November 1, 2023 • 26 mins
In this third and final episode of the Nomad Newbie series, we're diving deep into connections - how to make them, maintain them, and tips for getting connected from anywhere.
First, we cover the ins and outs of maintaining a reliable internet connection while living a nomadic lifestyle with Cherie and Chris of RV Mobile Internet Resource Center. We'll start by identifying your specific needs, whether you're looking to casually surf or need a robust solution for those high-bandwidth activities like video conferencing. They walk us through all the options, from Starlink and cellular plans, to hotspots (with a dedicated device our your cellphone), routers, signal boosters, and how you can build a redundant system to meet your needs.
The internet isn't the only connection we're exploring. We're going beyond the tech and diving into the social aspects of life on the road. In the latter part of our conversation, we chat with solo traveler Amber Baldwin about how this unique lifestyle opens the door to new friendships and a sense of community. Whether it's the spontaneous encounters on the road or the vibrant nomad groups and gatherings, tune in to discover how living nomadically may just make you more connected than your stationary life.
So come along and equip yourself with the knowledge to stay connected, both digitally and socially, no matter where the road takes you.
We hope you enjoyed the Nomad Newbie Series, with some of our top tips to help you ditch conventional life to hit the road or the waves. To hear more of the conversation with our guests, check out these episodes from the archive:
Episode 7 - How to Get WiFi When Traveling Full-Time with the RV Mobile Internet Resource Center
Episode 15 - Solo Van Life with Amber Baldwin: What is it Like Living Alone on the Road?
Links mentioned:
www.thewaywardhome.com/visible
https://www.thewaywardhome.com/visible-wireless-review/
Connect with Kristin Hanes and The Wayward Home!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Are you curious just how to get Wi-Fi on the road?
In this episode of the WaywardHome Podcast, I chat with the RV
Mobile Internet Resource Centerto get the DL on everything
Wi-Fi data and internet.
Today we're talking about howto get internet on the road, and
I have the best people to talkabout this here Cherie and Chris
.
With Mobile Internet ResourceCenter and TechnoMadia, where
can somebody start with theirinternet research for van life?
Speaker 2 (00:29):
One of the most important things for anybody
getting started is reallyunderstanding what their needs
are and their tolerance forcomplexity.
People who are geeks or whoenjoy this sort of stuff can go
completely to crazy townoverkill having seven or eight
connections going at once.
Actually, I think we might havefive going right now.
Not everybody needs to go intosuper complex places depending
(00:54):
on what their actual goals are.
Understanding what you reallyneed before diving in and
throwing lots of money at isvery, very important.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
The solution for someone who's working full time
and doing a lot of interactivevideo sessions like this is
going to be very different.
This requires a lot ofbandwidth.
It requires a redundant,reliable solution for us to not
have dropouts and cutouts.
But someone who maybe for theirjob, just needs to check email,
maybe answer some things, maybedraft a document or do some
(01:22):
photo editing on their computerand then upload it in batches,
it's a very different solution.
Someone who just needs to doNetflix in the evening or Hulu
in the evening is a verydifferent solution than someone
who is maybe going out into themiddle of nowhere and needing to
do very high bandwidth things.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
People who are teaching video classes or who
are doing telehealth and stuff.
That's really critical.
You can't have a dropout whileyou're in the middle of teaching
a 400 person class or you'reconsulting somebody about their
cancer treatment.
It's very, very different thana lot of other people who are
like well, yeah, I have to do aZoom once a week and I'm just
passive, I'm watching it.
I'm not that presenter.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
So it's very, very important to start with
understanding what your needsare.
If you go on YouTube or blogsor everything you read about
someone else's solution, takeinto mind what they need and
then take into account what youneed.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
That's such good advice.
I'm wondering for people who dodo a lot of video calls like
this how do you build thatredundant system?
Do you start with that routerthat you showed a minute ago?
Speaker 3 (02:24):
So right now we are broadcasting over Starlink, as
well as Verizon, at&t, t-mobile,and we're also using Dish
Network, which is the newestfourth carrier.
We're bringing it all togetheron a Peplink router that has
them all bonded together, so ifany one of those has a dropout
during this call, the others areright there to take over, so it
should be seamless.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
That's incredible, and you guys do have some of the
best internet of any of theseinterviews I've done, and that
is why.
So that's fantastic.
And so what if someone justwants to use their phone as a
hotspot?
What are some carriers outthere that you recommend for
that?
Speaker 3 (03:00):
So the best plan right now for a smartphone only
is visible.
This is owned by Verizon.
It is a subsidiary of Verizon.
It's a prepaid plan.
They have a $30 per monthoption and a $45 per month
option.
Both of those plans includeunlimited hotspot data.
That means you can set up yourWi-Fi network off of your
smartphone and use like connectyour laptop, connect your
(03:23):
streaming devices to yoursmartphone.
It's unlimited hotspot data offof your phone.
It is capped at 5 megabit persecond speed, so you're not
going to get 4K video out ofthis, but 5 megabit per second
is plenty for most things on theweb and that is the best deal
right now for those going forwanting a smartphone and it does
give you access to Verizon'snetwork.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
So it gives you a really great network everywhere.
But it is the lowest priorityuser on Verizon's network, so
people run into that and again,congested areas visible
customers will have a verydismal data experience, whereas,
like regular native Verizoncustomers will be streaming
along or doing everything justfine.
So you do have to balance thetrade-offs, but it is a very
(04:05):
good deal.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
But then all of the carriers have postpaid plans
that you can get for yoursmartphone and they're all
offering options from 40gigabytes to 100 gigabytes of
mobile hotspot data off of thesmartphone at full speed, as
well as all the unlimited datayou can use on your hotspot on
your phone itself.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
So definitely worth looking at those if you need the
priority data and the plans allthe time are changing so much
so we do have a guy that is keptup.
I think they updated almostevery week on what the current
most interesting plan optionsare for, whether it's for a
hotspot or a phone or anythingelse.
So people who need a lot ofdata that's at a mobile.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
Our remobileinternetcomplanspics and
if you go to the front page ofour website, it's linked all
over that page, because that onechanges a lot.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
Oh, what a fantastic resource.
And so what are the benefits ofhaving like a dedicated hotspot
instead of just hotspotting onyour phone?
Speaker 2 (04:58):
So a dedicated hotspot for one.
It's separate from your phone,so your phone can still be doing
its phone things.
Your phone tends to fall asleepIf you're using your phone as a
hotspot.
If you don't use it for a longtime it will fall asleep.
A dedicated hotspot like thiscan just be set, turned on, it's
going and it is just making aWi-Fi network that you connect
whatever devices you want to toSome of them a lot of them
(05:20):
actually now have Ethernet ports, so if you've got things that
have want to take advantage of awire connection, they could do
that.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
Like it could plug right into your router.
Even a home router.
It doesn't even have to be aspecial mobile router.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
So it gives you a lot of flexibility there.
They tend to perform prettywell compared to a phone.
Because they're bigger, theyhave bigger physical antennas
inside of them.
Some of the hotspots actuallythis one does has a little
antenna port so you can evenhook up an outside external
antenna or one that will suctioncup into the window of your van
, so that's actually verypopular.
The Netgear is a little Mimoantenna that can hook up to this
(05:53):
.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
I mean the biggest thing is smartphones aren't
designed for full-time hotspotusage.
They can run down the batteriespretty quickly.
What happens if we're usingthis as our hotspot here?
And I just had to go for a walk, he's just lost his internet.
So that's one consideration.
