Computer Use on the Road Suggestions

[Bramic71]

I am not sure if this is the right forum to post this. My wife and I work on the road. At the end of everyday we have to upload from cameras to our laptop and then to the company we work for. This hasn't been an issue in the past because we have been staying in hotels. Now we will be traveling in our camper for work as we are tired of hotels. For those of you that work on the road, how do you go about having internet? We are planning to stay at campgrounds, but in those times when you can't, what do you do? What equipment do you use with positive results? Any info you can give is greatly appreciated. Mike

[Reverse_snowbird]

You don't want to upload your work using campground internet. Most of them have no security on their internet for campers. In addition, their speed is terrible. Most are only suitable for email. Of course, there are campgrounds that have high speed access, but most don't.

You're probably going to need to use the hotspots on your phone or a separate wifi hotspot. Of course, you'll need a cell phone connection for either. We travel with phones from 2 separate cell phone providers to get maximum coverage.

[Bramic71]

Originally Posted by Reverse_snowbird

You don't want to upload your work using campground internet. Most of them have no security on their internet for campers. In addition, their speed is terrible. Most are only suitable for email. Of course, there are campgrounds that have high speed access, but most don't.

You're probably going to need to use the hotspots on your phone or a separate wifi hotspot. Of course, you'll need a cell phone connection for either. We travel with phones from 2 separate cell phone providers to get maximum coverage.

Thank you for your response. We will look into that.

[Theb2b]

You have a couple of options.
1. Use your phone as a hot spot, no special equipment needed. Down side all most all plans limit the amount of data you can consume through a hot spot and if you can get a good signal.

2. Use of a dedicated hot spot such as Verizon MiFi, generally this device has separate data plan. This is what I use and it is advertised as unlimited but once you hit a specific amount you get deprioritized, that is if the cell tower you are using is busy there will be noticeable lag. Another issue with this you may need two plans, AT&T and Verizon, usually if one doesn't have a signal the other provider will. The wireless signal can be helped with an external antenna as I use but again depends on if a tower is within range for your preferred carrier.

3. Satellite, leading this pack is Starlink. When it works it works great. Cost is roughly $100 a month and startup is roughly $500. The catch is availability, when you move to a new location you may find the cell area is full and you're not able to connect. Usually this happens around metro areas but then you can get a solid cell signal.
As you can see no one method will work all the time, need several methods depending on where you are at and how remote the location is.

[Reverse_snowbird]

Been thinking about this......

Since the photos that you are sending are probably huge due to high quality, you might want to consider zipping those photos for uploading.

[mhbraun]

We use two different phones with two different carriers.

Verizon and T-Mobile. Verizon because we have terrible experience with ATT coverage. T-Mobile because of their 600 MHz long range frequency. You need a phone which supports this frequency, of course. If everything fails, Verizon and ATT, T-Mobile is still there. Well, almost. We had incidences where Verizon had a better coverage than T-Mobile.

5G is not an issue as the coverage with our providers in 4G is better than with 5G.

In addition to this, we took T-Mobile Magenta Max as the data is NOT limited. Just the hotspot volume is limited. We increased the hotspot volume to 100G, which is fine with our use if we act intelligently. We get around this hotspot limitation easily with switching off the hotspot and uploading the videos and raw images with standard connection only. That does not count against the hotspot limitation.

A phone with an SD card extension of eg 512GB or 1TB is really helpful as you can transfer the data from the camera (usb)sdcard to the internal SD card and then just upload the data to your server. Whilst uploading, you can take the next pictures.

On top of this, I installed an external omnidirectional receiving antenna on a 10' post, which I elevate when the connection is poor. Behind the antenna is an amplifier and an internal transmitting antenna. The internal antenna is approx 6'+ from the receiving antenna to avoid interference.

Be sure the amplifier does amplify the frequencies you are using on your phone. There are a lot of frequencies out there...

I guess there is no ideal solution, as we encountered spots with no connection, of course. If there is no signal, then there is nothing to amplify.

Look at the coverage maps of the cell phone providers, and don't be confused with 5G. 4G or even sometimes 3G is good enough. It just takes more time... LOL

And if you are not boondocking, what we love to do, the you can use the WiFI of the campground. However, it may take the whole night to upload a couple of 100MB. Most of the times 4G or 5G is just faster than the campground WiFi.

If you really need fast WiFi, go to a Starbucks or an Apple store or similar places. We found some awesome high speed connections there.

Hope this helps. Just our 2 cents

[Bramic71]

Originally Posted by Reverse_snowbird

Been thinking about this......

