For more info visit: www.millersinmotion.com/links
Strap in, it’s time to hit the road and stay connected! We, Ryan and Lauren, take you along on our tech-savvy journey of RV living. As frequent travelers and medical professionals, we understand the significance of a stable internet connection. We spill the beans on our previous and current systems like the Pepwave Max Transit Duo and the Parsec Husky 7 and 1 MIMO antenna. It isn't just about being online; it's about managing multiple devices, understanding different internet options like campground Wi-Fi, cell phone hotspots, and satellite internet.
Ever wondered how to install an RV internet system? We'll guide you through the process, using examples like the Wine Guard 360 Plus antenna, and Wi-Fi gateway. We share some insights about installing a cell booster to amplify your signal strength. And for those considering satellite internet service, we discuss the installation process for Starlink, which comes with its own set of challenges.
Finally, we delve into our personal favorite – the Pepwave router. Beyond its exceptional Wi-Fi broadcasting capabilities, one of the unique features it offers is the ability to mesh multiple connections together for a robust internet experience. We also factor in the cost, with options ranging from free campground WiFi to the pricey yet reliable Starlink at $150 a month. So whether you're a digital nomad or just need to stay connected while living the RV life, this episode will give you all the knowledge you need to set your own mobile internet system. So, tune in and get your tech on!
For more info visit: www.millersinmotion.com/links
Strap in, it’s time to hit the road and stay connected! We, Ryan and Lauren, take you along on our tech-savvy journey of RV living. As frequent travelers and medical professionals, we understand the significance of a stable internet connection. We spill the beans on our previous and current systems like the Pepwave Max Transit Duo and the Parsec Husky 7 and 1 MIMO antenna. It isn't just about being online; it's about managing multiple devices, understanding different internet options like campground Wi-Fi, cell phone hotspots, and satellite internet.
Ever wondered how to install an RV internet system? We'll guide you through the process, using examples like the Wine Guard 360 Plus antenna, and Wi-Fi gateway. We share some insights about installing a cell booster to amplify your signal strength. And for those considering satellite internet service, we discuss the installation process for Starlink, which comes with its own set of challenges.
Finally, we delve into our personal favorite – the Pepwave router. Beyond its exceptional Wi-Fi broadcasting capabilities, one of the unique features it offers is the ability to mesh multiple connections together for a robust internet experience. We also factor in the cost, with options ranging from free campground WiFi to the pricey yet reliable Starlink at $150 a month. So whether you're a digital nomad or just need to stay connected while living the RV life, this episode will give you all the knowledge you need to set your own mobile internet system. So, tune in and get your tech on!
Welcome back to the RV shenanigans. I almost said unplugged. Welcome back to the RV shenanigans show. I'm Ryan.
Speaker 2:I'm Lauren, and together we are Millers in Motion. We recently sold our ranch here in Texas and now we are having new adventures in our Alliance Valor Toyholler. My latest adventure is that Ryan is angry and delirious today.
Speaker 1:It's been a minute since I've eaten anything or on a new diet, and I could use some food, but we're going to power through the food as I kick Lauren underneath the table. If you're watching this on YouTube, you are having all kinds of what have I gotten into. If you're listening to this, you don't have any clue of what you've gotten into, so stay tuned. Yeah, sorry, today we are going to be talking about the all important intrawebs.
Speaker 2:Intrawebs how we stay connected. Some of you guys go camping in RVing to get away from it all. We take it all with us.
Speaker 1:Well, it is our home, so we do have to be able to function. Now we have a very high internet usage, and so we get a lot of questions of how do we connect, how do we stay connected in weird places that we like to go to and in the reality of YouTube life we have to upload a bunch of things and so having a secure connection and then also how a lot of our products inside the RV work.
Speaker 1:So all right with that being said, it is almost the end of January or December. Good night, it is almost the end of December, which is shocking. I can't. It's time is no longer relevant in my brain. It's moving too fast.
Speaker 2:Is that just today, or is that?
Speaker 1:It's more and more as we go. But for now I'm going to say today. But with that being said, we are going to be at the 2024 Florida RV Super Show. So if you are coming, make sure to come by and say hi, because we're going to be doing live podcast recordings in the Alliance RV booth. So big thanks to our little duck friend and the guys over at Alliance RV and we will be there a week you sure.
Speaker 2:I will be. I don't know about you, not at this rate.
Speaker 1:Make sure, come say hi. Also, down below there's going to be a link to our website where you can kind of follow along with everything, get links to the other social media. So do us a favor, go check that out and let us know. We also have the newsletter. You can sign up for that. All you got to do is type your little email address in there or big if it's long and you'll get the monthly newsletter we do.
Speaker 2:That kind of goes over all kinds of stuff, all kinds, and it's called Miller mischief for a reason.
Speaker 1:Exactly Cause she's okay, we're going to take a quick break and we're going to come back with RV internet. Remember that sound of like dial up in the nineties?
Speaker 2:like yeah that's not how I remember it, sure.
Speaker 1:Every time I hear internet well, that's like the Ryan version, that's as good as we get. That's I don't know why, but like the internet actually has a sound and that's it. So the internet is annoying based on the sound.
Speaker 2:Does it smell like the color nine?
Speaker 1:No, but it tastes like the letter W for some reason. Okay, so we're going to be talking about internet, but specifically RV internet and cause. It's a unique.
Speaker 2:It is. It's a whole different beast. You know, if you guys aren't familiar, we actually had a house and ranch and everything for about a decade and before that we had apartments and things. So we have had internet in very different scenarios. Our ranch was in the middle of nowhere, so internet, like we didn't have quick, easy internet the apartments were in Austin, houston, big, big places where we had whatever internet we wanted. And now we need our internet to move.
Speaker 1:Right. So I'm going to do a couple of things. We've had two RVs. Now we had a grand design, solitude in our current Alliance, valor 44 V 14. And we've had two versions of a kind of similar system. So I'm going to start by telling you what we had and what we currently have.
Speaker 1:So our very first system, which we have a lot of the components still from, was from mobile must have. I don't mind saying that I like their products. They are just a service. They are selling things. We bought a package through them that also involved our cell phone plan. There's a whole section on cell phone plans and they change a lot.
