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This article gives an overview of two options (Wi-Fi and Mobile-Broadband) to get Internet Access working for you on pitch, by covering what I discovered and feel to be pertinent, in getting this working for me. It hopefully also helps put some of the often confusing terminology into a more understandable context. Apologies that the article has to be long-ish to be reasonably comprehensive, and has to include some technical details as these are particularly relevant when it comes to achieving the best possible connection by using an external-antenna. Although I believe the technical details to be correct, the caveat is that I am certainly not an expert in this field, and there are no guarantees. I have no connection to, or interest in, any of the businesses mentioned by name or via website links, other than using their services. As always, everyone should obviously shop around. Use it or lose it... Less patient readers should maybe just read section "4 - BETTER CONNECTION" below.
1. WI-FI
The first option is to use the Wi-Fi connection provided by some caravan parks. This is similar to a Wi-Fi connection that many people use at home to connect their laptop to their landline based broadband router. Your laptop needs to have a compatible inbuilt Wi-Fi device or a Wi-Fi USB-dongle. You need to arrange (and usually pre-pay) to use the Wi-Fi network that each caravan park provides, adjust your wireless connection, and enter something like userid/password on the Wi-Fi Network webpage to use each park's connection... and remember to logoff promptly or else your usage quota may be wasted. While many parks run by the Caravan and Camping-and-Caravanning clubs now offer Wi-Fi connectivity, I think relatively few other UK caravan parks provide a Wi-Fi service, but I have heard that most(?) European parks do provide Wi-Fi.
The Wi-Fi network in some parks may not provide a decent signal to every pitch, and I feel that the usage costs are sometimes excessively high! Nevertheless, at times Wi-Fi may be the only option available in some locations where Mobile-Internet is impractical or simply not available, even with an external-antenna! By the way if you're ever in a pickle and need urgent access, free Wi-Fi connectivity is provided by some of the McDonalds diners worldwide and some coffee shops and Moto Chef motorway service areas. Google something like 'Free Wi-Fi' and you should find plenty of others too.
If you use a Wi-Fi dongle you may be able to noticeably improve your reception by getting your dongle outside and higher as covered under section "4 - BETTER CONNECTION" below.
The Wi-Fi connection usually operates in the 2400Mhz band.
2. MOBILE-INTERNET / BROADBAND
The second option is to use a Mobile-Broadband connection via a Mobile-Broadband USB-dongle from one of the mobile-providers such as Vodaphone, O2, Orange, Three(3), or T-Mobile. This is not the same as Wi-Fi in the sense described above, as it is based on mobile (cellular) technology. Like a mobile phone, your mobile dongle needs a valid SIM card to operate properly, and will normally be physically connected to a USB port on your laptop. The mobile dongles are normally packaged as plug-and-play devices with the necessary dongle dashboard software automatically installing itself from the dongle, on the first connection to a given PC... So getting it working is normally a doddle.
The basic buying options involve either tying yourself into a 12/18/24 month contract where the dongle is sometimes included for "free", or using non-contract Prepay/PAYG (Pay-As-You-Go) where you need your own dongle. Some of the mobile-provider options are shown on comparison type websites (see links). Whatever you choose, I recommend that you get a dongle that has a connection point for an external-antenna. For the purpose of this article, the following applies:
2G-Mobile-Internet is roughly as fast as pre-broadband dial-up speeds and equates to 2G/2.5G/GPRS/EDGE and is carried on a GSM mobile network. GPRS/EDGE are the basic data equivalents of mobile (cellular) voice communications.
3G-Mobile-Broadband is roughly as fast as lower-end domestic broadband speeds and equates to 3G/WCDMA/3G+/HSDPA and is carried on a UMTS mobile network. 3G+/HSDPA (high speed download) is a faster subset of 3G that will typically only kick in for the duration of bigger downloads.
Any Mobile-Broadband service is provided as being capable of 3G/broadband speeds where this is available which is mainly near built-up areas, but where there is no 3G coverage your connection will automatically fall back to the lower 2G speeds, assuming that 2G coverage is available.
