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Old 01-26-2023, 10:44 AM   #1
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wifi hotspot

While I am currently RV less this year, I thought I would reach out to all of the experienced snowbirds and road dogs with hot spots. We lost home internet last week in a storm for 3 days. My wife works from home, and was fit to be tied not being able to work. We are looking at getting a designated hotspot, but are asking for recommendations. We currently have AT&T cell service and can't add on a hotspot to our plan. I would love to have a pay as you go plan for now, as for now we would only use it when our service is out. Paying a monthly fee for a hotpsot to sit in a closet doesn't do it for me. Thanks.
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Old 01-26-2023, 10:51 AM   #2
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I have T Mobile because they were the first to put a tower in our rural area. I use my phone hotspot for streaming tv and my laptop when traveling. Of course if you don't have signal wherever you land you are just out of luck. For home use we have T mobile home internet and it works great. Flat $50.00 per month and they have not raised my rates in going on three years since I started using.
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Old 01-26-2023, 11:08 AM   #3
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Does your phone not have a hotspot option?
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Old 01-26-2023, 11:22 AM   #4
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My current plan allows for unlimited data on our phones but the real hotspot costs so much per gig. I turned off the real hotspot and added another phone to serve as an unlimited data hotspot
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Old 01-26-2023, 11:35 AM   #5
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I use a Visible phone as a hot spot $25/month unlimited data, they do limit the hotspot to 5Mbps which is plenty to work or stream, I haven't tried both together yet.

They also limit the phone to one device, I use a portable router as the one device and everything else connect to this. I worked out of the camper for about 3 or 4 weeks last season. I also have a cell booster that I use about half the time as needed
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Old 01-26-2023, 04:35 PM   #6
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We live in a rural area which does not have cable or DSL of any kind available. Cell signal is marginal, with Verizon perhaps being a smidgen stronger (sometimes 2 bars instead of 1). Voice over cell has never failed us. Installed DirectTV for television, but am a little over a year into a 2 year contract. Starlink was not available in our area at the time.

Got a 15 GB hot spot add-on to my AT&T phone for additional $5/month. Worked pretty decently. AT&T hot spot modem/routers would not stay locked on. Continual crashes. Tried a Verizon hot spot - and that worked well. $90/month for 100GB. Not really fast enough to stream more than one stream but OK for normal computer use. Hot spot tended to dump once a day and had to be reset.

In December, Starlink offered "best effort" service for $109/month plus $600 for antenna and modem/wireless router. Had to pay installer another $500 to mount close to roof peak to get enough clear northern view of the sky (lots of 100ft+ trees in our yard, and I don't do so good at climbing steep pitched roofs anymore). Starlink gives 100+Mbps down, and 17 Mbps up. Occasionally lower coming down for a few minutes. Service is more than good enough to cancel DirectTV when contract is up next year. Starlink is supposedly going to 1TB or bigger soft caps sometime in the future.

just my experiences
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Old 01-26-2023, 04:52 PM   #7
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I have T Mobile because they were the first to put a tower in our rural area. I use my phone hotspot for streaming tv and my laptop when traveling. Of course if you don't have signal wherever you land you are just out of luck. For home use we have T mobile home internet and it works great. Flat $50.00 per month and they have not raised my rates in going on three years since I started using.
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Old 01-26-2023, 04:52 PM   #8
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Originally Posted by browser5031 View Post
We currently have AT&T cell service and can't add on a hotspot to our plan. I would love to have a pay as you go plan for now, as for now we would only use it when our service is out. Paying a monthly fee for a hotpsot to sit in a closet doesn't do it for me. Thanks.
Me thinks something not right here. I have had AT&T for some time no9w. Turned on the hot spot on the phone and added it to the plan pretty cheaply via internet. If your phone doesn't except a hotspot then time to get another phone.

The plan does slow downtime if you exceed your monthly data but it only slows down to 2 but that is more than enough for streaming!

Looked at cell service booster but can't justify the almost $55 to be able to watch tv. We do have a DVD player!!

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Old 01-26-2023, 05:45 PM   #9
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Paying a monthly fee for a hotpsot to sit in a closet doesn't do it for me. Thanks.
I hear your pain.
So did just your internet go out or did all your electricity go out? If all you electricity went out, you might want to get a backup power bank. When our electricity goes out, the internet also goes out but plugging the router into a power bank will restore the internet.

We've used standalone hotspots and they are great for trips. The problem we found is that on the 'pay as you go' plans, the initial setup isn't instantanious and that's probably what she needs when working from home.

The other solution is what someone else suggested. Get a phone that has a hotspot built in to the phone. In most cases you can add-on data to the hotspot in incremental amounts. You might already have what you need on that phone.
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Old 01-26-2023, 07:29 PM   #10
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I hear your pain.

So did just your internet go out or did all your electricity go out? If all you electricity went out, you might want to get a backup power bank. When our electricity goes out, the internet also goes out but plugging the router into a power bank will restore the internet.
The problem I had when my home power went out during a huge storm and internet went with it, there was enough of my ISP's infrastructure taken down by trees I couldn't get back online even though I have generator power for the house through a transfer switch/panel.

Just like when boondocking in remote areas, if there's no signal, cable, or fiber-optic line to connect with it just doesn't work.



