Community Forums

docj · 12-08-2022, 07:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dennis C.

[*]There isn’t a 5G plan; 4G LTE is the fastest you can get

IMHO people put way too much emphasis on whether or not a plan is 5G. At present most 5G service in the US is, at best, only marginally better than 4G/LTE. People get so focused on getting 5G service that they don't pay much attention to the fact that 4G in many places has steadily improved.

Sure, 5G will continue to improve when new spectrum, such as C-band, opens up but that is still several years away.

My wife and I both have 5G-capable phones, but we don't live in a city with Verizon 5G service. Regardless of what you hear on TV there are large areas of the US without any 5G service. Having a 5G-capable phone doesn't buy us anything in the Corpus Christi area; we have to drive to Houston or San Antonio to get any at all.

Dennis C. · 12-08-2022, 07:32 PM

I agree with you, and I actually did sign up for the FMCA plan. Many of the places that we camp do not have 5G service. I was really thinking about future expansion as it becomes more widely available. My experience with 4G LTE is that it allows us to do everything we need right now.

CWSWine · 12-09-2022, 08:49 AM

I'm not sure why anyone would dismiss 5G service. My 500.00 a year or 41.66 a month T-Mobile M2000 5G Unlimited hotspot gets as high as 700 Mbps on speed test at Air Capital RV park in Kansas. I spent the entire last winter in Recon West in Tucson and the slowest I saw was on Super Bowl night and drop way down to 300 Mbps. I agree that 500 is not need to stream and you get by with 10 Mbps but the upload speed of 60 helps and I seen as high as 90 helps on those video uploads. I use between 300GB and 600GB per month and don't see any slow down. I have only used T-Mobile west of the Mississippi and I would say I get 5g 70% of the time and my average 5G is around 300 Mbps. I have a Verizon that doesn't preform will anymore and I thinking about getting Starlink for a backup even though it lot slower and dropping Verizon.

PS. I do have a AT&T phone on 5G and doesn't preform much better than a 4G hotspot. I would like to know if a AT&T 5G hotspot wouldn't out perform the phone. Anyone have one?

Dennis C. · 12-09-2022, 09:11 AM

That’s great to hear. Those are impressive speeds.

docj · 12-09-2022, 09:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CWSWine

PS. I do have a AT&T phone on 5G and doesn't preform much better than a 4G hotspot. I would like to know if a AT&T 5G hotspot wouldn't out perform the phone.

The differences in speeds has less to do with which carrier you are using than they do "which technology" has each carrier implemented at that particular location.

5G isn't a single overarching technology; it's several different technologies being used by different carriers in different locations.

Some of the first 5G was the millimeter wave 5G that Verizon installed in some large cities. Millimeter wave 5G provides fantastic speeds but it is very short range and requires that small towers be erected every block or two. It's really only suited to major urban areas and I'm not sure Verizon is installing much more of it.

Then there's Distributed Shared Spectrum (DSS) 5G which is what the carriers call using part of the 4G frequency spectrum for 5G signals. That's still what most of the 5G in the country consists of. DSS initially offered only a modest improvement in speed over 4G but, as more and more customers switch to 5G, more and more of the DSS spectrum can be allocated to 5G so the speeds will increase on a location by location basis.

Then there's what some people call "C Band 5G" or >6 GHz 5G. These frequencies will permit faster speeds that approach those of millimeter wave 5G but the technology is just being installed and very few phones can access those bands today.

I don't think that anyone is denying that eventually 5G is going to provide very significant improvements in our cellular reception but in most parts of the country we aren't yet at that point. I continue to caution people that their investment in a few 5G phone or hotspot might not produce enormous improvements in speed.

In fact, if you're trading in an older phone or hotspot, most of the speed improvement you're going to see will result from the fact that the new phone has a more advanced 4G modem and can take better advantage of advanced features of the 4G network!

CWSWine · 12-09-2022, 10:01 AM

I have to laugh at that since my 5G service runs me 500.00 a year or 41.66 a month and if I wanted 4G it would cost me 400.00 a year or 33.33 per month. If I can get 5G in the 300 range 70% of the time for total of 10.33 cents a month differance I take that. Now the hot spot cost me more I paid one time fee of 250.00 to purchase the M2000 and with the 4G plan I can get the Franklin T9 or Linkzone 2 for 100 bucks. TOS says you have to use the provided hotspot. I have moved my T-Mobile SIM into a Pepwave 5G router with cat 20 modem and did see a speed increase but left in there for about 10 minutes and moved it back to keep within my TOS.

I guess I'm just a big spender

Tedj101 · 12-09-2022, 12:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CWSWine

I'm not sure why anyone would dismiss 5G service. My 500.00 a year or 41.66 a month T-Mobile M2000 5G Unlimited hotspot gets as high as 700 Mbps on speed test at Air Capital RV park in Kansas. I spent the entire last winter in Recon West in Tucson and the slowest I saw was on Super Bowl night and drop way down to 300 Mbps. I agree that 500 is not need to stream and you get by with 10 Mbps but the upload speed of 60 helps and I seen as high as 90 helps on those video uploads. I use between 300GB and 600GB per month and don't see any slow down. I have only used T-Mobile west of the Mississippi and I would say I get 5g 70% of the time and my average 5G is around 300 Mbps. I have a Verizon that doesn't preform will anymore and I thinking about getting Starlink for a backup even though it lot slower and dropping Verizon.

