Motorhome wifi tips, setup & installation (Wifi on Board review)

Hey guys, it's Kat from the Motorhome Travel website Wondering Bird where we share tips and tricks for touring the UK and Europe by motorhome or camper. One of the questions that we get asked the most frequently is how we get and use and manage Wi-Fi and internet in our van and it's a really important question because for us like many people if you can't get internet and you can't travel whilst you're working or stay in touch with family it means you can't travel. Now, I know at the moment not many of us are travelling and it's probably only going to get worse but for the future if you can't get internet your travel plans are going to be much more difficult. So I totally get why this was such a concern. All the way back in the NEC in February, do you remember that, all the way back at the beginning of the year before the world imploded, yeah we had an NEC show and while we were there we were chatting to a guy on a stall called Wi-Fi On Board and they have a system designed to boost 3G and 4G signals. So they have an aerial and they have a box and you put that on your boat or your motorhome or your camper or whatever you want to boost your signal on I suppose and it is designed to take a signal that's already there so they can't magic one out of thin air but if you have got a very weak signal it will boost it. Now, I'll be honest, I was really sceptical. We've lived on boats for 15 plus years and we've tried I don't know how many systems over the years and I know that technology has moved on over the last 60 years but we have tried aerials and antennas and boosters and all sorts because marinas around the UK much like campsites in the UK are notorious for having really really bad Wi-Fi and if you've got bad Wi-Fi it often means that although you can read a web page you can't watch live TV or you can't stream, you can't download, you can't upload videos like this to YouTube. So we've had so much trouble over the past few years I was like really, is this really going to be any different? Now I'll give him his due, he said I'll send you a system, you stick it in your van, try it out for a few months, tell me if you think it's better or not. I can't really argue with that. So full disclosure, we have received a full system from Wi-Fi on board totally free in return for an honest review and the terms and conditions I told him exactly what I'm going to share with you now. If we like it we'll review it, if we don't like it and think it's no better than not having one at all or no better than anything else that you can get off somewhere cheaper then we'll send it back to you, no hard feelings and we'll call it quits. So the fact that you're watching this video shows you that we liked it, in fact we didn't just like it, we loved it. We have never found an aerial that is as good as boosting really rubbish signals. Now where we've been waiting out quarantine in the middle of rural France, honestly it is ridiculously bad and you'll see that on the video because we do a full test with it and without it. It's awful and this thing has just taken a really, really awful signal and just amplified it to something that we can actually work with. It's fab. Now we have spent two and a bit years using just a dongle that we bought off Amazon that had a SIM card inside it and it was good. We got a decent internet from it, nothing like what we achieved with this. So I'm going to show you how we fitted it because I know that's something that concerns a lot of people, that you buy something off the shelf but how do you actually fit it to your van in a way that's safe, that doesn't draw holes through your roof and you get loads of leaks and how do you get it all set up so that it actually works. So we'll show you what we did. Now obviously if you buy a different system or you have a different motorhome then there will probably be slight changes. So full disclaimer, if you do try to follow what we did in your own van, obviously we're not responsible for anything that you do here but I hope that watching us do it helps you figure it out for yourself. If you do decide it's a system for you and you want one of those on your own motorhome or camper or even a boat then I'll leave all the details in the notes for you to click on and get more information on where you can purchase and so forth. Before I get started, if you're not already subscribed to our channel and you want to hear more about motorhoming and campervanning around the UK and Europe, by all means hit subscribe and the little bell to be notified when a new video comes out and we would love to share our adventures and some tips with you. Right, I think that's everything. We've not had an intro for a while so let's have an intro and then we'll get into it. Okay, so