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Old 01-26-2023, 07:36 PM   #11
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Easy Tether Pro:
How to tether Android - EasyTether. Android tethering for Mac OS X, Ubuntu, Fedora, PS3, XBox, Wii, Windows

Works especially well with a USB cable to the computer. Not really a full hotspot, more like turning your phone into a modem. BUT you don't pay hotspot fees to the cell provider.
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Old 01-26-2023, 10:01 PM   #12
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The power was on in the house, just the neighborhood internet. Wife looked into adding to AT&T they said no go on our account. She got the original AT&T iPhone unlimited internet back in the mid 2000's on her phone that they have tried to take away several times, so we don't want to lose that. I might need to circle around and go into an AT&T store to investigate further.
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Old 01-26-2023, 10:47 PM   #13
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The power was on in the house, just the neighborhood internet. Wife looked into adding to AT&T they said no go on our account. She got the original AT&T iPhone unlimited internet back in the mid 2000's on her phone that they have tried to take away several times, so we don't want to lose that. I might need to circle around and go into an AT&T store to investigate further.
Sounds like you've got the internet strung in the trees. That's unfortunate.

I don't think the phone she's got from back in the 2000's is going to have a hotspot. What she has is unlimited data on her phone and I don't blame her for not giving it up if she's comfortable with the phone. The AT&T store will be able to give you all your options for their plan. I suspect that they're going to want you to upgrade or buy a mobile hotspot that has a monthly charge. You might ask if they can add a tablet onto your plan. Our friends have a tablet from ATT and they love it for on the road and at home.

We're considering getting a 5g wireless router for the home from StraightTalk. Unfortunately it's not in all areas. We've got someone who works from home and we've used the hotspots on our phones to get access to the internet. Unfortunately that's not an ideal situation.

Please let us know what you find out.
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Old 01-27-2023, 09:52 AM   #14
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Sounds like you've got the internet strung in the trees. That's unfortunate.

I don't think the phone she's got from back in the 2000's is going to have a hotspot. What she has is unlimited data on her phone and I don't blame her for not giving it up if she's comfortable with the phone. The AT&T store will be able to give you all your options for their plan. I suspect that they're going to want you to upgrade or buy a mobile hotspot that has a monthly charge. You might ask if they can add a tablet onto your plan. Our friends have a tablet from ATT and they love it for on the road and at home.

We're considering getting a 5g wireless router for the home from StraightTalk. Unfortunately it's not in all areas. We've got someone who works from home and we've used the hotspots on our phones to get access to the internet. Unfortunately that's not an ideal situation.

Please let us know what you find out.
Sorry Reverse, I worded my post badly. No she has had many variations of new phones in the last 15 years (has the iPhone 12 now), just got lucky and got the unlimited data with the first generation.
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Old 01-27-2023, 10:44 AM   #15
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Sorry Reverse, I worded my post badly. No she has had many variations of new phones in the last 15 years (has the iPhone 12 now), just got lucky and got the unlimited data with the first generation.
Sorry. I misunderstood.
With the iPhone 12, she should have a hotspot built into the phone. With unlimited data she should be well set up to use that to work from home in the event of a loss of internet.

She just needs to figure out how to work it. With my android phone, I have to manually turn on the hotspot in the settings on the phone. It gives me a password and a network name when I turn it on. Then I have to go to my computer and under the wireless setting, find the network name and enter the password and hit connect. I'm assuming the iphone is similar.

When the regular internet comes back up, you just connect to that and turn off the hotspot on the phone.
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Old 01-27-2023, 11:38 AM   #16
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I gots the Iphone ..........wife has the android
both can be setup as hotspots and use similar setup procedures.

BUT using for work can be a hit and miss
especially if you have to upload BIG stuff to the office.

I use my phone as backup to upload small HTML files and photos when the house internet goes poof.... Mine goes poof too often... not so WOW !


You can look into more powerful internet options if you need work reliability
then ask your accountant if you can claim it as a deduction...
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Old 02-02-2023, 07:35 PM   #17
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Starlink got us

We have been battling Comcast for a year to get internet service at home. Starlink said it wasn’t available in our area, panhandle of Florida. Ok, just for giggles put in an order for the RV service. A week later its on our door step and thirty minutes later we’re streaming. Love it!
BTW, no contract. Can pause anytime…
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Old 02-03-2023, 10:16 AM   #18
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Any suggestions as to finding installer for Star Link? Wife has no confidence in my capabilities.
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Old 02-03-2023, 10:39 AM   #19
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In our area, Starlink is gradually replacing the not-so-good alternatives. But we are a heavily treed neighborhood (18 homes), and it takes some searching for an antenna location that has enough of a sky view to make Starlink work. Our install had to go up above the ridge line of a fairly steeply pitched roof on a Cape Cod house to be able to see enough of the northern sky above the 100ft + trees. I had no confidence in my ability to climb and stay on the roof while doing the install.

I got the name of the installer who had done the other houses in our neighborhood. I checked out his web site and called and spoke with him before making the appointment. The installer lives about 2 hours away. Did a nice job ($520), and the Starlink router is good enough to give full bars through most of the house, dropping 1 bar in a few locations.

Most of our section of rural northeastern NC operates on word-of-mouth references for almost all services. So being a newcomer, when I have a need, I ask neighbors and I ask at church. Very old school and very different from our previous suburban living in Colorado Springs. Our HOA web site also lets us list services that we recommend, but I prefer to call or knock on the neighbor's door.

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Old 02-03-2023, 10:42 AM   #20
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Any suggestions as to finding installer for Star Link? Wife has no confidence in my capabilities.
What's to install?
Assemble the dish to the mount, connect it to the router and use the app to get you going. This assumes you are setting the dish on the ground and not wanting it mounted to your home roof or other structure.

Since you are on a R/V forum, mounting to a flagpole or ladder is pretty simple if you go that route.

Here's a video that might help...
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