As UK cellular coverage is quite extensive, many if not most UK caravan parks fall within 2G mobile-internet coverage areas, and some have good 3G mobile-broadband coverage. Whilst OFCOM does provide access to a database of information on mobile-provider base-stations (see links), I frankly find it of no use whatsoever, as the currency and accuracy of this information is dubious at best (due to no fault of OFCOM). However, each of the UK mobile-providers give a theoretical guestimate of their 2G and 3G network coverage per Postcode via their websites (see links) and particularly where the coverage results are presented on a Map, this does give some idea what kind of connectivity is likely, but ultimately it's a case of try and see!
Mobile-Broadband is generally not as good as Landline-Broadband but it does give you the portability to take it with you!
Mobile-providers in the UK operate their 3G networks on the 2100Mhz band, and their 2G networks on one of two frequency bands - GSM900 (900Mhz band) is used by Vodaphone and O2, while GSM1800 (1800Mhz band) is used by Orange, Three(3), T-Mobile, etc.. While the GSM900 spectrum is currently reserved exclusively for 2G services in the UK, a handful of countries including Australia and New Zealand have started rolling out some 3G networks using the GSM900 2G spectrum. Lower frequencies are better at propagating over long distances and building penetration. Higher frequencies have a shorter range and therefore require more base stations.
3. MOBILE-INTERNET - OUTSIDE THE UK
Almost without exception, all mobile-providers in Europe, Africa, the Indian subcontinent, and Australia and New Zealand also use the 900/1800/2100 MHz bands (that are used in the UK) for their 2G and 3G networks, resulting in mobile hardware for voice and data generally being compatible across these zones. As an example, I bought and used my current dongle while staying with family downunder, and simply change the PAYG SIM to use either Three(3), Vodafone, or T-Mobile in the UK.
However, please beware of potentially EXORBITANT rates if you use your mobile-dongle on a roaming basis anywhere outside the UK!! Where UK mobile-providers don't provide an affordable reciprocal roaming option for a particular country/region, using a SIM from that country would seem to be the best option. Technically and Conceptually this should work perfectly. Sadly, there are at least two devils in the detail around this :
Firstly, If a given country/region doesn't provide a (cheapest) SIM-ONLY buying option, this may force one to waste dosh (rather un-green too?) on the more expensive local Dongle+SIM. Although I don't think any UK Mobile-Provider yet offers a SIM-ONLY option for mobile broadband officially, I have previously been able to get a normal T-Mobile PAYG SIM-ONLY "converted" for mobile broadband use, so there may be cheaper not-officially-published ways around this wherever one is... All newish SIMs bought within the last year or so should be "3G data compatible" and therefore interchangeable between modern mobile phones and mobile dongles. At Top-Up activation time you select a Data "package" for a dongle.
Secondly, It seems that most UK dongles are locked into the network from which they were purchased... Heaven alone knows why, and afraid I have no idea whether this locking only works within the UK, or across a region such as Africa / Australasia / Europe, or whatever. I understand that one can get a dongle unlocked but have to pay the Mobile-Provider for this, and that there are some websites that may be able to unlock dongles for free or a cheaper fee, but have no experience of this.
I have yet to tour in the EU so have no practical experience of this, but have added some links to websites that may assist (see links). If anyone has used local Prepay/PAYG mobile-internet in Europe, please email me if you would like to help expand this section, and I will document this once better informed.
4. MOBILE-INTERNET and WIFI - BETTER CONNECTION
The service that you receive on your connection depends partly on how busy the network is. Voice and text users take priority over dongle (data) users, so when the network is particularly busy, data speeds may be slow even though signal strength is high. Conversely when the network is not busy, you may get fast data speeds although you barely have a signal. Unfortunately you can only influence this aspect of service by connecting at less sociable hours.
Signal reception is not an exact science and you may find that reception is acceptable just a short distance away from a spot where reception is impossible, not unlike the situation with a mobile phone or even a simple FM radio. Especially when you have your window blinds down at night, a caravan or motor-home is effectively a Faraday-cage-like metal box which is obstructive to radio waves. And with caravan parks typically being located in the sticks, in valleys and dips, or on the outskirts of built-up areas, they are often in border-line-coverage areas or no-coverage areas. An optimal connection is achieved by having an unobstructed line-of-sight view to a network mast that is within reasonable distance. You can optimise your side of the connection by considering the parameters needed for an optimal connection.
