Wi fit on board

[Dr Bob]

20 hours ago, ivan&alice said:

Hey Dr Bob, what antenna do you use, and does your router switch between networks as required automatically or do you have to do it manually?

It's a solwise antenna......

Poynting 4G-XPOL-A0001 Cross Polarised 4G Omni LTE Antenna

They are expensive. 83 squid on Amazon but works very very well.

Our router can be set to switch sims in a number of ways. At the moment, the 3 sim is the priority and it will switch to theEE on low signal strength i.e. < -85dB. In theory this works well but when we set off boating, we take the antenna pole down and lay it on the roof. The signal strength therefore goes down, the sim switches and doesn't switch back! Switching sims via the router control panel on the phone or laptop is very easy so I really should just do it manually so I don't use up all my EE data.

[bill brown]

On 18/06/2019 at 23:11, bill brown said:

If you have an unlocked router you could try Smarty (google it) It's part of Three and offers a unlimited* pay as you go sim for £25 per month, just a few quid more than a 12/24 month contract. The sim works in phones and mobile routers and its easy to cancel if you find its not for you.

 

* They say unlimited but it's actually a maximum of 1000GB per month. No throttling though and the speed is fine for the likes of Netflix etc. with a decent signal.

PAYG unlimited is now £18.75 per month.

[old-p]

On 19/06/2019 at 10:25, Dr Bob said:

We are a fairly big user of data on board using 4g.

Buy a decent router and antenna. Ours is a Teltonika router and dual feed antenna 3ft above the roof.

We have 2 sims. We took out an EE contract 2 years ago for £40 for 60Gb and in April the "3" £20 unlimited deal.

Since start of May, we have been pootling about from Braunston to Warwick to  Brum to Dudley and up to great Haywood. 20 different locations ish. The router is normally on the "3" sim but there were 4 overnight stops where the signal was not good enough to stream. 16 out of 20 is not too bad for unlimited. In 2 other locations - the centre of brum and bottom of Netherton tunnel, there was a strong signal (-51dB) but it would drop out for 30 mins every now and again. The "3" web site said there was a local problem!!!

In all cases where the "3" signal was not good enough, the EE sim worked fine for streaming. In the 2 years previous we NEVER had a problem with the EE and it even got got service in the black holes of Braunston and Lower Heyford. EE is the bees knees in my opinion for reception but not price.

The "3" deal is amazing. Unlimited....and yes it is unlimited (up to their limit but its difficult to do 30Gb a day!!!!....even we cant do that) but there are certainly some spots where you are not going to get a signal. If you are CC'ing and need a signal all the time then I would get a "3" and another. If you are in a marina, just check the "3" works at that location and then you should be fine with just "3".

Yep spot on and good advice,  as with a lot of things you get what you pay for,  yes a single or cheap router will often work but a good one like Dr bobs will work better , but the key is a Good quality aerial,  definitely not a cheap one,  and yes some that sell for over £150 really do make a massive difference,  others are a ripoff so always go for one recommended by someone who uses it and who's opinion you trust.

[Dr Bob]

2 hours ago, old-p said:

Yep spot on and good advice,  as with a lot of things you get what you pay for,  yes a single or cheap router will often work but a good one like Dr bobs will work better , but the key is a Good quality aerial,  definitely not a cheap one,  and yes some that sell for over £150 really do make a massive difference,  others are a ripoff so always go for one recommended by someone who uses it and who's opinion you trust.

Wot?

Trust me?

I'm just an old quack whose gone to the daawgs.

[Bewildered]

Unless it's changed since I last bothered to look less data is used to download a movie than to stream one. And if you download in a pub it doesn't use your own data at all; this also comes with the advantage of readily available beer.

I download to an apple phone and then connect it to the TV with an AV adapter and hdmi lead.

[Karl]

we took the plunge and bought from David at Wifi Onboard. Router and magnetic aerial. we got and unlimited data sim card from Three for£20 a month on a two year contract but its discounted for Six months to £11. All is working well and we can even stream Netflix without any problems. System is working great and set up in mins.

[Nightwatch]

Need to link iPad, which gets all from an unlimited EE dongle, to 12v TV. One usb which powers speakers. Not with TV at present but I think it has HDMI socket. It a Cello 22” 

Don’t want to engage 240v.

Any ideas, please?

[matty40s]

You can get a USB/HDMI converter some of which take a 12v power feed, some dont, and just run from the tablet power

 

.https://www.amazon.co.uk/Adapter-Graphics-Converter-Compatible-Windows-black/dp/B076J3VKMJ

[Chewbacka]

26 minutes ago, Nightwatch said:

Need to link iPad, which gets all from an unlimited EE dongle, to 12v TV. One usb which powers speakers. Not with TV at present but I think it has HDMI socket. It a Cello 22” 

Don’t want to engage 240v.

Any ideas, please?

You may find an Apple lightening to HDMI better for general video BUT some streamed content is encrypted to prevent you using an hdmi recorder, so may not display on the tv, things like Netflix are I think encrypted.
So it depends on what you were hoping to watch.

 

I have not used this, it’s just an example of a cable.

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Adapter-OPPEY-Support-Compatible-Projector-Black/dp/B07ZGCK1QJ/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=Ipad+to+tv&qid=1576414473&s=computers&sr=1-4

 

 

Edited December 15, 2019 by Chewbacka

[john6767]

8 hours ago, Chewbacka said:

You may find an Apple lightening to HDMI better for general video BUT some streamed content is encrypted to prevent you using an hdmi recorder, so may not display on the tv, things like Netflix are I think encrypted.
So it depends on what you were hoping to watch.

 

I have not used this, it’s just an example of a cable.

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Adapter-OPPEY-Support-Compatible-Projector-Black/dp/B07ZGCK1QJ/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=Ipad+to+tv&qid=1576414473&s=computers&sr=1-4

 

 

I have the genuine Apple lightening to HDMI adapter, and it works well, but many applications will not work with so it severely limits its usefulness.  I think ITV player, Sky Go, BT Sport all do not work.  BBC iPlayer does work.