Van Life 101: How to Get Internet on the Road

[Music] hi everyone welcome back to our next video I'm here with Al hi there Alice uh it has become a really good friend of mine something I like to really spend time with whenever I can although he travels so much I can almost never grab him for very long because off he's gone he's got the NBA TV yeah well you know give me this time I got him this time so I'm really gonna I'm taking advantage of them while I've got him and today we're going to talk to you about how to get the internet out on the road I've gotten a lot of questions about that how do I get internet out on the road I have it at home I have unlimited internet what am I gonna do out there uh and now that must have been a question that you had for yourself three years ago yeah you know cuz when I was was living in my house I had unlimited internet yeah yeah like most people do and I got used to having a lot of data and a lot of easily easy access to the data I knew that would be different on the road and so I did a little research and I got a Wi-Fi booster version rather excuse me a cellular booster um a Wilson model but it turned out to be the wrong one it was only good for 3G cuz you know you got to read the fine print when you ordered these things um but I also had a cellular booster the Wi-Fi booster boosts the you know the big internet signal coming the cellular signal the Wi-Fi booster takes somebody else's Wi-Fi and you can access it from a farther distance like instead of being in McDonald's and using their Wi-Fi you can be out in the parking lot and using their Wi-Fi so you started with both I started with both um and after a while it's I was really frustrated because my phone that I was using was AT&T which didn't cover a lot of the area out here in the West that I wanted to be it's fine in the cities but you get outside the cities and you lose coverage rather quickly and the cellular booster wasn't working for me you may remember the first time I can't with you in Flagstaff I would disappear every day to go down the road to McDonald's to use their Wi-Fi because I wasn't getting a cellular signal but I could use for data and although I had good cell signal in that camp yes with my Verizon right and that gets old really fast that gets we're going into town every day going into town or getting someplace where you can find signal is you know yeah it's no fun so I thought okay I'm gonna get a jetpack so even though I had an 18 t cell phone I got a verizon jetpack and tell us what a jetpack is a jetpack is a little standalone device hold on like that hold it hold it up and still this is one of the new models this is I started out with a different model than this and you know it can take the the Wi-Fi signal it's in the air I mean the the cellular signal that's in the air and grab it and becomes your source of data so it becomes a Wi-Fi hotspot on its own right you can connect up to four devices with this so your computer three other people's computers or your computer and your phone your computer and something else or whatever and that connects wirelessly to those things right just like this becomes McDonald's yeah this is Laurie Starbucks right in your pocket in your pocket and so I got one of those and it was great it was working for me fine so at the time you had both AT&T and Verizon 82 phone and a verizon jetpack and the ATT was much better no jet the Verizon was better I'm teasing I'm being a smartass folks hey candy sucks out here that's my point and then I got the correct cellular booster to work with 4G and that was the Wilsons sleek at the time the Wilson sleek right and I was living happily and then up what's back up a little bit you had unlimited data at home how much data did you have then the first verizon jetpack I got the most they would offer is 10 gigabytes right and that's how it seemed a lot for some people I know some people have plans where they're happy with two to five gigabytes but tend to me was just like oh and so and so I was going on happily long do you mind if I ask you though this was three years ago so that's a long time ago and it in the digital world how much were you paying for those 10 gigs remember I I think it's like 60 bucks it was it was more than that more than that but no I was thought it was fifty bucks for five it was close to a hundred for ten yeah it was him seen that hundred range yeah um and so I was happy but I wasn't really happy with the 10 gigabytes I wish I had more I had to be very careful I had to watch a lot now ten gigs is a lot where you want downloading were you streaming muumuus movies or music I wasn't stream downloading a lot but I spent you know several hours a day online right you know that was your hobby online and app and online in that Drive wind right yeah right so datang gigabytes is getting kind of restricted for me and i heard about melodic calm which another carrier was carrying Verizon and you can get up to 20 gigabytes now when you say they were carrying Verizon they used Verizon towers right they bought the huge bulk amount of time from Verizon and resold it right and so I thought you know the deal is good enough and I can afford to have the milliner column as well as my verizon jetpack so