Mifi devices

Dmarcian · 06-17-2020, 05:57 AM

Going on the road for three months this summer. I want to get better WiFi for Amazon Alexa and Apple TV. Anyone know of a fast reliable MIFI device? I think streaming lots of music is no problem. I would download movies to our laptop and then play them on the Apple TV through WIFI.

**ThomB** · 06-17-2020, 07:00 AM

Do you have a service provider now? The device is the easy part, it's the service that you're going to use that you'll want to research. I've got an AT&T account (the plan is no longer available) where I have unlimited internet access. There are not many of those left. I have moved my SIM into a Netgear Nighthawk MR1100 router from AT&T.

Visible phone service has an unlimited plan and I've read that people are tethering that to a router (via an iphone which seems to do a better job of that). It uses Verizon towers. That can be had pretty cheap. We've got a pepwave surf on the go router that will take a connection and share it out that we've used for a couple years.

ozon8r · 06-17-2020, 08:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dmarcian

Going on the road for three months this summer. I want to get better WiFi for Amazon Alexa and Apple TV. Anyone know of a fast reliable MIFI device? I think streaming lots of music is no problem. I would download movies to our laptop and then play them on the Apple TV through WIFI.

I went the Nighthawk route and experienced the first test this past weekend with $200 in overage charges thanks to my kids :(. The speed was impressive of course influenced by the WeBoost signal booster also installed and strength of signal to allow boosting. I am on AT&T's top consumer plan available (not grandfathered) and with caps. This plan does allow me to use my phones and iPad as hotspots as well which works intermittently streaming. Problem with the Apple TV (we have two in our 24J), it wants to see a Wifi before you can do anything with it even if you have movies downloaded to the internal drive. Nighthawk hotspot is awesome and one of the best on the market, I am thinking about picking up an eBay SIM card where the truly unlimited plans seem to still be available by guys selling (renting) enterprise accounts to third parties. These were about $50/month before the pandemic but jumped in price after. I found a plan for about $75/month prepaid and pay as you go. In my research, the enterprise accounts via the sim cards on eBay are the only truly unlimited accounts currently available. I do need to investigate the Visible offering to see how that works.

Alternatively, I am looking for plans with both T-Mobile and Sprint who have plans that cap out as much as 100Gb (bits not bytes) and then roll to 3G without overage charges and no caps.

Best of luck.

**creativepart** · 06-17-2020, 09:58 AM

ozon8r, There are other options for you.

I tell anyone wishing to figure out what data plan to get for streaming to join www.rvmobileinternet.com.

They don't sell any plans or anything but knowledge but they keep up with EVERYTHING in this arena, equipment, data plans, boosters, antenna's, etc. You can visit for free but you see right away that they withhold all the good info for paying members. I joined 3-years ago and it gave me the info I needed to get both an ATT and Verizon totally and completely unlimited dataplan for very cheap. Now, those don't exist any more, but there are alternatives.

If you want to stream on the road your best bet is a Reseller like Net Buddy, or OTR Mobile. They'll resell some corporate plan to you for about $60 a month but you put the SIM in your nighthawk and you can use as much as you want. 200 to 300 gigs a month if you like.

The other option is to get a Visible account. It's cell phone only, but you connect the cell phone to a router and it serves everyone in the RV. You don't use the phone as a phone just as a hotspot. It's $40 a month and is unlimited BUT the speed is limited to 5mbps which is plenty for streaming to your Apple TV.

We stream all our TV at home and on the road. On the road we'll use 200+ gigs of data a month.

Oh, and the Weboost helps in areas where it's tough to get any signal, but the Nighthawk has MiMo antenna's and you'll probably find that if you buy a $39 Netgear MiMo antenna to put in a window you'll get even better speeds that you do with the Weboost.

Here's a link:
https://www.amazon.com/Netgear-60004.../dp/B00DN3J03O

ozon8r · 06-17-2020, 10:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by creativepart

ozon8r, There are other options for you.

I tell anyone wishing to figure out what data plan to get for streaming to join www.rvmobileinternet.com.

They don't sell any plans or anything but knowledge but they keep up with EVERYTHING in this arena, equipment, data plans, boosters, antenna's, etc. You can visit for free but you see right away that they withhold all the good info for paying members. I joined 3-years ago and it gave me the info I needed to get both an ATT and Verizon totally and completely unlimited dataplan for very cheap. Now, those don't exist any more, but there are alternatives.

If you want to stream on the road your best bet is a Reseller like Net Buddy, or OTR Mobile. They'll resell some corporate plan to you for about $60 a month but you put the SIM in your nighthawk and you can use as much as you want. 200 to 300 gigs a month if you like.