You will often be able to noticeably improve your reception, simply by optimising the position of your Wi-Fi or 3G dongle... Connect your dongle to the end of a 5m USB extension cable, from MAPLIN or elsewhere, and then get the dongle outside, positioned as high as necessary, orientated vertically, and having the side containing the led/light/logo facing in the best direction.
I've found it best to have the USB cable hanging from the dongle and then taping the dongle and cable to the top of a pole. In all cases the pole is then simply rotated slowly until one gets the best reception. Please take steps to waterproof the dongle and connections with something like a plastic bag or balloon or plastic bottle... but consider condensation.
For the pole/mast, I use a £15 telescopic aluminium pole from B&Q's paint section - Harris-Performance-Extension-Pole 5m fully extended - 1.9m compact - It only weighs about 1.6kg with tube diameters of about 32-28-24mm. My installation has the pole standing against the 'van, secured to the awning rails with cable-ties and straps in such a way that it will not break free, but allowing for flexing throughout the length of the pole.
Either optimising the position of your dongle, or having a good external-antenna, can easily mean the difference between having a connection or not!
There are websites (see links) designed to help you test the speed of your connection... On the Three(3) network at 01h00 today I am getting Download=2.87Mb/s, Upload=0.36Mb/s, and Ping Latency=200ms.
5. MOBILE-INTERNET - BEST CONNECTION WITH EXTERNAL-ANTENNA
The external-antenna becomes essential if you are an internet addict, or where having internet connectivity is particularly important to you for whatever reason. My external-antenna gives me peace of mind and lower blood pressure by providing something close to the best and most consistent connection possible, at home or away, and is so simple to setup that it is now part of my caravan pitching routine.
Antennas are partly qualified by their signal gain (eg. 7.5 dBi), which depends on the type of antenna and it's size. Directional antennas typically provide a higher gain (focus) than omni-directional antennas, but need to be "aimed" at an appropriate mast, whereas omni-directional antennas are typically the opposite of this. A higher gain antenna is usually beneficial, as you also lose signal (attenuation) in every component between the antenna and the dongle, depending on the number / length / type / condition of cable and connectors and couplings. Decent antennas will have their numerical gain stated, and for wandering purposes I personally wouldn't bother with an antenna providing less real gain than about 5dBi.
For an antenna solution to be of any use, the antenna gain MUST exceed the combined signal loss (which loss is difficult to quantify). For this reason it is also recommended that, if possible, you use a dongle that has a connection point for an external-antenna, as this allows you to connect the dongle to the antenna cable elegantly using a "pigtail" connector that incurs less signal loss (0.5 dBi) than can be incurred (2-6dBi) when using a finicky inductive acoustic coupler to make the same dongle to cable connection. If you already have a dongle without such a connector and you don't wish to purchase another, all is not lost. I have used an acoustic coupler on an old Huawei E220 dongle with a high gain antenna and this did provide acceptable results.
While tinkerers may enjoy building their own cheap can-tenna or wok-tenna antennas, I took the easier path of buying online and experienced good service from CONNEXTECH (antenna bundles) and SOLWISE who, as well as having a wide selection of Cable Connectors, offered the best deal for a spare pigtail (see links) for the CRC9 connector on my Huawei E169, E156G, and E160X dongles. I run a 2 metre USB extension cable from the laptop to the dongle, which helps keep most of the inside wiring out of sight, and to date have used two different antenna solutions that have produced similar good results:
OLD: Coupler+5m-antenna-cable leading to a 11dBi SLP antenna which should work for 3G and 2G (GSM1800 only) and WI-FI (2400Mhz). NB. This antenna does NOT accommodate the GSM900 Networks of Vodaphone and O2. This antenna bundle (see links) costs about £60.
NEW: Pigtail+5m-antenna-cable leading to a 9dBi panel antenna (SMP) which should work for 3G and 2G (GSM900 and GSM1800). This antenna should accommodate all UK mobile networks. This antenna bundle (see links) costs about £95.