I had to jet packs for a while 20 gigs in 10/10 so I had 30 altogether and that had made me happy you were happy I could use a gig a day here he said well then Verizon shut down millena calm mm-hmm and so that went away right but to sort of make peace with the form of mylanta calm users they offered a 30 gigabyte plan so I got the 32 goodbye plan from Verizon had cost me more than it did before but I really needed to date it you know you're a junkie I was a junkie yes I still AM and so then my phone contract on the AT&T phone ended and I got a verizon phone with tethering so it could be used as a hotspot right so I could use either the phone same thing you it it received the signal and rebroadcast it it became your Starbucks or McDonald's right phone did so I had the phone which could give me my data or I had the jet pack which is give me my data and a while there you had three no cuz I'm gonna calm went away oh right that by then the mall any comic on one button Linna con went away um so I have the two right whichever is more convenient there's advantages and disadvantages on the phone it uses up the battery faster right but the phone could pick up a signal easier then the jetpack can jetpack battery lasts longer but sometimes it doesn't pick up the signal as well as the phone does I don't know why then my Wilson's sleek booster started going bad and I think it was because the connector to the power cord loosened up off of the circuit board I've had that happen to me twice as well yeah that it still worked fine but I couldn't charge it yeah and so that wasn't working for me and I got the new version since then Wilson took all this cellular products and had named it weboost and so now it's through we boost something or other it's pretty much the same thing looks a little bit different I actually uh I actually called them when the we when the will I'm a big fan of Wilson sleek I've owned numerous ones than they break and I buy new ones they're that good and I called Wilson we was switching over to this they changed their names I don't know why it's terrible name weboost and I called them and asked the clerk and I knew I finally nailed her down is there any difference other than cosmetics and looks between these two units and she said no they are 100% identical it just changed some cosmetic things yeah a little bit different shape on the case yeah yeah but you know Wilson kept all their like their trucker things are still Wilson now another bigger higher-end radio stuff but the cellular phone stuff is all weboost now cuz they boost your signal right we boost we do huh clever anyway okay so the new booster and that was fine I was working good but I spent a lot of time this summer away from anybody cell signal or on the fringes of cell signals and I I'd have days when I couldn't get anything I thought well I've seen people like Bob and RV sue have a directional cellular antenna well let's go back to what when we were camping together in Prescott yeah I you're even with your Slade Wilson sleek you didn't get a signal and I was yeah why Wilson sleek we were twenty yards apart twenty yards apart and I couldn't get crap and he he got a good signal and because he had the directional antenna the directional antenna and so I got one too ha ha a new better toy due to it ha Christmas in July or whatever yeah and that has made a difference in a lot of spots yeah there'd be times when I check the signal and say I'd have 3 bars of 3G and I took up the antenna and I'd have three bars of 4G right that's been my experiences however there are still some places where it would the signal keep getting strong weak strong weak throughout the day from 1x to 4g to back and for certain yeah there's sometimes you're just too far away you're not gonna get a signal yeah are there things in the way right that's in the mountains that's usually the problem yeah so let's look at the antenna sure so so we've hopefully we've sold you on the idea that once you leave your house you are going to have to give up a lot of your data I most of you we're getting it from your cable company or wherever it's coming from and you get an unlimited amount or just a huge amount you are going to have to ration you may have 30 I have 30 gigs I have a 30 gig verizon plans so oh did you you said Malena comm was coming back millena kong has come back only they're now dealing with Sprint instead oh well and Sprint is like well I'd rather have AT&T that Sprint yeah they're even worse than AT&T yeah so but they've got some really good prices if you're going to be living mostly around cities and things like that then that would be a good thing to check out right if you're going to be mainly in cities or towns and even some towns you can't get AT&T or Sprint then if you're in a city buy on price whoever's cheapest gives you the most data for the best deal but once you leave the cities you want to get Verizon and get the best deal you can which because Verizon is better they can charge more what can you say they offer a better service and people get mad I've had people angry at me because ice promote Verizon they just overcharge building all those towers is expensive and they build a lot of towers and they have to charge more for all those