The other option is to get a Visible account. It's cell phone only, but you connect the cell phone to a router and it serves everyone in the RV. You don't use the phone as a phone just as a hotspot. It's $40 a month and is unlimited BUT the speed is limited to 5mbps which is plenty for streaming to your Apple TV.

We stream all our TV at home and on the road. On the road we'll use 200+ gigs of data a month.

Oh, and the Weboost helps in areas where it's tough to get any signal, but the Nighthawk has MiMo antenna's and you'll probably find that if you buy a $39 Netgear MiMo antenna to put in a window you'll get even better speeds that you do with the Weboost.

Here's a link:
https://www.amazon.com/Netgear-60004.../dp/B00DN3J03O

Thank you! RVMobileInternet is an awesome resource, detailed and up to date info on current leading offerings. Just checked both Net Buddy and OTR. Net Buddy is sold out of their plans at present but like the near instant activation program of existing sim card and price of $65/month. Need to explore the Visible plan in more detail. OTR has an initial cost of $170 then $80 there after per month and looks interesting.

OP, look forward to hearing what you choose and why.

**ThomB** · 06-17-2020, 11:04 AM

RE: Visible. The service is $40/month all in but I've seen where you can get into some sort of group that drops that cost to $25/month. (4- phones to a group). The group doesn't have to consist of people you know, you just heve to get into one and each account pays their own bill.

The website is now showing no speed caps, but not sure about that.

I found this: https://www.visible.com/party-pay and there are facebook groups where you can find others to join party's.

I know if we didn't have the plan that we have I'd be looking hard at this one.

**creativepart** · 06-17-2020, 11:49 AM

There is a very large (1200 post) thread on the Visible service on www.irv2.com.

Here's a link to the thread. I think folks say that post #10 gives the most guidance. I don't use it so I'm not up to speed on it.

https://www.irv2.com/forums/f53/40-m...ed-442091.html

YGoHom · 06-17-2020, 01:03 PM

Another potential option is streaming your phone to the tv with a cable. I have an unlimited data plan and use a lightning to hdmi cable. Whatever you watch on your phone displays perfectly clear on the tv. I think it was about $20 on Amazon.

Dmarcian · 06-17-2020, 01:33 PM

Thanks for all the good info. Just ordered a Nighthawk. That seems to serve all of our needs.

ozon8r · 06-22-2020, 12:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dmarcian

Thanks for all the good info. Just ordered a Nighthawk. That seems to serve all of our needs.

FWIW, I bought a new SIM card for $10 at Walgreens and ordered unlimited service on eBay and was activated within an hour of the purchase. The eBay seller just needed the SIM card number and the card could not have been previously activated. Caught in a rainstorm camping this weekend, we streamed the series Yellowstone and pulled down 500Gb no issues with two bars cell signal (mostly meaningless measure but all I had to size up signal) and the Weboost.

**creativepart** · 06-22-2020, 02:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ozon8r

Caught in a rainstorm camping this weekend, we streamed the series Yellowstone and pulled down 500Gb no issues with two bars cell signal (mostly meaningless measure but all I had to size up signal) and the Weboost.

I think you have a typo there - it would be more common to use 500 gb in 30 days not a weekend.

We stream exclusively. We watch 5 or so hours of TV a day, plus iPads (2) and a Macbook surfing and streaming and we usually use 300 to 400 gb a month.

According to your post you used 500gb in 3 or 4 days. So, I'm guessing you mean 50 gb for the weekend. That's a pretty usual number we see on a 4-day weekend. Figuring that 1-hour of 1080 TV uses ~1.5 gbs of data 3-days of 12 hours a day of TV would be about 75 gbs.

ozon8r · 06-22-2020, 02:59 PM

I agree that the amount seemed high and was quite surprised. Just looked at the Nighthawk router again for usage and it read "GB" rather than "Gb" as I posted earlier, but the number posted of 500 is what the Nighthawk reads with an activation this past week, Wed or Thursday, thru yesterday.

**ThomB** · 06-22-2020, 03:13 PM

WOW, I work full-time (tech job so always dialed into a server) and we only streamed tv this past winter and I think the highest I ever reached was about 150GB in one month.

ozon8r · 06-22-2020, 04:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ThomB

WOW, I work full-time (tech job so always dialed into a server) and we only streamed tv this past winter and I think the highest I ever reached was about 150GB in one month.

Hmmm. I wonder if what is reported as I read on my router is reflecting the total usage of the ebayer's enterprise account including other routers on the master account and not just my usage. I was quite surprised by the number as well... or maybe my two teenagers are poaching off my router.