PS. I do have a AT&T phone on 5G and doesn't preform much better than a 4G hotspot. I would like to know if a AT&T 5G hotspot wouldn't out perform the phone. Anyone have one?

I agree. Whether 5G is useful depends on your carrier. I have T-Mobile and in my area when I bought a 5G phone my speeds went from about 60 to 200 where I keep my Coach. At home, I didn't get 5G and 4G speeds were mijnimal. However, half a mile away, I got over 200.

I went away on a long trip this fall and when I came back, I was getting 5G at home - not great (about 60), but 4 times faster than I was getting on 4G 6 weeks before. I regularly get very good 5G service on my T-Mobile phone up and down the East Coast. I also have a 4G AT&T SIM in my WiFi Ranger and I get much poorer service with that, though it is usually usable for my purposes. Since they bought Sprint, T-Mobile's 5G service has spread almost as fast as the Coronavirus!

<TED>

Dutchstar411 · 12-09-2022, 01:56 PM

I tried the M2000 and it would constantly shut down, then reboot itself. Got another one and it did the same thing. So I went with a T-Mobile sim in my Winegard, (previous ToGo,) and that worked fine when it worked. Every couple months I had to get back on top of my roof, clean the sim and then reinsert it to start my system back up. When it finally did it again, that's when I went to a T-Mobile store and the manager told me about the 5G Home internet that would work within my coach wherever I went. At the place I was at in Auburndale FL, Camp Margaritaville, my speeds were about 150 down and 60 up. I've had way faster speeds as well, depending on the city/location.

Just because it states its a 5G router, it can handle 4g, etc., so if your area isn't the strongest in 5g coverage, it will work just fine with the lower G's. At $50 a month for unlimited data, NO TAX OR FEES added to that, and ZERO cost for the unit itself, it's a No Brainer. An, if you are a certain type of T-Mobile Customer, it's only a $30 a month charge. Starlink has speeds similar, (low 100's down sometimes,) but with equipment cost of over $500 and a monthly fee of $150+... Why??? Unless you boon dock way outside any city limit and there are NO cell towers to connect to, (which should be your phone as well.)_ No satellite to set up outside, no cord going from the sat, through a window and to it's router, and no large fees!

Another question... Does Verizon offer something similar, their 5G Home Internet that can work if you travel? That might be another good inexpensive backup.

CWSWine · 12-09-2022, 03:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dutchstar411

I tried the M2000 and it would constantly shut down, then reboot itself. .

When I had the FMCA M2000 I had a few reboots but I would put in the constantly class. When FMCA announced they were dropping T-Mobile I order one from Calyx and ran side by side for a couple of months. First time fired up the M2000 from Calyx it did two software upgrades and lot higher software version than the FMCA M2000. It was much more stable and to seem never needing to be reboot. I'm on my second year and run almost perfect but what I have found when I move campgrounds it's good idea to shut down and turn back on to get the best possible speed.

BayRunner · 12-10-2022, 02:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by docj

When WiFiRanger brought out its current line of indoor and rooftop routers we stopped using POE to power the rooftop units. This was the result of the increased their increased power requirements and the concern that voltage drop in the thin Ethernet wires could result in "power starvation."

Your new coach probably has a power supply in the vicinity of the Spruce. Coming from the power supply is a "Y-cable" that splits the power so it is shared by both the Spruce and the Denali. Usually the splitter cable is accessible behind the Spruce. You can perform factor resets, if they are needed, by unplugging the Y-cable from the wire coming from the power supply. That way you can do a reset of both devices at the same time.

Just to be complete, it someone reading this post has a Sky or SkyPro type device on the roof and wants to continue to use it with a new indoor WiFiRanger router, it can easily be powered using an expensive POE adapter positioned at the Ethernet port of the indoor router.

Ok, was able to take a quick look at the cabinet with the interior spruce router in it. There is one power line with an inline fuse coming in the back of the cabinet. That line splits to 2 wires with both having a 5.5x2.1mm DC connector. One of those wires goes to the spruce and the other one doubles back around and back out of the same hole as the incoming fused line. I’m assuming the line going back out is the power for the rooftop Denali. Correct?

docj · 12-10-2022, 02:52 PM

Yes, that should be the case.

BayRunner · 12-10-2022, 07:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by docj

yes, that should be the case.

👍🏻…

nbaran · 12-26-2022, 11:00 PM

I spent a lot of money to upgrade to an Everest/Spruce WIFI RANGER. During that time, I also got a MIFI through T-Mobile with their Magenta Plan(over 55). The salesperson at the T-Mobile store said I should try the MIFI first and that I might not even need the WIFI Ranger. I have found that to be true. The MIFI is secure, user-friendly, and dependable. Perhaps it's me, but I have found the WIFI Ranger to be finicky, sometimes lacking timely technical support, and several times I just used the MIFI instead, with no issues.

docj · 12-27-2022, 06:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nbaran

I spent a lot of money to upgrade to an Everest/Spruce WIFI RANGER. During that time, I also got a MIFI through T-Mobile with their Magenta Plan(over 55). The salesperson at the T-Mobile store said I should try the MIFI first and that I might not even need the WIFI Ranger. I have found that to be true. The MIFI is secure, user-friendly, and dependable. Perhaps it's me, but I have found the WIFI Ranger to be finicky, sometimes lacking timely technical support, and several times I just used the MIFI instead, with no issues.

I'm sorry that your experience with your Ranger and our support staff have not been met your needs. If you'd like assistance with getting it to work better, please send me a PM outlining your issues and concerns.