There are some cheaper options, is it a case of cheap being rubbish?
Before you pile in, I have the option of being able to work from anywhere so I could take my computer and extend my stay by a few days. Better to work in a field in the countryside rather than my bedroom.
Would you not be better with a little wifi hotspot thing with a 5g SIM card in it?
Would you not be better with a little wifi hotspot thing with a 5g SIM card in it?
Don't think so, unless I am missing something. The hotspot thing would still have to connect to the same mobile network. Unless it has an external aerial socket or somehow better reception than my phone?
Ah, gotcha. Potentially will have better reception than your phone as you can get hotspots/5g routers with dedicated aerials (I think)
You could also stick the hotspot router outside/on top of the van in a plastic which might improve the signal as it is outside of the metal can
Signal boosters aren’t legal to operate in the uk unless they are supplied by the mobile carriers themselves as they theoretically still have management control over them. As mentioned, the least hassle method is a mobile sim equipped router that has the option of an external antenna (perhaps weather proof).
edit: have you been able to test the mobile network coverage at the caravan?
I'm just doing this in our converted van, have installed a poynting puck 2 aerial on the outside of the van and purchased a router for the inside which the aerial connects to and accepts a sim card. Can't report back on it yet because I'm waiitng for the router to arrive before the intial test but I believe it's what a lot of caravan/motorhome users do.
edit: have you been able to test the mobile network coverage at the caravan?
It's great now, but that's because it's in Cardiff on a storage site 😉
Touring caravan, so it will be in some as-yet undetermined location.
I wouldn't worry about 5G, I'd be looking for a decent 4G antenna.
5G only works over relatively short distances, so unless you're camping within a few hundred metres of a 5G mast, you're not going to get 5G. 4G on the other hand can cover a few miles, so a decent 4G antenna is going to be more beneficial.
I guess that's why 5g devices are hundreds of pounds:)
Contention ratio on (Vodafone’s) 5g also seems to be appalling. Sure the technology appears to deliver blistering speed, but as soon as you get a few users on a cell that’s it, it’s worse than 3G.
The only real benefit of 5G is where you have high density mobile usage, aka crowded areas where 4G hits it's bandwidth limit.
Out of crowded areas, it's go no real benefit, as once you're a couple hundred metres away from the mast, you're still reliant on 4G (or if far enough away from a mast 3 and 2G)
I've been using 5G broadband at home for the past 2.5 years ago have some real hands on experience with it.
Distance: 5G is very susceptible to trees, houses, or land blocking the signal - however with uninterrupted line of sight you can get 100mbps download over a 2.5km distance. Similarly, 600m distance whilst being blocked by houses and trees will see a similar speed. Both these examples are based on my own experience and speeds I've achieved on my set up.
Upload is still handled by 4G, so you'll also need to be in range of a 4G mast for this. You may find the router connects to a different 4G mast same not the one provided 5G.
So yes, it can work and work well. However... For use in a caravan (I'm presuming you mean a mobile, not static so staying in different places) it's probably not going to be ideal, for a couple of reasons:
Network coverage. Three has the most coverage I believe, but there will be places that don't have Three but do have EE, or Vodafone... Basically you'll need a sim for each network to truly get decent 5G coverage.
The other biggest issue is that most 5G masts are installed in urban areas. If you're camping out in the countryside you'll be very, very lucky to have a 5G mast even 5 miles away. More likely is that there won't be one even 20 miles away.
This is the Three coverage map in Kent, as you can see it's all centred around towns.
So unless you stay in your caravan in the middle of a town, forget about 5G.
Tbh, unless you're doing work which requires fast download speeds, 5mbps up/down would be enough for most WFH purposes. Which you'd get with a readily available 4G router.
FWIW a friend of mine got an dedicated 4G antenna and mobile router at her summer cottage. Reception on her phone (any phone) requires you to wave your phone around while you walk around the deck and garden.
With the dedicated router she has facility to do video calls and work from the cottage, it's not the fastest (i think something like 20 mbps) but perfectly useable.
There are a lot of variables to how well a mobile connection will work even when you get past the strength of signal to wherever you happen to be.