here's all our stuff that we've got from Wi-Fi on board. We've got a 4G router, we've got a roof, aerial and we've got a 12 volt power cord. So what are we doing first? So first thing we're doing is we're going to have a look at where this is going to fit. Now apparently we can take off, because we don't use the TV aerial, we can take this off, take that off and put this in as a direct replacement, which means we can then elevate it to great heights. Okay, you know when you think that you're prepped for a job and you go to the cupboard and you haven't emptied it yet. So we will be back shortly. One empty but very manky cupboard that needs a good clean. So we'll do that in a minute. Right, so. The theory is, it's supposed to go up, this is our television, it goes up and you can wiggle it around and everything and then it comes back down. I'm not sure whether this will work, I don't know if it will work, but we're going to try and remove this and then see if we can install the Wi-Fi antenna on top of it. That was attached to that. I want the cable to go through the middle and come through that hole. So it goes through the hole that's in the way. So all I'm doing at the moment is I'm just pulling back this cable and then we're going to offset it and do one at a time. So we'll do this one first. Hang on, can you twist it so I can see what you're doing? Just feeding them through gently. Feed it through there and that's that. And then go back down to this side, put one through at a time so that it fits, then put the other one through and that can go back on there and we can screw it up tight. It's designed to screw onto the van and then you put your cables through, but the problem is we're then drilling a hole for that, drilling holes for that and we've already got holes up there, I'm reluctant to drill any more of those. So you're going to put that over the top of the van? I'm going to try and put that over the top and I'm just going to seal it. So I'm just going to try and find the best way of doing this. So it's going to be a bit of trial and error at the moment. What are we doing? What's he doing? And I don't know. Nobody knows. We need a step ladder and yeah, we're using our lifesaver. It's a lifesaver? It's a lifesaver. I trust this implicitly. It's full of water as well. It's not full of water, but it has got water. That's going to, really? I'm going to put my weight forward so it'll lean on it. I'm going to video this just in case it goes wrong and we have the comedic moment. The first thing I'm going to do is... I would film this, but I really want you to fall off the lifesaver. All right, I will go back to filming what I'm actually supposed to be filming now. Right, go on. So I need to remove that wall, that piece at the back, take that off and see what we can find. And he really is just... Okay, so... Balancing. Dog's going to push past you. What's going on, baby? Okay, so we have disconnected the two connections, or three connections, the power socket, the antenna in and the TV out. The TV out is just going to stay curled up somewhere if you now look behind. Okay. So the white wire, this one, is going to come out. The 12 volt is feeding in there. So providing that polarity is okay, we'll use that again and the connector works. What do you mean by the polarity? Black and the red wire, positive and negative. So on these connectors... Let me show you. So on these connectors, they will either be centre pin negative or centre pin positive. It weaves! It just does! It weaves! It sprays my foot! Admittedly, I didn't realise that I was stood on the... Yeah, but back to more serious points. Come on, nothing to see, move along. You can either have centre pin positive or centre pin negative. Right, and how do you know? Well, how do I know? I'm going to put a meter on it, switch it on, and it'll either be... If I put the positive in the middle and the negative on the outside, the meter will either show positive 12 or negative 12. And if it's negative 12, I've got it the wrong way around. If it's positive 12, I've got it the right way around. Now, I think that centre is going to be negative. Did you just bang your head? No, I didn't. I'm not that tall. But either way, if it's not, I'm just going to change those two wires around there. So there, if you look carefully, it says centre pin positive. Can you see that? It's kind of engraved in. Oh, there. That's it so far. The next job is to get on the roof and see whether I can actually take the spark. What I've got, this is a TV antenna. I've literally just pulled it straight out. It's come out. It's all in a little rubber gasket. We're going to pull this out. We'll take it down below. And then we're going to see if we can butcher it. I don't believe we're going to be successful in that. So I think we're just going