But so if you need a lot ofdata usage, it's usually better
(06:14):
to go with a dedicated hotspotdevice or a cellular embedded
router.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Or multiple people are using it too.
A phone can work really wellfor just one person because
you're in control of it andstuff.
And then you know, upping thegame to a cellular embedded
router is kind of like a hotspoton steroids.
It's got all the cellularantennas and stuff here, it's
got ethernet and it's got Wi-Fias WAN, so it can connect to an
upstream campground or you know,a remote Wi-Fi network.
(06:39):
And the nice thing about acellular connected router is
that you connect, have all yourdevices, just connect to the
router, and then you tell therouter what upstream connections
you want to do.
So if you've got a lot of Wi-Fithings in your household, in
your van or whatnot some peoplewe know have even their light
bulbs are on Wi-Fi and so youdon't want to keep having to
change how they're connected youjust tell them all.
(07:00):
Go to the router, tell therouter how to connect.
The router might be connectingto this.
It might be using its owncellular connection, it might be
using ethernet to Starlink andthen this is just kind of like
your central conductor hub.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
Wow, that's all so interesting.
I love it Because some peoplewrite to me and they're like I
am required to be an ethernetfor my job or they won't let me
work remotely, so that wouldhelp solve their problem.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
I can.
You need to really understandwhat the employer is meaning by
a wired connection.
Some of them are very specific.
No, you cannot use cellular,you cannot use satellite, you
cannot use Wi-Fi as yourconnection.
You need to be a hardwiredcable or DSL connection.
Some they just want thecomputer not connected to Wi-Fi
(07:42):
and that is fine Cause.
Then you can just run anethernet cable out of your
hotspot device or your routerand you've solved that, and then
they don't care what isactually providing the internet
connection to the router.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
And it could sometimes be just a don't ask,
don't tell thing.
It's like oh yeah, I've got anethernet cable.
It's upstream, it still mightbe Wi-Fi or cellular, but
there's an ethernet cable.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
What are the benefits of actually plugging into that
in the router instead of justusing the Wi-Fi?
Speaker 3 (08:11):
So Wi-Fi is a wireless technology and it's
short range and there's a lot ofWi-Fi noise around it.
It's an unregulated spectrum,so when you're in a campground
especially, you might have a lotof people that have a lot of
Wi-Fi devices, whether they're arouter.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
You have the campgrounds Wi-Fi network and
things like that If you everclick on the little Wi-Fi, I
kind of pull scamford networksand you see it goes like an
entire page of different Wi-Finetworks.
That's like a crowded bar andall those people are talking at
the same time and it's reallyhard to communicate with it.
You've got 50 networks allsharing the same, basically the
same room.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
So what that means is your device maybe your laptop
and your router or hotspotdevice are having a hard time
negotiating a conversation andthat can result in slower speeds
.
It can result in dropouts.
So having an ethernet cablebetween your device and your
router or your internet sourcegets around that.
So it's the fastest connectionthat you're going to get and
(09:07):
you're going to be able tooptimize whatever that backhaul
is for your internet connection.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
Cool, and before, you guys brought up something super
interesting that people don'tthink about is where you put
your hotspot or your phone inyour van to get the best signal.
If you could tell me a littleabout that.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Fans are made of metal.
Metal and signal does not gohand in hand.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
Some like our other RVing friends, or we're in a
boat that's made of fiberglass.
Fans are made of metal.
They block signal, which meansyou want, if you don't have
external antennas hooked up toyour devices, have your
smartphone, have your hotspotdevice near windows, get them in
the front dashboard, get themon the side mirror.
Don't melt them though.
Don't melt them, don't put themin the sun.
That's bad too.
But what we do is we keep asoap dish, a little suction cup
(09:49):
soap dish that you can buy inthe department store, like go to
Target, go to Amazon, and weput that in the window.
We set our smartphone or ourhotspot device in the window to
keep it as unobstructed aspossible.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
And you can do your own little speed test of just.
It can be amazing thedifference of sitting on the
vans table or something that'sjust below the metal line versus
just two feet away.
But sitting in the window itcan be a 10X difference in
performance if you just run thespeed test apps.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
But the best reason for going with a router, these
are the antenna ports on here.
You can get antennas that youput on the roof and you just
screw into here.
That gets around the issue allthe time.
You don't have to worry aboutwhat direction you're parked in.
You always have an antenna onthe roof of the van, outside of
all that metal blocks, and thenyou're getting the best signal
(10:38):
inside your van.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
Very cool.
And, speaking of antennas,what's your opinion about the
WeBoost system?
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Cell boosters yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
So WeBoost is not an antenna so you can use it, but
it's not the type that you wouldplug into a router.
A WeBoost or other cellularbooster setup is basically
taking a single antenna.
You notice that this one hasone of those Wi-Fi one of those
are cellular antennas.
This one single modem has fourantennas that feed it.
It's working off a technologycalled MIMO.
(11:09):
That's multiple in, multipleout.
Basically it means it has fourears and when you experiment
listen to some music right nowor turn on this podcast, cover
one ear what happens?
Your sound and your brain isonly hearing one signal.
You unplug your ear, you'rehearing with two ears.
(11:29):
Same thing happens with signalsand a cellular booster.
What's happening is it's takingone voice.
So basically you're pluggingyour ear and you're putting a
megaphone into the other earwhich is also broadcasting any
other sound that's around, soany other noise.
Sometimes, if you're very faraway from the cellular tower,
(11:51):
that amplification can actuallybe your best option.
It's great also for uploadcapacity.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Megaphoneing you back to the tower.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
Right, because the transmitter in a small device
like a smartphone is it nearlyas strong as what's on cellular
tower transmitting back.
So putting a megaphone back isgreat, so it can really help
with upload speeds.
If you're doing a broadcast,have large upload files, a
cellular booster can help withthat.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
The real core thing is like a cellular booster is
just one funnel.
It's one antenna, one amplifierone, everything like that, and
they were useful back in the old2G and early 3G days.
But now all 4G devices and 5Gdevices use either two or four
antennas.
All 5G devices are fourantennas.
So you turn on a cell boosterand you're forcing all the
(12:36):
signal through that one singleantenna.
The 5G devices are basicallybeing hobbled.
They'll be running at a muchslower speed.
So the cell booster might helpyou make a voice phone call, it
might help you get a littleLick-A-Signal in a remote area,
but oftentimes for data, if datais your focus, a cell booster
will actually slow you down whenyou turn it on.
So number one tip for cellboosters could be useful to have
(12:57):
in your van Never leave it onall the time and so use it only
when you need it kind of thing,because it's actually hurting
you more most of the time unlessyou really really need it.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
We used to say 80% of the time having external
antenna directly attached toyour router or your hotspot
device is going to give you thebest cellular performance Over a
booster.
Now I'd say 90% of the time.
As 5G has come on, there aresome cases we'll get to a
campground.
We're really remote.
The antennas alone are notdoing enough.
(13:27):
We turn on the cell booster andwe can get enough signal out of
that one single antenna comingthrough to get online and check
what we need to do, or no oneelse around us can get online.
So there are times when itmakes sense we keep one in our
toy box, we keep one around, butwe don't.
They are you know they're a$500 investment, so you have to
really consider is it worth $500that you might use it once or
(13:50):
twice a year?
Speaker 2 (13:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
Yeah, so true, we probably should start talking
about Starlink.
I bet a lot of people arecurious about Starlink.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
There's a new Starlink in motion version now.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
There's two Starlink dishes that are out right now.
You've got the original one,which is the one that's just on
the stand that you see a lot ofpeople.
Maybe they put it on a pole.