Speaker 1:Just as an FYI, if anything's going to get confusing, it's going to be that what we did is we put a pep wave max transit duo, which means you can fit up to four wireless SIM cards internally, and then it also has the ability to be what's called a MIMO, or you can attach a MIMO antenna which is a multiple in, multiple out.
Speaker 1:That's how you're able to get those multiple cell signals in and it can also produce a few Wi-Fi signals back out the other way to rebroadcast. Essentially, you also can bring in campground Wi-Fi via that and a few other options. So what we did is we installed that router, we drilled a hole through our roof Lauren had a panic attack, I kept going anyway and we also mounted a Husky or a Parsec Husky 7 and 1 MIMO antenna the antenna version of our deal and that's what plugged in. That's what actually gave us our coverage and rebroadcast of the Wi-Fi and all that good stuff. Within that we had a grandfathered AT&T card Again, we're going to touch base on the what's here a little bit and we also had a T-Mobile card that we purchased through mobile must have on a monthly basis and whatever can't ground Wi-Fi. So that was our very first system.
Speaker 2:And if all of that made you go huh and kind of want to tune out, don't worry. My understanding of all that he just said was we had internet.
Speaker 1:You can stream what you want and do what you want.
Speaker 2:So I promise, stick around. I will translate for you. That's.
Speaker 1:Lawrence, the official translator this episode. In addition to that, we did eventually add Starlink and we also did add the T-Mobile home internet, the 5G little towery thing you can get for $50 a month through them. So now fast forward to this rig. So we are still a little bit in flux. It is really close to being completely done. Rvs are never completely done, but as far as our initial list of things, that's getting close to being completely done. So the only thing we're missing is we haven't permanently decided what we're going to do from an antenna perspective on the router.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a we decision.
Speaker 1:We still have the router. Well, the big reason why is because we haven't installed our solar battery lithium setup yet, and so because of I want to know where panels are going to go. I'm kind of going to do, if we are going to do something for an antenna in addition to what we already have done, that's going to be the time, because if I can put it on the junction box that's going to in a in-couch, the cabling for the batteries to come down from the solar, then I can kind of two birds once done that. So that's what we're waiting for. In the meantime, the Pep Wave Max Transit Duo comes with little paddle antennas. We've just reattached those to it and it works good enough.
Speaker 2:Agreed, it works.
Speaker 1:You're going to translate any of that. It works Ta-da. You might hear Lauren say it just works a bunch in this one. So that's kind of the overview of where we're coming from. So we're going to dive a little bit more into it. Now this structure is going to take a little bit podcast structure. Sorry, this podcast structure is going to take a little bit of a different look to it.
Speaker 1:Typically we have a conversation. I kind of lead that conversation because I've got the notes. If you're watching this, I have no notepad in front of me. Lauren has officially taken over. She's the captain now. Ha-ha Suckers Movie quote there for you Movie Don't know. Literally it's called Captain Phillips, tom Hanks, come on. Anyway, apparently movie quotes aren't going to be our thing. So she's going to kind of drive the ship and she's going to answer a bunch or ask a bunch of questions that we get through the YouTube videos we've done on this previously and then take my answers and translate them into something that makes sense for you guys. So now that they have a base overview, where are we going with this?
Speaker 2:Why? Right, because some people are going to say what do you? Just need it so you can surf Facebook? And no, that's not the case. So the biggest thing is why?
Speaker 1:How do you surf Facebook? Do you have to use a boogie board or a?
Speaker 2:Like that. If you're on YouTube, you caught that, and if not, you just got awkward silence. Yeah, so why do we need to? It's?
Speaker 1:an audio podcast. Why?
Speaker 2:do we need internet? Why do we need it to come with us? Why is it important?
Speaker 1:Because I like technology and things that go faster. Fun oh, the real reason. So obviously, in some capacity you will have a need for internet. Now, a lot of people that are just part-timers maybe you don't, and that's perfectly fine and sure. One of the things we'll talk about is like understand your need before you buy a system. And so for us we I work completely remotely, lauren is starting to dabble into that world Obviously, like our YouTube videos, we film everything in, believe it or not, 8k and down res to 4K, and so our video sizes are pretty robust, they're big, and so that takes quite a bit of powerful internet and a good structure to actually upload those videos.
Speaker 1:In addition to that, we don't use, like Direct TV or anything like that, like a satellite antenna for our TV, so we stream everything. So some of those can be big, some are not, but we always try to have a pretty secure internet, and that's I've designed our system to where it's as versatile as it can possibly be, and I will say there's a caveat to everything we're talking about I'm trying to be as cost-effective as possible.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
Speaker 1:Now, with that being said, this is not a very cost-effective section, like it's not. Mobile internet is never going to be as cheap as home internet.
Speaker 1:Agreed yeah Just never is, because you end up wanting redundancies Because, like, let's say, we have an AT&T card we pay for, well, we might be in a spot that's a dead spot, or AT&T is a little lacking, and we all know that. At&t has its strong points. Verizon has its strong points, t-mobile has its strong points. Well, because your home moves, it's a little different. You may have a weak point and now you just don't have internet, so you build in redundancy so that you have coverage everywhere you go.
Speaker 2:So I'm going to add to that a little bit. The other thing is, if you don't know, I practice medicine, so sometimes I'm on call, so you, just practice it. Just practice. I'll never perfect it Nobody ever will, anyways. So I have to be able to pull up a laptop and operate a big electronic medical record system, so I can't operate with crappy intermittent Wi-Fi.
Speaker 1:to be quite frank, Well, and because of HIPAA laws and all that kind of stuff, you know, I will say that there are things on our system that you don't have to have as a normal consumer because certain HIPAA laws don't require Lauren, like it's not a cloud-based system, she's actually taking over a secure server at whatever facility so that she obtains and the company stays on whatever HIPAA laws revolve around that. I don't have to understand the laws, I just have to know the requirements so she can do it.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 1:And so we've designed our system in conjunction with that. So that is something that makes us need a slightly more robust than even the average content creator mobile worker anything else.