to fit straight to that point there. We'll have a look. So that is the rubber seal that was on there. This is the TV antenna outlet, however you want to call it. I've removed the rubber seal. I've fed the wires in there. I have removed this base plate. All we have left is that. And the reason why I've done that is because I'm probably going to seal that down there. Put a line of silicon around there and hope and pray I might just run some self-amalgamating tape on there as well. Not that I don't trust the silicon, but I don't trust the silicon. So that, I believe, is going to become our new Wi-Fi on board. Okay, so my question to you, let's watch the dog play with the ball because that's far more amusing, is will the silicon or the sealant or the amalgamating tape or any of the above affect how the antenna works? No. You sure? The things that will affect how the antenna works is obviously placement. Now, we're losing about an inch in height. We're trying hard not to say anything. Yes. So this is the finished antenna. As you can see, I put lots of silicon on and it all squirted out and then I've just wiped it all off. So that's quite neat. So now we've got our Huawei router. If I'm saying that wrong, I'm sorry, Huawei. Yeah, okay, he's telling me. He's telling you and you're wrong. Yep, probably. As you can see on the back, it's like a 4G dongle but it's better. You put your SIM card in, you get a couple of ethernet ports and then it creates a Wi-Fi network. Do we have a SIM card? We've got a SIM card in our existing dongle that we're going to tear apart and take. That's going to be... That's a 3-in-1, isn't it? It's a 3-in-1, yes. I'm assuming this is on LOXY for any SIM card. Yes, this is on LOXY for any SIM card in there. Or so we've been told. I'm guessing so because Huawei are not tied to a network. There it is. That's a pretty light little box with power. We're going to mount this. We need to mount it so we can get to it easily. Okay, antenna ports for external antennas. So it surely has to be in the cupboard then. We've got to put a SIM card in the bottom. My plan is it comes with a little stand that sits up. I don't want to put it on the floor because then we can't use the cupboard. Yeah, we won't be able to use it. I've got a piece of wood that was part of a shelf. So you're going to make a shelf? I'm going to make a shelf. That's clever. Okay. I'm going to make a shelf, pop it in there. And then it'll sit on the shelf. The plan now, I'm going to be gentle because that's now in silicon. But that I'm going to feed into there. Put the wires in. Yep. Put that back. Yep. Now, what I've done. So you haven't cut the wire have you? No, I've just coiled it up behind. Okay, so we've got a shelf. Yep. And we've got a stand. Yep. Put the SIM cards in. I'm going to fit the two antennas into here. And then we're going to put it on the shelf. Which antenna goes to which? It says two different ones on the back. It says main and div. But they're both labelled the same. So 3G, 4G, 3G, 4G. So power's in. Power's in. Yeah. SIM card's in. Connectors are on. I'm just going to switch the power on here. And I've turned it off. So let's see if we can see these connectors. Okay, so SIM card. Let's see where we get to. So what you did is, it's turned on. I went on my phone. I connected to the router. So you just came to the Wi-Fi. I came up with two Wi-Fi points. I connected to the one that said Huawei. Yep. Typed in the password. Typed in the password that was on the back. Yep. Which was the default password. Now it's saying auto-update. Yep. Now this will be interesting because it's saying we've got no network. So I don't see how it can set Wi-Fi name and passwords. We're going to change that. So we've changed the name. Yep. We've set a password. Yep. We've set a router password. Yep. So now we get this. Which is a lovely screen. How many connections. How much data we've used. Previous login attempts. Disable mobile data. Data connection. So it's saying that we're on orange. It's got a 4G signal on orange. Wow, that's a good signal. So now we've gone into the mobile networks. Mobile data. Data roaming. Turn on data roaming. Confirm. And this is our SIM card out of our old unit. This is our SIM card out of our old unit. So we know what the data is. My concern is we're going to have to do this all the time. But we will see. It says we've got EE internet everywhere as default. How have we got EE internet when it's a 3 SIM card? It's not a 3 SIM card. It's an EE SIM card. So when I said I thought it was a 3 SIM card. I just had to just confirm that. It's an EE SIM card. That makes more sense then. Okay. So internet connection. So now what do we do? So now. So our first speed test. Yep. The moment of truth. Here we go. We're connected to the Wi-Fi. For fairness, we should