Broadband access from caravan - recomendations?
 

In June we had just over 3 weeks away in the caravan touring in Cornwall, Devon & Dorset.

For the first time I took the laptop with us for Internet access so that we would be able to research areas we visited, recover any eMails, & keep an eye on the ( rainy ) weather during the trip.

I had recently installed an external USB Wi-Fi dongle in an elevated position and was able to use this when sites had an access point available.
Often the connection was a bit flaky and intermittent as we were sometimes distant from the sites access point.
Often there was no Wi-Fi available at sites at all.

I thought that it might be a good idea to buy a PAYG Internet dongle before our next trip but the thought didn't cross my head again till today ( on the eve of our next trip ).

My mobile phone is not a modern smart phone with Internet, it's a £15 basic PAYG phone bought from Argos a few years ago. A £10 top up lasts me weeks and it suits me fine.

I don't plan to change the phone and in any case would want Internet on a big screen ( IE laptop ).

We wouldn't be using Internet in the caravan for general browsing, just for the purposes I mentioned.

Does anyone have any recomendations that would suit our use.
Particularly which mobile Internet PAYG service to use.

I wont be able to reply for a few days being that this next trip will be on a THS site.

Colin

I have a Mobile internet with Virgin giving me up to 3MB/S (dependant on signal) my is contract (£5.00/Month) I think Virgin do PAYG but you could check. Had my for about 3-4 years now and only a coulpe of sites I have not had some form of connection.

I had a 3 dongle on payg which worked quite well, I would recommend that you check the network coverage of any and all to double check which is best for you, Cheers Jay

Hi,what about a giffgaff gigabag?,

http://giffgaff.com/goodybags#data

I suppose that you'd just need too get a o2 dongle and stick the sim in as Giffgaff run on the o2 network.I've not used one of these myself but,i have been on the mobile phone network for about 12 month's and honestly,i dont have a bad word too say about it.

Jason

The best way would be to use a 3G modem on USB but get one with an external antenna as this can boost the range and signal 3 fold.

I have one of these and it good in areas that have poor signal
TP-LINK Technologies TP-LINK TL-MR3420 3G/3.75G 300Mbps Wireless N Router

I use an Orange SSID (whatever that stands for) Wifi Key. To connect my iPad whilst caravanning . Seems to connect most of time, sometimes can be a little slow. But most of the time it'll run even the TV apps, so can watch uk tv of an evening in the van here in France.

The other day I'd left it switched on and folks in my gite through two concrete block walls said there PC was picking it up as well as my home B/band, lol

Broadband from Caravan
 

We use a 3G wi fi dongle, picks up all of the time, super service, it runs three computer's either at home or in the caravan. we do not use external aerials, it is sitting on the ledge beside me. We pay 20 euro per month, love it, but then this is Ireland the land of magic

I have an iPad with 3G, I don't use it much (use WiFi mainly) so I look for cheapest ways possible and I've found a few different ways one (or more may suit your needs).

The first is with Three (you'll need to buy a Three PAYG Dongle or MiFi Dongle, which may come with some credit but once that credit has been used) buy a new PAYG Sim from Three £20.49 but do it via Quidco.com (you get £12.50 cashback) so works out £8 for 3Gb of data with a 3 month limit, which should last you a few weekends away. Once that credit has run out buy a new Sim the same way, never top-up the old Sim it works out more expensive.

Secondly is to try and find one of the old Vodafone 1GB Sims which didn't expire after 30 days, the credit stays active if you long on every 90 days. I've got 2 of them (one cut down to a Mirco Sim) had them over 2yrs and never topped them up once still on the original 1Gb of Credit, they are now very hard to find since Vodafone only sold them for a few months before changing it to a £10 1Gb 30 days, rather than the £15 1Gb never expiring.

Lastly which isn't much use to you is T-Mobile offer a Micro Sim (iPhone 4S) PAYG with a years free Data (500Mb a month) which can be used in an iPad (if activated in an iPhone 4S).

There is also http://ovivomobile.com/ which gives you free 1Gb a month of Data but again it's for iPads.

Edit: Reading the http://ovivomobile.com/ website again, there Sim can be used in a Dongle so this is the cheapest way, but since it's free (£5 for the Sim Card) you get diverted each time you log on to an advert and they could disappear if the business model doesn't work. Think they Run on the Vodafone Network so should work with a Vodafone Dongle, but read up on it first because I'm not 100% on that.

I have a vodafone mifi which is on a 1 month rolling contract.It is a great little peice of equipment which allows you to work up to 5 different wifi laptops or ipads etc.cost £49 for the MIFi (1 off payment) and then you choose how much you want to pay for broadband.

Thanks for the replies everyone.
Tonight I've been looking further into this based on your suggestions.

Hmm - I can see this is not going to be as straightforward as I expected if I want a package to exactly suit my use.

I guess I'm looking for something similar to the use I have with my mobile phone where I can load it with, say, £10 and that credit doesn't have to be used within a specific period of time.
I can use it gradually over as long as it lasts then top it up again.
Months can go by before I use up that £10 credit but it doesn't expire.

My impression is that with mobile broadband that is not the case.
PAYG credits appear to expire within a specified time period if not used from what I've seen tonight.
Guaranteed usage of the whole of the credit within that time period is not assured being that the use will be intermittent in the caravan.

That use depends on multiple things like weather, available time off work etc as to whether we will use the caravan at all within the time slot. Especcially in winter.
And, when we do use it, will we use it to take maximum advantage of the use we have paid for without that use expiring.

IE will we get all the usage we have paid for before it expires and this is the crux of it.

I hate having things taken from me that I have paid for - especcially by corporate bodies that have decided my spending rate doesn't meet their prefered customer profile.
In my mind I've paid for it so it's mine.

Thinking cap required!

BTW we've just had a few nights on a THS at Glasson Dock just south of Lancaster and it was a good break.
Nightly rate was £5.
The ground was a bit soft though and we had to have the caravan towed off by a 4wd - the V70 Auto even in L in Winter mode couldn't cope.

Colin