towers I love the towers I'm willing to pay more for the towers making a terrible customer service that has not been my experience they're all just average they're no better or worse than anyone else I don't think and you know you can get a 40 gig plan and they have to share everything where you can get a phone in the jet by the phone and a jet pack and 30 gigs of data and it's costing me about 175 a month a lot of money but I got to do it I got to have that much data do you mind if I ask you what you're paying more than that good - an older plan probably oh yeah somebody's like 215 right a month right yeah yeah so and I got a deal were they for a while there they were I have was we're gonna go buy a 15 gig plan and they gave you 15 gigs free yeah so I got that they're always changing plans all kind of keep checking and seeing what the latest thing is yeah it's always so the bottom line is uh you're going to have to go down a much smaller amount you'll just use your your smartphone or a jet pack whichever one is most convenient for you you could use one the other or both adding on if you have a smartphone adding a second line as a jet pack I think it's ten or twenty dollars it was worth it to me plus the cost of the device and the cost of device which sometimes is not much or that's all changed now - they don't give free devices with new plants paying the monthly fees it's all really changing when you buy the time you're watching this it all could have changed dramatically again so ours are gonna go out of business you know don't ever say don't even say that I'd let you bring my odd articles of CHOP if Verizon goes out of business or I'd have to move into the city and I'd caps closed up shop because I can't do that yeah so you can do it now you can do it with a jet pack or with your smartphone and and we highly both highly recommend the new weboost and we don't even know the name of the new weboost it's it's the low price one it's the low price one it's on Amazon and I'll get there we'll be we'll put this up on the screen you'll know the name there I'll put a link to it in the description so it sits there I just don't remember what his off top my head the new name I know what the Wilson sleek is I've owned one for three or four years five years and so if you really want the very best you add the directional antenna to it and so you're going to show us now the directional antenna actual antenna oh so here is your a directional antenna your says weboost mind says Wilson but otherwise it's identical so tell us how it works okay well inside this little box there's some wiry thingies that are magic and it's just magic pulse that goes from the air right and cable comes out attach this to another cable which attaches to the booster I can show you how to do that um this little section here is usually about that long I cut it off don't know why was there I got some electrical conduit flatten one end bolted that to there as soon you just beat it with a hammer until his flat yep yeah had a good day that day pardon you had a good day that day oh yeah I think I can smash things you know that's good okay so after I got this all dismounted on the the electrical conduit I put some some u-bolts up on my on my ladder rack why don't you see him and so then I can climb up here on you just step on your back bumper step on the back bumper well first I connect the cable right this is how you do any good without cables Kris Bruce Cruise goes through through put cable up there and then that slips in there and I tied it with some wing nuts just wait just plain ol wing nuts and then once I get disconnected to the booster and the jet pack in the booster I could turn this until I get the strongest signal I can because it's directional you have it has to be aimed at the tower right you aim it at the tower if you don't know where the tower is you got to kind of do this or there are apps that you can get that will find the closest tower for you the strongest tower so you just have the you're you're standing there you've got the jetpack or your phone in your hand and you turn it and as the if the bars go up you're going the right direction yep and that the bars going down you're going the wrong direction yeah you got to turn it wait a couple of seconds turn it wait a couple of seconds see what happens there's a lag there yeah and once you find it you tighten it up yep now you I remember when I did this you have to have an adapter uh going into something how does something into something yeah I'll talk about that okay so this is ten feet was enough for me you can get like 10 15 20 feet you bought this all also all goddesses on Amazon all of it came from Amazon yeah screw that there go back up now one of the things we run into fairly off out here is wind so you must have to do the wingnuts fairly tight or you just let it turn in the wind um this happens to bind down here so it doesn't want to turn unless like turn so okay so you're not having problems with it turning in the wind no okay so this is this is my booster usually they're like that for telephones and this is a power cord that's running to a 12-volt outlet I have down here it just uses a cigarette lighter plug right because the original intent for these