probably show you what the speed test is without it. Holy moly. Oh, wow. Yeah, okay. People are sitting there with their super fast fibre broadband like, yeah, whatever. We normally get one point something or two on a good day. Let's see what the upload speed is. Wow. Why? Yeah, I normally get 0.8 on an upload. Sorry about the scratching. You gave the dog a ball back. I didn't know I was stuck on. I am impressed. I am very impressed. So this is not on the Wi-Fi. My 4G on my phone without the Wi-Fi. Big difference, isn't there? What do you reckon on the upload? Oh, it's not even hitting 0.8. Wow. I might actually be able to upload videos. Wow. That's amazing. Here's the results. I'm impressed. I'm very impressed. Where are we, puppy? What are we doing? Are we by the beach? We're by the beach. I'm trying to film without filming unsuspecting people, but it's really hard because there's quite a few people around. There's sea. There is sea. And we've got an excited puppy. But what we're going to do is we're going to prove. Calm, calm. All right. We can swim in the water. We're going to prove. I think we should prove that we can swim in the water. I don't really prove, to be fair. We're going to, what's the word I want? Test. See what the internet is like because there's nothing around. There are cars and there are fields over there. But there's no major built up civilization here. So we're going to see what it's like without the Wi-Fi on board thing. And then we're going to see what's like with it. So this is just Vodafone on its own. So you're on 4G on Vodafone. I'm on 4G on Vodafone. To be fair, I'm expecting similar results. I mean, there's decent phone signals there. It's not like we're up a mountain. Which is why I'm expecting similar results. We're near, where are we near? We're nearly on Solent, aren't we? So there's a decent. It's not like in the back of beyond. Okay. Right. But this is not connected. Oh my lord. Dearing me. God, I wish we had that in France. Seriously? I should just come here and upload all my videos. That's upwards. 20 megawatts more. Okay. All right, dog. I apologize that we do this to fix your slow Wi-Fi. Seriously. Okay. So I've got them. Yep. Right. Let's go turn on the unit. That's just amazing. Okay. So we're on Wi-Fi. This is a different network though, because our Wi-Fi is on EE. It says Vodafone on the bottom. Why did it say Vodafone? No, because I've not pressed go yet. Oh, so it still thinks you're on your Vodafone thing. You ready? The dog's still hyper. Go for it. To EE. Oh yeah. Interesting. Oh my word. So EE is obviously bad in this area. It's saying that it's- Oh my God, look at the upload. It's an upload and download speed. Oh my word. So why would the download be so much worse, but the upload be really good? Just the way it's configured. How bizarre. Okay. So what do we ascertain from that? We ascertain that actually, download on Vodafone, upload on EE, and we've got amazing, amazing 4G. I suppose, yeah. If you've got decent 4G, you don't need an external thing. The whole point of it is to boost bad signal. So we need to find someone where we've got bad signal. So what I'm going to do- A dog. Seriously. What I'm going to do is- See how much signal we've got. So we've got- Shoes. We've always got shoes. It's a shoe cupboard. Yes. What does that show us? It shows us that we've got a full signal. So if we had a Vodafone SIM card right now, it would be amazing. Yes, but- But it's not as good in Europe. In Portsmouth, Vodafone is terrible. Not as good. Yeah, I know. In London, Vodafone is terrible. Okay. So why have we chosen EE SIM card instead of Vodafone? Because EE SIM card gives us stupid amounts of data. Yes. Internationally. Yes. Vodafone is amazing in the UK. And to be fair, Vodafone now is amazing internationally. Well, that's why we've got two, isn't it? So we've got your- You have Vodafone on your phone. Yeah. I'm on three. Yeah. Our iPads are all Vodafone. Yes, the iPads are Vodafone. But the SIM, the internet, is on EE. And we figured we'd spread them so that something always had- Yeah, so that we always had a chance of getting through. Okay. I'm just explaining our logic so people understand it. I'll stop filming our shoes now. Yes. Okay. Goodbye. Ready? Go. Goodbye. Go. Okay. So, unfortunately, this year hasn't planned out exactly how we hoped it would plan out. And for the last couple of months, we've had plans to go to the mountains and go off grid and do remote stuff. And it just hasn't worked. So we wanted to test this out in all sorts of different environments and really give it a good go. We have tried it in lots of different places, but we haven't been able to go quite as far reaching as we wanted to. So we haven't been able to make it to mountains and things. Although- Although we- We have this