That's the standard.
They call it standard.
Now, that one you can get withtwo different data plans.
You can get it with theresidential plan, which is meant
for a fixed location, and thenyou can add portability to it.
(14:20):
You can move your addressaround as you travel.
That one gets you priorityaccess when you're at your
register Residential address.
Or your service address.
When you're not at your serviceaddress, you get what they call
basic service.
That is the same service.
If you go direct with the RVplan, that one is always the
basic service.
These are both plans that are$135 per month.
(14:42):
They now have a new dish, whichis an in motion dish.
It's one that you fix to thetop of your roof.
You can use it while you'redriving around.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
It has no moving parts, but it's physically much
bigger it can see moresatellites while you're in
motion.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
Now the standard dish the original one is $599.
The new dish, the flat mount,Flat high performance.
The in motion one is $2,500.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
That's a big price jump.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
Starlink has got a beautiful photo of a van with
the Starlink dish on it.
We've put it on our van.
We have tested it in our van inmotion.
It's great.
But the biggest problem well,there's several problems with
that.
High performance dish is numberone.
The only plan you can get withit is the RV plan, which gives
you no priority access, soyou're always going to be
de-priorities over.
(15:29):
So in congestive market you canget much slower speeds.
We saw that with ourresidential dish.
Versus the high performancesituation, it gets slower speeds
.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
And another catch of it is because you typically
would permanently mount it onthe top of a van.
It doesn't really design to bemoved around.
It's again very subject towhere you park and the trees
around it and stuff.
Because even though it can seea broader view of the sky, it
still it can't see through trees, it can't see through
obstructions, Whereas theStarlink standard comes with a
(15:56):
75 foot cable and you can geteven a longer 150 foot cable and
you can uncoil that and put thelittle tripod stand way out in
the far side of your campgroundand where it can have a better
view of the sky.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
Or hoisted up a pole.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
We keep a pole in our van to hoist it up, so that's
much more flexible, but it's notreally designed for in motion.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
And then the other issue with both of them is power
usage.
The standard dish, the smallerone, that one's going to burn
about 40 to 60 watts of power.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
There's a lot for a lot.
There's a lot.
That means we're talking aboutsolar powers that you have in a
van.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
They're not in refrigerator size.
Use the large in motion dish.
That one's going to burn morelike 80 to 110 watts of power.
So it's a power hog.
So if you're trying to boondockyou're going to need a pretty
large battery capacity withouthaving to run a generator to
keep it going and or you just bereally disciplined about to
turn off the Starlink when youdon't need it.
(16:50):
We made that mistake the othernight.
We're currently anchored.
So basically I see Quill in aBoondocking for RVers in our
boat the other night we totallyforgot we had a glass or two of
wine in the evening and wetotally forgot to turn down
Starlink overnight and we wokeup in the morning to the low
battery alarm, low battery alarmand we have a massive lithium
battery.
We have solar on this boat.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
Yeah, it was a cloudy day, we hadn't charged up and
it was like, oh darn, we forgotto turn off Starlink.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
Drain our battery.
No one was using it overnight.
I mean, I'm pretty sure our catwas not streaming YouTube
videos overnight watching it,it's definitely a consideration.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
It uses a lot more power than cellular.
So to get one of those reasonswhere it's a great thing, we
love having Starlink, we use itall the time, but it is not the
be all, end all.
We still use our cellular andhave all these other things and
just combine them in good ways.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Yeah, I wanted to ask do you think it's maybe not
quite the right time to purchasethat high in motion, very
expensive finish until they getit on the residential or other
faster plan?
Speaker 3 (17:52):
I personally would love to see them offer an
ability for anyone on an RV planor in motion a mobile plan to
be able to purchase or upgradeto priority data when it's
available in the area they're at.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
And this is SpaceX we're talking about.
So things change at a moment'snotice, sometimes out of tweets
notice.
So anything to do with Starlinkand SpaceX, check our latest
guide.
We've got keep it up to date atmobileinterainfocom, slash
Starlink and you can go overthere, because this stuff is
changing very frequently and theplans might be different, the
(18:24):
hardware might be different.
The other things can bechanging around by the time this
airs, so keep close.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
Yeah, I'm glad that you guys keep such a close eye
on all this stuff.
For us, it's very helpful, andyou have your website and your
YouTube channel where you trackall these changes, so that's
fantastic.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
It's an exciting time for connectivity.
I mean between 5G networks arestarting to get really
interesting and good.
There's far more starting tosee more generous data plans.
There's unlimited, fully goodunlimited.
It's still a little hard tocome by in some ways, but
between that and satellite andthere's new stuff on the horizon
, it's a good time to stayconnected.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
It's a great time to stay connected, and I know
something that those attendingthe summit will probably have
questions about is third partyresellers.
You probably see a lot ofadvertising for companies like
Nomad Internet, mobile Must-Have, hasem we work with Mobile
Must-Have, with the gear.
There's Bix Wireless and allthese other third party
resellers and basically theseare companies that have somehow
acquired data plans from thecarriers.
(19:23):
Sometimes they are Legit ormore legit than others, and
sometimes they are not.
They might be like tablet plansin the background that they're
using, or they found a way toget a plan to work on the
carriers, and Our general advicefor these plans is they are
great, they're not.
They work until they don't.
(19:45):
We have never seen one of theseplans last for much more than a
couple years, sometimessometimes a month.
The carriers usually will shutthem down, regardless of how
legit or non legit they are.
The reseller is not in control,the carrier is, and the carrier
is the one who can say I am nolonger honoring this plan, and
they shut it down, sometimeswithout warning.
(20:07):
We're also seeing, especiallywith AT&T, when they shut down
one of these resellers is theyare getting more and more
aggressive about not only justshutting off the plan, but they
are now blacklisting the devicesfrom their network, which means
that even if you go to AT&T andbuy a legit plan directly with
them, it won't work anymore.
They will not activate that.
Activate the sim card.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
So you've got a thousand dollar router that you
were using a, basically areseller plan.
That's equivalent like buyingsomething semi-legit at a flea
market.
At&t will now say well, no, wewon't let you use your device on
our network anymore, because wecaught you with that semi legit
device which?
Speaker 3 (20:44):
is.
We think it's really badbecause on AT&T, because you as
a consumer.
You went to a website that saidthis was a legit plan.
You did not know.
You have no reason to believethat it's not legit.
It's the reseller that needs tobe you.
They should have.
You know it's between them andthe carrier, not you as the
consumer, which is to me reallybad business practice.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Yeah, but it but is that is something to keep in
mind if you are buying kind ofthese like flea market plans.
If it seems too good to be true, there are some that are
ridiculously Cheap and becausebehind the scenes that the
reseller is basically takingtablet plans and Changing serial
numbers and like doing somekind of shady stuff sometimes on
these plans and well yeah, theyget caught eventually.
(21:28):
So yeah, though, if it seemstoo good to be true, definitely
have your backup plans in mind.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
That's a good point.
So to be more legitimate,people should actually go to one
of the main carriers.
It sounds like all.
Speaker 3 (21:39):
All of the carriers are offering plans now in the
100-150 gigabyte range that canbe used on routers and hotspot
devices and if you get enough ofthose Along with Starlink or
something like that, you canassemble enough data Most
households we also get.
How much data do I need a monthif you're streaming some up few
(21:59):
nights a week You're doing somezoom calls.
Most households, if they keeptheir data usage to a reasonable
level, can be perfectly happyin the two to 400 gigabyte per
month range.
Now you've got a heavy gamer,someone who's bit twerking or
something like that.