Since the photos that you are sending are probably huge due to high quality, you might want to consider zipping those photos for uploading.

That is also a good option as we take between 1000-1500 pics a day. Thank you for that advice. They are uploaded to the computer and then uploaded to the customer's website where there system can prioritize them and hopefully put them in the right locations.

[5picker]

Originally Posted by Bramic71

That is also a good option as we take between 1000-1500 pics a day. Thank you for that advice. They are uploaded to the computer and then uploaded to the customer's website where there system can prioritize them and hopefully put them in the right locations.

You may need to find out if the the end user of those photos need high resolution copies before you compress them. If they have a specific need, a compressed lower resolution may not work for them.

Have you any idea the amount of data used when transferring your data at the end of the day? That will play a large role in what you need (plan wise) for a hotspot. As mentioned, DO NOT depend on the campground WIFI unless there is an option to purchase more bandwidth. (some campgrounds offer that but they are few) And if they don't offer increased bandwidth, don't be "that guy" that hogs all the campground bandwidth so it becomes basically useless for others.

I work from my R/V and carry two 100 GB per unit hotspots. One from T-Mobile and one from Verizon. In over 4 years, I've never been out of service between the two. I often use the 200 GB capacity of the two so knowing your data usage is important. While many plans say "unlimited" many throttle back the throughput once you've reach your quota.

Don't go into this thinking Starlink is your current best option. It isn't ready for prime time, mobile R/V use yet.

[Bramic71]

Originally Posted by 5picker

You may need to find out if the the end user of those photos need high resolution copies before you compress them. If they have a specific need, a compressed lower resolution may not work for them.

Have you any idea the amount of data used when transferring your data at the end of the day? That will play a large role in what you need (plan wise) for a hotspot. As mentioned, DO NOT depend on the campground WIFI unless there is an option to purchase more bandwidth. (some campgrounds offer that but they are few) And if they don't offer increased bandwidth, don't be "that guy" that hogs all the campground bandwidth so it becomes basically useless for others.

I work from my R/V and carry two 100 GB per unit hotspots. One from T-Mobile and one from Verizon. In over 4 years, I've never been out of service between the two. I often use the 200 GB capacity of the two so knowing your data usage is important. While many plans say "unlimited" many throttle back the throughput once you've reach your quota.

Don't go into this thinking Starlink is your current best option. It isn't ready for prime time, mobile R/V use yet.

Thank you for the advice. I do not know our data usage. We use our phones in the field all day as we have to follow maps on our customers site. The maps stay on 8-10hrs a day so that we can find the proper locations for the pics. We work offline as well while in the field while we have no service.
While in the field all of our pics are stores on the SD cards of the cameras. We use an SD card adaptor to then upload them to the computer and then to the customers site.
Getting them onto the computer is not an issue, sending them out may be. 🙂

[Reverse_snowbird]

Originally Posted by 5picker

You may need to find out if the the end user of those photos need high resolution copies before you compress them. If they have a specific need, a compressed lower resolution may not work for them.
.

Let me clarify.
I wasn't advising changing the resolution. I was trying to suggest that they be put in a folder and 'zipped' on his computer then unzipped on the customers computer. Most computers that are run on Windows can do that easily under the Share tab. That should keep the original resolution.

For Bramic71. I have no good solution to uploading to the customers site. Downloading is usually fast, uploading not so much so. If you can zip them, then have the customers unzip them to put on the website, that would be ideal. If you have to post them to the website itself, you're probably going to have to find local computer access.

[Larry-NC]

Originally Posted by Reverse_snowbird

Been thinking about this......

Since the photos that you are sending are probably huge due to high quality, you might want to consider zipping those photos for uploading.

Sorry, that doesn't help. JPG (and PNG and HEIC, etc.) include image compression. Running Lempel-Ziv-Welch (LZW) compression after that will have little effect and could actually increase the file size a little.

Don't believe me? Try it and report the results here.

[Larry-NC]

Originally Posted by mhbraun

We use two different phones with two different carriers.

Well, almost. We had incidences where Verizon had a better coverage than T-Mobile.

Look at the coverage maps of the cell phone providers, and don't be confused with 5G. 4G or even sometimes 3G is good enough. It just takes more time... LOL

If you study the coverage maps a bit, you realize that

• AT&T concentrates on the cities and the major highways
• Verizon provides better coverage of the rural areas, not so much on the highways.

[Mark Ulmer]

Originally Posted by mhbraun

If you really need fast WiFi, go to a Starbucks or an Apple store or similar places. We found some awesome high speed connections there.

