Wifi Travel Routers

[Christo]

UPDATE: As of 1/2/2025 I have replaced the TL-WR902AC. See my update post on that date for more info.

I have several wifi devices on my coach, including an iPad mini, a Roku, a security camera, and a temperature monitor. Although I don't use everything all the time it was turning into a real pain to reconfigure each device depending on whether I was tethering to my phone, parked in my driveway with access to my home network, or at a remote location using a public hotspot.

To solve this problem I added a travel router. My choice was a TP-Link TL-WR902AC for $35. Now all of my wifi devices are connected to the router and when I need to connect to a new hotspot all I have to do is reconfigure the router's wifi WAN (upstream) connection. It's powered by micro-USB so I don't need to use an AC outlet, and there's an option to plug in a wireless modem if I want to use a dedicated cellular data device rather than tethering to my phone. Nice!

It seems that high speed 4G service or hotspots should be available almost everywhere these days -- true? Or are there still a lot of situations where having Satellite TV and/or Internet makes sense? What's your story?

 

[pvfjr]

Out west, there are still a LOT of places where you'd be out of luck. The vast majority of our RV destinations have no WiFi and no cellular coverage. RV parks in cities will have you covered, but you can't count on anything in state, county, or forest service campgrounds.

We usually avoid the big RV parks where you're stacked in like sardines, but there have been a handful of exceptions. Your solution sounds like it would've been very handy in those places that hand out a WiFi password, and it's pretty cheap too. I might have to look into that, and may even take it into consideration as I reconsider our current cell phone and data plans.

 

[Justin Brady]

We use the FMCA Sprint Hotspot both at home and in the RV. I've found the service to be adequate.
At home we stream all of our TV and run our business off of it without issues.
Great deal for 50 bucks a month.

Traveling out west it's hit or miss but honestly we don't use much internet when traveling, kind of defeats the purpose IMHO.
Our phones re verizon so when sprint's a no go we normally have verizon service and "unlimited" data on the phones.

I havent found a campground wifi yet that's worth connecting to.

 

[Christo]

We use the FMCA Sprint Hotspot both at home and in the RV. I've found the service to be adequate.
At home we stream all of our TV and run our business off of it without issues.
Great deal for 50 bucks a month.

Traveling out west it's hit or miss but honestly we don't use much internet when traveling, kind of defeats the purpose IMHO.
Our phones re verizon so when sprint's a no go we normally have verizon service and "unlimited" data on the phones.

I havent found a campground wifi yet that's worth connecting to.

Roger on the substandard campground wifi! One decent alternative if you're an Xfinity customer is access to all their hotspots. The travel router enables you to log in to Xfinity using a browser then share that connection across all your devices. AFAIK it's the only way to get things like Roku connected to a hotspot that requires logging in.

 

[Christo]

Out west, there are still a LOT of places where you'd be out of luck. The vast majority of our RV destinations have no WiFi and no cellular coverage. RV parks in cities will have you covered, but you can't count on anything in state, county, or forest service campgrounds.

We usually avoid the big RV parks where you're stacked in like sardines, but there have been a handful of exceptions. Your solution sounds like it would've been very handy in those places that hand out a WiFi password, and it's pretty cheap too. I might have to look into that, and may even take it into consideration as I reconsider our current cell phone and data plans.

Yeah, I'm in the Northeast where there aren't as many 'cellular deserts'.

 

[Justin Brady]

Roger on the substandard campground wifi! One decent alternative if you're an Xfinity customer is access to all their hotspots. The travel router enables you to log in to Xfinity using a browser then share that connection across all your devices. AFAIK it's the only way to get things like Roku connected to a hotspot that requires logging in.

Yeah that makes sense.
We're in the middle of nowhere so I wouldn't even know where to look for an Xfinity hotspot lol

 

[Christo]

There's an app for that! Anybody who has Xfinity and uses one of their routers becomes an Xfinity hotspot. It's set up as a separate network so there's no security issue; nevertheless I think there's a way for a customer to disable it. Anyhow, the net result (lol) is that you can find lots of Xfinity hotspots near homes and businesses.

 

[gmc260]

years ago before there was such a thing as a 'travel router' I re-flashed a linksys router with DD-WRT that I had reprogrammed with AutoAP (among other things) making it auto connect to any open wifi while on the fly and used the repeater feature in DD-WRT to repeat and amplify the open wifi.

it will seamlessly change connections to the strongest available wifi in cities or heavily populated areas with open wifi while on the road. can also set upto three encrypted wifi routers to auto connect to them (if you have the PW) like you're home, office, & campground, etc. so whenever they are in range it connects to those instead. can also tether it off a smartphone and repeat that signal when needed.

was the most complicated R&D Ive ever done on anything though but its all open source and the code is easily available but it took me at least 100hrs and some very serious determination. it was worth it, glad I didn't give up but I still have code nightmares ever since. LOL!

 

[billvv]

The thousands of satellites that area being thrown up into low orbit are going to change the rural online landscape as soon as next year, says SpaceX and Elon Musk.

 

[Christo]

years ago before there was such a thing as a 'travel router' I re-flashed a linksys router with DD-WRT that I had reprogrammed with AutoAP (among other things) making it auto connect to any open wifi while on the fly and used the repeater feature in DD-WRT to repeat and amplify the open wifi.

it will seamlessly change connections to the strongest available wifi in cities or heavily populated areas with open wifi while on the road. can also set upto three encrypted wifi routers to auto connect to them (if you have the PW) like you're home, office, & campground, etc. so whenever they are in range it connects to those instead. can also tether it off a smartphone and repeat that signal when needed.

was the most complicated R&D Ive ever done on anything though but its all open source and the code is easily available but it took me at least 100hrs and some very serious determination. it was worth it, glad I didn't give up but I still have code nightmares ever since. LOL!

Nice pioneering!

 

[Christo]

The thousands of satellites that area being thrown up into low orbit are going to change the rural online landscape as soon as next year, says SpaceX and Elon Musk.

Sounds promising, we'll see... Good article

 

[Christo]

Update: I just upgraded my travel router to a GL.iNet Beryl AX (GL-MT3000). It's better in just about every way than the TP-Link TL-WR902AC.

 

[billvv]

Update: I just upgraded my travel router to a GL.iNet Beryl AX (GL-MT3000). It's better in just about every way than the TP-Link TL-WR902AC.

I've had an early version of their Mango for six years or so. I use it to send wi-fi rear camera stream to a cheap 8"android tablet on a suction cup mount. Works great!