The amount of throughput you will get will vary tremendously from hour to hour, especially if you are near holiday hotspots with less consistent network usage through the year. Planning mobile networks is like jenga, plonking in another mobile mast is way harder than it looks.
To summarise, if your caravan is likely to be in the same place when you use it then ask around the locals, they will know what networks work best during the year.
Yeah starlink is bloomin awesome. If you can locate your billing, not your service address, in somewhere like Croatia it's relatively cheap too. I use it at home as we'd get data packets by pigeon walking along the telephone lines otherwise. I've a 4g dongle with a smarty sim for failover, but it's not really been used.
Ok so what 4G signal booster then?
It's a touring caravan it goes loads of different places all the time. I'm looking at something like a cheap device with a PAYG sim.
Tbh, unless you’re doing work which requires fast download speeds, 5mbps up/down would be enough for most WFH purposes.
With the dedicated router she has facility to do video calls and work from the cottage, it’s not the fastest (i think something like 20 mbps) but perfectly useable
I'm sitting here on a 10mbps down, 1 (yes, 1) mbps up, connection and it's workable for two of us for Teams calls and generally spreadsheetery stuff, just. I wouldn't want any less, but it works.
Ok so what 4G signal booster then?
It’s a touring caravan it goes loads of different places all the time. I’m looking at something like a cheap device with a PAYG sim.
Well, don't search for '4G signal booster' for starters... 😁
A signal booster is just that. What you need is a 4G router. Some routers for caravans/motorhomes come with signal boosters (external antenna) included. But you need the router as well.
Do you have 12v or permanent 240v on the caravan? And do you want something just on the inside of the caravan or do you want to install antenna etc on the outside? There's lots of options out there depending on what you want to install, or not install.
12v. I don't want a permanent fix, this is only for occasional use. I was thinking a little portable device, with an external antenna I can trail out of a window and sucker onto the roof.
I’m sitting here on a 10mbps down, 1 (yes, 1) mbps up, connection and it’s workable for two of us for Teams calls and generally spreadsheetery stuff, just. I wouldn’t want any less, but it works.
This one gets used for Netflix/Disney+ and work type stuff, including a bit of simple CAD/rendering etc.
Friend usually spends 3-4 days a week at the cottage through the summer, and worked there through a lot of COVID.
The EE guy said that their devices (little white EE branded widget) have external aerial sockets like phones and dongles used to back in the day. They are available PAYG from stores apparently but not online (ironically, really).
12v. I don’t want a permanent fix, this is only for occasional use. I was thinking a little portable device, with an external antenna I can trail out of a window and sucker onto the roof.
I don't think the box is going to matter too much to you - unless you are trying to connect loads of devices or doing lots of high traffic stuff then the rate-limiting step will always be the quality of the connection from the antenna to the cell tower, not the ability of the box to process it and feed to your laptop within your small tin box. If you can find one that has a 12V powersupply you'll be sorted, otherwise I assume you have or can easily add a USB supply to your 12V in the van. BUT I think you are missing the trick with focussing on a little device and putting a sucker on the roof. You'll turn up in the van, the signal will be OK, then mid teams call it starts bucketing down outside and good signal becomes crap. Now you are trying to get a cable outside on a wet roof whilst stopping rain getting in the window. Buy the cheapest box that meets your power supply and external antenna needs and add a good external aerial permanently fitted - perhaps on a small telescope pole (like a 1980's car stereo*) because height matters a lot with this - you will probably want to be above all the other vans, people, vehicles which can block your signal.
*I don't mean to use a car aerial as the antenna I mean to put the proper 4G antenna on top of something you can make tall when you park the van but easily fold down for towing.
Don't worry about the fitting of the aerial and my teams calls.
If height is going to help signal strength them it might be worth considering.
I use a TP Link Archer MR600 v2 with an EE data only sim in a holiday lodge. The fitting of the unit's external aerials mean they can be replaced easily with an external antenna if required such as these Poynting XPOL-2. I get about 20mbs up (and down) so haven't gone for the external antenna yet, but I may as the surrounding foliage is starting to grow a bit taller. Admittedly, this isn't a mobile solution situation, but given its reliability so far, I'd probably start with this should I need to change. There seems to be a few YouTube solutions for 12v power supplies.