That's when you get into theterabytes and that's when it
gets more difficult.
But most of us are pretty darnhappy in that in the 500
(22:22):
gigabyte below range and it'spretty easy these days to get
that data Legit.
You're gonna pay.
You're gonna pay money.
You're not gonna get this cheap.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
You know that this plan at $20 a month is awesome,
yeah, and again is like and thedish is a legitimate plan, it's
just they might take away theirroaming to AT&T at some point.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
But there are ways to get it and that's what we're.
Go check our topic data plans.
There are options out there toassemble your, your setup, and
you just need to pay attentionto what data plans work on what
types of devices.
Some are like set to a specificdevice.
You have to use the device thecarrier sends you or the
reseller sends you.
Some can be used in any deviceyou want, so you need to just
(23:00):
pay attention to that.
You know, before you go buyyour hardware, look at what data
plans are available for thehardware you want to use.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
That is very interesting.
And just real quick, talkingabout third-party resellers,
what are some of those main onesthat you guys have seen out
there that are advertisingcurrently?
I Try not to pay attention.
Speaker 3 (23:20):
We do keep a list.
If you go to RV, mobileinternet, comm, third party, 3rd
party, we do keep a list.
Our team updates that once amonth.
They go through and doublecheck that they're still in
business.
That changes, that's the onlything we we promise is once a
month.
We have checked that vendorsand business.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
No way means that they're legit and any shape way
and because the good becausesome of these deals are really
good Is that if you are goingfor these third parties, it's
like great, you get the thirdparty.
One of this gives you a reallycheap plan with a lot of data,
but have your backup plan with alegit one, so that if that
disappears and it's just goneone day and the company's
selling you shut, shuts theirdoors, you've got something some
(23:57):
other way online.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
But some of the ones you know that are do do really
good diligence and they havegood customer support.
If something goes wrong, Mobilemust have.
They sell peplink gear.
They do sell data plans fortheir Customers and we have seen
those plans go away but theythey deal with it well and get
their customers like here's anew SIM card, you're back online
the FMCA family motor coachassociation.
(24:18):
They have a plan with AT&T.
It is capped at 10 megabit persecond or 25 megabit per second.
You have to be a member of themand have like two years of
membership but you can get aplan for like 60 bucks a month
with them, which they also havea good track record of treating
their members well.
So if AT&T pulls the plan, atleast you know the FMCA is gonna
(24:39):
do everything they can to haveyour back.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
You know alternative.
Yeah, on their side.
Speaker 3 (24:43):
I mean it's out of their control of AT&T, pulls the
, pulls the plan on them.
But and then there's, there's awhole bunch of others out there
that have been around for yearsnomad enter.
Well, yeah, kalecks Instituteis one we like.
They're a nonprofit and theyactually have a legit A
agreement contract.
Yeah, it was part of Sprint.
It got inherited by T-Mobileand it's for nonprofits and they
(25:04):
can include it.
With a membership to theirorganization, you get an
unlimited hotspot on T-Mobile'snetwork.
You have to use it on theirdevice that you buy with it, but
you get an and it comes out toabout 40 bucks a month, but you
have to prepay for a year ofmembership.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
Because you're making a donation to the nonprofit and
as a perk you're getting ahotspot with a year's worth of
unlimited data.
So it's kind of a loopholethere, but it is a.
You know, a legit old contractthat goes way, way back.
That is a, and they've stuckaround forever.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
Sounds like there's a lot of options at a lot of
price points for people, whichis really good.
Yes, yeah, some people areshocked and they're like you
spend that much on internetbecause I have, you know, on a
hotspot and the Starlink, andI'm like, well, yeah, I have to
work and luckily our otherexpenses are lower, so it all
counts Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (25:51):
It's the price of freedom.
If you want to be able to stillearn an income, it is.
It is one of the costs and itis something that's always
changing.
The technology is advancing.
You know the options that areavailable today.
They'll all change in a monthor two and you know.
That's why we're here.
We're tracking them.
We do have a free newsletterthat you can sign up for.
We have monthly updates oneverything we've covered.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
You guys are definitely the go-tos for
anything mobile and you have agreat website and YouTube
channel, so hopefully peoplewill go there and learn all they
can, because it's freedom, likeyou said, like there's nothing
better.
I'm excited to be talking toAmber Baldwin, a woman who's
been a nomad for five years,first in the class CRV, but
mostly in her camper van.
Amber is host of the YouTubechannel StoryChasing, where you
(26:37):
can follow along on her latestadventures.
Since Amber runs a YouTubechannel as her primary source of
income, she often searches forboondocking spots based on phone
signal.
Speaker 4 (26:46):
And I do that through apps.
So Campendium is the big onefor me.
Campendium has a filter onthere where you can see if it
has like AT&T or Verizon, whichare both of the hotspots that I
have, and if the cell signals goin.
And this is based on peoplewho've stayed there to their
reviews, and so if they aresaying that, yeah, the cell
signal is pretty good there,then I start looking at other
(27:09):
factors like where's thelocation?
Is it far away from the city ornot far away from the city?
Is it going to be conducive forthe van?
Because some places that you goto you might need four-wheel
drive, which I don't have.
So I look for that and thenjust make sure it's a beautiful,
quiet spot, because at the endof the day, I mean I want to be
able to go outside and put mycamp chair and my table and go
(27:32):
have breakfast outside, which isone of my favorite things to do
and read a book and have my dogout there with me and relax and
not hear like a bunch of people.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
Amber rarely stays in campgrounds enjoying the peace
and quiet of only nature aroundher.
Amber said when she firststarted RVing she was concerned
she might be lonely on the roadTo be honest, like my social
life is off the hook these days.
Speaker 4 (27:56):
I mean I have more community on the road than I
ever had in a traditional sticksand bricks house.
I think it's because, first ofall, you know when you're
traveling you meet people allalong the way, whether they're
RVing or not, you meet peoplealong the way.
Some of my really good friendsnow are people who actually live
in homes my friends from NewYork, mark and Grant.
(28:18):
I met them my very first yearof RVing and we met because of
our dogs.
We were walking our dogs and Iwas in a park there in a park
and we ended up being reallygood friends and I've stayed in
their home.
Then you meet full-time RVersand you just start building this
community on the road withRVers and I think with RVers
(28:41):
there's this instant camaraderie, almost because you have
something in common instantlywith RVing.
I think we're all probablylooking for similar things that
freedom in life, exploration,quiet, peace, solitude.
We just instantly can makeconnections.
(29:03):
One of the places that I went to, besides just traveling and
meeting people on the road,there's all kinds of groups that
you can get involved with.
One of the first ones that Igot involved with was the
Escapers group, which is anRVing kind of club community
group.
They have convergences anddifferent types of events spread
(29:27):
out around the United States.
That was the first thing that Idid and I've been able to make
a lot of friends through thatcommunity, a lot of times the
people that I connect with onthe road.
And then there's other types ofcommunities.
I'm in a van.
You can connect a lot withpeople who are in similar
situations in the van lifecommunity or even when I had my
(29:51):
Winnebago, there was theWinnebago community.
There's all different types ofgroups to connect with.
You can be as social as youwant to be or as alone as you
want to be, whether you'reintrovert or extrovert.
For me, being an introvert,that's the other thing is
there's a healthy respect forthat on the road, because
there's a lot of us who areintroverts.
(30:12):
For me, being an introvert, Ireach out by being by myself.