I guess that theoretically the SMP antenna could also be used for a GSM900 or GSM1800 mobile voice connection, and the SLP antenna could also be used for a GSM1800 mobile voice connection or a Wi-Fi connection, assuming compatible hardware and connectors, but I have never had the need to properly consider this.
My ticklist for selecting an antenna bundle would be: [_]external.directional, [_]900+1800+2100Mhz, [_]7dBi+, [_]antenna.cable.low.loss.5m+, [_]pigtail, [_]cost.
Whilst I have personally only used the two antennas above, I have recently seen an antenna on eBay for £45 that appears to tick all the above boxes... Search eBay for "Huawei Panel Antenna".
My antenna sits atop an extendable pole/mast that is securely attached to the awning rails on the side of my van, and normally just peeps over the top of the caravan to allow for "aiming" it for best reception by leaning out the window and turning the mast while monitoring the connection type and signal strength bars, but size (height) really counts in improving mobile reception in poor coverage areas - had to extend the mast to around 4metres at one park. To date I have achieved acceptable 3G reception on my pitch at all the caravan parks I have visited including Abbey-Wood, Alderstead-Heath, Bearsted, Canterbury, Chertsey, Commons-Wood, Crowborough, Hertford, Horsley, Kelvedon-Hatch, Normans-Bay, and Sheepcote-Valley. On numerous occasions I have been pitched next to neighbours who have been unable to get usable reception, while my external-antenna gives me great speed. I usually get download speeds of up to around 1Mb, but have seen 2.6Mb with T-Mobile and 3.2Mb with Three(3) on many occasions.
No doubt the time will come when I tour further afield and am unable to get acceptable 3G reception on pitch, but touch wood that has not happened yet. If no 2G or 3G coverage is available, and Wi-Fi is also not available, then it will simply be time to get outside more to enjoy our glorious weather! Otherwise... Get Pitched, Aim, and Internet Access is yours!
============================================================ Hope this helps, Andy "theGR8Rgood@hotmail.co.uk"
A1 - SKYPE VIDEO CALLS
For close on a year now I have been using mobile broadband for SKYPE to SKYPE Video-Calls using T-Mobile under contract and Three(3) and Vodafone under PAYG, with great success! The image in Skype video-calls is not particularly high resolution, but to me it's still worth it's weight in gold... And any Skype to Skype call or video-call is free!! I have noticed that concurrent upload:download use is about 150:150 kbps with good quality video-call connections (better image in synch with voice) and about 50:50 kbps with poorer connections. As Skype uses relatively little bandwidth, it uses relatively little of your bandwidth allowance.
I have a video-call about once a fortnight to my sister near Cape Town ZA, and 2-4 video-calls a week to my daughters (who are also on mobile broadband) near Melbourne AU. With my daughters these video-calls often exceed 60 minutes... not all talking... mostly just being with them... I get to see my toddler grandson as he develops... and thanks to the way they position their laptops I really feel like we are all together around the same table... Sometimes I join them for breakfast... Otherwise if they are imbibing I might even pour myself a wee drink too!
A2 - DONGLE DASHBOARD SOFTWARE
I've found it worthwhile (for flexibly using different networks/dongles) to use a piece of generic Huawei dongle dashboard software called "Mobile-Partner" that can be downloaded directly (selecting version UTPSB030D01SP04C03) from Huawei (see links).
Although this is supposedly for an E169 dongle, it allows me to operate any of my dongles E156G-Three(3), E160X-Vodafone, E220-T-Mobile, or E169-unlocked from one dashboard. Once installed you need to initially create a new profile for each network that you might use. An added benefit of this dashboard software is that it includes a Statistics tab which can help you stay on top of your PAYG usage, and it accurately and graphically shows the speed of downloads/uploads during your session. It shows speeds in KB/s instead of Kb/s. The UK profile settings I use are Access-number=*99#, and APN:
Three(3)="3internet"
Vodafone="pp.internet"
T-Mobile="general.t-mobile.uk"
A3 - PAYG [2009-05-19]
I've now come to the end of my T-Mobile contract and will only be using PAYG into the future. T-Mobile has generally served me well, but there have been some glitches and now is an ideal time to see what the other main service-providers are like.
