Help for internet in static caravan

seven-day-weekend

Hi there, hope people can help (words of one syllable please as I know nothing!).

We have a static caravan and I used to pay an amount from a local provider to get broadband internet.

The price has now risen to extortionate levels so I am looking for something else.

I just want to access things like this forum and social media and receive e-mail, I don't want to download movies or play games.

I have got a quote for mobile broadband from Virgin Media, which looks reasonable, but how do i know it is going to work?

Someone has suggested a dongle, how do these work and would it be better?

Or is there anything else that might work but is not too costly?

Thanks, and I hope I've asked the right questions, may need to ask more when I have a few answers!

Neil_Jones

Dongles simply plug into a laptop and get on the internet through the mobile phone network. That's all it basically is. The only real requirement is a decent mobile signal and the easiest way to check this if you have an unlocked phone is get free sims from the networks and get a basic idea of signal quality from the phone's status bar.

There are only four mobile phone networks - EE, o2, Vodafone and Three. Everybody else (Asda, Tesco, Virgin, GiffGaff, etc) piggybacks on one of these four. Virgin piggybacks onto EE so if you can get a good EE signal Virgin will, all other things being equal, work as well. There's a useful chart here:
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/phones/piggybacking

AndyPK

Do you have a mobile ?
What network is it on?
Is the signal good at home?

seven-day-weekend

Neil_Jones wrote: »

Dongles simply plug into a laptop and get on the internet through the mobile phone network. That's all it basically is. The only real requirement is a decent mobile signal and the easiest way to check this if you have an unlocked phone is get free sims from the networks and get a basic idea of signal quality from the phone's status bar.

There are only four mobile phone networks - EE, o2, Vodafone and Three. Everybody else (Asda, Tesco, Virgin, GiffGaff, etc) piggybacks on one of these four. Virgin piggybacks onto EE so if you can get a good EE signal Virgin will, all other things being equal, work as well. There's a useful chart here:
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/phones/piggybacking

I have an EE phone, the signal isn't that great I have to stick it out of the window to send a text (although it appears to have no trouble receiving them).

Thanks for your reply and Andy too

AndyPK

better order some free sims from o2 and vodafone and 3 and see if they are better.

If your phone is struggling on EE, going to virgin is not a good idea as its the same network

seven-day-weekend

I know o2 is no better as a friend who stays sometimes can't get a signal at all on hers, it's worse than EE!

I will try the others. I might have a vodaphone sim somewhere.

Thanks again.

Neil_Jones

I don't know if its still true (it was years ago) that Vodafone and what is now o2 (previously Cellnet) were the two "key" networks with the widest coverage and the other two (which was then Orange and T-Mobile) had slightly less coverage. It probably makes no difference these days mind.

tacpot12

You need to research which network has the closest mast to the caravan and whether the mast has 3G or 4G coverage. Some routers allow you to connect an external aerial to improve the quality of the signal.

The difficulty is in proving that a router with sim and external aerial will work well without buying the equipment first. I don't have a solution to that problem.

glennevis

You don't need 4G for what the OP wants to do. Internet browsing, reading emails etc. only needs 3G.

seven-day-weekend

Thanks all, some very useful advice, which I will research. Thanks again.

AndyPK

It's silly not trying to get 4G these days. For what you pay, may as well have 4G.

If your computer is next to a window and the usb connector has a good line of site then usb dongle maybe a simple option.

If however it's not, and you want WiFi through out the caravan and to connect to a few devices you want a MiFi device or router with sim and you can also move this about to get the best signal.

No good to you, but I notice EE have just launched a SIM router tariff.
£35 for 50Gb

https://shop.ee.co.uk/dongles/pay-monthly-mobile-broadband/4gee-router/details

also £60 deal for 200Gb