Speaker 2:And then, in addition to both of us working on the road, that sort of thing, we operate our home security system, our ring, through that, and so when we're away from the rig trying to explore and have adventures, we want to know if smoke to talk alarms are going off or, you know, the CO2 monitor, anything like that water sensors, temperature monitoring and so then we have the Govies for the temperature monitoring to make sure that the dogs are safe.
Speaker 2:So I know that we don't want it just for funsies. We have really a lot of use for keeping the internet with us.
Speaker 1:Although it is really good. Internet is fun because that means I can game and we can do other things as well, because I'm such a gamer.
Speaker 2:Such a gamer.
Speaker 1:I like my golf game every once in a while, throwing some baseball or football and I'll forget about it in six months and then go oh yeah. I forgot, I have a PS5.
Speaker 2:All right. So that kind of hits a little bit on why this is so important to us. Now then let's go ahead and jump into options. So as far as that goes, everybody says, well, let the campground has Wi-Fi, why can't you just use it?
Speaker 1:Tell you what. Go to any go. You don't have to go in the camp, just go near a campground and try to get on. So like, for instance, I'm going to use the park we're at as an example. So it's probably a little bit smaller of a park than most places. I believe it has about 70 sites, 80 sites somewhere in there. A lot of parks seem to be closer to 120 to 150. Obviously, big resorts are going to be a lot bigger.
Speaker 1:Now there's two types of campground Wi-Fi you could potentially have. The most common is going to be just a straight Wi-Fi signal which will be rebroadcasted throughout the park and that's typically where you see, like Anywhere you see like electrical panels and that kind of stuff. If you see this random little square or round kind of antenna thing sticking up, that's the internet rerouter. The other is going to be hardwired in every pedestal. That's incredibly rare but it's becoming more and more frequent.
Speaker 1:If you don't have a way to plug in your router to that, it's completely useless to you. We kind of do. We have the ability. I just haven't figured out how to get it from point A to point B in this coach, the old RV. I had it. Down to a science. I could actually do that. We were able to do it at one park and I don't even think you remember this, but we did it at one park, greatest speeds of all time, because nobody can do it, so there's nobody on it. But in this RV, being a toy hauler, it's a little different, so we can run through a window and up to the router. There's a couple different things.
Speaker 2:So I would say but that's a big caveat is whatever campground you're at, even if they have the best Wi-Fi in the world, it's going to be shared. So if you have 100 sites and everybody on that wonderful Wi-Fi, all of a sudden maybe it's not so wonderful.
Speaker 1:Well, and remember this too. So like I'm going to use our rig as an example. So we have three TVs in our rig, we legitimately use all three. So I have three Apple TVs. Not at the same time, not at the same time, but we do have three Apple TVs. I have a laptop, you have a laptop. You keep and count.
Speaker 1:That's five things so far. So keep count now. So that's five things. We both have cell phones. That's seven. Now you think about security cameras. We have five of them in total. Now the ring monitoring system itself is one which controls all the other things. The Govee sensors each connect individually, so there's four or five more. I mean, there's what? How many devices are we at right now?
Speaker 2:17-ish.
Speaker 1:So that's 17. There's two people in one coach. We would have 17 devices on that Wi-Fi.
Speaker 2:Don't forget my work laptop. That's 18. Okay, 18.
Speaker 1:Typically you're not on both laptops at the same time, but yeah, I mean just two people, 18. Now if you had like two or three kids, add two more devices per kid. Roughly to that, you may not have the security cameras. So there's some fluctuation there, but it's never just one thing. It's not like one RV set and I think that's what RV parks kind of forget sometimes is like an RV rolls in. It's not like, oh, they might need like that's one internet person. It's not. It's like 17.
Speaker 2:And it takes a lot to stream some of the like Netflix or those sorts of things too.
Speaker 1:So anyways, god forbid, you have to do a Zoom call Like the most, the most internet laboring things are going to be like e-meeting, so Google workspace meetings Zoom calls that kind of stuff, because you are not only downloading it at an incredibly high rate, You're uploading it at an incredibly high rate at the same time. And so, yeah, that's. You know, campground Wi-Fi it's? I think I checked my email on it once here.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:In a pinch like we lost power or something I don't know. They didn't have power either, so I'm not sure what we were using there, but it's. You can't rely on campground Wi-Fi every once in a while. You're going to stumble across a good one. I'm not saying this is the norm, it kind of is, but like we were at Camp Fimfo in the Texas Hill Country.
Speaker 2:Their Wi-Fi was amazing.
Speaker 1:It was really good, I don't know what they had. It's almost like every 10 spots had its own commercial T1 line. It was insane. So, but that's a huge expense that most places are not going to incur.
Speaker 2:And that is more of a resort style place. So I'm sure that they empty their pockets a little bit differently than some of your older RV parks did. Let's agree that your campground Wi-Fi is not should not be relied on as your primary source. If you have a heavy need, like we do so, then everybody like me says I'll bring my cell phone, use it as a hotspot.
Speaker 1:So you can do that. So I think it's important to know that. It's kind of like when you're getting into YouTube and if you're a creator and you're watching this or listening to this, you know everybody always says use the best camera you have. Sometimes it's a really fancy DSLR, like you guys on YouTube are watching us on right now. Sometimes it's the camera that's in your pocket, that's part attached to your cell phone. So it's better to capture the moment than to not capture the moment. Sometimes whatever works works.
Speaker 1:So your phone comes with a hotspot, typically at least at the current moment. So this is all being. We're talking about this in November of 2023. So obviously, if you're listening to this far, in the future things may have changed, especially when it comes to cell phone plans. So at the moment at least on our AT&T, we have 10 gigabytes per line that we can use in a mobile hotspot configuration. I'm going to repeat that 10 gigs, that's it. You may go. Oh, 10 gigs is plenty. Our consumption now we're heavy users, so don't get this wrong. Our consumption last month, in October, was 794 gigs 10 gigs and enough. I mean now, if you go, if you're a part timer and you're going camping for like every once in a while right over air antenna for TV DVDs.