Anytime you're using public WiFi, such as found in Starbucks, campgrounds, etc. it's also a good idea to make sure your connection is secure by using a good VPN. There are a number of them out there. I use NordVPN.

[itat]

If I were going to go full time and work remotely (in the US), I’d use this site to do research on hotspots and mobile routers:

https://www.rvmobileinternet.com/

Then I’d likely go to these guys for a solution:

https://mobilemusthave.com/

Edit: For security, use a VPN of your choice.

[NMWildcat]

Another word on VPNs. Do not use any of the free ones. Some are more dangerous than not. Do your research on them or use a vetted one from your employer if possible.

[GPs37FLH]

Originally Posted by Bramic71

I am not sure if this is the right forum to post this. My wife and I work on the road. At the end of everyday we have to upload from cameras to our laptop and then to the company we work for. This hasn't been an issue in the past because we have been staying in hotels. Now we will be traveling in our camper for work as we are tired of hotels. For those of you that work on the road, how do you go about having internet? We are planning to stay at campgrounds, but in those times when you can't, what do you do? What equipment do you use with positive results? Any info you can give is greatly appreciated. Mike

Although we don't work remotely from our RV, there have been many times when we had to while vacationing. To do this, we try not to use the hotspot tethering features on our smartphones. We ONLY use our smartphones when we're at our data download limits on our Verizon MiFi 1000 mobile hotspot and are throttled back.

The best advice I can give you is to purchase a mobile hotspot in lieu of using a smartphone for Internet. Mobile hotspots are dedicated only for Internet access and aren't weighted down by other running apps that use data, like a smartphone. What also makes them a better choice are the 4 x 4 MIMO antennas they have which outperform the 2 x 2 antennas on smartphones. The 4 x 4 antennas have the ability to connect to multiple towers at a time and provide channel aggregation. This all sums up to stronger cell signals and higher Internet performance while at your RV.

To enhance our Internet performance while camping, I recently purchased an external 4 x 4 omni-directional MIMO antenna setup to mount outside and above our RV for instances when cellular signals on our hotspots are weak.

[GPs37FLH]

Originally Posted by Larry-NC

Sorry, that doesn't help. JPG (and PNG and HEIC, etc.) include image compression. Running Lempel-Ziv-Welch (LZW) compression after that will have little effect and could actually increase the file size a little.

Don't believe me? Try it and report the results here.

Yep, was gonna say that too....thanks Larry! Using a software compression tool to reduce the size of files works best with text data and is least effective with image files.

[mhbraun]

Originally Posted by Mark Ulmer

Anytime you're using public WiFi, such as found in Starbucks, campgrounds, etc. it's also a good idea to make sure your connection is secure by using a good VPN. There are a number of them out there. I use NordVPN.

Thank you for this addition. I did not think about it. I use the same. Speed sometimes is a little slower but still very stable and reliable. And secure, of course.

[camper_Lucy]

Originally Posted by Bramic71

I am not sure if this is the right forum to post this. My wife and I work on the road. At the end of everyday we have to upload from cameras to our laptop and then to the company we work for. This hasn't been an issue in the past because we have been staying in hotels. Now we will be traveling in our camper for work as we are tired of hotels. For those of you that work on the road, how do you go about having internet? We are planning to stay at campgrounds, but in those times when you can't, what do you do? What equipment do you use with positive results? Any info you can give is greatly appreciated. Mike

I work from the road as well,
the best solution I have found (not the cheapest) is a Cradlepoint, you can add 2 separate carriers (I use T-Mobile and Verizon) based on coverage plans and the general locations I travel, the units provide a simple secure WLAN WIFI to connect any end devices to, have the capability to run VPN or other secure services based on what you want to connect to including native internet services. The best feature of these is you can simply change the SIM card if you need to change carriers and the local configuration and security remains static so you do not need to reconfigure any end devices. You also have the ability to bond channels across carriers to increase through put if needed or set them up as a default fail over for when one carrier has too much tower contention or low coverage based on your travel location.

[GPs37FLH]

Originally Posted by itat

If I were going to go full time and work remotely (in the US), I’d use this site to do research on hotspots and mobile routers:

https://www.rvmobileinternet.com/

Then I’d likely go to these guys for a solution:

https://mobilemusthave.com/

Edit: For security, use a VPN of your choice.

X2.....RV Mobile Internet is a great resource to educate yourself and make the best decisions for mobile Internet for your specific situation.

I also used Mobile Must Have for a recent external antenna and cabling order. They were pretty responsive to all the questions I asked them. My only gripe was that they're pretty limited on various cable types and lengths needed for setting up an external antenna configuration.