I would like to know what kind of WiFi you are using if any at all?

A. Campground WiFi
B. Mobile Hot spot
C. Both Campground & Mobile Hot spot
D. Neither

Tim,

We use both - mobile hot spot & campground. When in the US for over a month we sign up for a month with Millenicom. When travelling in Canada we use Bell.

To reduce data costs, where possible, we use the campground systems, provided they have good signal strength and bandwidth. For online banking, I always use the hot spot.

I try to never hook up to public wifi. Too much at risk for me. I use a mifi - (a Verizon hot spot that allows 10 devices hooked up). Pretty much leave it on all the time. The TV, computers, etc. all connect.

Winegard has a new roof mount

http://www.winegard.com/connect?q=internet

It's actually a cool idea and probably gets great reception. It has capability to connect to local wifi, or it's own cellular hot spot but you have to buy time on their cell service. I don't know what kind of coverage they have. 10gb is $65

Answered on the Facebook page.

I have yet to find a campground WiFi connection that is worth much and I will never use a public WiFi connection for banking, investing or any purchasing transactions. Even with that my online purchasing only credit card was compromised over the weekend. Visa fraud alert picked it right up and I will have a new card today, but still GRRRRRR.

Anyway, I have both a Verizon Unlimited plan tied to 2 devices and an AT&T shared data plan also tied to 2 devices.

With the Verizon Unlimited I get 10 Gig of hotspot data for each device. Yes that is their version of "Unlimited" HA! With the AT&T shared data plan I can use all of the 16 Gig of data for hotspot data on either device.

With those devices I teether them (of course one at a time) to a Linksys AC1900 Wifi Router inside the camper which I configured with OpenWRT. This is freely available and allows me to connect any of my iDevices to the router and share it's hotspot to any of the connected devices throughout the camper, or even another iDevice. Basically all the devices in the camper use my WiFi router and the router uses which ever device I teether to it to get an internet connection. Switching between carriers is as simple as plugging in another device to the AC1900 router. That way I can stay connected with the best connection I can get depending on our location at the time.

An extension of this will be when we travel through Quebec next summer. I plan on getting a Bell prepaid SIM card, plug it into one of my unlocked iDevices and continue to use the setup just as before. Only thing that changes is the SIM card in 1 device.

One final item I have is a weBoost Connect RV 65 cell booster. I recently changed from a zBoost AT&T only cell booster for a few reasons. (1) the RV 65 supports both Verizon and AT&T simultaneously (2) the RV 65 has a stronger directional antenna (65db) than did the zBoost (3) the zBoost failed and needed to be replaced.

I have had very good success with the weBoost at the park we are in this summer. Without it I had virtually no cell coverage even outside the camper. With it I can get a good AT&T connection inside the camper that speedtest.net reports around 5 - 6 Mbps download speed even at night, plenty to stream Netflix or Amazon Video never mind doing simpler things like browse or email.

Finally I note with interest Atom Ants mention of the Winegard roof mount cell/wifi booster.

I think for me the PROs of this device are:

• I have had good success with the Winegard Dish Satellite TV setup so the credibility of the company is high with me.
• It's roof mount so nothing to deploy when setting up at a new site
• There data plan @ $65 for 10 Gig is pretty competitive but I don't know what carrier they piggyback with and is still a bit more expensive than a Millenicom plan or even the newer plans available from the carriers themselves
• They claim you can swap out the SIM card so it will support any data plan not just theirs

I think for me the CONs of this device are:

• The antenna is omni directional and only 5db. That will probably do a good job boosting a signal that is reasonable outside the camper into the inside, but may not be as effective as a directional antenna pulling a weak signal from outside into the camper
• Since it effectively is a Cellular device it would need to be upgraded as cellular service gets enhanced. 5G service is just now starting to be rolled out and I am not sure how effective this will be to take advantage of the new service but that is possibly true for any booster depending on what frequencies are used for the upcoming 5G services. That said with something that is mounted on the roof that is harder done than something that is removable

Answered on the Facebook page.

Hope he's not like us, NO FB, NO Twitter, NO any social media accounts, too many kids/grandkids/relatives/freinds posting crap on there I don't need/want to know about. Reading/posting these forums is the only online accounts we/I have. Never sent a text til about a year ago.
Anyway sorry,now back to our regularly scheduled programming!!!

Ya I know this is off topic but......

For us we are also san-FB, san-twitter, san-instagram blah blah blah, but it's not that we don't want to read stuff but for purely security and privacy reasons. We also want to have confidence on the source of information, and yes I'll say it avoid "fake news".

That said, I guess I should have been surprised when yesterday the Wall Street Journal reports that Facebook:

The social-media giant has asked large U.S. banks to share detailed financial information about their customers, including card transactions and checking-account balances, as part of an effort to offer new services to users.

But I wasn't.......

We use Verizon cell and MiFi, rarely campground because I’ve never found good campground service. Strongly considering a WeBoost because there are still quite a few places where our cell signal is poor. I think our Verizon plan throttles at 15gb but we have hotspots on both phones and the MiFi, so a total of 45gb per month unthrottled.

We've used Verizon mifi jetpack & mobil hot spots for 10 years with very good service all across the country. It's pricey, but we have to be connected nowadays! Linda uses the parks WiFi playing her games, but all personal online business is with our mifi. We don't have any type of antennas or boosters for either devices & haven't had connectivity issues so far.

We've been using Verizon MiFi/Jetpack ever since we gave up on Dial-up.

Ken, you may want to check for Rogers coverage in Quebec for your trip next summer, why I'm suggesting that is that AT&T pairs with Rogers in Canada, we just used our AT&T pay as you go SIM in our US phone here in northern Ontario and it worked great with the Rogers pairing, no additional cost and more gigs for less $$ than you could probably get from Bell (or Rogers if you sign up with them).

I responded to the Redwood query on the FB page because Redwood posted it on both FB and the ROG, and, as normal, many more responses on FB compared to the ROG.

We use Verizon cell and have a Jetpack MiFi. Campground signals are generally very poor and I would never rely on them. Our Verizon plan is the "unlimited" business plan that gets us 22GB per device. So although they say it is unlimited, it absolutely isn't. I often come very close to the slow down limits. We have a Mobile boost, but I expect we are getting the WeBoost, since technology has changed so much. I consider it true "camping" if I can't get cell phone and internet.

Al, thanks I'll check it out, I was unaware I can just use my AT&T phone with Rogers at no additional cost.

Short answer is C. I use both.

Long answer, before selling and retiring I specialized in cyber security. I can assure you with the right tools and simple setup, any connection used safely. But I commend those who just stay away or off if they are not 100% confident. Using either a cell hotspot or campground WiFi without having a secure internal network is a very dangerous practice.