Speaker 1:you know, bring a hard drive with movies on it, don't worry about it. Also, you're probably not using as much internet if you're on vacation.
Speaker 1:Right, we're working, and so that's that's very, very different. So you can use your hotspot. That's the cheapest way to get Wi-Fi. I can tell you right now, the Wi-Fi coming out of your cell phone too. It's not going to support everything we just said. It's too small. It's going to be like I need to connect my laptop to check an email. There's no way you're going to be able to do zoom calls on that kind of stuff. It's just not going to be fast enough. And this is assuming you have service in the area you are.
Speaker 2:I like to use it to play my crossword.
Speaker 1:You can probably do that, assuming you have service. Unless you have AT&T where we are, then you're not.
Speaker 2:So, but also you can get cell service through, like the little box that we have. So we have our cell phones through AT&T, but then we have the T-Mobile box.
Speaker 1:So what she's talking about is the T-Mobile home internet box. There is a AT&T version of that. It's not as good no, not trying to smoke at them, but it's not. And then you have the Verizon, which is the most comfortable. I'm not sure of pricing on Verizon and AT&T's at the current time of filming. T-mobile is $50 a month plus tax Again.
Speaker 1:Whatever your taxes are in your area and whatever you're subject to, it is its own 5G box. So, like our PepWave, there is a 5G version of our PepWave router. We have the 4G LTE version because it was cheaper and 5G really wasn't as big of a thing when we did it. Now, at the time of filming, 5g is much larger. So this box sits off to the side. You can use it as a home internet box, like you don't have to have anything else to work, just plug it in. It does connect to 110. It will not connect to a 12V system. So if you're going to be off grid, you're going to have to have an inverter for it. Plug it in, turn it on. It's got its own Wi-Fi broadcasting. It is enough where it can support your entire home for the most part, because it's built for home.
Speaker 1:Now again, and they can turn this off literally in five minutes and what I'm about to say makes zero sense. But at the time of filming you can move it around. You do have to have a valid location to start it, because they want to make sure that it can actually work and connect, because it has to connect to you for the first time in the location you give them. If it doesn't, it will lock you out, right. So you have to, essentially, if you pick a different address, go to that address, turn it on, get it connected, then go wherever you want. Now what they do say is that if you do move it, obviously you're subject. They're terrified at T-Mobile that you're going to move it and blame them because it doesn't work. You're subject to the cell service in that area. So if you go up to like Yellowstone, for instance, it ain't going to work. If your cell phone done work, it's not going to work Nothing's going to work.
Speaker 1:Understand that. But it is a, when it comes to cell phone plan, that kind of stuff, it is a significantly less expensive option because some cell phone plans, especially through third parties, um, like mobile, must have that resales. That's all that is. It's reselling a cell plan, so they buy a section of the network and then they, they sign people up and if it gets too over cumbersome, then essentially whoever network they bought it on, let's say T-Mobile will go back and say hey, you're overwhelming the network. You either got it, you're either going to go up in price or you're we're going to start throttling everybody.
Speaker 1:And so that's where throttling starts to come in, which is essentially throttling is just the slowing down of your internet to manage the data system. So, in other words, just like anything else. Imagine internet like a pipeline, like a water hose, and if every, if you have that thing full bore and the the hose can't hold the pressure, what happens? It breaks. So essentially, like a, a water regulator valve, um, for your RV, is them throttling. It's turning it back a little bit so that everybody can have some internet versus nobody having none kind of a situation.
Speaker 2:So then let's go into the category of like other internet, say that can't ground wifi, doesn't exist. You've used up all of your hotspot data allotment and then you tried for the box, and maybe you're in a place that doesn't work. Something about that. What else can you do?
Speaker 1:So there's a couple of different versions of things and I'm going to tell you right now there are so many internet options out there, so many, it's staggering. So in especially in cell phone space and cell space I say shouldn't say cell phone, cell data plans and hotspots and those types of things. There's so many, I'm not going to be able to go into all of them. So if I don't hit the one you're thinking about, I am super sorry. Leave a comment. If you're on YouTube, if you are listening to us in your favorite podcast platform, there's a link to our contact information down there. Click on that. Shoot us an email. I'll be happy to reply. Um, but like, you start thinking about like off grid stuff and you start thinking about like, well, satellite or nets of things. So when we were in our ranch we had initially something called Hughes net and if you like really big satellite dishes that don't do a very good job at internet, get some Hughes net.
Speaker 2:But Hughes net was kind of. I don't know if it was a first necessarily, but this was a long time ago when it was one of very few options. It's different.
Speaker 1:So what Hughes net is? It's about the size of a direct TV dish, if you remember how big those were. And what it did is there was a satellite orbiting wherever and it shot up there and it shot a signal back. Well, it's a high orbit satellite, kind of like. Where the direct TV ones are. It's up Right. So then you enter good old Elon Musk, mr Mr X, owner now, um, oh look, twitter, um, sorry. So what Elon built was called SpaceX. Obviously, everybody knows about SpaceX as far as, like, sending people up into space and all that, um, but what they also spawned off was Starlink. So Starlink has been hit with a whole lot of it's amazing or it's freaking awful. There's no, it doesn't seem to be a happy in between.
Speaker 2:No, it's a love or hate. It's not going to lie.
Speaker 1:I'm the in between guy. I like it in the right circumstances. It is not. I don't feel like it is a solution to all internet, right?
Speaker 2:I don't feel like it was a primary, only solution. But when used in conjunction with other things.
Speaker 1:I think it helped If you happen to find this podcast, we are talking specifically about RV, so for a house it could actually be a primary Sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because you're not moving around and you're going to, you know your trees don't magically just get up and move six feet to the right, Whereas ours do, and so in RV terms it's not a primary. But when you head out, especially out West, where cell phone like you get out into, like the Moab area, the desert out there, there's not a lot of cell towers out there and so if you're looking at a cell phone coverage map, that kind of dead area out there, Starlink works great.