Bought a Three(3) PAYG dongle+SIM from MAPLIN for £30, and am using PAYG Top-Up of £15(3GB) which should easily get me through the 30 days until it expires. This Huawei E156G dongle has an external antenna connector.
Bought a Vodafone PAYG K3565 dongle+SIM from Vodafone for £39, which includes £15(1GB) worth of PAYG Top-Up which with Vodafone apparently lasts indefinitely until you have used the 1GB allocation, and any unused usage shouldn't expire 30 days after activation date, as I think it does with all the PAYG offers of the other service-providers. I will use Vodafone as emergency backup for now.
Although the Vodafone K3565 (Huawei E160X) dongle doesn't outwardly seem to have a connector for an external antenna, it actually does have the same Huawei CRC9 connector (called a 'Huawei 3G Plug' at SOLWISE) as the Huawei E156G and E169 dongles, but this is hidden under the plastic casing for some unknown reason. The plastic casing can be modified with a mini hacksaw or soldering-iron (see links)... This is not the most robust of solutions but it does work, and should last if one keeps the dongle out of harms way at the end of a USB extension cable.
For comparatively little extra outlay, I now have 3 dongles and SIMs (Three(3), Vodafone, T-Mobile) and will use them under PAYG based solely on Service and Coverage!
Suggest nobody tie themself into a contract with anybody when you can buy all you need... Dongle+SIM... for around £30... or sometimes a lot cheaper (or free) if you find a good special online!
A4 - THREE(3) NETWORK [2009-07-06]
I've just discovered that the Three(3) network works slightly differently from the rest. My understanding is:
a. Three(3) operates their own 3G network (fast internet data), and in my experience it is an excellent one!
b. Three(3) does not operate their own 2G network... as the entire 2G spectrum (900/1800 Mhz) was pre-allocated to the other players by the time Three(3) entered the market.
c. Three(3) always roams by agreement onto another 2G network... Orange or T-Mobile methinks... for VOICE/TEXT.
and here is the potential rub...
d. Three(3) does not have a roaming agreement for 2G GPRS/EDGE (slow internet data)... at least not in locations where they believe they have adequate 3G coverage, such as where I am currently pitched. Which means that with Three(3) in such locations, you either get a fast data connection, or no data connection at all!
By the way Three(3) is my network of choice and to date I have always been able to get a good connection with them... but I also have Vodafone as a backup.
A5 - EMAIL SMTP SERVER
On the odd occasion when I swap from one mobile network to another, I find it necessary to change the outgoing-mail-SMTP server setting on my email software (Outlook Express). The settings that have worked for me are :
Three(3)=smtp-mbb.three.co.uk
Vodafone=send.vodafone.net
T-Mobile=smtp.t-email.co.uk
Optus=mail.optusnet.com.au
Others=smtp.gmail.com and relay.net
A9 - LINKS to Websites :
Coverage-THREE(3)
Coverage-VODAFONE
Coverage-T-MOBILE
Coverage-O2
Coverage-ORANGE
SPEEDTEST- Test your connection speed
Huawei Mobile Partner dashboard download version UTPSB030D01SP04C03
Comparison website- www.mobilebroadbandinfo.co.uk
Comparison website- UK modem dongle models
EU- Review of prepaid across a number of countries in Europe
EU- Exploring Spanish Prepago Mobile Internet
CONNEXTECH- SLP 11dBi antenna bundle with Coupler
CONNEXTECH- SMP 9dBi antenna bundle with Pigtail
SOLWISE- PIG-HUAWEI-SMAS-30 - CRC9 connector pigtail
OFCOM- Mast Finder
Modify Vodafone K3565 (Huawei E160X) casing
============================================================ Hope this helps, Andy "theGR8Rgood@hotmail.co.uk"
edited 2009-08-17 - updated version - restructured and expanded info
This post has been edited by theGR8Rgood: 17 August 2009 - 11:38 PM
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