Sometimes I'll be with a groupof people, but then in a couple
of weeks I need to go out bymyself and hang out for a couple
of days or sometimes even amonth, and just be by myself.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
Amber thinks she's found more camaraderie on the
road, partly because there'sbeen a fundamental shift in how
people interact in housingdevelopments.
Speaker 4 (30:39):
Back in the old days.
I'm doing air quotes when I saythat Back in the old days, way
before my time, they had builtporches on the front of homes.
Now a lot of the homes arebuilt with your garage in the
front and you're really in yourbackyard when you want to be
outside.
I feel like we've lost thiscommunity when you think about
(31:01):
the traditional Sticks andBricks lifestyle in a lot of
ways about being in ourcommunity and being outside and
connecting with others, becauseI swear it's that porch on the
front.
When they took that away,everything started changing.
But we have that almost fulltime in our RVs where, because
we live outside so much, we canbuild more community because we
(31:24):
are outside and hanging out withother people.
So I hope that makes sense.
Are you curious just how to get Wi-Fi on the road?
In this episode of the WaywardHome Podcast, I chat with the RV
Mobile Internet Resource Centerto get the DL on everything
Wi-Fi data and internet.
Today we're talking about howto get internet on the road, and
I have the best people to talkabout this here Cherie and Chris
.
With Mobile Internet ResourceCenter and TechnoMadia, where
can somebody start with theirinternet research for van life?
Speaker 2 (00:29):
One of the most important things for anybody
getting started is reallyunderstanding what their needs
are and their tolerance forcomplexity.
People who are geeks or whoenjoy this sort of stuff can go
completely to crazy townoverkill having seven or eight
connections going at once.
Actually, I think we might havefive going right now.
Not everybody needs to go intosuper complex places depending
(00:54):
on what their actual goals are.
Understanding what you reallyneed before diving in and
throwing lots of money at isvery, very important.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
The solution for someone who's working full time
and doing a lot of interactivevideo sessions like this is
going to be very different.
This requires a lot ofbandwidth.
It requires a redundant,reliable solution for us to not
have dropouts and cutouts.
But someone who maybe for theirjob, just needs to check email,
maybe answer some things, maybedraft a document or do some
(01:22):
photo editing on their computerand then upload it in batches,
it's a very different solution.
Someone who just needs to doNetflix in the evening or Hulu
in the evening is a verydifferent solution than someone
who is maybe going out into themiddle of nowhere and needing to
do very high bandwidth things.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
People who are teaching video classes or who
are doing telehealth and stuff.
That's really critical.
You can't have a dropout whileyou're in the middle of teaching
a 400 person class or you'reconsulting somebody about their
cancer treatment.
It's very, very different thana lot of other people who are
like well, yeah, I have to do aZoom once a week and I'm just
passive, I'm watching it.
I'm not that presenter.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
So it's very, very important to start with
understanding what your needsare.
If you go on YouTube or blogsor everything you read about
someone else's solution, takeinto mind what they need and
then take into account what youneed.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
That's such good advice.
I'm wondering for people who dodo a lot of video calls like
this how do you build thatredundant system?
Do you start with that routerthat you showed a minute ago?
Speaker 3 (02:24):
So right now we are broadcasting over Starlink, as
well as Verizon, at&t, t-mobile,and we're also using Dish
Network, which is the newestfourth carrier.
We're bringing it all togetheron a Peplink router that has
them all bonded together, so ifany one of those has a dropout
during this call, the others areright there to take over, so it
should be seamless.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
That's incredible, and you guys do have some of the
best internet of any of theseinterviews I've done, and that
is why.
So that's fantastic.
And so what if someone justwants to use their phone as a
hotspot?
What are some carriers outthere that you recommend for
that?
Speaker 3 (03:00):
So the best plan right now for a smartphone only
is visible.
This is owned by Verizon.
It is a subsidiary of Verizon.
It's a prepaid plan.
They have a $30 per monthoption and a $45 per month
option.
Both of those plans includeunlimited hotspot data.
That means you can set up yourWi-Fi network off of your
smartphone and use like connectyour laptop, connect your
(03:23):
streaming devices to yoursmartphone.
It's unlimited hotspot data offof your phone.
It is capped at 5 megabit persecond speed, so you're not
going to get 4K video out ofthis, but 5 megabit per second
is plenty for most things on theweb and that is the best deal
right now for those going forwanting a smartphone and it does
give you access to Verizon'snetwork.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
So it gives you a really great network everywhere.
But it is the lowest priorityuser on Verizon's network, so
people run into that and again,congested areas visible
customers will have a verydismal data experience, whereas,
like regular native Verizoncustomers will be streaming
along or doing everything justfine.
So you do have to balance thetrade-offs, but it is a very
(04:05):
good deal.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
But then all of the carriers have postpaid plans
that you can get for yoursmartphone and they're all
offering options from 40gigabytes to 100 gigabytes of
mobile hotspot data off of thesmartphone at full speed, as
well as all the unlimited datayou can use on your hotspot on
your phone itself.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
So definitely worth looking at those if you need the
priority data and the plans allthe time are changing so much
so we do have a guy that is keptup.
I think they updated almostevery week on what the current
most interesting plan optionsare for, whether it's for a
hotspot or a phone or anythingelse.
So people who need a lot ofdata that's at a mobile.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
Our remobileinternetcomplanspics and
if you go to the front page ofour website, it's linked all
over that page, because that onechanges a lot.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
Oh, what a fantastic resource.
And so what are the benefits ofhaving like a dedicated hotspot
instead of just hotspotting onyour phone?
Speaker 2 (04:58):
So a dedicated hotspot for one.
It's separate from your phone,so your phone can still be doing
its phone things.
Your phone tends to fall asleepIf you're using your phone as a
hotspot.
If you don't use it for a longtime it will fall asleep.
A dedicated hotspot like thiscan just be set, turned on, it's
going and it is just making aWi-Fi network that you connect
whatever devices you want to toSome of them a lot of them
(05:20):
actually now have Ethernet ports, so if you've got things that
have want to take advantage of awire connection, they could do
that.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
Like it could plug right into your router.
Even a home router.
It doesn't even have to be aspecial mobile router.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
So it gives you a lot of flexibility there.
They tend to perform prettywell compared to a phone.
Because they're bigger, theyhave bigger physical antennas
inside of them.
Some of the hotspots actuallythis one does has a little
antenna port so you can evenhook up an outside external
antenna or one that will suctioncup into the window of your van
, so that's actually verypopular.
The Netgear is a little Mimoantenna that can hook up to this
(05:53):
.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
I mean the biggest thing is smartphones aren't
designed for full-time hotspotusage.
They can run down the batteriespretty quickly.
What happens if we're usingthis as our hotspot here?
And I just had to go for a walk, he's just lost his internet.
So that's one consideration.
But so if you need a lot ofdata usage, it's usually better
(06:14):
to go with a dedicated hotspotdevice or a cellular embedded
router.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Or multiple people are using it too.
A phone can work really wellfor just one person because
you're in control of it andstuff.
And then you know, upping thegame to a cellular embedded
router is kind of like a hotspoton steroids.
It's got all the cellularantennas and stuff here, it's
got ethernet and it's got Wi-Fias WAN, so it can connect to an
upstream campground or you know,a remote Wi-Fi network.
(06:39):
And the nice thing about acellular connected router is
that you connect, have all yourdevices, just connect to the
router, and then you tell therouter what upstream connections
you want to do.
So if you've got a lot of Wi-Fithings in your household, in
your van or whatnot some peoplewe know have even their light
bulbs are on Wi-Fi and so youdon't want to keep having to
change how they're connected youjust tell them all.