Speaker 1:Right and one Starlink is. It's a low orbit satellite. So if you've ever freaked out and thought aliens were coming at night, like you see the line of like those little lights going across, that's a Starlink train is what they're called, and people actually like go look for them. Now it's become a thing kind of like geo catching, except with satellites. But there's thousands and thousands and thousands of these satellites just in a low orbit. And so because it's a low orbit and the way the dish works, the communication to and from is so much faster than what, like, hughes net uses, and so you're getting ridiculous speeds. Now Starlink has us down downfalls too, if you're in a heavy populated area. So they have a couple of plans. They have standard Starlink, which is like residential, which is your. It's not going to move, you're at one spot. Don't worry about it. That works perfectly fine. Don't worry about it If you have Rome, which is what we have for the RV version of it.
Speaker 1:It's meant to move around. Well, what they can attribute to is they still have to. Everybody in the has to deal bandwidth. And the problem with Starlink is you don't know where, like we don't. We know where we're going for the next three or four months, but we don't know. We're going to be in like 12 months, for instance. Actually it's the holidays, we'll probably be back in Texas for that, but for the most part, like we know about two or three months out. So but they don't know either, and so they can attribute like to move satellites around to accommodate for our movement. And so Rome customers are at a lower priority. So like if we roll into Fort Worth, like, for instance, because we're here for Christmas, the problem we run into is every residential person here that has Starlink gets priority over us, and so when they get into a heavy use scenario we get de-prioritized. So like during the day we'll be pulling 230, 240 gigs down megabytes, sorry, megabytes down.
Speaker 2:Oh, I'm sorry, I missed that. I should have corrected you.
Speaker 1:Um, we're pulling that, you know, super fast, beats down and reasonable up, but then, like, dinner will roll around and we drop down to like 20, maybe 30 megs, and so it it. It's very situational. Is that a bad thing? It just depends. Like most of our internet usage is actually during the day, because we're working after five, six, seven o'clock, it's mostly just streaming here and there.
Speaker 2:Now they're messing with our TV time.
Speaker 1:That kind of stuff.
Speaker 2:Cause we spend so much time doing that.
Speaker 1:So butt Starlink would be that option If you're looking for anything outside the cell phone base.
Speaker 2:Okay, all right. So now that we know a little bit about more about some of our options campground, all that sort of stuff give these guys, for those who are interested in, I guess, a look at our performance. Like what do we need to operate? What makes this manageable?
Speaker 1:So, and that's the hard thing is, something is better than nothing when you get into the internet. But for us again, we're super different because our upload speeds need to be pretty high.
Speaker 2:But what is that?
Speaker 1:So, like for us when we're uploading a video, as an example, I'm going to say like a 10 gigabyte size video, which is medium for us, that upload on, if you're well, if you're doing 200 megabytes per minute or per second, however it's measured when it's uploading, then I mean that type of a video, typically on the cell service side, is going to take, I don't know, 30 to 45 minutes, and I say that because cell it typically kind of varies.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Like, sometimes it's really fast, sometimes it's still fast, but just not as fast. Um, it never gets to a point like if you're watching a video where it starts to buffer because videos will download before you get to it and then play and as long as it stays out in front. That's why Starling's kind of unique, because you'll lose service for two minutes, but it downloaded so much of it You're never going to see it. Um. So for us, if we can be above really about 50 to 60 megs per second uh download and above eight to 10, we can function. It's not quick but we can function. I prefer to be. I mean not going to lie. It's one of those situations where, if I can achieve 250 down all the time and like 25 up, we can do anything we want whenever. However, we want Um, but for us to legitimately function, we have that's kind of our standards Again, heavy users. So most people could probably function on 15. Like, you're going to be able to play a 4k video on like Netflix at about 12 to 15 megabytes per second down Megabytes per second down Um and then upload. Most people don't have an upload problem. Um, you know it's how quickly you want Facebook to refresh because you're sending information to them. But that's soak. That file size is so compressed that it's as long as you have a couple of up you're normally pretty fine Now to do like a zoom meeting and all that. You'll want to be closer to like 12 to 15. Megabytes per second upload and a download probably closer to 30 to 35 minimum. That's assuming nothing else is on the network and nothing else is consuming.
Speaker 1:So, like you think about a cell phone, it's always connected. So it's always kind of taking up that bandwidth or that space, no matter what, whereas a computer, if it's on, is doing that, if it's off it's not. If an iPad's on, same thing is doing it. It's kind of like electrical. If you've ever done like a solar system install or anything like, you have to understand that there's always going to be a little bit of what's called parasitic drain. So that's where it's, like our coffee pots plugged in to the outlet. Right now it's not on, it's two o'clock in the afternoon. It might come back on a minute, but for now it's not. But because it's got a little bit of a memory function, it's always using just a little teeny, teeny bit and so that's how cell phones and computers all work in that same manner. They're always using just a little bit, unless you completely turn them off.
Speaker 2:So if somebody came up to you at third party and just said, hey, I have this really cool internet, new thingamabooker, and what are the questions you're going to ask? To know if it would even support us or fit us? Are those the numbers that you're looking for?
Speaker 1:So somewhat, but I think for me is I start when I'm looking at system stuff or new things. I treat the questioning as like a funnel and so, like at the broad end or the widest end of that funnel, the first question is going to be well, how does it like? What's the basics of how it works? Is it cell based? Is it satellite based? Is this piggybacking on technology that already exists, or did you create new technology? And some of those answers like new technology I'm always a little bit skeptical of. I love the idea. Trust me, I go down the rabbit hole as far as watching YouTube videos on it.
Speaker 2:Right, but we can't put our livelihood into a chance.
Speaker 1:No, and that's the thing Like if I think that there's something that has a lot of promise and we can get at a ground level on an inexpensive, like lock in a rate kind of a thing, it may be worth it, if I feel like it's enough but Starlink was kind of one of those things, but just with our livelihoods Now, if you're a casual camper yeah, go for it, and as long as you can get out at any time.
Speaker 1:That's my big thing is like I just don't want to sign some long contract and be stuck with something that I don't necessarily like, and so we don't do anything that involves a contract. Typically Right, all of our stuff has a month-to-month component.
