Overland Travel: Internet on the road

How to establish a good internet connection on the road? OH WOW, has this been a big hurdle for us. Our expedition truck is also Nicole’s mobile office; we needed to find a solution. Hours, days, months we spend researching this topic. After reading countless posts and talking to many professionals, it seemed we just didn’t get a step ahead. We only ended up more confused.

To shed some light on what we have learned and which set-up we finally decided upon, we try to write this post. Over time we might be able to expand on this topic. Until then we’re lucky if it reaches the level of “Internet on the road – for dummies”; but that is for you to judge.

What have we learned?

To be honest, not as much as we had hoped. The world of wireless internet is complex, too complex.

• The terminology made easy :
  • Internet through WLAN network: WLAN – Wireless local area network. Think here of using the Wi-Fi (wireless internet) in your house, coffeeshop or restaurant (public hotspot) to surf on the internet
  • Internet through cellular data network: LTE/4G/3G/2G – This is when you use your phone’s dataplan to go online.
  • router: a device that forwards the signal. So its a gateway between the WLAN or cellular data network that is received through an antenna and your computer, cellphone or tablet.

• When contacting professionals, most of them – in our experience – forget how complex this topic is for a layman and fail to make the what’s and why’s understandable. With the help of other travelers (Herman-Unterwegs) we got in contact with Markus Zweifler (Jetztfunkts.de) who really took his time to help us. Thank you!

• rvmobileinternet.com is one of the better informational sites. However, this site is focussed on traveling inside the USA and US-citizens.

• When you have an aluminum living unit like ours, a good outdoor antenna is a must (for both WLAN as data).

• The higher the dBi (antenna gain) the further away you can be from the source signal (e.g. hotspot), but the more difficult it becomes to “find” the signal (the bandwidth becomes smaller).

  

• The ethernet cable between the antenna and the router has to be of good quality to minimize signal loss and increase durability. It’s smart to invest in a UV-resistant CAT-7 cable.

• All-in-one routers – WLAN & data – exist (e.g., Cradlepoint COR IBR1100 or Sierra Wireless MP70), but they are developed for big compagnies (e.g international cargo or public transport) and emergency responders (e.g., police). Meaning, these users need a lot more functionalities than an average overland traveler, and have whole IT-department installing and monitoring these routers. These are state of the art routers, but expensive as well.

• Be aware that many routers only work in specific area’s of the world. Make sure to check this before purchase.

 

Our internet set-up

 

For this cellular data router we ordered indoor and outdoor antenna’s, and a UV-resistant CAT-7 cable.

 

We bought our WLAN-system through jetztfunkts.de, who helped us immensely.

 

Important: We only recently purchased this set-up. We will write a follow-up later in time.