last trip. I've got AMA. Sorry. Hi. And one of the things- You talk, I'll drink. Yeah, I mean, you talk about kind of extreme environments. If you've been watching the news lately and seen all the storms and the floods and the mayhem in France and Italy, we have used it in the middle of that. That's true. And we did prefer- Bird on Gorge was fairly remote and we used it in there. Great. So as a conclusion to the video of videos, is it worth installing a Wi-Fi aerial as opposed to just the dongle that we've always had? Absolutely. The difference is huge. And it's not just any aerial. I've got to say, yes, you can go on Amazon and buy a cheap Wi-Fi booster aerial. Yeah. I've tried lots of them. Well, we used to do it on the boat. We used to have lots on the boat. We have tried all sorts. And the gain on them, some's really good and some's- They were all better than none. Yes. But we have not found another aerial. A, the ease, the size of it, the fitting, because we ripped out our TV aerial. Yeah. And it fitted perfectly in that slot. So that was great. But the gain on it is huge. Yeah. We're getting four or five bars. The size of it as well, because normally to get that kind of gain, you need a much bigger aerial or antenna, which obviously increases the height of your van, increases toll charges, all the stuff that we were worried about. And it hasn't been an issue at all, has it? No. It's brilliant. It has certainly been a lifesaver this last week. Yeah, we've been in the middle of nowhere. It really has. And it's strange. The phones will have zero signal, but it will have a couple of bars on there. Yeah. No, it can't conjure a signal out of nowhere. If there's nothing for it to amplify, then it can't amplify it. That's why we have a phone booster. Different video. Oh, shut up. If you haven't seen our central motorhome accessories video yet, then you'll understand what we're talking about. But yeah, we've been really, really, really impressed with that to the point that we're going to keep it installed on the motorhome and we don't keep stuff installed if we don't think it's worth it. It's not worth the weight saving and it's not worth any of it. In fact, the Wavenext is nothing, does it? Yeah, I mean, it is superb. The only thing I would do is I've got it wired in so that it comes on when we put the power on inside. Yes. We're going to rewire it. Yes, we are. Because every time we start the engine, we lose all Wi-Fi. That's such a pain. Yes, I still haven't finished off downloading that file. But that's not their fault. That's our fault and how we wired it. So, pleased? Over the moon. Yeah, fantastic. But again, highly, highly. If you're going to be doing... See, even if you're just staying in the UK and you're just using campsite, UK campsite, in fact, most campsites everywhere, even if they have Wi-Fi, they're really restricted on the Wi-Fi and it's really... Pardon? On what you can download. Yeah, that's what I mean. It's restricted. So you often can't watch live TV, you can't stream, you can't download stuff, you can't upload stuff. It's quite... You can generally just like read a web page. That's about it. So having this, and so you're not reliant on a campsite Wi-Fi or when you're in the middle of nowhere and the signal's bad to have your own little Wi-Fi bubble. It's been really brilliant. And we've connected my laptop, iPad, phone, your phone... It's a proper rooftop. I mean, it is a... It's not just a... Six or seven different devices all at once? Yeah, it's not just a cheap piece of gear. No. It's a professional router system that's got a SIM card slot in the back of it. And then the clever part... The router is just a normal router. The clever part is the antenna that they've got. And they make that themselves. That's really, really clever. We've not seen anything anywhere that good. Gives us a thing. And we've tried. Over the last, what, 16 years, we've tried. And I know obviously technology has adapted and stuff over the last 16 years, but we have not... In fact, still on the boat, we don't have anything as good as this. No. It is absolutely superb. It really is. The gain on it is brilliant. We will be... It's there forever now. Yes. So thank you very much to Wi-Fi Onboard for giving it us to test. We really appreciate that. If you've got any other questions, then by all means, either ask us or I'll leave an email below and you guys can ask them. If you're not already subscribed to our channel and you'd like to see more, they're not all product reviews, I promise, then by all means, hit subscribe and the little bell and it will tell you when on it. Most are just... Yes, mistakes and issues and he's just going on. Right, I'm going because we've locked the poor dog away and he's sad. I hope you're safe and well and I'll speak to you soon. Bye!