Speaker 2:Okay, so as now that we know all of that, let's talk about installing things, because he was not wrong. Whenever I said drilling the hole in the roof was terrifying, I only missed like three or four times.
Speaker 1:Just kidding, I didn't.
Speaker 2:Thank you for correcting that. We measured it must have been 35 times. Where to put the stupid thing Both sides. Oh my gosh, it was terrifying, but it worked. It got the job done. We did a lot of research on how to seal it. So, anyways, go into the installation of many of these.
Speaker 1:Well, let me start by saying you know, pick the right antenna for you, because it might not be what it was for us. We had a essentially military grade version of something Shocker. I went for the fastest, but again, depending on what you're looking at. So there's omnidirectional and there's directional. Omnidirectional is going to be more of the domes where it broadcasts in 360. So like doesn't matter where the cell tower is, but typically because of that you're not going to have as wide of a dispersion right.
Speaker 1:So like, if you have a directional pointing makes an antenna. It kind of looks like an arrowhead almost you actually want to try and point it at a cell tower. And there's different apps and things out there where you can locate cell towers and find where the frequencies are coming from so that you can point them. Those typically go a lot farther, so you can get a better signal from further away. But you have to go through that legwork of finding and naming it. Now, if you're like, wherever your source is coming from, it's a cell tower, if you're trying to rebroadcast Wi-Fi, whatever it is. I didn't want to do all that, I just wanted it to work up there and so that's why we did the 360 or the omnidirectional.
Speaker 1:We do go for low maintenance and yeah yeah, I like things to work that I don't have to keep touching over and over and over, even on like travel days.
Speaker 1:Right, like we're redoing our bathroom and our kitchen a little bit to kind of be a little more user-friendly when we're in transit, to where we don't have to keep putting 47 things away. It's just like one or two things and then we're done Right. So there's that. I will say to a lot of RVs come with a Wine Guard 360 Plus now, which is functioning as your TV antenna. When you first initially get it it's typically up in the bedroom, but right underneath it, on the roof side system, there's a little cap. Underneath there you can purchase a Wi-Fi gateway that connects to that. There's power there. There's, depending on your RV of choice. If that dome's there and it's prepped for the gateway, there'll be power there and some other things.
Speaker 1:It's just a cell phone. It's a basic cell phone. If you're a weekend camper or you're a full-timer that's maybe retired it doesn't need a big internet setup. It's perfectly fine. That's the easiest way to go about the install process because there's not much you have to do. It's kind of like installing a backup camera on a camper. That's prepped.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:Everything's there. You just got to buy it, plug it in and then drill it, drill it, drill it up into the or secure it to your ceiling.
Speaker 2:Yeah, secure it yeah.
Speaker 1:You go to the extreme, like what I did then, no like for us in our grand design solitude.
Speaker 1:We had a drop-through area. We called it the void that was right behind our TV, and so we measured where that void was, how long it was, how wide it was, and we determined where we wanted to put that antenna. Because we had to drill a two-inch hole in our roof, because I had to drop those antennas down because it had to get to our router Now, like in our valer right now. So Spoiler on the solar and I don't. I think you kind of know this, but we have two installations that we're looking at at the moment. One is the more traditional, where everything goes up front on solar.
Speaker 1:Sorry on the solar system, but you have to run all the cabling from the solar panels down to the, down to the what's called an MPPT, which is a solar controller. It's the charge controller, essentially down to everything. So up front is the normal option, and like the pass through bay. The second option is actually in our toy hauler space. Right, because we are heavy Er in this rig, we're on the higher end of what our truck can handle, and so, because we don't haul around big, heavy toys like we could put 3,000 pounds in our garage and not even think twice about it. It's capable of 5,000, by the way, assuming you're not going over axle rating ratings.
Speaker 1:Lots of disclaimers in there, but we could hypothetically figure out a way to put it in our toy hauler space. The question is, can we and are we okay with it? And so if we do that, or we do anything, where we're going to drop Anything through the roof in the toy hauler space? I'm probably going to get the antenna because our Internet setup is now right, there it's one of my call the tech cabinet.
Speaker 1:It's right there, kind of right when you first walk in, and so it'd be real easy, like I wouldn't even need but a foot of cabling and I could put it on top of the junction box, drop it right there now. If we don't do that, they still may drop the cabling back there. We're not a hundred percent sure where that's going to go, and that's why I've been reluctant to go with a bigger antenna and that installation process. I wouldn't. I would feel perfectly comfortable doing the hole again if I needed to and then Putting an antenna up there. It just kind of depends on what Ends up happening, and so don't like, just remember, you know, if you're thinking about doing something else that involves putting a hole in your roof, try not to do too.
Speaker 2:If you can help it, just do one and research the best way to seal it, make sure that it's watertight, all those sorts of things. And the good thing about, like the little home internet boxes is that no drilling required.
Speaker 1:Nope now one thing you may want in the cell phone Department would be like a cell booster.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:You still do have to run a wire inside. So you may have to put a teeny tiny hole but it's not like we're not talking anywhere near like maybe quarter inch or like a quarter size, essentially a Hole and to drop that cabling down because it does have to connect. Or you can just come through, like some people Will just come through like a slide seal if they don't want to set it up all the way, like I see a lot of people doing star link that way. Or just windows or toy hauler spaces have the vents. They use those sometimes. So there's a lot of different options. But a cell booster, in a nutshell, it does exactly think it boost your cell signal. So if you're operating on something that you don't necessarily want to put a big antenna up there, you could do something smaller, like a wee boost cell cell booster or something where you just connect it to your ladder and then we're in the cabling inside and it gets up your signal strength.
Speaker 2:What about the installation of starlink? Does that require a big old satellite, like a direct TV satellite, on top of your dish?
Speaker 1:So what definitely doesn't involve a satellite on top of your dish? You know, never that's kind of what it happens. It's just you're putting miles between them so you do get what they called dishee dishee and there's a couple different versions of them now, the originals of circle.