(07:00):
Go to the router, tell therouter how to connect.
The router might be connectingto this.
It might be using its owncellular connection, it might be
using ethernet to Starlink andthen this is just kind of like
your central conductor hub.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
Wow, that's all so interesting.
I love it Because some peoplewrite to me and they're like I
am required to be an ethernetfor my job or they won't let me
work remotely, so that wouldhelp solve their problem.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
I can.
You need to really understandwhat the employer is meaning by
a wired connection.
Some of them are very specific.
No, you cannot use cellular,you cannot use satellite, you
cannot use Wi-Fi as yourconnection.
You need to be a hardwiredcable or DSL connection.
Some they just want thecomputer not connected to Wi-Fi
(07:42):
and that is fine Cause.
Then you can just run anethernet cable out of your
hotspot device or your routerand you've solved that, and then
they don't care what isactually providing the internet
connection to the router.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
And it could sometimes be just a don't ask,
don't tell thing.
It's like oh yeah, I've got anethernet cable.
It's upstream, it still mightbe Wi-Fi or cellular, but
there's an ethernet cable.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
What are the benefits of actually plugging into that
in the router instead of justusing the Wi-Fi?
Speaker 3 (08:11):
So Wi-Fi is a wireless technology and it's
short range and there's a lot ofWi-Fi noise around it.
It's an unregulated spectrum,so when you're in a campground
especially, you might have a lotof people that have a lot of
Wi-Fi devices, whether they're arouter.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
You have the campgrounds Wi-Fi network and
things like that If you everclick on the little Wi-Fi, I
kind of pull scamford networksand you see it goes like an
entire page of different Wi-Finetworks.
That's like a crowded bar andall those people are talking at
the same time and it's reallyhard to communicate with it.
You've got 50 networks allsharing the same, basically the
same room.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
So what that means is your device maybe your laptop
and your router or hotspotdevice are having a hard time
negotiating a conversation andthat can result in slower speeds
.
It can result in dropouts.
So having an ethernet cablebetween your device and your
router or your internet sourcegets around that.
So it's the fastest connectionthat you're going to get and
(09:07):
you're going to be able tooptimize whatever that backhaul
is for your internet connection.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
Cool, and before, you guys brought up something super
interesting that people don'tthink about is where you put
your hotspot or your phone inyour van to get the best signal.
If you could tell me a littleabout that.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Fans are made of metal.
Metal and signal does not gohand in hand.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
Some like our other RVing friends, or we're in a
boat that's made of fiberglass.
Fans are made of metal.
They block signal, which meansyou want, if you don't have
external antennas hooked up toyour devices, have your
smartphone, have your hotspotdevice near windows, get them in
the front dashboard, get themon the side mirror.
Don't melt them though.
Don't melt them, don't put themin the sun.
That's bad too.
But what we do is we keep asoap dish, a little suction cup
(09:49):
soap dish that you can buy inthe department store, like go to
Target, go to Amazon, and weput that in the window.
We set our smartphone or ourhotspot device in the window to
keep it as unobstructed aspossible.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
And you can do your own little speed test of just.
It can be amazing thedifference of sitting on the
vans table or something that'sjust below the metal line versus
just two feet away.
But sitting in the window itcan be a 10X difference in
performance if you just run thespeed test apps.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
But the best reason for going with a router, these
are the antenna ports on here.
You can get antennas that youput on the roof and you just
screw into here.
That gets around the issue allthe time.
You don't have to worry aboutwhat direction you're parked in.
You always have an antenna onthe roof of the van, outside of
all that metal blocks, and thenyou're getting the best signal
(10:38):
inside your van.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
Very cool.
And, speaking of antennas,what's your opinion about the
WeBoost system?
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Cell boosters yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
So WeBoost is not an antenna so you can use it, but
it's not the type that you wouldplug into a router.
A WeBoost or other cellularbooster setup is basically
taking a single antenna.
You notice that this one hasone of those Wi-Fi one of those
are cellular antennas.
This one single modem has fourantennas that feed it.
It's working off a technologycalled MIMO.
(11:09):
That's multiple in, multipleout.
Basically it means it has fourears and when you experiment
listen to some music right nowor turn on this podcast, cover
one ear what happens?
Your sound and your brain isonly hearing one signal.
You unplug your ear, you'rehearing with two ears.
(11:29):
Same thing happens with signalsand a cellular booster.
What's happening is it's takingone voice.
So basically you're pluggingyour ear and you're putting a
megaphone into the other earwhich is also broadcasting any
other sound that's around, soany other noise.
Sometimes, if you're very faraway from the cellular tower,
(11:51):
that amplification can actuallybe your best option.
It's great also for uploadcapacity.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Megaphoneing you back to the tower.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
Right, because the transmitter in a small device
like a smartphone is it nearlyas strong as what's on cellular
tower transmitting back.
So putting a megaphone back isgreat, so it can really help
with upload speeds.
If you're doing a broadcast,have large upload files, a
cellular booster can help withthat.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
The real core thing is like a cellular booster is
just one funnel.
It's one antenna, one amplifierone, everything like that, and
they were useful back in the old2G and early 3G days.
But now all 4G devices and 5Gdevices use either two or four
antennas.
All 5G devices are fourantennas.
So you turn on a cell boosterand you're forcing all the
(12:36):
signal through that one singleantenna.
The 5G devices are basicallybeing hobbled.
They'll be running at a muchslower speed.
So the cell booster might helpyou make a voice phone call, it
might help you get a littleLick-A-Signal in a remote area,
but oftentimes for data, if datais your focus, a cell booster
will actually slow you down whenyou turn it on.
So number one tip for cellboosters could be useful to have
(12:57):
in your van Never leave it onall the time and so use it only
when you need it kind of thing,because it's actually hurting
you more most of the time unlessyou really really need it.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
We used to say 80% of the time having external
antenna directly attached toyour router or your hotspot
device is going to give you thebest cellular performance Over a
booster.
Now I'd say 90% of the time.
As 5G has come on, there aresome cases we'll get to a
campground.
We're really remote.
The antennas alone are notdoing enough.
(13:27):
We turn on the cell booster andwe can get enough signal out of
that one single antenna comingthrough to get online and check
what we need to do, or no oneelse around us can get online.
So there are times when itmakes sense we keep one in our
toy box, we keep one around, butwe don't.
They are you know they're a$500 investment, so you have to
really consider is it worth $500that you might use it once or
(13:50):
twice a year?
Speaker 2 (13:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
Yeah, so true, we probably should start talking
about Starlink.
I bet a lot of people arecurious about Starlink.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
There's a new Starlink in motion version now.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
There's two Starlink dishes that are out right now.
You've got the original one,which is the one that's just on
the stand that you see a lot ofpeople.
Maybe they put it on a pole.
That's the standard.
They call it standard.
Now, that one you can get withtwo different data plans.
You can get it with theresidential plan, which is meant
for a fixed location, and thenyou can add portability to it.
(14:20):
You can move your addressaround as you travel.
That one gets you priorityaccess when you're at your
register Residential address.
Or your service address.
When you're not at your serviceaddress, you get what they call
basic service.
That is the same service.
If you go direct with the RVplan, that one is always the
basic service.
These are both plans that are$135 per month.
(14:42):
They now have a new dish, whichis an in motion dish.
It's one that you fix to thetop of your roof.
You can use it while you'redriving around.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
It has no moving parts, but it's physically much
bigger it can see moresatellites while you're in
motion.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
Now the standard dish the original one is $599.
The new dish, the flat mount,Flat high performance.