is you stick them on the dash of your vehicle plug it into your cigarette lighter put your phone in it right but we know it can do so much more and ordinarily they come with a small antenna like that just make a magnetic you'd put that on the roof of your vehicle and the other end would connect the thing which is which is fine you know does it amazingly good job in places where we are right now you're Bernier town is so problem but to connect that into a thing that's meant for that you need an adapter or two so I started off quiz with these two adapters this one goes into there this one goes into there and that goes into the booster then someone who's had experience with this said there's a problem with doing it this way and that is the weight of the cable and screwing it in and out of the booster can cause the connector here to fail and we know with the electoral electrical connection it happens a lot right it happens with this and so it can happen with this one where it's soldered on to the circuit board inside so I did that for a while then I thought okay is there another way to do this and I got poking around on Amazon looking for come on I can't remember the names of these connectors but that Hector has a name and that connector has a name is there something that goes straight from there to there was some wiring between and I found it that's this this wire comes around and goes to there which I have mounted here which means I can connect the cable to there and wiggle this all I want and it's not going to wiggle the connector on it booster very good so I can connect that and then bring this in connect that there and put that there I'm in business now the one downside with this whole setup this cable is kind of thick it's very thick cable and so even though I have that door closed I can usually only have that one closed partially which is not bad when the weather is okay I don't know what I'm gonna do when the weather's crappy except not have cell service I run through my walk mine through the window my front my drop out of the driver's window I can have you then I roll it up all but that and very little comes in yeah if you have the covers none will come in yeah I'd have to have more cable right I bought a huge amount of cable yeah so I could do that well no no you could go up to your front ladder rack then it might fit well no you'd start to come all the way back here come back back yeah no that's something else about the the weboost booster is it comes with a suction cup thing I kept falling off it's a lie I bolted it through okay and you said that you will jump from a few bars of 3G to three or four bars of 4G yeah or all that unusual sometimes I'll go here one bar of 4G to five bars of 4G or in most cases it does improve the signal drastically you know in some places in just no signal and no amount of antenna or boosting is gonna do anything about it no yeah absolutely well you know when when we were in Prescott together that one time I had my cell phone app locate our locator app and we were literally 20 miles from that tower so we were there's noise it's amazing we got anything and what you did and he with my complete setup I did but it really works these these things really work folks you'll it do you remember that what this cost you it's been too long since I've done like forty five bucks for the antenna and then like another twenty something for the cable and the connectors and things are like less than ten bucks yeah probably a hundred bucks for the antenna setup yeah or less probably that's high yeah and I think the weboost is now quite a bit more it's like it's 170 150 150 yeah you can see I kept going up every year Eve when I was at least I guess it's 150 for the refurbished one that I got oh that you got a refurbished one here yeah no you always checked that on Amazon if you have a couple of products you can see if they have a brand new or refurbished and I always get two refurbished mm-hmm and that's and that's Bob's phone making noises is indeed my phone making noises folks does he get cell service right here oh yeah I sure do so there you have it uh you can have internet out here it's not a problem it's expensive it's much more expensive and even though it's much more expensive than what you're getting now in your home you'll get less of it and so that's just part of the cost of being on the road freedom isn't free no you got to pay for it just to some degree and one of the ways you're paying you is in internet bills ah you know I'm not paying rent or mortgage so how much you're saving a lot more than your spending yes that's the bottom line here folks okay so there you have it that's how you get internet on the road I hope that's helped be sure and like us on YouTube and subscribe to the channel and John earn it if you have internet and if you don't have Verizon you may not and so we will talk to you next time thanks a lot appreciate how you're welcome [Music]

Channel: CheapRVliving

Views: 325,089

Keywords: live, living, car, van, RV, Fill-time, nomad, gypsy, camper, camp, boondock, travel, cell, internet, Wison, WeBoost, antenna, sleek, 4g, Verizon

Id: IdvuwKgA-2A

Length: 26min 46sec (1606 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 16 2017