How do we stay online while travelling? One could say as soon as we have cell phone reception we are online. But HOW do we stay online?
- Smartphone
- Sim card
- WiFi amplification
1. Smartphone
Basically we go online with our smartphones. The advantage of going online with 4G is so we can be online everywhere and all the times wherever we travel.
We use two iPhones (iPhone 6 and iPhone 7) with data plans from back home. These plans include each 10GB/month usable throughout whole Europe.
When the 10GB are used we could enlarge the plan for one month but financially it’s not good.
2. Sim card
Besides the smartphones we use a mobile wifi router (MiFi) to connetct to the internet. In every country we travel we look for a pre-paid plan to use the router with a local sim card. Many countries in Europe offer quite fair prices for mobile internet.
There are many different mobile routers and we use an old model from Huawei. The newer routers come with more functions and even better batteries. We recommend the Huawei E5785.
The advantage of this mobile router is it can be put anywhere in the RV and there’s always your own WiFi network. We put the router somewhere at a window or the windscreen up front.
Huawei offers even a smaller Router Stick with good functionality. Only need is an uninterrupted USB power supply and you’re good to go.
3. WiFi amplification
When parked near a WiFi hotspot (on a campground or at friends) we use our WiFi antenna on the roof to connect to the existing WiFi network.
We use the WiFi Camp Pro 2 with router and antenna.
ADVANTAGE of this system is we use our big range antenna to connect to the existing WiFi and the router creates its own WiFi network inside the RV. So only one device (router) connects to the existing WiFi and all other devices inside the RV connect to the newly created WiFi network inside.
There are many different brands with WiFi antennas but we are happy with the system from Alfa Network.
We also use the App WiFi Map Pro to search for registered WiFi hotspots. This App provides a database with WiFi hotspots all around the world. So wherever you are, a quick look inside the App shows if there are hotspots nearby. It doesn’t need to be an official hotspot but it shows WiFi with passwords. From our experience the chance to find good Wifi is about 10%.
Whenever we use public WiFi or an unknown hotspot we encrypt our connection. We use NordVPN for that so our data is secure.