The in motion one is $2,500.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
That's a big price jump.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
Starlink has got a beautiful photo of a van with
the Starlink dish on it.
We've put it on our van.
We have tested it in our van inmotion.
It's great.
But the biggest problem well,there's several problems with
that.
High performance dish is numberone.
The only plan you can get withit is the RV plan, which gives
you no priority access, soyou're always going to be
de-priorities over.
(15:29):
So in congestive market you canget much slower speeds.
We saw that with ourresidential dish.
Versus the high performancesituation, it gets slower speeds
.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
And another catch of it is because you typically
would permanently mount it onthe top of a van.
It doesn't really design to bemoved around.
It's again very subject towhere you park and the trees
around it and stuff.
Because even though it can seea broader view of the sky, it
still it can't see through trees, it can't see through
obstructions, Whereas theStarlink standard comes with a
(15:56):
75 foot cable and you can geteven a longer 150 foot cable and
you can uncoil that and put thelittle tripod stand way out in
the far side of your campgroundand where it can have a better
view of the sky.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
Or hoisted up a pole.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
We keep a pole in our van to hoist it up, so that's
much more flexible, but it's notreally designed for in motion.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
And then the other issue with both of them is power
usage.
The standard dish, the smallerone, that one's going to burn
about 40 to 60 watts of power.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
There's a lot for a lot.
There's a lot.
That means we're talking aboutsolar powers that you have in a
van.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
They're not in refrigerator size.
Use the large in motion dish.
That one's going to burn morelike 80 to 110 watts of power.
So it's a power hog.
So if you're trying to boondockyou're going to need a pretty
large battery capacity withouthaving to run a generator to
keep it going and or you just bereally disciplined about to
turn off the Starlink when youdon't need it.
(16:50):
We made that mistake the othernight.
We're currently anchored.
So basically I see Quill in aBoondocking for RVers in our
boat the other night we totallyforgot we had a glass or two of
wine in the evening and wetotally forgot to turn down
Starlink overnight and we wokeup in the morning to the low
battery alarm, low battery alarmand we have a massive lithium
battery.
We have solar on this boat.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
Yeah, it was a cloudy day, we hadn't charged up and
it was like, oh darn, we forgotto turn off Starlink.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
Drain our battery.
No one was using it overnight.
I mean, I'm pretty sure our catwas not streaming YouTube
videos overnight watching it,it's definitely a consideration.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
It uses a lot more power than cellular.
So to get one of those reasonswhere it's a great thing, we
love having Starlink, we use itall the time, but it is not the
be all, end all.
We still use our cellular andhave all these other things and
just combine them in good ways.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Yeah, I wanted to ask do you think it's maybe not
quite the right time to purchasethat high in motion, very
expensive finish until they getit on the residential or other
faster plan?
Speaker 3 (17:52):
I personally would love to see them offer an
ability for anyone on an RV planor in motion a mobile plan to
be able to purchase or upgradeto priority data when it's
available in the area they're at.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
And this is SpaceX we're talking about.
So things change at a moment'snotice, sometimes out of tweets
notice.
So anything to do with Starlinkand SpaceX, check our latest
guide.
We've got keep it up to date atmobileinterainfocom, slash
Starlink and you can go overthere, because this stuff is
changing very frequently and theplans might be different, the
(18:24):
hardware might be different.
The other things can bechanging around by the time this
airs, so keep close.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
Yeah, I'm glad that you guys keep such a close eye
on all this stuff.
For us, it's very helpful, andyou have your website and your
YouTube channel where you trackall these changes, so that's
fantastic.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
It's an exciting time for connectivity.
I mean between 5G networks arestarting to get really
interesting and good.
There's far more starting tosee more generous data plans.
There's unlimited, fully goodunlimited.
It's still a little hard tocome by in some ways, but
between that and satellite andthere's new stuff on the horizon
, it's a good time to stayconnected.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
It's a great time to stay connected, and I know
something that those attendingthe summit will probably have
questions about is third partyresellers.
You probably see a lot ofadvertising for companies like
Nomad Internet, mobile Must-Have, hasem we work with Mobile
Must-Have, with the gear.
There's Bix Wireless and allthese other third party
resellers and basically theseare companies that have somehow
acquired data plans from thecarriers.
(19:23):
Sometimes they are Legit ormore legit than others, and
sometimes they are not.
They might be like tablet plansin the background that they're
using, or they found a way toget a plan to work on the
carriers, and Our general advicefor these plans is they are
great, they're not.
They work until they don't.
(19:45):
We have never seen one of theseplans last for much more than a
couple years, sometimessometimes a month.
The carriers usually will shutthem down, regardless of how
legit or non legit they are.
The reseller is not in control,the carrier is, and the carrier
is the one who can say I am nolonger honoring this plan, and
they shut it down, sometimeswithout warning.
(20:07):
We're also seeing, especiallywith AT&T, when they shut down
one of these resellers is theyare getting more and more
aggressive about not only justshutting off the plan, but they
are now blacklisting the devicesfrom their network, which means
that even if you go to AT&T andbuy a legit plan directly with
them, it won't work anymore.
They will not activate that.
Activate the sim card.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
So you've got a thousand dollar router that you
were using a, basically areseller plan.
That's equivalent like buyingsomething semi-legit at a flea
market.
At&t will now say well, no, wewon't let you use your device on
our network anymore, because wecaught you with that semi legit
device which?
Speaker 3 (20:44):
is.
We think it's really badbecause on AT&T, because you as
a consumer.
You went to a website that saidthis was a legit plan.
You did not know.
You have no reason to believethat it's not legit.
It's the reseller that needs tobe you.
They should have.
You know it's between them andthe carrier, not you as the
consumer, which is to me reallybad business practice.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Yeah, but it but is that is something to keep in
mind if you are buying kind ofthese like flea market plans.
If it seems too good to be true, there are some that are
ridiculously Cheap and becausebehind the scenes that the
reseller is basically takingtablet plans and Changing serial
numbers and like doing somekind of shady stuff sometimes on
these plans and well yeah, theyget caught eventually.
(21:28):
So yeah, though, if it seemstoo good to be true, definitely
have your backup plans in mind.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
That's a good point.
So to be more legitimate,people should actually go to one
of the main carriers.
It sounds like all.
Speaker 3 (21:39):
All of the carriers are offering plans now in the
100-150 gigabyte range that canbe used on routers and hotspot
devices and if you get enough ofthose Along with Starlink or
something like that, you canassemble enough data Most
households we also get.
How much data do I need a monthif you're streaming some up few
(21:59):
nights a week You're doing somezoom calls.
Most households, if they keeptheir data usage to a reasonable
level, can be perfectly happyin the two to 400 gigabyte per
month range.
Now you've got a heavy gamer,someone who's bit twerking or
something like that.
That's when you get into theterabytes and that's when it
gets more difficult.
But most of us are pretty darnhappy in that in the 500
(22:22):
gigabyte below range and it'spretty easy these days to get
that data Legit.
You're gonna pay.
You're gonna pay money.
You're not gonna get this cheap.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
You know that this plan at $20 a month is awesome,
yeah, and again is like and thedish is a legitimate plan, it's
just they might take away theirroaming to AT&T at some point.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
But there are ways to get it and that's what we're.
Go check our topic data plans.
There are options out there toassemble your, your setup, and
you just need to pay attentionto what data plans work on what
types of devices.
Some are like set to a specificdevice.
You have to use the device thecarrier sends you or the
reseller sends you.
Some can be used in any deviceyou want, so you need to just
(23:00):
pay attention to that.