**creativepart** · 06-22-2020, 05:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ozon8r

Hmmm. I wonder if what is reported as I read on my router is reflecting the total usage of the ebayer's enterprise account

BINGO. That's the SIM data usage.

I assume you know this, but the eBay sellers are reselling other accounts, usually business or tablet accounts, in violation of all service agreements. Many times you'll not have any issues. But other times those accounts can go dead at any moment, without any recourse. And this includes the day after you've just paid to renew the service.

That's just the way they work.

And never try to contact the carrier for any help or info. That will kill the service immediately.

rprochnow · 06-23-2020, 06:59 AM

We just picked up our View 24D two weeks ago, and having fast internet (when possible) was one of our goals.

We've installed a Winegard Connect 2.0 WiFi booster, that we use for WiFi inside the View. All our devices are set to connect to the Winegard's network. When we park, we'll compare the speed of the local WiFi to what I'm getting with my 4G/5G phone (with 50GB/month hotspot) and use whichever provides acceptable performance.

To help with cell phone performance, we've installed a WeBoost. Initially we had the Drive X RV installed, but found the interior signal boost wasn't as good as we hoped with our Sprint phones, so we replaced the Drive X booster with a Drive Reach booster and upgraded the interior antenna from the original desktop antenna to a wall-mount. And now we're seeing signal improvements inside - especially the uplink speeds. Though testing of this configuration has only been done in our driveway - we'll test it soon on a road trip to verify the WeBoost is actually helping.

For streaming video, if the local WiFi is fast enough, we'll use the smart apps on our TV for streaming. If we're using my phone's hotspot for WiFi, then we'll likely use an HDMI cable from the phone as we approach the phone's 50GB/month hotspot limit, since we have unlimited data for the phone.

Longer term, we'll look at SpaceX's Starlink service and see if it will provide another option for getting reasonable internet speeds.

**creativepart** · 06-23-2020, 09:10 AM

Rprochnow, that sounds pretty good. The true test will be Sprint coverage on the road. Their coverage is fairly spotty. Good near cities and horrible near small towns and out west.

Also, I wouldn't want to use my phone for all the internet access in the RV. What happens if you want to take your phone with you away from the RV, but your spouse/partner wants to stay at the RV and use the internet?

Lastly, one thing we find with the Weboost (we've had the Drive 4g-X for 3 years) is that sometimes it boosts the signal but doesn't help the access or the speed for data. We've learned to only use it when it helps and leave it off (unpluged) when it doesn't.

Isn't there an even higher limit Sprint Unlimited Premium plan that gives 100gb of data for only $10 a month more?

rprochnow · 06-23-2020, 09:19 AM

The Sprint and T-Mobile networks are merging (my S20 Ultra has already been moved to T-Mobile's 5G network), so coverage should improve.

If I leave the RV with my phone, it's easy to shift the Winegard to use my wife's phone as a hotspot - and the other devices (tablets, smart TV, laptops) won't notice, because they're always connected to the Winegard's SSID.

I'll check into changing our Sprint plan. Plus, if Winegard ever adds Sprint/T-Mobile support, it's not very expensive to add a SIM for the Winegard Connect and make it into it's own hotspot.

As for the WeBoost, we'll get a chance to do some testing on a trip next week and see how well it performs in areas with less coverage. The combination of the Reach and the upgraded interior antenna showed better performance than the original Drive X RV - will run some tests in areas of poor cell phone signal and see how the new components perform.

**creativepart** · 06-23-2020, 09:35 AM

You're in the Houston area which should have plenty of Sprint/T-Mobile coverage. It will be interesting to hear how you do on your trip. Where are you headed?

Please report back how it goes.

I think if you want to use a Sprint SIM in the Winegard in the future that it will be a problem. I think that Sprint's 50gb hotspot plan is only for phones not MiFi devices (which would include the Winegard) and there is no option to use a Mobile Hotspot Device (MiFi/Jetpack/LTE Router) with that plan.

rprochnow · 06-23-2020, 09:56 AM

Going to Spicewood and Fredericksburg - both areas are claimed to have Sprint 4G/LTE and T-Mobile 5G.

Checked with Sprint on changing plans. We're essentially on the Unlimited Plus plan, locked into $130/month for 3 devices. Moving to Premium, we'd lose our current discount - and would end up paying $180/month ($50 increase), just to increase our hotspots from 50GB/month to 100GB/month.

Will probably stay with the current plan, monitor hotspot usage during the next trip - and then decide if we should change plans.