Speaker 1:Now they're more rectangular, you can mount. You do have to put those somewhere. I will tell you the one downfall to starlink is it's you have to have an unobstructed view, so it's not like a satellite, like a direct TV, where it's like southern sky, they're a little all over the place and so it just kind of depends on where you're at. If you use the app, it'll actually tell you where it's gonna be roughly and you can scan your area to see if you think you have decent coverage or not. We have the ability. We had a ladder mount for it. Now we have a suction cup mount for it because we'll have a ladder on this coach. We have a extendable ladder that we can move, so it's not permanently there, but you do have to have it where you're not like obstructed by a tree, so like if you're watching this on YouTube, you can kind of see this tree. I know it's a little blown out in the window, but you can kind of see that tree right there. So like we couldn't put starlink right here, it would get. It wouldn't connect very well, whereas if we go all the way to the back of the coach or way out in front of the coach, you can. So even though we had mounting systems, I always kept the little mount just in case we needed it, but that does have to go up.
Speaker 1:They do have an in motion version. So if you're a motor homer, so if you have a big class a diesel, little class B, whatever, the only difference is you can use this while you're actually driving down the road. I don't know when you have that need, unless you just have, like a bunch of kids that really need to use the internet, so they leave you alone so you can drive safely. But you mount that on your roof somewhere and it stays on all the time and connect as long as you're a satellite to connect to. It, connects the downside to that and like permanently mounting. The other version is if you back into a space, if you back into a spot and there's a tree right in your way and nothing else, you lose the ability to move right.
Speaker 1:That's why I don't want to permanently mount ours so, but I do have to run it. You also will have a ethernet style cable. It's a proprietary cable from SpaceX that has to run into the router. That's what powers everything on it, so that does have to make it in. Typically, what I did is I just put our router in our basement next to the electrical setup. They make all kinds of mounting solutions now and then I just connected via Wi-Fi or, like in our last coach. I was able to run ethernet cable and hardwire it.
Speaker 2:So you have your internet, you have it functioning, you know what your needs are. You haven't mounted. Are there other things that people should consider, like security? Like we do Banking, we do different stuff like that how do I make sure somebody's not hacking and stealing my identity?
Speaker 1:So a lot of that depends on the computer you're using. But you know, when it comes to the internet there are different, like if you're gonna go, you'll see this on like a lot of travel youtubers, channels like Karen Nate has it a lot where they'll They'll promote like a VPN. If you ultimately want the most amount of security, you're gonna have to do. A VPN, which is a stands for virtual private network, is something that you Pay a subscription for, but then you can change your location. You can literally change location down the street. It doesn't matter. But what it does is it puts a buffer between your IP address, which is like your personal thumbprint for your computer system, to somewhere else. So if someone goes to hack in there, they hit a dead-end wall because there's nothing behind that second wall except for the VPN service, and so they don't know. I mean, it take a really advanced hack to get all the way past that and I guarantee those people are going after the government's, not us.
Speaker 1:The other side of that is if you have like a pep wave Router, like we do, so like, let's say, you're gonna breathe broadcast Wi-Fi, let's say you're mooch talking somewhere that has good Wi-Fi, not a camera, so we're at my parents house and they've got really good Wi-Fi and I want to use their Wi-Fi and my coach. So by having my pep wave router I can go into the backside settings. It's not just automatic. You do have to tell it this. Log into the Wi-Fi, prioritize it one and it'll take their Wi-Fi and broadcast it in our coach and I. Now that I'm saying this, I realize I haven't said this yet. So we always have the same Wi-Fi. I'll even tell you what it is it's Miller's in motion shocker shocker.
Speaker 1:So if you roll up in a campground and you see Miller's in motion pop up on your Wi-Fi signal, for starters, good luck, it's a good password. You're not getting in, but but you can come in. You like you'll know we're there so that, like all of our computers, phones, tvs, everything is connected to that wifi. So when we roll up to a place that either has really good wifi or we switch to sell um, I don't have to re log everything back in.
Speaker 2:Exactly that makes life so much easier when we move a lot.
Speaker 1:And so all I do is I open up on my phone or on my computer. If we change locations, I'll at some point just pull that up and I'll figure out what's the best sources there. Sometimes it's campground wifi, sometimes like the. If we're at my parents house, we'll go back to that Like they have really good wifi, I can take their wifi that has its own IP address, and then I have my IP address and I'm essentially using my router to rebroadcast there, so it shows up as one device on theirs and then I'm rebroadcasting it to Lord knows how many.
Speaker 2:And to me that is a benefit of having your own system, router or system, whatnot, is that you can do something like that. That way you're not always trying to reprioritize and new passwords and all kinds of things.
Speaker 1:And I have it as automated as I possibly can, so like, for instance, our T-Mobile home internet box, and this is going to go back into our setup a little bit more of what we have now. So we have our Pepwave router with the paddle antennas which are just right there on the thing, which it's an okay signal. It's not the best, but it's also not bad. It's working fine. And then the 5g home internet box on T-Mobile at the moment is in our current location, is our primary, so it's got its own antenna on everything else. So even if I put this big expensive fancy antenna, or if it's not doing diddly squat at the moment because the T-Mobile is winning it, so then I have that hard lined into the Pepwave with an ethernet connection because that's the fastest if you can avoid Wi-Fi try, because it's it slows everything down.
Speaker 1:So that's wired in under our, under our WAN, and so that's rebroadcasting through our millers in motion. Now, like if for us Starlink's not our primary and to be honest, it's. We haven't even used it in a few months. It's only when we don't have any other options, because it's by far our most expensive option at at the time of filming. It's $150 a month. You can pause it whenever you want. Now, if they go up, you're subject to that.
Speaker 1:But you're subject to it anyway, as I found out. So it doesn't really matter if you're paused or not. Um, so if we decide to head west or we get somewhere like we don't have signal and she absolutely has to be on the internet or something, I'll reactivate it. You do have to have some internet connection to log in to reactivate it. But if you can find like go to a Starbucks or something, just literally get online, reactivate it, go back, power it up, then I would. That's, that router is connected via wireless at the moment to that router and then the same thing happens after it does its power up phase it then rebroadcast back. I just have to go in and reprioritize it on the backside.