You know, before you go buyyour hardware, look at what data
plans are available for thehardware you want to use.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
That is very interesting.
And just real quick, talkingabout third-party resellers,
what are some of those main onesthat you guys have seen out
there that are advertisingcurrently?
I Try not to pay attention.
Speaker 3 (23:20):
We do keep a list.
If you go to RV, mobileinternet, comm, third party, 3rd
party, we do keep a list.
Our team updates that once amonth.
They go through and doublecheck that they're still in
business.
That changes, that's the onlything we we promise is once a
month.
We have checked that vendorsand business.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
No way means that they're legit and any shape way
and because the good becausesome of these deals are really
good Is that if you are goingfor these third parties, it's
like great, you get the thirdparty.
One of this gives you a reallycheap plan with a lot of data,
but have your backup plan with alegit one, so that if that
disappears and it's just goneone day and the company's
selling you shut, shuts theirdoors, you've got something some
(23:57):
other way online.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
But some of the ones you know that are do do really
good diligence and they havegood customer support.
If something goes wrong, Mobilemust have.
They sell peplink gear.
They do sell data plans fortheir Customers and we have seen
those plans go away but theythey deal with it well and get
their customers like here's anew SIM card, you're back online
the FMCA family motor coachassociation.
(24:18):
They have a plan with AT&T.
It is capped at 10 megabit persecond or 25 megabit per second.
You have to be a member of themand have like two years of
membership but you can get aplan for like 60 bucks a month
with them, which they also havea good track record of treating
their members well.
So if AT&T pulls the plan, atleast you know the FMCA is gonna
(24:39):
do everything they can to haveyour back.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
You know alternative.
Yeah, on their side.
Speaker 3 (24:43):
I mean it's out of their control of AT&T, pulls the
, pulls the plan on them.
But and then there's, there's awhole bunch of others out there
that have been around for yearsnomad enter.
Well, yeah, kalecks Instituteis one we like.
They're a nonprofit and theyactually have a legit A
agreement contract.
Yeah, it was part of Sprint.
It got inherited by T-Mobileand it's for nonprofits and they
(25:04):
can include it.
With a membership to theirorganization, you get an
unlimited hotspot on T-Mobile'snetwork.
You have to use it on theirdevice that you buy with it, but
you get an and it comes out toabout 40 bucks a month, but you
have to prepay for a year ofmembership.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
Because you're making a donation to the nonprofit and
as a perk you're getting ahotspot with a year's worth of
unlimited data.
So it's kind of a loopholethere, but it is a.
You know, a legit old contractthat goes way, way back.
That is a, and they've stuckaround forever.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
Sounds like there's a lot of options at a lot of
price points for people, whichis really good.
Yes, yeah, some people areshocked and they're like you
spend that much on internetbecause I have, you know, on a
hotspot and the Starlink, andI'm like, well, yeah, I have to
work and luckily our otherexpenses are lower, so it all
counts Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (25:51):
It's the price of freedom.
If you want to be able to stillearn an income, it is.
It is one of the costs and itis something that's always
changing.
The technology is advancing.
You know the options that areavailable today.
They'll all change in a monthor two and you know.
That's why we're here.
We're tracking them.
We do have a free newsletterthat you can sign up for.
We have monthly updates oneverything we've covered.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
You guys are definitely the go-tos for
anything mobile and you have agreat website and YouTube
channel, so hopefully peoplewill go there and learn all they
can, because it's freedom, likeyou said, like there's nothing
better.
I'm excited to be talking toAmber Baldwin, a woman who's
been a nomad for five years,first in the class CRV, but
mostly in her camper van.
Amber is host of the YouTubechannel StoryChasing, where you
(26:37):
can follow along on her latestadventures.
Since Amber runs a YouTubechannel as her primary source of
income, she often searches forboondocking spots based on phone
signal.
Speaker 4 (26:46):
And I do that through apps.
So Campendium is the big onefor me.
Campendium has a filter onthere where you can see if it
has like AT&T or Verizon, whichare both of the hotspots that I
have, and if the cell signals goin.
And this is based on peoplewho've stayed there to their
reviews, and so if they aresaying that, yeah, the cell
signal is pretty good there,then I start looking at other
(27:09):
factors like where's thelocation?
Is it far away from the city ornot far away from the city?
Is it going to be conducive forthe van?
Because some places that you goto you might need four-wheel
drive, which I don't have.
So I look for that and thenjust make sure it's a beautiful,
quiet spot, because at the endof the day, I mean I want to be
able to go outside and put mycamp chair and my table and go
(27:32):
have breakfast outside, which isone of my favorite things to do
and read a book and have my dogout there with me and relax and
not hear like a bunch of people.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
Amber rarely stays in campgrounds enjoying the peace
and quiet of only nature aroundher.
Amber said when she firststarted RVing she was concerned
she might be lonely on the roadTo be honest, like my social
life is off the hook these days.
Speaker 4 (27:56):
I mean I have more community on the road than I
ever had in a traditional sticksand bricks house.
I think it's because, first ofall, you know when you're
traveling you meet people allalong the way, whether they're
RVing or not, you meet peoplealong the way.
Some of my really good friendsnow are people who actually live
in homes my friends from NewYork, mark and Grant.
(28:18):
I met them my very first yearof RVing and we met because of
our dogs.
We were walking our dogs and Iwas in a park there in a park
and we ended up being reallygood friends and I've stayed in
their home.
Then you meet full-time RVersand you just start building this
community on the road withRVers and I think with RVers
(28:41):
there's this instant camaraderie, almost because you have
something in common instantlywith RVing.
I think we're all probablylooking for similar things that
freedom in life, exploration,quiet, peace, solitude.
We just instantly can makeconnections.
(29:03):
One of the places that I went to, besides just traveling and
meeting people on the road,there's all kinds of groups that
you can get involved with.
One of the first ones that Igot involved with was the
Escapers group, which is anRVing kind of club community
group.
They have convergences anddifferent types of events spread
(29:27):
out around the United States.
That was the first thing that Idid and I've been able to make
a lot of friends through thatcommunity, a lot of times the
people that I connect with onthe road.
And then there's other types ofcommunities.
I'm in a van.
You can connect a lot withpeople who are in similar
situations in the van lifecommunity or even when I had my
(29:51):
Winnebago, there was theWinnebago community.
There's all different types ofgroups to connect with.
You can be as social as youwant to be or as alone as you
want to be, whether you'reintrovert or extrovert.
For me, being an introvert,that's the other thing is
there's a healthy respect forthat on the road, because
there's a lot of us who areintroverts.
(30:12):
For me, being an introvert, Ireach out by being by myself.
Sometimes I'll be with a groupof people, but then in a couple
of weeks I need to go out bymyself and hang out for a couple
of days or sometimes even amonth, and just be by myself.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
Amber thinks she's found more camaraderie on the
road, partly because there'sbeen a fundamental shift in how
people interact in housingdevelopments.
Speaker 4 (30:39):
Back in the old days.
I'm doing air quotes when I saythat Back in the old days, way
before my time, they had builtporches on the front of homes.
Now a lot of the homes arebuilt with your garage in the
front and you're really in yourbackyard when you want to be
outside.
I feel like we've lost thiscommunity when you think about
(31:01):
the traditional Sticks andBricks lifestyle in a lot of
ways about being in ourcommunity and being outside and
connecting with others, becauseI swear it's that porch on the
front.
When they took that away,everything started changing.
But we have that almost fulltime in our RVs where, because
we live outside so much, we canbuild more community because we
(31:24):
are outside and hanging out withother people.
So I hope that makes sense.
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