Speaker 2:So so that's a good point about cost because technically you can just bring your cell phone that you already have and rely on the campground wifi If you don't need much of anything at all and understand that that's all you get and I guess technically that's free read a good book, that's right, even though this is about your kindle internet.
Speaker 1:Nope, not a kindle. You need wifi for that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but you can download them before you go, make sure you got them downloaded first. If you got a kindle all the way up to the most expensive option so far has been starlink at $150 a month if that's your only, but most people will carry multiples to an extent.
Speaker 1:And that's one thing that I get especially from like full timers kind of understand, and I say that work nomads understand. So, because there's full timers that are retired, that don't need as robust of a system, so just under. I think the biggest thing when you're picking a system and trying to understand what you need is understand what you want to use it for before you ever go down that road.
Speaker 2:Right Understand what questions to ask to make sure to get you a system that will meet some of those needs. Now this falls into the miscellaneous category 14. One of the things about our old system that I liked and I don't remember the term was that we could have two or three different things plugged in and it would like mesh them together.
Speaker 1:Remember that, yeah, so that's a Pep wave wireless solutions exclusive, at least I think it is, and they called it. What did they call it? Speed fusion. So what it was is you could take multiple and when we can still technically do, it was at the pay for it. I don't want to pay for it, um. So what it is it's taking. So if you have multiple signals on at one time, so let's say we have our T-Mobile into the the wifi or the WAN and I've got a sales card in the Pep wave itself pulling in and I've also got can't ground wifi coming in, so I can pick two of those things and fuse them together. Now it doesn't sound. This gets a little complicated. So it's not like it's combining the two. So if they both have a 10 gig down or 10 megabyte down, sorry, um, it's not like you magically get 20.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:What it does is it uses a prioritization system internally. Now it's automatic. So as long as you put those in the same priority, it's going to try and use them together, assuming you have the service turned on. But what it does is like, let's say, I'm I'm uploading a video on my computer's using the most internet and we're also trying to watch TV and it's kind of fritzing out. Well, if I put those two things together and speed fuse them together for Pep wave, then what happens is it will take my, my computer and say, okay, this thing's using a ton and this internet source over here on sales the best one right now, so let's push it to there. But that frees up this other signal. So, hey, you know what? This, this TV is trying to stream Netflix or whatever. Um, we're going to take that and put it on this other source down here, and so it kind of separates and prioritizes things. It's not truly combining the two things Right Right.
Speaker 1:It's just, it's playing traffic cop.
Speaker 2:It was, but that means we don't have to Right, and so it was always really smooth. I guess was the thing I liked.
Speaker 1:It was, I know, like the spot that we're in now, like it wouldn't make a lot of sense because we only really have one service, that is overwhelmingly good.
Speaker 1:And so like well, that's in priority one and we're not going to mess with it. Now, one thing that it does automatically is like if, let's say, we had Star Line go up and going, we don't it's paused at the moment. But if we did and it was in priority two, if priority one ever lost connection for some reason, it will automatically go down to priority two. To use internet, typically, you set priority based on what's the most stable connection at the time. If you had speed fusion, you would dump two of them in the one spot. Speed fusion you get like if you buy a Pep wave router again, when we bought ours you got it free for a year and then you have to pay for it.
Speaker 1:I have no idea how much it costs, because to me I got a little frustrated with it. Honestly. I thought it should just be included all the time. Apparently it's not, and I wasn't willing to pay for it because I can also just as easily go on the back end and change things and typically, at least in my experiences, you either have a lot of really good connections where you don't need speed fusion because one's enough, or you have a lot of really bad connections which you don't need, because speed fusion isn't going to do the job, and so there's not as many times that I went oh, I really have to have these two connections, and so I can just as easily go that's sucking, rob, and then fix it Now if I'm not around.
Speaker 2:Exactly, that was where we got dicey. I liked that, when you weren't around, it still worked because I can't log into.
Speaker 1:You can set I don't have it set up to remote into our router. You can do that. It's very complicated and it would require some things that I don't really want to go down, but you can do that. But as long as I can dial into our wifi or I can talk her through it which is easy because we have it saved and all that good stuff it's not that hard to get into. You can just change it yourself.
Speaker 2:So, and just so you guys know, we are not diving into internet in motion, so like when we're driving down the road. We are not even touching that topic. That is a whole different podcast and a lot more technical, so we're steering away from that, just so you know. But is there anything that I missed? Um?
Speaker 1:I don't think so.
Speaker 2:Okay then.
Speaker 1:I didn't know you're going to ask this question, so now I'm slow motion so here's the fun about podcasts is I didn't know she was going to ask that, so now I'm recalling everything in the back of my mind while there's nothing for you to listen to. Um, no, I we hit a whole lot, so I don't think so.
Speaker 2:No, I don't think so either. Okay.
Speaker 1:So I guess, uh, that means that she's done grilling me. So if you do have questions about internet or maybe we didn't get to a topic or something's changed and you're just curious, uh, feel free to reach out to us. Uh, if you are watching this on YouTube, you can do that through the comments down below. If you're listening through this for you through your favorite podcast platform, there's a link to our website contact us form down there as well. Just fill that out and we will get back with you as soon as we possibly can.
Speaker 2:And I promise I will let Ryan respond to the technical questions, not me, and I will let Lauren proofread it.
Speaker 1:Um, so you get something that's legible. Um, also do us a huge favor. Like I was just saying down below, that contact us, for that same form takes you to our our main links page at our website. So if you want to check out our Instagram, facebook, our website, the Miller's in motion family, what's that you're going to have to click to find out merch, uh, merch, uh, any any deals we have. If you want to get a discount on more ride or anything else, that's all right. There, do us a huge favor, click that link, go down there. It also lets us you engage with us, which kind of gives us some validation.
Speaker 1:Oh, sad little Ryan for this whole thing because, uh, we do this to connect with people, and sometimes it does feel like we're just staring into a blank lens because we are, uh, or just talking to each other which we also are but a little bit of interaction goes a long way for us. So, huh, that was a whole lot, and I'm very sure that a whole lot. Hopefully you understand everything about mobile internet now and if you don't, let us know. Thank you so much for listening and we will catch you next week.